Comedy Central has announced its upcoming development slate, and it's nothing short of diverse, ambitious and (I hope) hilarious. According to Variety, some of the star-driven pilots include potential series from Snoop Dogg, Andy Richter and David Alan Grier (!), in genres that range from animation to sketch comedy to scripted narratives to flat-out parodies.Snoop, who's apparently on a quest to become the most ubiquitous music artist across the networks, is the subject of an animated pilot that follows his life from his days as little G in the LBC. Grier's pilot will feature the comedian in a magazine show parody, David Alan Grier's Chocolate News, while Richter's potential show stars him in a sketch comedy series. The rest of the development roster is chock-full of potentially massive laugh-a-thons. Some of the most intriguing picks include, however, Gay Robot (which sounds kind of a like an animated Quarterlife with technological and social issues at the forefront), Search and De...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
Question: What was the thinking behind putting all six episodes of Andy Barker, P.I. online before the series debuted? I watched all of them before the first episode aired and then found that I didn't need to see them again. How many others did this? I am sure many Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien fans didn't wait for them to air. It almost seems like someone at NBC purposely set this show up to fail. Why didn't they just do like 24 did, and put one or two episodes online to whet the appetite and then post the shows after they aired? NBC is looking more and more like the Dumont network for this millennium, with a few quality shows and a lot of cheap, filler programming all scheduled at random. Finally, when will someone release the DVD set of Andy Richter Controls the Universe? Maybe as part of a set of DVDs called the Best TV You Never Saw?
Answer: As usual, no clue on the DVD front, although that's a good idea. About Andy's online gamble: the jury's still out, from what I can tell, on
...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
Here we are, nine hours later, and Guy Halverson sprinting down the fairway, a hoagie bursting with "three kinds of ham" in his grasp, still haunts my noggin. What made the recurring image so damn funny, though, isn't its subject matter — large man plus flailing sandwich plus slow motion — but Andy Richter's expression of disbelief each time he went into and out of the flashback. "Ah, yes [his mistress was] jealous.... Ya think?" The theme song for Guy's last gallop didn't hurt either.And that, folks, brings us to a discussion of Week 2 (of 6) of NBC's Andy Barker, P.I.. As I said before, what makes this show sing is the casting. Clea Lewis is the supportive wife every guy wants (and, in this case, wants Guy). And Tony Hale opposite Nicole Randall Johnson shows seriously funny promise. I love how Nicole (as Nicole the self-hired assistant) "switches on" that perky, entirely false demeanor en route to making the person she's talking to feel like a fool.Perhaps my only recur...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
If you're a 30 Rock fan and know me from that show blog, it's good to see you joining me here. To everyone else, greetings, I will be your host for these six episodes of NBC's Andy Barker, P.I.Previously in the 30 Rock blog, I talked up Andy some, if only to assure fans of Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, et al, that their time slot would be in capable hands. Since then, it's been good to see the legit TV critics throw some praise Andy Richter's way, as this show certainly has sharp writing, but perhaps more importantly some very nice casting. I will admit, my exposure to Andy has been minimal (having never been a Conan fan). But I do like him in this role of a hapless "cheese and crackers"-cussing accountant resigned to a vanilla office in a vanilla strip mall, then seduced by the invitation — from the Wrigley's Orbit gum gal — to walk on the wild side as a private dick.Andy Barker ups the ante further by surrounding Richter with a winning ensemble. Clea Lewis (Ellen) is perfect a...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien
In an unbridled side-by-side Q&A, Andy Barker, P.I. star Andy Richter and series cocreator Conan O'Brien riff on their new NBC sitcom (premiering tonight at 9:30 pm/ET), Britney Spears jokes and the future of Late Night.
TV Guide: In Andy Barker, P.I., Andy plays an accountant who accidentally becomes a detective. As your company developed it with NBC, Conan, how did you keep it so funny?Conan O'Brien: We really like it, which is usually a bad sign. One of the things that was nice about this project is that I've always thought it's such a crapshoot to make a good television show. So many
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock
Question: I understand that 30 Rock is going on a break for several weeks. Should I be worried? I love the show and thought it was doing at least decently, if not fantastically.
Answer: Don't sweat this one needlessly. It's standard operating procedure in the spring, when a number of shows temporarily take a rest to give mid-season shows a tryout — in this case, Andy Richter's Andy Barker, P.I., which takes over 30 Rock's time period starting March 15. At least 30 Rock's return date has already been set: April 19, just in time for May sweeps. (Not so lucky: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which is taking an early hiatus starting March 5 to make room for The Black Donnellys. NBC says the rest of Studio 60's season will air, but has not disclosed when or where.) Of all of NBC's Thursday comedies, 30 Rock is probably the most vulnerable, and it was the expected choice to make way for a mid-season hopeful. So while you shouldn't be worried, you also shouldn't be 100 percent confident that
...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
In tonight’s repeat of a first-season episode, we return to the arrival of Andy Richter’s Stan, nicknamed Sad Dad by the Mean Mommies. Stan was a nice enough guy, but the air of desperation he put off made me cringe. He was really very sad and just a little bit too eager. But he was also sweet, making her a mixed tape of her favorite band and complimenting her hair. So he wasn’t the hottest man that Christine could’ve picked for her first sexual partner in three years. But he was attentive and willing, and that was all she needed. I thought it was hilarious that Ali directed her to the Whole Foods to pick up guys. And I might add, some of those guys in the Whole Foods were really good-looking. Poor Christine, she couldn’t exactly pick up the handsome ones. The first guy she scared off by talking too much, then backing into a grocer putting away vegetables. The second guy she scared off by not saying anything, grinning like a madwoman and doing her body shake...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
I don’t know what it is, but watching Andy Richter as a love interest kind of made me cringe. Maybe it’s because he’s known more to me as Conan O’Brien’s goofy sidekick or the evil guy in the failed Olsen-twin movie New York Minute. Maybe it’s because he’s just not droolworthy. I guess that’s the punch line, though. Here’s this guy who’s not very attractive at all and whose nickname is "Sad Dad," and Christine can’t resist him. I honestly don’t get the attraction. Maybe Andy Richter’s humor is what’s most attractive about him, but his character of Stan is just weird. He’s not Japanese but is going through a Japanese phase. And the best part is that he seduced Christine by taking some mashed potato off her chest and licking it off his finger. Although he did have some good lines. My favorite: “You look hot in a hairnet.” Not something you hear every day. I agree with Richard when he told Christine: ...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
Some random TV thoughts:Each week since its overly somber premiere, ABC's Brothers & Sisters has improved, slowly becoming a more entertaining, if not yet compelling, family drama. The most recent episode, involving a series of eventful dates for most of the major characters, had a mostly deft light touch, showing (I think) the influence of Everwood's Greg Berlanti on the creative direction of the show.It's becoming a more suitable companion for Desperate Housewives, which also has improved from last season's doldrums. Housewives is still far from perfect, but give me some Edie Britt bitchiness, a little manipulative scheming from Bree and several mysterious twists (why was Mike Delfino's phone number etched in ink on the season's mystery corpse?), and I'm relatively satisfied. I can even get past the tiresome Gabby-Carlos feuding and Nora meddling in the indifferently plotted Lynette-Tom story line. (Did you notice, by the way, a walk-on by Who Wants to Be a Superhero's Major V...
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
Speaking of Nip/Tuck, TVGuide.com has learned that Bruno Campos (aka Quentin/"the Carver") will guest-star on this season's ninth episode of CBS' Cold Case, playing a dead man who serves a key role (via flashbacks) in solving a mystery.... Joe Mantegna is the studio-executive boss of Debra Messing's ex-husband in USA Network's spring 2007 limited series, The Starter Wife.... Clea Lewis (Ellen) will play Andy Richter's wife on the NBC mid-season comedy, Andy Barker, P.I. Lewis replaces Amy Farrington, who filled the role in the pilot.
read more
- email this
- add to Yahoo! buzz
- add to facebook
