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Posts tagged as showtime

Programming Notes

Showtime Has Picked Up New Seasons of House of Lies and Californication

by | February 1st, 2012

Showtime has renewed House of Lies for a second season and Californication for a sixth. So much sexy lying and lying sexing lie ahead.

Interviews

Kristen Bell Tells You What It's Like to Stick Your Foot in Another Actor's Mouth

by | January 5th, 2012

Here's Kristen Bell on shooting a House of Lies scene where another character puts her foot in his mouth:

…it was as awkward as it seems to be.You know, I had just met another actor who, as per the crazy script written, needed to put my foot in his mouth. We talked about it and I washed my foot and he had a mint — just for shits and giggles — and we just kind of went for it. We didn't practice it at all, obviously, because: No. 1) Why would you? That's weird. No. 2) We wanted it to be realistically awkward when we did it.

"Sophisticated [...]

premieres

Watch the Slick, French-Toast-Filled Premiere of House of Lies Right Now

by | January 2nd, 2012

What's this? The entire first episode of House of Lies, Showtime comedy with Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell and Ben Schwartz? Oh I do believe it is! Three minutes in, there's already a Zack Morris-style freeze-frame AND a pre-teen son wearing a skirt and announcing his bowel movements. Get to it.

Standup

Louis C.K. Explains The Motivation Behind Releasing His Special Himself

by | November 4th, 2011

Louis C.K. explained the reasoning behind his decision to release his new standup special on his website through PayPal, saying that cable channels are unwilling to promote the special if there's nothing in it for them. Netflix and iTunes, on the other hand, require a credit card account in good standing.

…everything in your wallet represents all these contentious relationships with these huge companies. If you want to watch one of my specials on Netflix, they start marketing to you, and you start getting Jeff Dunham ads. You try to read an article about Rwanda and a pop-up comes up for Larry the Cable Guy. "Hey, I [...]

TV

Fox Show on the Run: Which Network Will Be Arrested Development's New Home?

by | October 4th, 2011

You've probably already heard this weekend's big news that, in addition to the long-gestating Arrested Development movie, Mitch Hurwitz and company intend to create a 10-episode fourth season of the cult favorite show. Several obstacles stand in the way of these forthcoming projects (the cast's busy schedules, writing the scripts to the new season and the movie, filming what'll amount to six or seven hours worth of new content, etc.), but none of the tasks at hand are more crucial than selecting the right TV network to carry the 10-episode mini-season. While it's hard to imagine any of the Big Four networks are chomping at the bit to [...]

Standup

Have Yourself a Night of Comedy with the Premieres of Inside Comedy & The Ruckus

by | January 25th, 2012

It's finally time for the long-awaited and saliva-inducing Inside Comedy on Showtime, whose first episode, an interview with Jerry Seinfeld and Don Rickles, airs tomorrow at 11. But that won't be the night's only new standup-focused television show! Comedy Central is also premiering Russell Simmons Presents The Ruckus at 10, hosted by J.B. Smoove and featuring established black comics (unlike the near-entirely white Inside Comedy). What an evening it'll be, for those who don't have outside obligations (who are we kidding, for all of us). First you'll crack a beer and laugh at jokes from today's comics, then kick back with a brandy and theorize with the [...]

Porn

"It's Kind of Like a Mystery Science Theater, But With Porn"

by | January 5th, 2012

It's a dusty day down in a small Mexican town. Dirt lines the streets, and men have that hungry look about them. You take a seat in a dark bar.

"Whiskey," you say to the barman.

As you reach into your pocket and feel nothin' but fuzz, there's a stirring from the seat next to you. A grizzled old man comes up out of the shadows.

"The hills, boy," he says to you, barely moving his lips. He points a gnarled, callused finger out the door, to the mountains in the distance. "Them's money shots in them thar hills."

-Treasure of the Sierra Porndre

Aside from detailing his second [...]

trade roundup

Trade Roundup: Web Therapy, Sara Rue

by | December 5th, 2011

Web Therapy, Lisa Kudrow's web series-turned-TV show, has been picked up for a second season on Showtime. In addition to Conan O'Brien, this season will feature patients Lily Tomlin, Molly Shannon and Her Holiness Meryl Streep(!).

The CW is developing a "faux-lesbian comedy" called Poseurs, starring Sara Rue as "a young woman who marries with her female friend so that she can stay in her fancy apartment." At last, a solution for all those times you've wished you could watch I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry every week without the two-hour time commitment.

New Shows

The Farrelly Brothers Are Hitting the Small Screen

by | October 21st, 2011

TV: everyone's doing it! The Farrelly brothers are now developing a comedy for Showtime, about "a guy who is betrayed by his wife after years of marriage and he finds himself at the crossroads of a midlife crisis." Good for the Farrellys for doing it on cable instead of making the most censored, neutered network sitcom ever.

Promos

House Of Lies Promo Appeals to America's Love Of Don Cheadle's Balls

by | September 26th, 2011

In case you weren't thinking about Don Cheadle's balls yet today (which you were), Ben Schwartz aka Jean-Ralphio posted a House of Lies promo as a reminder to think about them…now. Schwartz and Kristen Bell also star in the upcoming Showtime show, which premieres January 8 and follows the adventures of "a self-loathing management consultant (Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle) from a top tier firm who is never above using any means (or anyone) necessary to get his way with and for his clients," a plot which you easily could have interpreted from the video if you weren't so fixated on Don's gyrating pelvis.

Interviews

Ben Schwartz Doesn't Lick Girls' Necks in Real Life

by | January 10th, 2012

Here's a nice long interview with Ben Schwartz about House of Lies and whether he would ever use Jean-Ralphio's flirting techniques in real life:

I think a human being would get slapped for that. I don't think I'd want to go out with a girl who'd want to go out with Jean-Ralphio. I don't think I'd want to date a woman who, when I go up to her and start dancing like a crazy person and licking her neck would be like, "Oh, this is the person I've been looking for!"

He also talks about how the many rejections he's encountered in entertainment have prepared him for [...]

TV

Assessing the House of Lies Pilot: Is It a Series to Watch?

by | January 3rd, 2012

House of Lies is set to premiere this Sunday on Showtime, but they put the pilot onYouTube yesterday. The show is about a not-so-ragtag group of management consultants trying to manage and/or consultant (I don’t know how business works) in this crazy world and features many familiar, well-liked faces. Should you watch it?

Reasons you should watch:

It stars a movie star and that movie star is Don Cheadle

If anything can be learned from New Girl is that it’s an absolute joy to be able to watch a movie star on TV each week (and that school teachers in LA have an endless supply of vintage dresses). [...]

Great Things

Showtime's Upcoming Comedy Documentary Series Sounds Incredible

by | November 17th, 2011

Hoo boy. You might as well just rip the entire page of January 26 out of your word-a-day calendar right now, because I know what you'll be doing at 11pm that night. You'll be watching the premiere of Showtime's Inside Comedy, a ten-episode "comedy documentary series from Curb Your Enthusiasm's David Steinberg and Steve Carell." Yes, it sounded good when it was called Laughing Stock; it sounds even better now than it's actually happening. Steinberg will interview Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Mel Brooks, Don Rickles, Jonathan Winters and Ellen DeGeneres about "their career-defining moments, personal struggles and the people who inspired them."

You're not salivating yet? Let [...]

HBO

Is HBO Trying Too Hard To Be Edgy Instead of Funny?

by | October 17th, 2011

When was the last time you saw people blogging really excitedly about Bored to Death? Hung? Other than Curb Your Enthusiasm, does HBO have any great comedies right now? And why not, if dramas like Boardwalk Empire and True Blood get people so jazzed?

This article makes the argument that HBO's "It's not TV" attitude actually works to its detriment when it comes to comedy. By trying to emphasize what's different about HBO, the network misses out on tried-and-true comedy formulas. Take Enlightened: the show is "nuanced and muted" on HBO, but "on Showtime, it would star Elizabeth Banks as a lovable psychopath who escapes from a mental [...]

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