I'm starting to wonder if TV and movie stars playing poker is more than just an interesting trend. Maybe it's a requirement.
Jason Alexander recently popped up on my TV, not in a Seinfeld rerun or his recent appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm but in the most recent World Series of Poker. And it didn't look as though he was there playing with his own money. He appeared to have his own sponsor and everything.
Here is ESPN's coverage of Alexander's elimination from the tournament. Watch for the fan at the end who accidentally calls him George. It's cringe-tastic.
CurbYourEnthusiasm-related stories
Does anyone in Hollywood not play professional poker?
The Jay Leno Show: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
I'll give Leno credit for getting creative in the ways he's starting to incorporate celebrities into bits and segments. It fills time for him and gives them their plug opportunities. Tonight, he trotted out three of The Real Housewives of Orange County for a "Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars Challenge." And ... wow.I don't watch The Real Houswives of anywhere, but if this is the intellectual capacity of their "stars," then I'm glad I don't. I couldn't tell if they were putting on an act or if they were being themselves. Either way, it was obnoxious and I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle each of them. The blondes were enforcing stereotypes left and right!
If it was all an act, then that's even more unfortunate, because it means they're playing characters rather than being themselves. What? A reality show that's less than real? It was funny that their first reaction to seeing a picture of Nancy Pelosi was that she needed botox. And of course, they had no idea who she was, or anyone else.
Continue reading The Jay Leno Show: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
TV Squad Ten: My favorite HBO shows
HBO has slowly become my favorite network over the past few years. I don't know if it's because the mainstream networks have turned to lots of reality programming or what, but HBO just seems to get better and better. Just about every show on the premium channel is feature film quality (if not better), and I've got some favorites listed below. I know I'm missing a few biggies, like Rome, Deadwood, Flight of the Conchords, and Extras, but it's only because I either haven't watched these shows or have only watched a few episodes -- not enough to make an informed opinion. I'm sure they'll make my Jane After Dark column at some point in the future. So I hope you'll tell me your favorites in the comments below.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: My favorite HBO shows
The Seinfeld reunion on Curb will be about a Seinfeld reunion - TCA Report
If the meta-ness of my headline confuses you, I apologize. It's the best way I could phrase it, because it's kind of mind-blowing in concept.At today's HBO session at the TCAs, Larry David came on stage to talk about the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. In it, as we all know, he'll be reuniting the Seinfeld cast on the show. And what will they be doing? They'll be working on... a Seinfeld reunion episode.
"The context is that for years I've been asked about a Seinfeld reunion," said David, "and i'd say no it's a lame idea. And then i thought it might be very funny to do that on Curb, and I kept thinking about it and different scenarios of how to pull it off."
When he talked to Jerry Seinfeld and the cast about it, they were all game. "So doiung a Seinfeld reunion show on Curb we'll see writing read through rehersals show being filmed. You won't see the entire show, you'll see parts of the show get an idea of what happened eleven years later."
Continue reading The Seinfeld reunion on Curb will be about a Seinfeld reunion - TCA Report
FX making a comedy about fantasy football
Usually, when one network or channel has a good idea, other networks try to copy it. FX is doing it from a few sources with its new comedy The League, a comedy about a bunch of suburbanites participating in a fantasy football league.Since the creative talent behind the show is also behind Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's pretty obvious where the "semi-scripted" nature of this program is coming from. However, when I hear the premise of this show I can't help but think of it as a variation of The Guild, a web series about online gamers starring Felicia Day from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog.
This new program has enough talent and an interesting premise that it could wind up a winner. It's amazing how FX is branching itself out with different kinds of shows. First animation, now this. And to think fX (note the lowercase "f") started as an experiment by Fox in interactive television in 1994.
The entire Seinfeld cast will appear on Curb Your Enthusiasm -- including Michael Richards
It's been a good long while since Michael Richards has been on television. If you don't know the reason why, then you either don't watch TV or you've been frozen since 1952 and had your body reanimated to combat the deadly disease for which you've found a secret cure. If it's the second option, then stop being so selfish and share your cure with the world. Stop being so cold, no pun intended.
2009 could mark the beginning of Richards' comeback, as he and the rest of his Seinfeld pals will make an appearance during the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Curb Your Enthusiasm for the cast of Seinfeld
What's a better place for a Seinfeld reunion than on the other television show of its co-creator? EW reports that the cast members of the Seinfeld NBC television series will be reuniting for a multi-episode arc on Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO.Granted, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has a career at the moment with The New Adventures of Old Christine, but the others haven't really had a hit in a while. Jerry had his short-lived Microsoft commercials, Michael Richards had his on-stage racist blow-up and Jason Alexander is...somewhere, I'm sure.
Three of the cast members (Seinfeld, Dreyfus and Alexander) have appeared on Curb before, but never together. I still catch Seinfeld on re-runs time to time and at its best it still makes me laugh out loud.
I credit the excellent writing (and success) of Seinfeld more to Larry David than Jerry itself. It's nice to see the cast come back to where I consider its excellence came from.
Six characters from other shows whom we wish were Cylons - VIDEO
Battlestar Galactica is premiering! Did you know that? BSG is starting again. Ten eps left. Best show ever. Can. Not. Wait. Especially because we need to know the identity of the final Cylon!Look, we're so crazy excited for the season premiere that the only thing we could do to keep ourselves from going a'spoiler-hunting was to create a wishlist. Below are six characters from other shows throughout history whom we imagine share the same genetics as those frakkin' Toasters.
Continue reading Six characters from other shows whom we wish were Cylons - VIDEO
HBO's Curb getting back to work in December
I don't know about you, but in these tough economic times, I've contemplated trimming my TV budget. You know, scaling back the premium channels to save a few bucks ... But there's at least one important reason to hold off on the budget cuts. Larry David is getting back to work. HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm resumes production in December and there will be 10 new episodes commencing in 2009. Our long national wait is over, people, Larry and Jeff and Richard and Loretta will live to kvetch and mock again.
Do you realize that the last new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm was a year ago? A year! That's forever in TV, even when you factor in the Writer's Strike. Still, as Curb fans we're used to waiting. Larry once took off nearly two years between seasons. We understand suffering for the jokes.
When we last saw Larry in action, he had had an epiphany -- or so it seemed. Was his embrace of a happy, family life with the Blacks the real thing? It looked like it, especially that Christmas scene.
Continue reading HBO's Curb getting back to work in December
Larry David set for more Curb Your Enthusiasm
Remember how Curb Your Enthusiasm ended last season, with Larry posed in happy, jolly family pictures with the Blacks? Did it leave you laughing and dying to know what happens next -- or is this the end? The answer is now known. There's more Curb Your Enthusiasm on deck, because Larry David has said yes to another HBO season.
HBO announced a seventh season of Curb. It will begin airing in early 2009, giving Larry plenty of time to write the 10 episodes planned. HBO's West Coast prez Michael Lombardo characterized Larry as "excited about it" when he presented at TCA.
That characterization is in line with comments by both Richard Lewis and Jeff Garlin, semi-regular and regular, respectively, in previous months.
And Susie Essman told the New York Post that she had auctioned off a walk-on role in season seven, so it would have been very embarrassing if she didn't know that they were all coming back.
Continue reading Larry David set for more Curb Your Enthusiasm
Frasier: Star Mitzvah - VIDEO
The bar mitzvah is a Jewish rite of passage, the time in a boy's life when he becomes a man -- symbolically -- by reading from the Torah. When a girl does the ritual, it's called a bat mitzvah. I mention all this because in TV, the bar/bat mitzvah has been the catalyst for some wonderful episodes, mostly on sitcoms. The Simpsons celebrated Krusty the Klown's bar mitzvah in the episode "Today I Am A Klown," which was a variation on one of the all-time great sitcom bar mitzvahs of all time: the episode "Buddy Sorrell, Man and Boy," on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Square Pegs shared "Muffy's Bat Mitzvah" with viewers, and this past season, Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David used his friend Jeff Greene's daughter Sammi's bat mitzvah to announce that he never put a gerbil up his butt.
Continue reading Frasier: Star Mitzvah - VIDEO
Characters I'm missing right now
The writers' strike forced some of my favorite shows into an unexpected, summer-long hiatus and delayed the return of others. I'm grateful that shows like Lost still have new episodes, but the second half of this TV season hasn't felt the same. I especially miss the promising new series that were cut short. It feels like other shows have been on hiatus forever. Flight of the Conchords was supposed to return this year, but had its premiere pushed back until 2009. I miss Bret, Jemaine, and their strange circle of friends. I've been wondering about the fates of several absent characters lately. So many storylines were left unresolved.
Here's a short list of some of the faces I can't wait to see again:
Continue reading Characters I'm missing right now
Ten super sitcom sidekicks
AOL Television has compiled a list of the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever, this week revealing numbers 50-41. Inspired by what they did, I've decided to list my favorite sitcom sidekicks, those funny foils that oftentimes make the star shine even brighter than you might have thought. Coming up with just a ten-pack hasn't been so easy. Many times, I'd look at a show and think, "No, it's more of an ensemble. There isn't one sidekick." Falling into that category were B.J. and Trapper John on M*A*S*H. Neither were Hawkeye's sidekick, really (any more than Radar was). Same thing with Friends -- they were all each other's sidekicks. Also, on The Odd Couple, Oscar and Felix were equal; neither was a sidekick. Ditto Two and a Half Men and Laverne & Shirley. Also, because it's my list, I decided not to include married couples -- sorry Rob and Laura, Ricky and Lucy, Archie and Edith.Whew, after all that, here, in alphabetical order, are the ten I love -- within my own parameters! Feel free to comment with your choices, if your favorite isn't on my list.
Gallery: Sitcom Sidekicks
Continue reading Ten super sitcom sidekicks
Robert Wuhl re-signs with HBO
Whenever I think of Robert Wuhl, I'm reminded of that scene in Bull Durham where he's playing a coach meeting on the mound with the pitcher and the catcher -- Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner -- and they're arguing about what's an appropriate wedding gift. It's an inane, silly, funny moment, topped by Wuhl's suggestion that candlesticks always make a nice gift.It's also nice to report that Robert Wuhl has agreed to remain with HBO. It's been his comic home for 12 years, including Arli$$ which ran for season seasons and poked fun at the world of professional sports. The show wasn't a water-cooler comedy like Entourage or Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it was consistently funny and I enjoyed it.
Continue reading Robert Wuhl re-signs with HBO
TV Squad Daily with Brigitte - VIDEO
Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.
Today, on TV Squad Daily:
Today, on TV Squad Daily:
- Paris Hilton unintentionally brought clean water to thousands of people in need, and will help educate hundreds of blind children. It's the best outcome of a DUI and sex tape ever!!!
- Interesting: no one's using the news to fill gaps left by the strike.
- An answer to a viewer question about how the strike affects ad-libbed shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
Ask TV Squad: Ghost Whisperer and more!
The TV Squad Podcast: Bill Scheft of The Late Show, Cake Boss, Mad Men and more
