Hey folks, Harry here... Seems like ol David Zucker might have a winner of some sort here with this HUD tv show thing. Ol Gandalf the Grey stumbled into a test television screening of the program and ... well, here's what he has to say about it...

Hey Harry,

Let me say I have been a big fan of your website for so long, especially with all you’ve devoted to Lord of the Rings. Finding that trailer on your site made my year, and is about the only thing that will keep me satiated until next Christmas.

Anyway, I am writing to tell you about a pilot I just saw. Now, I HATE NETWORK TELEVISION. Ever since Seinfeld went off the air, I can’t stomach it for very much. (Well Maybe The Norm Show is the exception) I guess the networks haven’t learned from their mistakes, because they want everyone to keep watching HBO. With their current track record, it really came to my surprise that NBC went along with a pilot called HUD ( I don’t think it’s a series yet). I went to a test screening in Glendale, California, today, and the only thing they told us was that it was from David Zucker, as in Zucker Brothers, as in Airplane, Top Secret, Naked Gun, etc.

So I take it that David Zucker has now turned his attention to television for the moment, and has created a new kind of spy show for the year 2000.

Let me tell you that this is the most crazy, politically incorrect show I have seen in a while. The premise is that The Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t really provide housing to the poor and needy, but rather they are a super secret entity that safeguards the nation from criminal activity. They used the façade of HUD, so they can remain super secret.

Crazy huh? The first episode deals with nuclear secrets lost from a New Mexico laboratory. The star is one of the reporters from The Daily Show, and his partner is the beautiful Meredith Salenger (she has been my fantasy since Dream A Little Dream and A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon). They both actually do an amazing job. And guess who has a cameo? Mr. Unsolved Mysteries himself, ROBERT STACK. The couple of minutes he spends on screen is some of the funniest stuff I have seen on TV in a long while.

This is the best thing that Zucker has done in a long time. Not nearly as "wacky" as Airplane and Naked Gun, the best part of HUD is that it’s not exactly a parody, but more of a typical comedy done within the perimeters of a wacky premise. If NBC still wants viewers, they might want to put something daring on, NOT ANOTHER FRIENDS RIP OFF.

-Gandalf the Grey