RickyGervais-related stories
Posted Nov 13th 2009 11:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Video, Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
It's not surprising that a colorful and lively show like
Sesame Street, one devised by the genius that was Muppets creator Jim Henson, was at heart a comedy. What is surprising is that so many adults who grew up with the show still find it so damn funny (or maybe that has more to do with
the rise of marijuana use, but beggars can't be users, er, choosers).
In fact, a recent box set of the show's earliest episodes came with a disclaimer that the episodes contained within it were "
not for kids." That's also because it contained the rare lost episode from the early 1970s when Grover and Prairie Dawn accidentally wandered into the Plato's Retreat swingers club where they learned the difference between "top" and "bottom".
The point is adults can find just as much to laugh at as their kids do and here are the biggest chortle-makers.
Continue reading Sesame Street's 40th: Five funniest characters
Posted Oct 30th 2009 6:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
So
Ricky Gervais has signed to host the Golden Globes, which means the pressure is on the Oscars to come up with a host or hosts equally as stellar. Or interesting. Or compelling.
One star who has removed himself from the running is last year's host,
Hugh Jackman. He will not return as Oscar host when the show airs on ABC, March 7.
He's currently on Broadway in a play -- with 007 Daniel Craig -- and he "quietly turned down the job" according to sources. It's not because he was a bomb emceeing the proceedings either. He didn't do the "Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah" joke nor did he trip on his shoelaces in the opening number. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Hugh Jackman was a perfectly fine host.
But he doesn't want to do it in 2010. Maybe he doesn't want to push his luck? Maybe he just doesn't want to work that hard.
Continue reading Hugh Jackman says 'no thanks' to Oscar repeat
Posted Oct 26th 2009 6:36PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
During the recent broadcast of the
Primetime Emmys, one of the funniest presenters was
Ricky Gervais. It's not surprising that Ricky was funny that night. He's a brilliant comic actor, writer and director. I say this even after suffering through
The Invention of Lying, a film that had a wonderful premise but was a crappy movie. Nevertheless, I still think he's fantastic. And I will watch the
67th Annual Golden Globes with Ricky Gervais as host.
The NBC censor's finger will surely be on the button January 17, the night of the broadcast, because you could imagine Ricky getting a wee bit close to the line of what you can and cannot say on TV. Although he's probably clever enough to say or do something that the censors wouldn't get till after it airs.
Continue reading Brilliant! Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes
Posted Aug 16th 2009 2:11PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: The Office, Reality-Free, British TV
An idea that was a joke just a few months ago will soon be a reality in London.
The Office: The Opera will hit the stage for a one-night only engagement at London's Proud Galleries Wednesday, August 19. The concept of an operatic version of the Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant classic was used as a spoof for the pair's contribution to this year's U.K. Comic Relief.
In the sketch, Gervais is such an ego-maniacal weed that he wouldn't allow the then-fictional opera to proceed unless a male model portrayed his old role of David Brent. But, Gervais is actually very charity-friendly, so I imagine this was an easy call for he and Merchant.
Continue reading An operatic version of The Office hitting the U.K. stage
Posted Aug 4th 2009 12:29PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Office, Reality-Free, British TV
The Office and
Extras star Ricky Gervais might be looking to give up acting to focus more on writing and directing.
As talented and naturally funny as Gervais is, it could be said that he never really took up acting in the first place. While relaxed on camera, he's essentially played himself (or enhanced aspects of himself) in most TV shows or movies he's appeared in so far -- including his starring role in
Ghost Town last year.
According to
The Daily Star, Gervais is so in love with directing that he'd rather invest his time there, rather than take on more lead or supporting roles (as in the
Night at the Museum series).
Continue reading Gervais looking to give up acting for directing
Posted Jul 30th 2009 6:42PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Entourage, Pickups and Renewals, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler of HBO held an executive session at the beginning of HBO's star-studded presentation. Among the news:
- The entire Sunday summer lineup: Entourage, True Blood, and Hung will be coming back next summer.
- They've ordered an animated series from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant based on their podcasts with the ever-entertaining Karl Pilkington.
- On a third season of Flight of the Conchords: "We're ready when they're ready."
- The pilot of Boardwalk Empire, directed by Martin Scorsese, has been delivered to HBO. It will be picked up based on what they see. They like what they see so far.
- No more Little Britain USA, but they are working with the producers to create specials with all-new characters.
More coming. Stay tuned to our
Twitter feed for the latest updates.
Posted Jul 24th 2009 1:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Hulu has been making all the right, super-sweet moves lately, at least in my book. Not only is the site streaming the marvelous British comedies
Peep Show and
Green Wing, but now
Spaced is on Hulu, too.
Spaced! You can tell I'm excited because I put an exclamation mark on it. The show has been available on DVD in the States for quite a while, but now that both seasons are online, there really isn't any excuse to not experience it. Is it obvious that I have a weird, almost evangelical need to spread the word?
Continue reading Spaced on Hulu! Now you have no excuse to be uninformed
Posted Jul 1st 2009 9:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free, British TV
The creator of the world's most popular sitcom franchise,
The Office, should be beyond the reach of critics anywhere. But, Ricky Gervais is preemptively telling reviewers to lay off his new movie,
The Invention of Lying.
The comedy Gervais co-wrote and directed with Matthew Robinson explores a world where no one has ever lied until a writer seizes the opportunity for personal gain.
Gervais doesn't want critics to expect too much. On his blog, he wrote, "Dear critics (everyone), when judging the film, please remember that it is a high concept, PG-13 romantic comedy. It's not
Schindler's List or
The Godfather."
Continue reading The Office's Ricky Gervais defends his Invention of Lying
Posted Jun 20th 2009 9:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free, British TV
Ricky Gervais of
The Office and
Extras fame is going to design a man purse -- but it's for a good cause.
The
U.K.'s Prostrate Cancer Charity (part of the Charity Aids Foundation) asked television stars and other celebrities to design a man's handbag for
The Manbag Company. Each unique design will be auctioned off to fight prostate cancer.
Of course, Gervais is a funny man and a cool, self-effacing celeb. But, it'll be interesting to see if even he can make something as inherently uncool as a man purse into swag a guy will want to spend money on -- cancer be damned.
Continue reading The Office's Gervais will design Manbag for charity
Posted May 20th 2009 12:06PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Reality-Free
Karl Pilkington, longtime friend and podcasting costar of Ricky Gervais, has a head like an orange. He possesses very little education, an extremely pessimistic take on life, a sad obsession with insects and a perpetually confused world view.
But, even with all that going against him, he holds a share of the
Guinness Book of World Records title for
most popular podcast with Gervais and Stephen Merchant -- and he's about to star in a new animated series on HBO.
According to
Variety,
The Office creator will bring
The Ricky Gervais Show to TV in a series of 13 animated half-hour episodes. In audio form, the Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington formula features Gervais throwing a vast variety of topics at the intellectually challenged Pilkington to see what sense he can make of them.
Continue reading Gervais bringing podcasting star Pilkington to HBO
Posted Apr 29th 2009 7:07PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, The Office, Reality-Free
Here's another reason to love Adult Swim. Cartoon Network's late night brand -- home to some of the best animated fare on TV, like
The Venture Bros. and the awesome
G.I. Joe Resolute -- will begin
airing the original BBC version of The Office starting this summer.
The network will air both seasons of the British comedy, produced by Ricky Gervais, plus the Christmas special. This is great news for U.S. comedy nerds dying to introduce the show to their friends (and don't feel like buying all three DVD box sets). Hopefully they'll air it in between
Aqua Teen and
Tim and Eric -- and not at 4 a.m.!
I love this show, and I love the NBC version. I won't even try to compare the two here, since the NBC version has evolved into such a completely different show. But there's one thing the NBC version is missing -- Ricky Gervais. I'm aware of Gervais' producing role on the show, but I've always wanted to see him make a cameo as David Brent -- the UK version of Michael Scott.
Continue reading BBC's The Office to air on Adult Swim this summer
Posted Mar 30th 2009 3:33PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant must be kvelling, as their BBC brainchild is being
developed into its sixth foreign version. This time, David Brent (or whatever the character's name will be) and his paper company will be located in Israel.
Given the political climate in that area of the world, one has to wonder what their office will be like? Will it be shared by Jews and Arabs? Which religion will the central "boss" character be? Will that even come into play?
Continue reading The Office is going to Israel
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 1:08PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free
Ricky Gervais
won't be hosting the Oscars tonight, but he'll be doing the next best thing. It looks like Gervais will be
writing some of the jokes to be used by host Hugh Jackman and company. If so, then I draw a few conclusions from this:
Tonight's jokes will be swipes at Hollywood and probably the entertainment industry in general. As one can tell from
The Office and
Extras (and even the BBC article itself), Gervais excels at self-deprecating humor. They will be nasty, but nasty in a funny and cute way that industry insiders and the audience will enjoy. He could even recycle jokes from
Extras.
Also, tonight's jokes will be extremely funny if Jackman can deliver them in a Gervais-like style. Hopefully he'll practice them beforehand. I wonder if Stephen Merchant was involved with the joke-writing as well?
If this works out, perhaps he'll accept that offer to host the event next year? Fingers crossed.
Posted Jan 23rd 2009 10:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Ratings, Awards, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Do you remember what film won the Oscar for Best Picture last year? (
No Country for Old Men). What about Best Actor and Actress? (Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard). If you didn't remember, don't feel bad. You're probably like most people. Most of us weren't watching in 2008. Even though they were celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards, it was the lowest rated and least watched telecast ever.
As I perused the
Academy Award nominations yesterday, I couldn't help but think that this year's broadcast is going to have a hard time drawing a huge TV audience. And considering that the only thing you can usually count on with the Oscars is that they'll run over three hours long, the show will probably leave something to be desired, too.
In fact, here's six reasons the Oscars -- which will be broadcast live on February 22 on ABC -- will probably stink.
Continue reading Six reasons the Oscars will probably stink - VIDEO
Posted Dec 13th 2008 12:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Celebrities
When you hear about this celebrity tussle, I think you'll feel like me: "I would love to be a fly on the wall to watch these two go at it!" It turns out that Bravo's reality star,
Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis,
is fighting with Ashley Jensen, who plays Christina on
Ugly Betty.
Jeff, who specializes in buying properties then fixing them up and selling them -- flipping -- has a house under construction right next door to the home of Ashley and hubby Terence Beesley. If you've watched even one episode of
Flipping Out, you know that Jeff has OCD and is extremely difficult to work for -- he fires workers at least twice a season -- and presses buttons like nobody's business.
This tussle falls under the pressing buttons category. Lewis had a deck built onto the house he was re-constructing, the one right next door to Ashley's, and went over the property line. Now, in Yonkers that would be a reason to get upset; in Hollywood, it's a good enough reason to go to war.
Continue reading Ugly Betty versus Flipping Out...in court!
Next Page >
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
