TVSquad

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.

(S01E04) Is James Avery always a lawyer these days? Every time I see him he's either a lawyer, or a judge, or someone involved in law enforcement. Gosh, even in The Closer he's a medical examiner. And in other things he's been a general and a Chancellor and other characters of power. Well, I guess if you are going to be stereotyped in Hollywood it's best to be stereotyped as a person of authority.

Anyway, Avery was a guest-star on this week's Eli Stone as, you guessed it, a lawyer. But, he wasn't a member of Eli's firm. He was actually requesting the services of Jordan Whethersby to represent him in a case of same-race discrimination. You read right -- this was Jordan's case, not Eli's. This makes it the first time in the show's short history that there was more than one case shown on an episode.

The Family Guy episode titled "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire," which was re-aired recently, has caught flak from some AIDS groups for a little barber shop ditty performed by Peter for the benefit of a dying AIDS patient. Using song, Peter tells the man, quite frankly, that he has AIDS and is definitely going to die. Seen in context, the joke is that Peter is having a flashback about his impeccable knack for breaking bad news to people. Nevertheless, AIDS groups aren't amused.