An aging and broke bad-boy rocker from the 1990s gets another shot at fame 25 years later as a songwriter for a brash and talented young singer who's a big fan of his early work.
Kenny Vs. Spenny writer/creator Kenny Hotz crafts this sitcom centering on a pair of roommates and longtime friends who both work as test subjects at an off-the-wall product testing factory. Peter (Steve Markle) and Ron (Jeff Kassel) are both in their early thirties. They've been friends for years, but these days they share an apartment and work together at Testico, the local product testing facility. Each week the hapless duo is given a new product to test and asked to report back on the side effects. Despite the fact that the side effects of the products being tested are generally ridiculous and consistently negative, Peter and Ron both do their best to carry on with their lives until the next line of products rolls around and the cycle starts all over again.
In keeping with its policy of serving up TV fare unlike anything else ever seen on any other network, cable or otherwise, the FX network unveiled Starved, the world's first sitcom about eating disorders, on August 4, 2005. The series was created by Eric Schaeffer, a seasoned TV writer and real-life anorexic. Schaeffer cast himself as Sam, a commodities broker suffering not only from anorexia but also compulsive-eating syndrome (his addiction to chocolate had reached ridiculously monumental dimensions), who regularly attended meetings of an eating-disorder support group, the Belttighteners. The remaining cast members likewise carried over their genuine eating problems to the characters they portrayed: Laura Benanti was Billie, an anorexic-bulimic, bisexual aspiring singer, whom Sam alternately despised and adored; Sterling K. Brown was Adam, a NYPD cop whose chronic bulimia had led him to commit minor crimes to feed his ailment; and Del Pentecost was Dan, a writer and overeater who always managed to find an excuse to put off his much-needed gastric bypass surgery. In the tradition of Seinfeld, the four main characters were not terribly likeable or admirable, but all were eminently watchable. Although Starved was positively reviewed in most trade papers, it did not meet with the approval of the National Eating Disorders Association, who disdained the show as "no laughing matter." Ironically sponsored by several prominent fast-food chains, Starved first aired in tandem with another cutting-edge FX sitcom, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.