Inside Comedy on Cable

Two new television series have popped up recently exploring the world of stand-up comedy - "Crashing" on HBO and "I'm Dying up Here" on Showtime.

"Crashing" came first focusing on the semi-fictional life of comic Pete Holmes and was developed by Judd Apatow.  This anti-sitcom is based around Holmes' actual stand up, which if I'm being honest I never found all that funny.  This show however is hilarious, tragic, but hilarious.

Propelled by recurring guest stars like Artie Lange, T.J. Miller, and Sarah Silverman, it begins when Holmes' wife cheats on him and after leaving her, he begins to take his stand up career seriously while couch surfing with friends and strangers.  The tragedy of his life is countered by how funny the situations he finds himself in.  I loved it and hope it returns for a second season. 

"I'm Dying up Here" is more of a drama set in the early 1970s about much the same inner working of the comedian's world.  It's good, real good, but solidly a drama.  It is almost "Crashing" meets HBO's "Vinyl," and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Melissa Leo, who I loved in "Treme," leads an ensemble cast, executive produced by Jim Carrey.  I'm looking forward to more of this, not so funny, but great performances. 

Both series offer intriguing insight on the industry, from two completely different eras, and both worth checking out. 

Showtime's Spoiler Problem

Showtime isn't HBO, not by a long shot, but they really want to be. There's one thing they could be doing that would bring them closer to their goal, and that's not spoiling their shows before they air.

Showtime has fantastic programming, shows like "House of Lies," "Penny Dreadful," "Ray Donovan," "HAPPYish," "Nurse Jackie," "Shameless," and my favorite, "Episodes," just to name a few. The problem is that seconds before the airing of a new episode, Showtime gives you about ten seconds of highlights of the episode you are about to see, usually revealing major plot points and twists of said episode.

WTF Showtime? I'll speak to you directly now.

You do understand, Showtime, we are already tuned in, or recording via DVR, we intend to watch - there's no need to entice us to watch. We're already there. All this plot revealing preview does is ruin the show for us. Sometimes there's no point in watching after these spoiler previews. See, this is hurting you, and ruining your hard-paid-for programming for you.

Is the point that you don't want us to watch? If so, you're starting to succeed. Stop it, just stop it.

Why the Mad Men Finale Failed Me

I have loved this show, and still love it quite a bit. I was just left a bit disappointed with the series finale last night. I have nothing against happy endings, or for that matter, open ended endings, or even unhappy endings. As with anything however, it's the journey, not the destination. And of course, only the interesting parts of the journey.

I was happy for Joan, for Roger, for Stan and Peggy, even for Pete. I wished Joan had kept her relationship, and that Peggy joined her in business, but these are small things, and good things. But then there's Don. It always comes down to Don Draper. I'll say it. We all love him, but he's a despicable human being. Don Draper is a monster. Except when he is pitching. At that moment of magic where he is doing his job, we all love him, and that is what we all have tuned in to "Mad Men" to see - the legendary Don Draper pitch.

For much of the season, Don has been a drag on the story, a waste of air time, out of his element, and doing things we neither wanted to see nor wanted him doing. It was the same in last night's finale as he wasted his time, and our time, at that hippie retreat.

Oh, I do get it. Don needed that part of the journey. Without that smile of revelation at the retreat, there would have been no Coca-Cola commercial on the mountaintop, arguably one of the greatest achievements in advertising, and the crowning moment of the real world McCann-Erickson. We are to assume that Don Draper is the engineer of this masterstroke, but man oh man. Didn't we all want to see Don pitch that? That's why I feel more than a little cheated. This was no "Sopranos."

On a side note, did anyone else also see "Happyish" on Showtime last night? They did a slightly different and just plain wrong spin on the famous Coke commercial. I'm really loving that show, and you can hear me talk a bit about it on this week's episode of The GAR! Podcast.

The Return of Penny Dreadful

The Showtime series "Penny Dreadful" by John Logan returns to the air on May 3, 2015, even though the first episode of the second season is currently available OnDemand and on YouTube.

The series, taking on its titular genre much the same way as the films Pulp Fiction and True Romance, and the HBO series "True Detective," is a mad cross between The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Monster Squad with a strong steampunk sensibility. Taking its cues from classic Victorian monsters and turn of the century pulps, we get to see the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, Dorian Gray and others at odds with other forces of evil and shades between.

John Logan has an awesome pedigree over and beyond this series, including providing scripts for Hugo, Gladiator, one of my favorites RKO 281, The Last Samurai, Any Given Sunday, Skyfall and the upcoming Spectre. He also pens the season two opener, which picks up the story seamlessly from the year before.

The stellar cast returns as well, all amazing and compelling. Demons and witches are stalking about, Billie Piper from "Doctor Who" presumably will be adjusting to her new role as the monster's bride, and a wax museum of horrors has been added to the mix for atmosphere. This should be an intriguing second season.

For another view of the series, check out the recaps of "Penny Dreadful" by my friend Marie Gilbert over at Biff Bam Pop! right here.

Twin Peaks Returns

Today it was announced that "Twin Peaks" would be returning to television. The groundbreaking series that stunned America more than two decades ago has had a tumultuous ride, with me at least.

"Twin Peaks" was one of the first TV shows I obsessively taped with my new VCR. Everyone was talking about when it first aired, from other television outlets to talk radio, it was perhaps one of the earliest of the water cooler shows. It wasn't just me, the entire viewing audience was obsessed. And then it kinda sadly faded away.

Two years ago, my friend and editor-in-chief at Biff Bam Pop!, Andy Burns, got me to write a look back at the show, after not seeing it for twenty-odd years. I did a rewatch thanks to Netflix, and was unimpressed. For me, the show had lost its gloss, its wonder. While certainly influencing many of the shows that came after it, for me, it just wasn't the phenomenon it was back in the day. You can read that 2012 article here.

Now here's the thing. Besides being a great friend, and a cool editor, Andy is also probably one of the foremost experts on "Twin Peaks." He is to "Twin Peaks" what I am to Avengers. Yeah, I said it, he's the man. So much the man, he's writing a book about "Twin Peaks" for ECW Press that will see print in 2015. I've had the opportunity to read much of it, and I have to tell you, Andy changed my way of thinking. A monument to his skill at writing and explaining the phenomenon, "Wrapped in Plastic: Twin Peaks" by Andy Burns has reaffirmed my love of "Twin Peaks."

If you had told me that "Twin Peaks" was coming back after I wrote that article and did that rewatch… I probably would have groaned. Now, after reading much of Andy's book, I am so psyched for this return to greatness of one television's classic groundbreaking series.

"Twin Peaks" will be returning to television on Showtime in 2016, co-written by David Lynch and Mark Frost, directed by Lynch, and with most of the cast, including Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Cooper. Showtime will be airing the entire original series before the new one begins. For more on "Wrapped n Plastic: Twin Peaks" by Andy Burns, click here, and for more about the return, click here.

Penny Dreadful

Taking its name from the early pulps of Victorian times that chronicled the serial adventures of such monsters and horrors as Sweeney Todd, Spring-Heeled Jack, Black Bess, Varney the Vampire and countless fictional accounts of Jack the Ripper, Showtime's "Penny Dreadful" is amazing television.

Literally, the penny dreadfuls were internet rumors like the Slender Man gone mad, but in cheap paper form. If Snopes were around then, charging per click, they'd be rich. The penny dreadfuls were the soaps, the internet, and the bedtime boogieman cautionary tales of the Victorian age, and the precursors of the American dime novels and pulps.

The spirit of the original penny dreadfuls is alive and well in the Showtime series as it tries to blend various Gothic tales of horror into one web of continuity a la Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Among those in for weaving are Shelley's "Frankenstein," Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and the one that ties them together, Stoker's "Dracula." All are public domain, and easily manipulated into a new tapestry. I was a bit surprised that Stevenson's "Hyde" was not pulled into the mix, but perhaps that's a tidbit for the second season coming in 2015.

"Penny Dreadful" is the creation of screenwriter John Logan, who has penned as many of my favorite recent films as well as some I'm not so fond of. A select few include The Last Samurai, Gladiator, Skyfall (as well as the next two James Bond films), the ill-conceived Tim Burton nightmare version of Sweeney Todd, and the absolutely wonderful RKO 281. He is definitely a get for Showtime, as is executive producer Sam Mendes, who Logan met on Skyfall.

The story focuses on Sir Malcolm Murray (played by Timothy Dalton, speaking of Bond, but he's a much better heavy than hero in my opinion), a Victorian adventurer and explorer very much in the vein of Allan Quatermain, who is searching for his lost daughter Mina. We know from the start, simply from her name, where she's gone, and what Sir Malcolm will be up against, but sadly he does not. Dalton plays Murray as determined, obsessed, and someone who will "burn the world" to get his daughter back.

His servant and confidant is sadly the stereotypical 'magical Negro,' but I like him. Sembene, played by Danny Sapani of UK's "Misfits," possesses a certain second sight and reminds me of a cross between Mandrake's Lothar and Nonso Anozie's Renfield from NBC's failed TV steampunk version of "Dracula."

Along for the ride is also friend of the family (just barely, more like scarred outsider as we learn from flashbacks) Vanessa Ives. A free spirit of the time, she's played by Eva Green, never one of my favorite actresses, as I felt she was not right for her roles in Casino Royale of Starz' "Camelot," she is well cast here. A medium, a vessel for possession, possibly friend and foe, Miss Ives is the crux of the show. Through her the others characters are connected.

Ives brings in American gunslinger Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett, one of my favorite actors, especially in Bunraku) as firepower in Malcolm quest. Fleeing the US and riding with a Wild West show, he seems to have his share of secrets as well, the least of which are his drunken blackouts, and viewers' suspicion that he may be the Ripper menacing London behind the scenes of the show's main monsters.

Speaking of monsters, there is no shortage here. From singer/songwriter Harry Treadaway's creepy nerdpunk Victor Frankenstein to his two creations Proteus and Caliban to the sexy Reeve Carney, throwing off his Broadway Spider-Man typecasting to play the egomaniacal danger junkie Dorian Gray. He's still in the adrenaline business, but we get to see his face, and much much more of his body as well as his real accent.

Gray is after any new experience he can find, including bedding half the cast, including Brona Croft, the prostitute dying of consumption who has hooked up with Ethan. It seems as though she may also be the target for the Frankenstein monster's mate sooner or later. Just as Carney is trying to break genre typecasting, Brona is played by Billie Piper, everyone's favorite "Doctor Who" companion, Rose Tyler. I find her forced accent here annoying, but I guess she's still trying to shake off that whole Defender of the Universe thing.

The whole bunch of them are headed toward a confrontation with Dracula sooner or later, who himself seems to be more in the Nosferatu visual department, which when you go by the book is actually on mark. There are some wonderful homages and nods to the Stoker book, like the plague ship, and the way the flashback episode was done in an epistle, but by no means think this goes strictly by the book. The sudden and surprising death of David Warner's Van Helsing should cure you of that right quick.

There are two more episodes of the first season on Showtime, and you can read my good friend Marie Gilbert's weekly impressions of the show over at Biff Bam Pop! for another view. You should check it out, "Penny Dreadful" is not for the squeamish or the prudish (lots of sex, violence, and gore), but it is some of the best television going on right now.

Clear History

Clear History ~ I stumbled onto this movie blind and with caution. Blind because I didn't know anything about it other than it starred Larry David and Jon Hamm. With caution because HBO movies, with very little exception, have been very bad to me in the past. Whether it's The Girl, Behind the Candelabra, or Phil Spector, it hasn't been all that pleasant. In the case of Clear History, this might be a new beginning.

The story is one of bad judgment and revenge, starring and co-written by Larry David, with all the style and idiosyncrasies of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." What a surprise. Larry David, at first in stealth mode looking very Unabomber-like, plays a man who jumps ship on a billion dollar electric car idea, then lives as a hermit under an assumed name after the world thinks of him as a total idiot. While he's hiding out in Martha's Vineyard a decade later his boss comes to live. With his new life at stake, LD plans his revenge.

Larry David is at his finest here. Michael Keaton is a surprise here, he's funny and even uses his Beetlejuice voice to good effect for the first time in decades. Liev Schreiber is good too, even though he's uncredited because of his contract with rival network Showtime. This is also the first time I have enjoyed Danny McBride in anything.

Clear History is a very good, very funny movie, recommended, especially if you're a "Curb" fan. Keep it up, HBO.

Prometheus

Prometheus ~ First things first, get any notion out of your head that this flick has anything to do with the Alien series. It may, but waiting for those bits that connect it, or even expecting them, will lessen your enjoyment of this otherwise fairly good scifi horror. It's Ridley Scott, it's terror in space, but Alien it is not.

Motivated by ancient cave drawings, a space mission in the future travels to a distant planet described in those drawings. The assumption is this is where to find the origin of man, our creators, who the scientists in charge call The Engineers. Yes, it's vague, and attempts are made to explain it along the way, but in the end it gets us to the planet, and starts the action moving.

The Prometheus and its crew land on the planet, explore an abandoned complex full of dead Engineers and one by one get picked off by various horrors from within and without in Alien-like suspense. Ghosts, monsters, mystery goo, infections, its all here. There is also the obligatory robot we don't know whether to trust or not. Paranoia is the name of the game, and Scott does it well.

Now for the cringeworthy spoiler alert and reason you might not want to see this flick. After being quite suddenly impregnated, Noomi Rapace (from the original, and superior, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), playing a character named Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (yeah, I couldn't get the Doctor Who reference out of my head either), gives herself an abortion. It is every bit as horrifying, and more so, as it sounds. Definitely one of the hardest things for me to watch in a movie in quite some time. Consider yourself warned.

There's a terrific ensemble cast including Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Wong, Guy Pearce, and the always terrific Idris Elba. Can that man do no wrong? There's also Sean Harris, who played the assassin Micheletto, the best thing about Showtime's "The Borgias." He is equally as good at scene stealing here too.

Worth seeing, but with several provisos, you have been warned.

Family Band: The Cowsills Story

Family Band: The Cowsills Story ~ I would wager most of the folks reading this have zero idea who the Cowsills are, and I also think those that do know, only know the footnote.

The Cowsills did "Hair," the title track from the Broadway show, the theme to "Love American Style," and oh yeah, they were the inspiration for the Partridge Family - literally the real thing. Again, just a footnote. That's pretty much all I knew as well until I watched this great documentary on Showtime.

The doc, done through interviews with the Cowsills, and their contemporaries, as well as footage of the time, tells the tale of the family band's meteoric rise and eventual fall into oblivion. There's a tragic side in the form of the manipulative and abusive father. It doesn't end well, probably why you don't remember them, but you should.

House of Cards

I'm about a month late to the party on this one, but there's still time for the rest of us. This fabulous Netflix exclusive TV series starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, and Kate Mara, is probably the best thing I've seen outside of pay cable in a while. And that's probably the coolest thing about it - it's not cable at all - it's only available on Netflix. Welcome to the future.

"House of Cards" is based on the book(s) by Michael Dobbs, and the BBC miniseries that followed by Andrew Davies. Originally set in British Parliament, show developer and producer Beau Willimon adapted the concept to Washington DC and the US Capitol for American viewers. Spacey is an ambitious Congressman manipulating his way to the top with almost demonic precision and sly fourth wall breaking asides to the viewers at home. There are Emmy caliber performances by all involved, but I wonder if it will be eligible for the Emmys?

Netflix, observing viewing habits and trying to keep ahead or at least abreast of cutting edge technology, has gone into the entertainment business, creating their own shows. Seeing that many folks will watch an entire series at once, sometimes a season at a time - a practice called 'stripping,' Netflix created shows meant to adapt to that. In that spirit, the entire first season of "House of Cards" was released all at once on February 1st.

The compelling characters, I tense stories, and terrific performances will keep you coming back episode after episode. It also has the likes of David Fincher, James Foley, and Joel Schumacher in the director's chair.  This is a series worthy of HBO, Showtime, or AMC, yeah, it's that good. I highly recommend it. I just don't know what I'll be doing until season two comes out...

Paul Williams Still Alive

Paul Williams Still Alive ~ I saw this great little documentary on Showtime one night when I couldn't get to sleep, and I'm glad I did. I remember Paul Williams. He was everywhere in the 1970s on TV and movies. I knew he was a singer, and more importantly, a songwriter. A serious songwriter. If you listened to the radio in the early seventies, you heard dozens of Paul Williams songs. In a way, he was the seventies.

What immediately pulled me in about this documentary was that the narrator seems to think that as well. As a matter of fact, his perspective and sense of time and space were mine. That commonality made this doc somehow more personal.

By the time the documentarian is actually accepted by Paul Williams, I was hooked and in for the whole ride. Really I would have watched anything at this point, but man, what a treat that it was really good. Writer/director Stephen Kessler is that good, I would have watched a doc about squid if that's what it became.

The actual doc subject however is Paul Williams. The thing is, this isn't just a bio of an amazing songwriter, singer, and pop culture icon - it's also a tale of his fall and redemption. At the time if this doc, Williams was not only on tour, but also twenty years sober and a licensed drug rehab counselor. And it's also the story of the friendship between the filmmaker and his subject.

Whether you watch it as a Paul Williams fan, as a time capsule of the 1970s, or just as a darned good documentary, Paul Williams Still Alive is definitely worth watching. Check it out.

Homeland

I'm a latecomer to this show. I tried watching it during its first season and just couldn't get into it. My mom-in-law was enjoying it, so I gave it another shot, this time, getting through two episodes, and not digging it because I found t too predictable.

Then Emmy time came around just before the start of the second season of "Homeland." The show was a big winner, and I had friends who were surprised I wasn't watching, saying it was right in my television wheelhouse. I relented, and watched the whole first season streaming in about a week.

I was wrong. It's really only predictable for about four episodes, after that I was irrevocably hooked. The second season has been as just as good as the first, something I wasn't sure it could keep up.

There are problems however. The first was something I thought only I was seeing, but as a recent "Saturday Night Live" sketch brought to light, Claire Danes' overacting and crazy unblinking eyes when having an anxiety attack skate the thin line between reality and over the top almost to the point of laughing out loud. Her crazy face jumps the shark every time she makes it.

Brody's daughter is the current equivalent of the daughter in "24," where you have to ask, why do we care? It's subplot just for the sake of subplot, rather than efficient storytelling. These last two points make me wonder if we'll get a third season despite how amazing everything else on the show is.

Time will tell. Despite what I've said, I'm glued to my TV every Sunday night.

How CBS Is Ruining Big Brother

Since the first season of "Big Brother" viewers in the United States have not really been watching the real "Big Brother." American audiences were not receptive, read as low ratings, to the format that had been so successful everywhere else in the world, so US producers made up their own rules. It's become a unique entity, and that's not even getting into oddities like US censorship, editing, and limited viewing or prerecorded broadcasts. "Big Brother" US is its own thing, and it's killing it.

I could get into how incestuous it's become. The only excitement seems to come from having old houseguests return, or having them transplant from and to other CBS reality TV programs. New viewers tend to be turned off by all of this internal continuity faster than a newbie reading an X-Men comic.

There is also the censorship issue. If CBS doesn't want you to see something, and it doesn't happen in the seemingly regulated Showtime late night hours, or you're not subscribed to the paid feed (and even then sometimes), you're just not going to see it. Like the rumors of houseguest Chima threatening to take a dump on the bed - the real ratings-getters never make the grade.

The most infuriating way CBS is ruining "Big Brother" is with their Big Brother Network email subscription service. They apparently don't understand the simply concepts of subject lines, and most importantly, spoilers. I tend to watch my television on DVR, hours, sometimes days later than the original broadcast. More times than I want to admit, I have gotten an email from the BBN with "So-And-So Evicted" in the subject heading. Wtf??

You better straighten up, CBS, I don't know how much longer I'll be hanging around the Big Brother House.

What I Liked in 2011

Rather than go whole hog and do a best and worst of blog entry this year, and besides I'm already a week or so late for that anyway, I'm going to be tardy and lazy, and just do lists. Sorry, but I'm burnt, that's all you get this year. Here are the lists, bests, favorites, take your pick...

Movies - in no particular order - Hugo, Ra.One, Captain America: The First Avenger, Super 8, Midnight in Paris, Attack the Block, Thor, The Help, Source Code, and Bunraku.

Television - also in no particular order - "Hell on Wheels," "Game of Thrones," "Boardwalk Empire," "Treme," "Doctor Who," "Mad Men," "Dexter," "The Hour," "Shameless," "Castle," "Chuck" "Louie," "Sons of Anarchy" and "The Walking Dead." And yes, I know that's more than ten choices. Deal with it.

With the birthday gift of a Nook late in the year I have started to read again so I wanted to give a shout out to a few books as well. I liked A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Horns by Joe Hill, Supergods by Grant Morrison, Kraken by China Mieville, and Reamde by Neal Stephenson.

I didn't really listen to much new music this year. I bought a lot of stuff from "Glee," and new albums by Kate Bush, William Shatner, Adam Warrock and Robyn, as well as soundtracks to Ra.One, X-Men First Class, and "Treme" spent a lot of time on my iPod.

Comics - T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents by Nick Spencer, Aquaman by Geoff Johns, Secret Avengers by Warren Ellis, Frankenstein Agent of SHADE, Action Comics by Paul Cornell, and the new Defenders series from Matt Fraction are all up high in my opinion.

And, in short, that's what I liked in 2011...

New Season Fail?

I hate to say it, but other than the "Wonder Woman" pilot from David E. Kelley that NBC did not buy, I haven't really seen anything from this newest TV season that has impressed me, nothing.

I love Zooey Dechandel, so I checked out her sitcom, "New Girl," on Fox. First I was curious what someone like her who has been so successful in movies would want with television. I mean, this had to either be a great show, or a lot of money, right? Well, it turns out it might just be money. She's fun and hilarious, but her three male co-stars were unwatchable. The problem - there's three of them and just one of her. Awful.

Also on Fox, I tried the much anticipated "X-Factor" from Simon Cowell, and again, I was unimpressed. For someone who wanted to make a show that wasn't like "American Idol," it sure seemed a lot like "American Idol," and not in a good way. Here's hoping that Simon, along with Paula Abdul, return to "AI" next season. It will be better for everyone.

As long as we're beating dead horses, the show I most was interested in this new season was "Terra Nova," which at first glance kinda looked like an American version of "Primeval." If only it was. I'd take another rip-off of a mediocre British scifi series over this dreck any day. Where were the freaking dinosaurs? Damn tease.

Look, don't show dinosaurs in your thirty-second previews of the show for the last four months and not put any damn dinosaurs in the pilot for over an hour. To quote Millhouse in one of my favorite "Simpsons" episodes - When are they gonna get to the fireworks factory?"

There were other series that were disappointments. "Unforgettable," "A Gifted Man" and "Person of Interest" all had intriguing concepts, and quickly displayed with second episodes that they were all three simply formula shows. I don't think we will ever see any progress on the main plot that got us hooked on the show, but will just be case of the week series. Damn shame too.

I was even disappointed by "Homeland." It reeked of predictability for me. Again, a fine concept that just didn't do it for me on the screen. Wow. When the pay cable shows aren't good, you know it's a bad season.

"Pan Am" was a pilot that has to be seen to be believed, so if you didn't catch it, check OnDemand and see it. Not just for the now anorexic Christina Ricci, you need to see this decidedly confused show. First it's kinda "Mad Men," then it wants to be a comedy, then it's an Airport movie and finally at the end it's a spy thriller. See it while it lasts, it could be the quirky fun hit of the bunch, so bad, it's good.

The only show I thought had promise, was canceled before I actually got to see it, which shows you just how on the mark I am with these things. Like "Pan Am," it's a period piece, same time frame, but this one's deadly serious. "The Playboy Club" is/was about a mob murder in, you guessed it, a Playboy club. It had much promise, but, unfortunately, dead on arrival.

It looks like we'll have new replacement shows coming up quickly as I think many of these are headed to the same fate as "The Playboy Club." Hmmm... maybe NBC should take another look at "Wonder Woman"...

Episodes

I absolutely love this new series from Showtime. The Bride and I are big Anglophiles and we love British television. We are frequently disappointed however when American television networks try to adapt a much loved British program for those apparently dumbed down American audiences. One prime example comes to mind - "Red Dwarf" and "Homeboys in Outer Space." It is still truly the stuff of nightmares. And let's not even mention the Fox telemovie version of Doctor Who, canon or not.

"Episodes" is a series about exactly that - Americans ruining British television. The best part is that it's actually a BBC program. Writers Bev and Sean, played expertly by Stephen Mangan and the wonderful Tamsin Grieg (from one of my fave Britcoms, "Black Books"), are the creators of a successful series purchased by a American network executive who's never seen it.

Task one, they recast it. In the title role of the elderly schoolmaster, they place Matt LeBlanc, having far too much fun playing a parody of himself, and reset him as a hockey coach. They additionally change the title of the show to "Pucks," even though it originally had nothing to do with hockey. And that's just the beginning. I'm loving this, check it out.

The Big C

I like Laura Linney a lot. She's probably one of the best actresses working Hollywood these days, and I was pleased to see she'll be starring in her own Showtime series, "The Big C."

The show follows lead character Cathy Jamison, played by Linney, as she learns she has apparently terminal cancer, and how she determines to change her life because of it. She loosens her restraints and saying and doing whatever she likes. Despite the subject matter, the first episode is actually rather uplifting and refreshing.

"The Big C" debuts on Showtime Monday night. Check it out.

A Big Brother First

CBS was happy to announce that last night they had a "Big Brother" first, or at least a first for the American version.

Anyone who knows anything about the show, or its history elsewhere in the world knows this is really nothing new. As a matter of fact, it happens all the time. Of course for American TV, this is a big thing.

Last night, apparently Head of Household Rachel and her erstwhile shomance hunk Brendon christened the HoH bed. Yep, that's right, the first sex on American reality television happened last night on four different cameras in the bedroom. Rachel and Brendon's parents must be sooo proud. Perhaps the couple have forgotten that not only is everything they do filmed, but that there are also thousands of paid subscribers to the live feed.

Perhaps what they really forgot is that ratings are flagging for the once reality TV giant and the network will be doing everything they can to boost ratings... wait, maybe they know all about that...

Of course the best part, or maybe the worst part, hmmm... let's make that the saddest part is what Brendon said to Rachel after it was all over. "I'm sorry." I wonder what for? It could be for sooo many things...