TVSquad

(S04E04) Nobody mourns like the Botwins. I can't decide whose behavior was the least appropriate; there certainly were a lot of contenders. Lenny's countdown was extremely insensitive, and his actions throughout the episode didn't do him any favors, either. I'll save the specifics for after the jump, but he made Nancy's Andy-ditching look like an act of kindness. Not cool, BotWinBig, not cool.

(S04E03) What a relief! Now that we've ditched the dead weight (sorry, Bubbie) Weeds can finally get down to business. The Agrestic and Ren Mar worlds are slowly coming together, which should please the Doug fans. Some familiar faces are making their way to Nancy's new home, and that could mean trouble for her.

(S04E02) The season premiere took us to a new town, and "Lady's a Charm" gave us a look into Nancy's future as a drug trafficker. There's room for improvement, that's for sure. This week we learned more of the Botwin family history, got a brief and depressing Yiddish lesson, and, for the first time, I heard the word "schlimazel" outside the context of Laverne & Shirley.

The "Little Boxes" theme is gone for good. Instead, we got a quick shot of the Mexican border. I'll miss the old song, but it no longer fits with the show's new setting. I can't decide if I like the music-free credits, or if a different theme song would have been a good idea. What song would suit Weeds now that it isn't set in the suburbs?

One of the funniest guys in show business is coming to TV; and not just voices like he's done on The Simpsons. E! News has reported that Albert Brooks will appear in four episodes of Weeds for in the upcoming season. The Showtime comedy returns with new episodes beginning June 16.

Albert Brooks -- whose real name is Albert Einstein (and his brother is comic Bob Einstein, aka Super Dave Osborne) -- has been making people laugh for nearly four decades. I distinctly remember his bits on Love, American Style and his hilarious films on Saturday Night Live circa 1975.

Albert Brooks turns 60 today.

Brooks is mostly known for his films (Defending Your Life, Modern Romance), but he was also a favorite guest of folks like Carson and Letterman back in the '80s. He never quite gained the notoriety of some of his contemporaries, but his reputation as a "comedian's comedian" and a little something called "actual talent" has kept him out of obscurity -- and deservedly so, because he's one of the smartest and funniest people working today, even if he is a few steps outside the limelight.

Younger folks know him best for his various guest roles on The Simpsons, one of which I've posted below along with an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman (in two parts).

The Simpsons has been using guest stars since the very first season. Some have returned on several occasions, sometimes as different characters (Albert Brooks), sometimes as the same character (Kelsey Grammer), and sometimes as both (Jon Lovitz). By my calculations there have been exactly twelve thousand guest stars on the show so far, so obviously a list of just five is going to be lacking just a tad. Nevertheless, these are five guest stars who stick out in my mind. Got some more? That's what the comments are for. Here we go:

Albert Brooks: Brooks first appeared in season one as Jacques, the man with the fake French accent who tries to woo Marge away from Homer with his knowledge of bowling and women. He later appeared as Hank Scorpio, a rather paradoxical character who is both very friendly and yet extremely evil. I think my favorite Brooks episode, however, was the episode "The Heartbroke Kid" when he played Tab Spangler, a ticking time bomb of a coach who tries to coerce Bart back to health after Bart gains weight and suffers a heart attack. "Every sign is wrong!" He'll also be appearing in the Simpsons movie, which is very cool.

They've chosen a director for the new Simpsons movie, and it's Steven Spielberg.

Wait. I'm sorry, I didn't have my glasses on. The director is actually David Silverman, a name Simpsons fans should immediately recognize. Silverman is a supervising animation director on the show and also worked on the movie Monsters, Inc.

While I'm sure David Silverman's direction will be just fine, I wonder if they ever considered having Brad Bird direct the film (or if Bird was even available, for that matter). Bird seems like an obvious choice to me, having worked on The Simpsons and also having helmed two of the more well-respected animated films in recent years, The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. I think a mix of Simpson-y irreverence mixed with Bird's knack for storytelling would have been nice, but oh well. I'm still excited, regardless.

Oh yeah, and Sitcoms Online is reporting that Albert Brooks (one of my favorite occasional guest voices) will make an appearance in the movie, too. This movie just keeps sounding better.

The Boston Phoenix picks the top 20 guest stars that have lent their voices to The Simpsons.

20. U2
19. Spinal Tap
18. James Taylor
17. Johnny Cash
16. Anne Bancroft
15. Jackie Mason

I found myself rather bored this morning and decided that since I live in NYC, maybe I should take advantage of all the things a large city has to offer? So I checked out the Museum of Television and Radio and if you reside in the NYC or LA area, I have a good reason for you to do the same.

Step one? Dig through your couch cushions until you find ten bucks. Step two? Go to the MT&R and buy a ticket for the current screening of "From Albert Brooks to TV Funhouse: Selected Short Films from Saturday Night Live." Step three? Laugh hysterically for 90 straight minutes.

The collection of SNL shorts was jam packed; many I had seen and many that came before my time but still oh so worth it. Of particular note, I really enjoyed the synchronized swimming team of Harry Shearer and Martin Short coached by Christopher Guest. When Short mentions that "he's not that strong a swimmer," I almost fell out of my seat. Also worth seeing was Tim Robbins' short on the folk singing Bob Roberts, which later led to the film of the same name. However, I couldn't stop laughing at the more recent Adam McKay directed short about the pervert who got his jollies from the Cream of Wheat chef. I'm telling you, if you have a free afternoon and can get to either museum location, then go for it. You can see a schedule for this and other screenings at the link below.

Albert Brooks, the quintessential comedian's comedian, recently did an interview with The Onion where he spoke about his new movie Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. Of course, TV viewers know Brooks from his numerous appearances on late night talk shows, most notably on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. What I found especially interesting was his take on how stand-up comedians today often don't stand a chance because everything they do is "focus grouped" within minutes:

 

"I just, man, I'm telling you—I don't know how you get a Sam Kinison out of that world. I don't know where Bill Hicks comes from. I don't know how anyone special can go anywhere, because the guards are right in the very embryonic stage."

That was refreshing enough, but what really capped it off was when he later said, "I just read where somebody got high on the Billboard charts with [a comedy album]. I forget who it was." If anything from that interview made me respect this iconic comedian more than I already do, it's that he neither knows, nor cares, who the hell Dane Cook is.

"Sam's Club": Ahh... The Senate hearings for Alito have started. Reactions have been mixed all over Washington... Bush hoped for dignified dignity with an extra side of dignity (which means no ball-scratching), Dick Durbin tried pinning Alito to the recent mining tragedy, and Tom Coburn tried throwing abortion and the "hey, if sodomy is protected, why isn't prostitution?" card in. Ladies and gentlemen, the definition of class! Commence your sarcastic slow-clap. Jon really did do a poor Jerry Seinfeld impression, haha. The Seinfeld twangy-bass-theme noise made up for it though.

Maybe I'm reading a little too much into this, but the way it was presented, I don't think so.

David Letterman had Albert Brooks on the show tonight, and Brooks announced that he was a littlte sad that this was Letterman's last week. It was just a joke to set up a take-off on Bette Midler's farewell song to Johnny Carson in the early 90s (Brooks sang "Thanks For The Memory" to Letterman), but Letterman said something interesting during the exchange. He said that he wasn't leaving this week, that he actually had "2 or 3 years left." That got my attention, and he repeated the same exact thing about 30 seconds or so later.

Now, one could say that this was just a piece of dialogue to play along with Brooks' satire, but I don't think so. Letterman said it in a very even tone and played the straight man in the exchange, giving real information to correct Brooks' mistake on the date of his departure.

This wouldn't be exactly "shocking" news, since it has been rumored that Letterman might be moving every time his contract is up for renewal. And with Leno leaving in 2009, Letterman might time his departure for the same time. I'm really curious to see what exactly Letterman meant by the "matter of fact" statement.