Being Erica

"Rap Sh!t" is a new American comedy television series created by Issa Rae, known for her work on "Insecure". The show is set to premiere on the streaming service HBO Max in 2022, and will consist of eight episodes. The series follows a female rap group from Miami as they try to become stars in the music industry.

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.

Just as we all began to wonder whether or not William H. Macy ever would land a role as juicy and delicious as playing Felicity Huffman's real-life husband, he scored arguably the greatest part of his entire career, starring as Frank Gallagher on Showtime's gritty new "Shameless." Frank drinks. Frank drinks shamelessly, intrepidly, relentlessly, recklessly and irretrievably while his six motherless children learn to fend for themselves on Chicago's unforgiving south side, "back of the stockyards," as they say, although the cattle have long-since gone. In the first episode, a properly burly Chicago police officer deposits Frank on his entryway floor, noting his incontinence and suggesting, "I wouldn't put him anywhere near a carpet until his pants dry." This ain't no Wisteria Lane. Adapted from its British companion, the American version of "Shameless" fulfils producer John Wells's long-standing desire "to make a television show where familial love, juicy cursing, casual sex and drug use, bluntly put humor, mega-alcohol bingeing and total chaos reign." The subject matter and setting naturally lend themselves to that treatment, and the entire casts rises to the occasion. "Shameless" depicts abject poverty, incurable alcoholism, and hopeless co-dependence as grimly and accurately as they deserve, yet it still persuades slightly spellbound viewers the Gallaghers genuinely love one another.

At the time "Rules of Engagement" premiered on CBS, the network's average viewer was fifty-three years old and more devoted to "60 Minutes" than sexy badinage. Although committed to The Eye's Monday night youth movement, a few programming executives worried that David Spade's first-episode proclamation, "I do what I want. I date who I want. And I sleep with whoever will let me," would tank the new sit-com before it found its legs and voice. Instead, "Rules of Engagement" became a Monday night mainstay, a natural complement to "Two-and-a-Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother." According to one pundit, "Rules of Engagement" shows "the three stages of sit-com love," comparing and contrasting a scoundrelly, scamming bachelor with both a love-struck, starry-eyed newly engaged couple and a jaded, open-eyed, realistic couple married to one another approximately forever. Although plots generally center on the fiancees, Jeff and Audrey, veterans of marriage, often save the show from life-threatening boredom. Patrick Warburton, poker-faced and intoning his lines in a deliciously monotone bass, makes the perfect foil to Russell, the bachelor's manic sex machine and Adam's ingenuousness.

The classic HBCU sitcom returns as Dwayne and Whitley's daughter starts her freshman year at Hillman College. Streaming on Netflix.

"My Name Is Earl" is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from 2005 to 2009. The show is centered around the life of Earl Hickey, a petty criminal who realizes he needs to make amends for all the wrongs he's done in his life. Earl creates a list of all the people he has wronged and begins to make up for his past mistakes one by one. Along the way, he is joined by his dim-witted brother, Randy, and his ex-wife, Joy.