Long Story Short is a Netflix adult animated comedy-drama created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, his first new animated series since the acclaimed BoJack Horseman. Trading Hollywood satire for something more intimate, the show is a warm, melancholy, and very funny portrait of a single family told across the sweep of its members' entire lives.
The series follows the Schwooper family, jumping freely and non-chronologically through the decades, from childhood and adolescence to marriage, parenthood, and old age, so that a character might be a squabbling kid in one scene and a weary adult in the next. This restless time-hopping structure lets the show explore how families carry their history with them, how old wounds and inside jokes echo across generations, and how small moments accumulate into a life. Its voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Ben Feldman, Lisa Edelstein, Paul Reiser, and Nicole Byer.
Rooted in Bob-Waksberg's own Jewish American upbringing, Long Story Short earned strong reviews for balancing sharp comedy with genuine emotional depth, the same alchemy that made his previous work resonate. It is streaming on Netflix.
DreamWorks TV and producer Steven Spielberg are hoping their latest entry into prime time television lives up to its name. Smash is about the making of a Broadway musical play which involves the life of Marilyn Monroe. But personal conflicts among the cast members prove to be difficult to work with as they deal with the everyday demands of theater life and this musical in particular. Debra Messing stars as Julia Houston who is the co-writer as well as lyrist and song writer on Smash. Messing, formerly seen on Will & Grace, is an award winner with a musical background. Angelica Huston (Prizzi's Honor, The Adams Family) plays Eileen Rand the musical's producer who has to juggle handling a messy divorce along with the difficulty that goes with producing a Broadway musical. Frank Huston, Julia's husband is played by Brian d'Arcy James (Broadway's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) is jealous of Tom Levett (Christian Borle from Broadway's Jesus Christ Superstar), Julia's partner and co-writer of Smash. The actress who finally gets the role of Marilyn is Ivy Lynn played by Megan Hilty from the Broadway production of 9 to 5: The Musical. Plenty of behind the scenes back biting helps keep this production on a bumpy road.
In a comedy based on a novel with the same name by David J. Rosen, I Just Want My Pants Back follows poor Jason Strider as he searches for his favorite pair of jeans. Seems he had a one night stand with a girl and it ended with him missing not only his pants but the girl as well. Now he must hunt around in New York City, no small task, and hopefully get his best pair of pants back and perhaps the girl as well. Jason is also trying to handle a new job working at a casting agency. Her name is Jane and Jason thinks she just might be "the one" for him! But now he can't find her. Peter Vack (As The World Turns) is Jason Strider, his best friend Tina is played by Kim Shaw from Sex and the City, Did You Hear About The Morgans?), Chris Parnell (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Answer This!) is Jason's casting agency boss. A typical "twenty something" living in Brooklyn, Jason prefers hanging with friends, finding a better job, and hitting the bars. But he begins to grow up as he seeks the missing girl he apparently fell in love with and now wants to find the elusive Jane.
Called an American television sitcom and launched as a midseason replacement for another sitcom titled Man Up that was quickly cancelled we find that Work It simply didn't work! And it was even panned for being insulting for the transgender people out there because it was about two men dressing up as women to keep jobs during this shaky economy. This was in no way comparable to Bosom Buddies which starred Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari and ran on ABC from 1980 to 1982. Lee Standish (Ben Koldyke) and Angel Ortiz (Amaury Nolasco) are unemployed and believe that women are having more luck getting jobs in this recession and decide to dress up and apply as women. Standish find a job with a pharmaceutical company but also find it to be far more difficult to be women than they previously thought. It does show that women and men are treated differently in the working world but ratings were a disaster.
When the award winning sitcom The Game moved over from the CW to BET (Black Entertainment Television) on January of 2011 they brought along the original cast members and producer/creator Mara Brock Akil as well as an entirely new appeal to audiences. The premiere episode aired January 11, 2011 and brought in 7.7 milliion viewers, a record for an ad supported TV sitcom for cable. When the CW dropped The Game they realized they had a hot property when a campaign to keep the program created a ground swell that crashed message boards twice. But budget prevailed and soon BET took over. The new season finds Brandy (Grammy award winning singer) joining the "sexy five" cast of Melanie, Derwin, Tasha, Malik, and Jason. Couple Derwin and Melanie Davis continue their attempt to start a family, Tasha Mack discovers her boyfriend is cheating (with a wife and family no less), and Malik Wright loses his quarterback position with the San Diego Sabers. Kelly and Jason Pitts remain apart but continue needing each other. Sparks will definitely fly as this popular series springs into action on the BET network.
When Rob star Rob Schneider was a regular on Saturday Night Live he stood out from the rest of the cast because he was actually funny! He moved on to star or co-star in some funny films such as Duece Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Grown Ups, and The Hot Chick yet didn't quite hit his stride until now with his own TV sitcom. Rob is newly married to the young and beautiful Maggie (Claudia Bassols of Blackout, Emulsion) who is Hispanic and has a large and extremely close family in southern California. Her parents Fernando (Cheech Marin from Up In Smoke, Next Movie) and Rosa (Diana-Marie Riva from Castle, Everybody Loves Raymond) are upset because their daughter eloped to Vegas with Rob. Meanwhile Rob has problems of his own simply because his new bride is now living in his home. He has issues with his personal "stuff" due to having OCD and had been a bachelor until recently. The show has its moments but mostly insults Mexicans every chance it gets.
And so does the original title which was Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. The shows protagonist character, Chelsea Newman is based on Chelsea Handler and her friends who are a group of working class folks from New Jersey. The real Chelsea is Chelsea Joy Handler, a comedienne as well as TV talk show host who wrote the book. In this sitcom we find Laura Prepon (That 70's Show, October Road) playing the main role and even the real Chelsea Handler has a minor role as Sloane. Others include Jake McDorman (CSI: Miami, Greek) as Rick, Dee Dee is played by Lauren Lapkus (a stand up comedian and improvisationist), Melvin is portrayed by Lenny Clarke (Rescue Me, The John Larroquette Show), and as Olivia is Ali Wong from Breaking In, Chelsea Lately. Many of the characters are based on the book by Chelsea Handler and take place in the sports bar the character works. Expect to see plenty of outrageous behavior from this twenty something social group.
Jane by Design keeps busy balancing fashion job and school. But Jane is just a teenager! Jane Quimby (Erica Dasher from The Lake, Vicariously) is a high school student yet managed to accidently get herself a job with responsibilities as an assistant to a fashion designer, Gray Chandler Murray (Andie MacDowell of At Risk, The Front). Now it's up to Jane to keep up at school and hold down her job. Her parents are gone and her big brother, Ben can't seem to keep a job for long so Jane tries her best to help out with the finances. Ben Quimby (David Clayton Rogers from Sublime, Dark Ride) finally lands a job as athletic assistant in Jane's school. He is Jane's guardian since their father died and mother left. Jane also has a longtime crush on Nick Fadden but her main goal is keep her grades up and maintain her busy job. That's a lot of responsibility on a young girls shoulders! Original show title was What Would Jane Do.
