All that talk about my Arrested Development love and excitement yesterday led me to an inadvertent game of “One Degree of Jeffrey Tambor,” and the subject of today’s post: The Larry Sanders Show.

Larry remains one of HBO’s best original series of all time to this day, even though it ended ten years ago. It sticks in the communal craw of us Larry fans that the complete series isn’t available on DVD yet, but the two DVD sets they relased last year, The Complete First Season and the irritatingly incomplete Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show, are better than nothing.

I’ve worked a couple of jobs in late night television, so this series has an especially special place in my heart, and friends might find me laughing a little too hard at some of the jokes. Plus, there are loads of funny celebrity cameos, with one of the best pictured above.

Anyway, somehow I never got around to buying those DVDs when they were first released, so at least now I know what I’m asking for this xmas!

If you’ve been paying attention (and why would you be?), you know by now that I lurve stand-up comedy. While stand-up on teevee can never compare to seeing a brilliant comic at a live show, there are some classic stand-up specials from the likes of Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, George Carlin, Chris Rock and others, that many of us peasants would never have seen if it weren’t for TV. Tonight, Ricky Gervais is trying his hand at joining that esteemed echelon of televised hilarity.

Gervais has already proven his mettle in the sitcom format, with the original The Office and later, Extras. Apparently, he’s new to doing actual stand-up comedy, so I guess he’s taken the “go big or go home” approach, by beginning his foray with an HBO special that was taped at Madison Square Garden. That’s one way to go.

The teasers for the special that I have seen look pretty effing funny, but that is what they’re meant to do. Still, I’m pretty excited for the special tonight, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to not suck. Check out Ricky’s special, Out of England: The Stand Up Special tonight at 9p eastern and 10p pacific on HBO. You already know I will be, and therefore that makes it cool.

I hate Entourage. I also watch it every week. I used to think that maybe I was addicted to the hate, but I’ve realized that watching this horrible show about a self indulgent, talentless, rich douche bag and his varyingly loathsome cronies seems to be a cultural imperative for anyone working in or on the periphery of showbusiness. Unfortunately for me, a degree from film “school” and my current job place me quite definitely in this group.

At this point, I’ve accepted Entourage as my way to kill 22 minutes while 60 Minutes begins recording on my DVR (hooray for HBO’s east coast feed), so that I can fast forward through the 60 Minutes commercials. Jeremy Piven’s portrayal of Ari is still marginally amusing, and that helps to quell my tantrums whenever the rest of the idiots spontaneously jet-set off to Hawaii in a private plane full of models. Yes, that actually happened this season.

Anyway. The whole point of this was that I’m pretty sure they teased tonight’s episode with a cameo from Seth Green during last week’s preview. Seth will be playing the jerkoff version of himself that he’s played in past episodes of Entourage. For what it’s worth, I met Seth once years ago and he was really awesome, so I guess he’s even more awesome for being a good sport on this show. I’ve forgiven him for Robot Chicken.

So, tune in to HBO for tonight’s episode of Entourage at 10p eastern time. Or, you can do ANYTHING ELSE, which would probably be better way to spend your time.

HBO’s “In Treatment” will be back for round two in 2009. The show centers on Paul Weston, the psychoanalyst played by Gabriel Byrne, who attempts to maintain his high patient load while his marriage to Kate (Michelle Forbes) disintegrates around him. The episodes aired five days a week to parallel with the session day and time he has with a patient. The episodes focused on four patients and Paul’s own weekly session with his friend and former colleague, Gina (Dianne Wiest). Next season, he will somehow take on two new patients played by John Mahoney and Hope Davis.

I really gave this show a chance, like a deep committed one. I watched weeks one through three, which totals up to be 15 freakin’ episodes! But after awhile the Blair Underwood character became too arrogant for words and the patient who was in love with him, Laura (Melissa George from “Alias”), was beyond annoying. Rule number one in therapy is DO NOT fallfor your therapist! How hard is that to follow? Apparently, it was agonzing for Laura. The only saving grace of the show was watching the married couple, Jake & Amy (Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz), go at it each week. You never knew if they were going to end up separated or passionately in love again by the end of each session. At least during their session, there was conflict and not just uncomfortable pauses like with the other patients.

“In Treatment” is probably very inexpensive to produce and HBO does need programming… But sheesh, I cannot believe they canceled “Tell Me You Love Me” and renewed this snooze fest. I understand the characters in “Tell Me You Love Me” weren’t that likable, but they seemed to behave more realistically than in “In Treatment” in my opinion.

If you missed the first season on “In Treatment”, the dvd won’t be released until fall 2009 for some crazy reason! Thus, count on HBO to re-run the episodes ad infinitum on their channels and on demand just before the premiere of the second season.

Source: The TV Whore on Pajiba

In case you haven’t noticed by now, I like a lot of things HBO. If it weren’t for John from Cincinnati a miss or two they’ve had in the past, I could say I like all things HBO.

Anyway, part of my Sunday night lovefest with my TV each week is HBO’s new animated series “The Life and Times of Tim.” Tonight will be the fourth installment of awkward, as this show seems to have an endless supply of inappropriate moments. I’m not in love with the show yet, but each of the previous weeks has been amusing enough to keep me coming back.

The show is about a young guy named Tim, as you may have deduced.  Each week he gets himself into various pickles, and as viewers, our collective schadenfreude is satisfied. To give you a sense of the kind of predicaments Tim gets into, the first cartoon of the series’ premiere episode was called “Angry Unpaid Hooker.” Yup. Quite a pickle, indeed.

For me at least, the humor on “Tim” is such that I recognize that it is funny, and why it’s funny, I’m just not actually laughing aloud at it, aside from the odd snort or chortle. My enthusiasm for this animated series just isn’t all that…animated, I guess, but it is there. And, that’s enough for me to keep tuning in. I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to comedy, so I’m just delighted to have found a new show that doesn’t totally suck. Perhaps you’ll agree “Tim” doesn’t suck, too.

[Picture source: acriticalmoment.com]

Sunday nights are fast becoming my busiest TV night of the week. My DVR’s red “recording” light was already winking at me for a good chunk of the evening before, thanks to my old love “Mad Men,” my new love “True Blood,” plus all the old standbys like “60 Minutes” and “American Dad.” But as of last week, “Dexter” has returned to Showtime with new episodes. Consider the ante upped.

I’ve been a fan of this show since its beginning two seasons ago. It doesn’t spare on the high concept premises and story lines, but is still written elegantly enough to avoid becoming a joke. Michael C. Hall has proven his acting mettle beyond my expectations in his portrayal of Dexter Morgan, considering how hard it is to believe that this is the same man who played David Fisher all those years not so long ago.

Tune in to Showtime Sunday nights at 9pm to check out “Dexter.” I like the show so much it’s actually inspired me to read the book on which this series is based, called “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” by Jeff Lindsay. I know right? I’m going to read an actual book! With pages and everything!

I fear I may have blasphemed by daring to mention the “B” word– book– on the interweb, and on a blog about teevee, at that. As an act of contrition, I’ll subject myself to a new reality show, get drunk and rant about it on here, later.

Oh, dear. “Paris Hilton Is My New BFF” started this week. Sounds like a fresh batch of hate stew a-brewin’.

Tonight, HBO is premiering Chris Rock’s newest standup special, and ideally his biggest and blackest yet. It’s called “Kill the Messenger,” and I’m hoping the title’s significance will illuminate after viewing.

I’ve been trying to sort out if Rock is the Messenger, and he’s simply toying with the his trademark reputation for viciously and hilariously telling it like it is, for “bringing the pain,” if you will. Then, I started thinking about the whole notion of how a comic is always striving to “kill” with a really great set, and I became less confident with my original hypothesis. I became even more confused when I remembered the movie “The Messenger,” staring Milla Jovovich, and wondered if perhaps Rock was referencing that. After watching that piece of crap, I started vomiting out of my eyes, and the only person I wanted to kill was myself. In conclusion, I guess all questions about the title remain unanswered until later tonight.

“Kill the Messenger” will be on HBO at 9pm eastern, and it’s a pretty big event. Not only is it the first Chris Rock special since “Never Scared,” which was four years ago, but it was shot in three different countries and cut together as one performance. Pretty cool, no?

I will admit my favorite special is by far Rock’s first one on HBO, “Bring the Pain,” but Chris’ appearences on the Late Show with David Letterman and the Howard Stern Show earlier this week have proven he’s just as sharp– and vicious– as ever.

“Dancing with the Stars” started this week, and I watched it for the first time. I would never watch such a show in my real life, but I figure I ought to expose myself to new and terrible things. Hey, it’s in the interest of finding television blog fodder. Nevertheless, rather than unleash my tirade over everything wrong with that show today, I’d rather keep spirits high. It is a Friday, after all. So, I’ll save it for another day, allow the hate stew to simmer, and tell you about something I do like: Carnivàle.

I remember this show when it first began airing on HBO back in 2003, but it looked weird. Too weird. So, I never bothered trying to get into it; plus, the only person I knew who did watch it was an imbecile. Years later, a non-imbecile friend swore up and down that it was his favorite show, and I began to reconsider it.

Long story less long, I put the first disc of Season 1 at the top of my Netflix queue, and wound up watching the entire series within a two week span, slowed down only by the sluggish pace of the United States Postal Service.

It even got to the point where I would bring some of the discs to work to watch at my computer. Granted, I was trying to get fired, but that’s neither here nor there. The moral of the story is, Carnivàle is indeed weird, but it’s a good weird, not “John from Cinncinnati” weird.

The show only lasted two seasons because it was too expensive to produce, considering it wasn’t getting “Sopranos” ratings. But, it is certainly one of the most unique shows I’ve seen, above all, and I watch loads of television. Even if you don’t love it as much as, say “The Wire” (and who could?), it’s worth a look. So, check it out. Go. Go do it now.

DVD shopping links:
Carnivale - The Complete First Season
Carnivale - The Complete Second Season

HBO’s new series about vampires, “True Blood” is well under way, and the third episode of the series airs tonight. I have to say I wasn’t excited to watch this series before the premiere at all, despite knowing this is Alan Ball’s first TV project since “Six Feet Under.” The whole marketing campaign was labored, uninspired, and It was trying too hard to be sexy and outrageous. Much like a drunk sorostitute dirty dancing in an ill-fitting dress, I was just embarrassed for the both of us. In the end, I only watched the first episode as a way to kill time while I waited for “Mad Men” to start. 

The show centers around Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), a hick waitress in Louisiana who happens to be able to read minds, and Bill Compton (played by Stephen Moyer), a vampire, to whom Sookie becomes uniquely bonded.

Within the world of the show, vampires are a reality (obviously, since it’s a vampire show…), and vampires’ rights and social standing are in constant jeopardy. It’s vaguely allegorical to the plight of whatever is the oppressed group du jour, if you want to be joyless and intellectual about it.

However, I’m happy to say the show doesn’t totally suck, as you may have guessed from my subtle lede above. It has gotten progressively interesting in only two installments, and after last week’s episode, I will admit I actually have a twinge of genuine anticipation for tonight’s episode. In short, this show just may be getting good. 

Go ahead and tell your DVR to record it tonight while you’re watching “Mad Men” sweep at the Emmys. If things continue to improve on “True Blood,” it too just may be a contender at next year’s awards.

P.S. Did I mention I love “Mad Men”? Twice? In a post about a different show? Oh, silly me. Well, you should watch that tonight, too.

[Picture source: Cleveland.com]

Season 6 of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” is in full swing, and just in the nick of time. You may remember Bill Maher for being fired by ABC after some controversial 9/11-related comments on his old show, “Politically Incorrect,” back in 2001. Now though, both on “Real Time” and in his HBO stand-up specials, Maher has been able to be more controversial than ever. And, after the Democratic and GOP conventions, Bill and his panelists have already had “Maher” than enough to talk about. Sorry.

In case you missed the first episode of this season of “Real Time,” it’s available On Demand; and the second episode, which just aired Friday night, should be up soon too. If you can’t wait that long, HBO is rerunning it loads of times over the next few days.

Be sure to program your DVR to record the next new episodes, which air live every Friday at 11pm eastern. And, if you don’t have HBO, to that I say “seriously???” I would suggest you at least find a friend who does enjoy the splendors of the Home Box Office, and force him/her to watch “Real Time” with you. It sure beats “Fox and Friends.” Of course, if you disagree with that statement, then, well, wow. We’re pretty much done here.

(Picture source: www.salon.com)