Cool News
LARRY SANDERS’ Peter Tolan To Team With STUDIO 60’s Matthew Perry On Showtime’s Backstage Comedy Pilot STEVE!!
I am – Hercules!!
Peter Tolan’s name is on more teleplays of “The Larry Sanders Show,” likely the best sitcom ever forged, than the name of any other human.
Tolan is now teaming with “Studio 60” vet Matthew Perry for another comedy set behind the scenes of a TV show. “Steve” is a Showtime pilot about the bitter host of a local afternoon talk show who falls for his co-host.
Perry co-created “Steve” much as Denis Leary co-created “Rescue Me” with Tolan. Will Perry have an active role in the scripting, as Leary does?
Things are hopping over at Showtime these days. Monday’s “Weeds” season premiere, the first to star comedy genius Albert Brooks, garnered the best ratings in the channel’s history. Newcomer “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” on the same night eclipsed previous record holder “The L Word” with the best premiere ratings in Showtime history.
Read all of Variety’s story on “Steve” here.
‘Would It Kill You To Write In A Part For James Caan??’
What do you think of the record?
What do you think of the record?
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Another backstage show? Can't be as good as Larry Sanders, but we'll see...
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Jun 19, 2008 12:09:18 PM CDT
Can someone explain why Albert Brooks is a comedy genius?
by happywaffle
Maybe it's cause I'm a mere 30 years old, but I've never been exposed to anything of his that caused me to have any interest in the guy.
Meanwhile, yay Matthew Perry. He's the one Friend who deserves a career. -
...to bad i'll have to rent this
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go watch "Real Life," "Modern Romance," "Lost in America" and "Defending Your Life." And listen to his two comedy albums, one of which made me laugh so hard once I had to pull over to the side of the road.
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Hercules is right, you should check out his movies and definitely the comedy albums. Although humour is subjective and what makes one person laugh, can make another person say 'I don't get what's so funny'. But at least give it a try! And regarding Matt Perry, I also hope he scores a big hit with this project after not quite making it on Studio 60, which I personally enjoyed and was sad to see it cancelled so soon. Oh well...
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Booga booga booga i got nothing to say clearly
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so did milf island... lol
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If the suits had been brave and gave it another season.... alas.
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are u kidding im grateful i dont have to watch it again for a second by accidental channel-switching. that thing took itself so seriously when ts just a SNL-like show not running CTU.
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...don't leave Mother or The Muse of that list either. Hell, I even really enjoy Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.
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You just posted the words 'Booga booga booga' and then didn't add anything of note afterwards, so that probably explains why you didn't enjoy Studio 60. I think you were a little out of your depth to say the very least with that show.
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Jun 19, 2008 1:21:18 PM CDT
"...“The Larry Sanders Show,” likely the best sitcom ever forged
by mrsensitive
How quickly we forget "Arrested Development", no wonder FOX canned it.
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haha, i post here to say crap but i certainly dont broadcast it to millions of viewers like studio 60 shitload. lol that show was dumb for the very reason that it was pretentious, every character thinking they are having an impact on society through mindless entertainment. and the press conferences and all that wow, they got it going on, showbiz pple doing a a show about their work, how fucked up it turned out. they werent saving lives, or planning a war, they were planning a weekly comedy skits. oh no its a nation-wide disaster, we offended the majority Christians with our stupid comedy what r we gonna do? stay the course and battle it out with high seriousness so as to overshadow our mild humor if there is any.
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seriously was intentional. To them it is that important. Kind of like Friday Night Lights. We all know high school football is not all that important in the grand scheme of things. But to the kids on the team, and to a small town with little else going for it, it is the most important thing in their lives. On the other hand, Mr Mcpoops makes a good point: the comedy skits on Studio 60 were, for the most part, seriously lacking in comedy.
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Dirt. The Comeback. Joey. Seeing a pattern here, kids?
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I am far from a Red Stater or part of the Religious Right, but the constant bashing and sterotypical portrayal of the members of this group was far too distracting. Even John Goodman's character was sterotypical when they were trying to show he wasn't.
Add the fact that it followed behind the scenes of the unfunniest, funniest show on TV and it was a show with a lot of potential that fell short from what looked to be an out of control ego by Aaron Sorkin.
Don't get me wrong. I loved Sports Night and liked West Wing, but Studio 60 was an overrated masterbatory piece by Sorkin to basically show his romance with Kristen Chenowith and display his comedic talents (or lack there of). -
The Comeback was pretty good, just not highly rated. Joey was crap. Dirt was too. But I think Matthew Perry is more talented than most of his fellow friends.
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and shows exactly what is wrong with america...brooks is more than brilliant...even in supporting roles...go see broadcast news
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here we had a show about the backstage antics of a weekly snl type show, and the showrunner had never worked on anything of the kind...he writes a role for a female lead based on his ex, cuz he still misses snuggling up to her huge christian tits...there was exactly one good episode, and that was the flashback one to when the show started...and its apparent that sorkin read every book on snl to get that one right...if sorkin had been smart, he woulda made the show a period piece, set in the 70s, hired some guys from the old snl show, and bang...instant hit...instead, we get a fucking weekly soap opera about what rich guy is banging what struggling broad...who the fuck cares...and there will never be another larry sanders show...ever....HEY NOW
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Really, really looking forward to this. I just re-watched Studio 60 and Perry really does a great job (although Whitford is off the charts). I can totally understand why people didn't like it but it was my kind of show, and you can honestly say it didn't deserve at least a truncated second season to see if they had learned anything? Sorkin dealing with the writer's strike would have been incredible.
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And again and again, they should realize IT DID NOT NEED TO BE FUNNY. It was a Drama. So when Tina Fey says that 30 Rock was funnier (which I don't agree with), it should have been funnier, since her show is a comedy. Granted, a lot of the "sketches" on Studio 60 weren't great, the approach 30 Rock seems to take is parody sketches by having incredibly bad, mainstream ideas used, so it's okay if they aren't smart.
Once again, I can understand people not liking Studio 60, but for anyone that doesn't like the show, at least check out the episode "The Christmas Show." In my opinion, it may be the show's best, and is just a great moving piece of television all around. -
Jun 19, 2008 4:04:16 PM CDT
I still think Jim Carrey's best comedic performance is...
by danielkurland
in the series finale of The Larry Sanders Show. It perfectly reflects the industry, and I really love how the last scene of the show is the three leads arguing and telling them to fuck each other.
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plus it had one of the few truly funny skits - the Santa Clause/To Catch a Predator one.The summer before Studio 60 started I read "Live From New York". Wonder if Sorkin ever read it. There's a plethora of stories he could have used for Studio 60 in it.I was hoping for a second season too. Had Sorkin been given time to take a critical look at the first season he may have been able to turn it around. Plus I wanted to see an episode dealing with the return of an original castmate who was a prick and treated the cast like shit, a la Chevy Chase. They may have even gotten Chevy to play the part himself.
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Jun 19, 2008 4:12:43 PM CDT
Sorkin did more work than people think on the sketches...
by danielkurland
He DID do tremendous reading on SNL's history, and there are episodes that deal with it (The West Coast Delay). Furthermore, Mark McKinney, who worked on both SNL and Kids in the Hall was hired exclusively for the purpose of helping with sketches, polishing things up, etc. He was eventually promoted to actually acting on the show. I agree that the sketches weren't all great, but Sorkin hired someone specifically to help write the sketches because he has no background in sketch comedy. What else could he have done?
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S60 underperformed, but it had moments of greatness. It deserved a second season as things might have begun to gel a little better. Sadly, the rant which the show began with still seems to hold true. Cancelling S60 makes it seem that the networks are pulling back from producing shows which strive to be intelligent (even if they fail) - and there were precious few of those on network TV to begin with.
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After (and during) the success of Friends, he was pigeonholed as the snarky yuppieish smart who could still show emotion. Studio 60 scratched the surface. I'd like to see him play a cussing foul mouthed bastard who cares only for himself, but of course you know it still will be revealed he has a heart of gold. Like to see how he plays within the freedoms of cable. I never thought Kevin Nealon was funny, but find his work on Weeds hilarious.
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Piss my pants funny movie moments....the Valium scene in Modern Romance, trying to sell the casino owner (Gerry Marshall) the concept of giving their money back and the "nestegg" scenes in Lost In America.
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its sad so few people understand that. I will seriously miss it...
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How long till they make a behind the scenes show about someone who writes/acts/does lighting on a behind the scenes show? They should have made the Office spin-off about the camera crew that follows Michael and Jim around.
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Which is weird, because the guy was terrific on Friends. Honestly, name ONE good thing other than Friends Perry has ever appeared in. I dare you.
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1.) The sketches needed to be funny. It was important to the show since they passed off Matthew Perry's character as a brilliant writer and most of actors playing the actors as hilarious especially the Harriet character. The fact that the sketches were so lame was jarring to the overall character development and storyline.
2.) I got the show and I didn't think it was all that good. I am tired of these elitist fans using the elitist excuse that people are too dumb to understand Sorkin's elitist show as an excuse why it underperformed. I got it. Sorkin wanted to sit in his Ivory Elitist Liberal Tower and throw shots at the Religious Right and all the people in Red States that are so out of touch that they had never heard of classic comedy routines from the 1940s. 3.) I am no Red Stater or part of the Religius Right nor even Christian and I am fairly liberal on a lot of issues, but I found a lot of the show really offensive and very much sterotyping to every group hated by the liberals in this country. Sorkin basically did a show that if you weren't liberal from either NY or LA, you were a lesser human being. That's why it failed. Sorkin went out and offended most of the viewing audience. Heck, even the West Wing didn't push Sorkin's liberal biases nearly as much as this show and the West Wing was about a liberal Presidential Administration. -
The Whole Nine Yards was amusing for what it was. The Whole Ten Yards was a disgrace though. Perry had a good stint on the West Wing.
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And I'll watch anything on Showtime for at least one episode.
Although it helps when MLP stars...mmm. Couldn't we get Matt Perry to guest star on 'Weeds'? Or BETTER YET Brad Whitford. That would be genius. Get him on to play Nancy's new Congressman love interest.
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I've thought about it a little more, and WOW that's a good idea. Get on it, Jenji! -
I get that the sketches should have been funnier, and there were certainly flaws (I liked the flashback to when the show was bustling and on the edge better than the present show), but nothing that couldn't have been improved upon in the 2nd season. I was sad to see it go.
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He always wore a blue shirt and kakhi pants.
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Let it go, man. Didn't work the first time. anyway, Albert Brooks' A#1 funniest role will ALWAYS ALWAYS be Hank Scorpio. Case dismissed.
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That's all I have to say. (I hope Perry's career picks up again though.)
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Sorry, I just noticed a couple of comments lamenting the cancellation of this brilliant show, so I figured I'd help dudes remember that it once existed. And I was once happy.
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that Catch a Predator skit was brilliant so classic it should have been a Saturday Night Live. And Perry and Whitford and Peet and that guy from Wings were brilliant in their acting, loved the British chick too. The main problem with the show was it often sweemed to slip into on the job therapy for Sorkin, who seemed to be venting issues over his relationship with Kristine Chenowyth and the election George W. Bush. I think he' gotten past som of those issues though because his work on Charlie Wilson's War was brilliant.
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...and not just for the obvious reasons (that it was canceled, though that alone does not make a show bad). Let's forget that none of us ever believed that those 3 actors where the BIG THREE of late night comedy television, let's forget about the idea that he was forcing a moralistic message in an area where it's typically lacking, let's also forget the silly acting of Amanda Peet, Steven Weber and the fat guy. Let's forget that it was basically a making of the West Wing complete with some monologues verbatim, and let's forget that Sorkin is for the most part a hack that relies heavily on the actors and the connections he's made with them for work....SERIOUSLY the show was not "dramatic" or "funny"...it was just plain boring.
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Caught Jason Bateman on Letterman last night, and that guy is fuckin' funny himself. He's enough reason to see Hancock.
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Yeah, that's right.
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Local news says that the series will be set here in upstate NY. Why do I think we MAY get the stars here for one day to film a few exterior shots, and then we'll just have to endure jokes about Genesee Beer until the show finishes?
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was that at the end Showtime would have given them an imediate 4th and 5th season, but Hurwitz was just so fucking bitter from being told to dumb down his show, and have it ignored, that he turned the offer down. That is the sadest thing, that the state of television soured Hurwitz on continuing (and you can see shades of this in the final half of season 3 when he's not writing as usual as he used to, and simply having "Story By" credits, while he groomed Richard Day and Vallely to replace him). Also, Whitford guest starring on Weeds is a PERFECT idea.
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I'm not going to argue with you about the many instances where I thought Studio 60 was both dramatic and hilarious, but how could you not think Weber did a fantastic job in his role? He was wonderful.
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Jun 22, 2008 8:05:15 AM CDT
'none of us ever believed...the BIG THREE of late night comedy t
by gregoryharbin
No, they weren't the Big Three of late night, they were the Big Three of the SHOW. Big difference. This wasn't a confusing plot point, it was obvious from the pilot on. S60 was one of many, many late night comedy shows, and NEVER got the ratings of SNL.
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What's all the fuss about? See for yourself...
http://www.hulu.com/arrested-development
All 53 episodes for free. -
Jun 23, 2008 10:40:06 AM CDT
The Larry Sanders show isn't the greatest sitcom ever. Curb Your
by luscious.868
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Is Tolan still going to be working on Rescue me?
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Jun 23, 2008 10:05:21 PM CDT
Just re-watch Weber's monologue in "Nevada Day, Part II"...
by danielkurland
At the end of the episode. It's wonderfully written and phenomenally performed.
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