On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 6:01 PM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]>wrote:
> ABC was all set to show the final two episodes of "Better Off Ted." > > Then the Lakers forced Game 7. > > No word on a rescheduling. > As a true purple and gold Laker fanatic I didn't give much of a damn about this post when it was made in mid June - the Lakers not only forced a game 7, they won it, and their second consecutive world championship. Also, I had never seen even one episode of Ted. Suck on it wast coast haters (sorry, that just leaked out). But as my summer of Netflix winds down, I have just finished watching both seasons of Ted (I can watch 2 episodes during my Wii Fit workouts). For anyone still wondering, Netflix does have the last two lost season 2 episodes. Hulu only has 5 episodes available for now, none of them the last two.. A very nice show - I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I would have liked it even more if I could have rid my mind of the inevitable Arrested Development comparison - it was not that good (but then, AD is one of the 3 best sitcoms to ever air on television, so that is no shame). The ratio of attitude to actually funny content was a little thin, but they wound up creating a delightful little universe. I also give them extra points for never once depicting the black nerd as somehow less black because of his nerdiness - that must be a first. I had something of the reverse experience with "Its Gary Shandling's Show", which I watched all of the first season of on Netflix discs a couple of weeks ago (I had to go on a business trip, and brought the last disk with me and watched it on the DVD player in my motel). I never did see IGSS on its original run on Showtime (we did not have cable) but I did see all that were aired on Fox (maybe all of them?). In my memory it was a hilarious show, but I found the first season only mildly amusing - and almost all of the cast except for Shandling tepid and uninteresting. By contrast, The Larry Sanders Show (which I have on DVD and have seen again recently) really holds up well, and is if anything more funny than ever. I still loved the IGSS theme song, and some of the episodes were stand outs (The Graduate) but over all the years have not been kind (it may have been the hairstyles and the clothing - the 80s were not a good decade for anyone). Not that this was the problem, but I noticed there was absolutely no swearing - I had the impression that Fox was editing out bad words or something. Was premium cable tamer in those days, or did Shandling just choose to not work blue (on his commentaries, clearly made in more recent years, he is not shy at all about swearing). I was also surpised by how similar it was to Seinfeld - that was not something I remember noticing when Seinfeld first came on even though the two shows must have overlapped for a year or two. Not only did Jerry have the (mostly) platonic female friend and two male friends, but Seinfeld's whole style was something of a wink at the camera and sitcom format, similar to Shandlings more direct approach. I can't tell now if the co-stars on IGSS were unintentionally and unfortunately bland, or if their very blandness was itself a deconstruction of the sitcom format. In either case, Seinfeld did better by getting an attractive (in the female case) and genuinely funny and interesting actors (in the case of all three) to fill out his cast. Just to fill this out, I will note that I have also now seen this summer the first three seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which I like - better than IGSS, but not quite as good as Seinfeld IMO). I guess I always assumed that George was Larry David on Seinfeld, But I see now there is a lot of David in the Jerry character as well. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
