I heard about the show and caught up on the episodes a couple months ago, and I've been watching the new season. Pretty great. It's surprising how well it works given that if you get down to it, it's one of those sitcom-that-is-a-vehicle-for-some-comedian shows. Mind you, plenty of differences, continuity already mentioned as one. Also that he doesn't have random-hollywood-actress as a wife in a stable family which seems to be the staple for all those comedian-vehicle shows.
It helps that it's Louis CK, since he's pretty damned hilarious. I might have to go rewatch that daily show interview he had recently.
Erik
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AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
I heard about the show and caught up on the episodes a couple months ago, and I've been watching the new season. Pretty great. It's surprising how well it works given that if you get down to it, it's one of those sitcom-that-is-a-vehicle-for-some-comedian shows. Mind you, plenty of differences, continuity already mentioned as one. Also that he doesn't have random-hollywood-actress as a wife in a stable family which seems to be the staple for all those comedian-vehicle shows.
I never got the concept of those shows, and they always seemed to fail and fail hard.
"It's the Rodney Carrington show! Starring Rodney Carrington, everyone's favorite loudmouth bigot homophobe redneck! In a show where he plays none of those things."
I really didn't like his first show (on hbo I think? I can't even remember) so I never gave this a shot.
seems obviously worth my time though
I've only seen a clip of it but overall Louis' a much better actor and the writer seems to be stronger. While I loved the first season of this one, so far the second season has been really, really strong
I heard about the show and caught up on the episodes a couple months ago, and I've been watching the new season. Pretty great. It's surprising how well it works given that if you get down to it, it's one of those sitcom-that-is-a-vehicle-for-some-comedian shows. Mind you, plenty of differences, continuity already mentioned as one. Also that he doesn't have random-hollywood-actress as a wife in a stable family which seems to be the staple for all those comedian-vehicle shows.
I never got the concept of those shows, and they always seemed to fail and fail hard.
"It's the Rodney Carrington show! Starring Rodney Carrington, everyone's favorite loudmouth bigot homophobe redneck! In a show where he plays none of those things."
I guess lots of people must have wanted to take a slice out of what Seinfeld proved was a valid market, but yeah, it sure seems like most of the attempts just crashed and burn horribly. I suppose Ray Romano did well with his show. A remarkable percentage of pilots every year seem to be 'x comedian in a wacky family setting.'
Ego on
Erik
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
Well no, it (Seinfeld) wasn't a typical family setting at all, but it was a comedian sit com vehicle, right? I just mean that other people saw how well it worked and, with stand-up comedians being in a boom in the 90s, tried to go the easy route and tie comedians in with family sit-coms since that's like the lowest common denominator you can aim for it.
Oh, home improvement, that's another successful one.
Most recently Paul Riser's new show which was a mid-season replacement to a bad show and was pulled after 2 episodes.
I just think people always associated him with Burke from Aliens and his career would never recover.
But seriously, that show was terrible. He was never funny and all the commercials for it were bizarre. Hey everyone, your favorite comedian of all time is finally coming back to do a sitcom, you should all watch it!
In the meantime everyone is like, who the hell is Paul Reiser? He hadn't been on tv in 11 years and I can't remember the last movie he was in aside from Aliens.
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
Well no, it (Seinfeld) wasn't a typical family setting at all, but it was a comedian sit com vehicle, right? I just mean that other people saw how well it worked and, with stand-up comedians being in a boom in the 90s, tried to go the easy route and tie comedians in with family sit-coms since that's like the lowest common denominator you can aim for it.
Oh, home improvement, that's another successful one.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying they tried to do what seinfeld did but shoved it into a family setting. for the exact reasons you mentioned here.
Louis CK's HBO show was so fucking bad. I'm glad he got carte blanche with this new one and isn't forced into making another terrible sitcom. He does way better on his own.
The bits with Ricky Gervais playing his doctor are solid gold. I hope he makes it back onto the show.
The AV Club has a lot of interesting stuff on his HBO show, he was going for a interesting concept. AN old fashioned honeymooners type sitcom with canned laughs and the 3 camera set up, but everyone just being unhappy and brutal. They seemed to think it was a fascinating idea and had some good moments, but overall the tonal clashes and the less experienced writing made it less enjoyable
also louis ck wrote for pootie tang? which I've never seen
AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
The Cosby Show worked because Bill Cosby's comedy was almost exclusively centered around raising a family, and Cosby himself was college-educated in children's psychology.
Seinfeld's show worked because his comedy was centered around the absurdity of life in New York City.
Louie works because C.K.'s comedy is about the vulgar truths of parenthood and marriage.
King of Queens worked because CBS panders exclusively to middle-brow morons who think being fat is the same thing as a punchline.
And Lucky Louie didn't work because they were trying their level best to not do a normal sitcom while still doing a normal sitcom, and then throwing in some random HBO stuff like a dude with his penis hanging out. It had its moments, though.
I never got the concept of those shows, and they always seemed to fail and fail hard.
Seriously. I bet in the olden days they even tried to do it with Dick van Dyke and Lucille Ball. Not that we'd ever know, because if they had they'd fail so hard that all evidence of their existence wouldn't survive to this day.
Any modern programming executive leveraging their success with modern comedians' TV shows against the models of TV shows from 60 years ago deserves the sacking they will most assuredly get. But I don't think anyone is actually doing that.
Prog. Exec: "Hey, remember how much everyone loved the Patty Duke show?"
Studio Head: "No, I wasn't born until 1958."
The AV Club has a lot of interesting stuff on his HBO show, he was going for a interesting concept. AN old fashioned honeymooners type sitcom with canned laughs and the 3 camera set up, but everyone just being unhappy and brutal. They seemed to think it was a fascinating idea and had some good moments, but overall the tonal clashes and the less experienced writing made it less enjoyable
also louis ck wrote for pootie tang? which I've never seen
Any modern programming executive leveraging their success with modern comedians' TV shows against the models of TV shows from 60 years ago deserves the sacking they will most assuredly get. But I don't think anyone is actually doing that.
Prog. Exec: "Hey, remember how much everyone loved the Patty Duke show?"
Studio Head: "No, I wasn't born until 1958."
I just mean that it's a well that's been continuously been tapped for as long as sitcoms have existed, often with great success.
Lucky Louie was pretty dreadful, as the attempt to parody an already outdated form of TV sitcom wasn't very funny or interesting, and it robbed the writing of any sense of realism.
Pootie Tang is a really hilarious 35 minutes stretched to (barely) feature length. It's worth watching, just when the music video bit starts realize you can go make a sandwich and catch up on your email and not miss anything much.
In all fairness to comedians/tv comedy on the whole, 99% of comedies are vehicles for a singular comedian with a supporting cast.
Like, there are plenty of ensemble comedies, but the whole "comedian who has a show" thing, success wise, probably has just as good a success/failure ratio as everything else.
There are also no shortage of solid shows. King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Roseanne, Everybody Hates Chris, The Bernie Mac Show, Seinfeld...
Lucky Louie was an interesting concept and it had its moments. Definitely a throw-back with modern overtones. He was substantially more likeable in that role than he is now, but Louie is far and away a better show.
The AV Club has a lot of interesting stuff on his HBO show, he was going for a interesting concept. AN old fashioned honeymooners type sitcom with canned laughs and the 3 camera set up, but everyone just being unhappy and brutal. They seemed to think it was a fascinating idea and had some good moments, but overall the tonal clashes and the less experienced writing made it less enjoyable
also louis ck wrote for pootie tang? which I've never seen
The first season didn't connect with me, and I've never followed his work before. I've been mildly hooked on Wilfred since it started, so I've sort accidentally watched this season of Louie via the lazyasscan'tmovetoohardcouchnice effect, and it's really been pretty solid. It's not a lulzoutloud show. I think of it more as a dark or bizarro-Seinfeld with some dramatic flair.
I know! I know, fair critical assessment. I can't help it. Jason Gann is just so damn funny as Wilfred. The rest of it, not so much, but whaddyagonnado.
I swear there was an episode where he's chaperoning for his daughters' field trip and, after telling the bus driver to take the freeway as a shortcut, having the bus not clear an overpass resulting in flat tires, then giving the bus driver shit because he's not doing anything (who ends up quitting and walking home because he lives around the corner and he thinks Louis is a terrible person), he just says 'fuck it' and has a half dozen limos show up to take the kids the rest of the way.
I assumed he was just playing his usual, now rich, self on the show. Am I mistaken?
He doesn't tell the bus driver to take a shortcut, the bus driver has no idea where they're going, how to get there, or what the clearence is for the bus. He's fucking irrespsonsible and selfish, which is why the scene is funny to me.
I rarely find myself laughing at this show. But I always find myself entertained. There is simply nothing like it out there. I feel like its less of a sitcom and more of a side note to his standup.
Seinfeld had standup that seemed to inspire the episode. Louie has episodes which seem to inspire the standup. I feel like I watch Louie for the standup and I get to see a look inside the dark mind that crafted those jokes.
Yeah...the last episode, the one about religion...not really funny at all, just deeply disturbing. I kinda hope the show gets back to the "really depressing, but still hilarious" model.
I found Wilfred amusing enough but very early on I found myself wondering when the gimmick of Wilfred being a dog would take a backseat to it actually becoming interesting.
On about episode 3 I decided they were just going to ride that into the ground and so I stopped watching.
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It helps that it's Louis CK, since he's pretty damned hilarious. I might have to go rewatch that daily show interview he had recently.
I never got the concept of those shows, and they always seemed to fail and fail hard.
"It's the Rodney Carrington show! Starring Rodney Carrington, everyone's favorite loudmouth bigot homophobe redneck! In a show where he plays none of those things."
I've only seen a clip of it but overall Louis' a much better actor and the writer seems to be stronger. While I loved the first season of this one, so far the second season has been really, really strong
I guess lots of people must have wanted to take a slice out of what Seinfeld proved was a valid market, but yeah, it sure seems like most of the attempts just crashed and burn horribly. I suppose Ray Romano did well with his show. A remarkable percentage of pilots every year seem to be 'x comedian in a wacky family setting.'
Oh, home improvement, that's another successful one.
But like...the list of failures is amazing.
Most recently Paul Riser's new show which was a mid-season replacement to a bad show and was pulled after 2 episodes.
I just think people always associated him with Burke from Aliens and his career would never recover.
But seriously, that show was terrible. He was never funny and all the commercials for it were bizarre. Hey everyone, your favorite comedian of all time is finally coming back to do a sitcom, you should all watch it!
In the meantime everyone is like, who the hell is Paul Reiser? He hadn't been on tv in 11 years and I can't remember the last movie he was in aside from Aliens.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying they tried to do what seinfeld did but shoved it into a family setting. for the exact reasons you mentioned here.
The bits with Ricky Gervais playing his doctor are solid gold. I hope he makes it back onto the show.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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also louis ck wrote for pootie tang? which I've never seen
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Seinfeld's show worked because his comedy was centered around the absurdity of life in New York City.
Louie works because C.K.'s comedy is about the vulgar truths of parenthood and marriage.
King of Queens worked because CBS panders exclusively to middle-brow morons who think being fat is the same thing as a punchline.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Seriously. I bet in the olden days they even tried to do it with Dick van Dyke and Lucille Ball. Not that we'd ever know, because if they had they'd fail so hard that all evidence of their existence wouldn't survive to this day.
Any modern programming executive leveraging their success with modern comedians' TV shows against the models of TV shows from 60 years ago deserves the sacking they will most assuredly get. But I don't think anyone is actually doing that.
Prog. Exec: "Hey, remember how much everyone loved the Patty Duke show?"
Studio Head: "No, I wasn't born until 1958."
yeah it's hilarious
I just mean that it's a well that's been continuously been tapped for as long as sitcoms have existed, often with great success.
Pootie Tang is a really hilarious 35 minutes stretched to (barely) feature length. It's worth watching, just when the music video bit starts realize you can go make a sandwich and catch up on your email and not miss anything much.
Like, there are plenty of ensemble comedies, but the whole "comedian who has a show" thing, success wise, probably has just as good a success/failure ratio as everything else.
There are also no shortage of solid shows. King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Roseanne, Everybody Hates Chris, The Bernie Mac Show, Seinfeld...
so good
This is correct.
What's wrong with you? I gave Wilfred two episodes before I bowed the fuck out.
He doesn't tell the bus driver to take a shortcut, the bus driver has no idea where they're going, how to get there, or what the clearence is for the bus. He's fucking irrespsonsible and selfish, which is why the scene is funny to me.
Seinfeld had standup that seemed to inspire the episode. Louie has episodes which seem to inspire the standup. I feel like I watch Louie for the standup and I get to see a look inside the dark mind that crafted those jokes.
I really want to like Wilfred, but it's just not clicking with me. Thoroughly enjoying Louie though.
This is exactly how I feel about the show.
Had wrongly assumed this was a basic-cable rehash of the HBO show. Apples and oranges.
Wilfred is fucking hilarious and I will fight a man who says different
On about episode 3 I decided they were just going to ride that into the ground and so I stopped watching.