Workaholics

By some miracle, everybody in America knows all about "30 Rock," and everybody loves Tina Fey, the show's creator and star, but relatively few viewers tune-in every week. During its first season, "30 Rock" toted-up a record twenty-two Emmy nominations, but its ratings ranked 102nd of 142 primetime shows. NBC stayed with the project on the assumption that Fey's popularity and the intense critical buzz eventually would translate to ratings; and the gamble paid off as viewership steadily rose over the comedy's first six seasons. Based on Fey's experiences as head writer for "Saturday Night Live," the show satirizes life behind the scenes of a network comedy, trapping co-star Alec Baldwin in corporate intrigues as the writers and actors endure the trials and tribulations of producing a live weekly broadcast. Strong characters and brilliant badinage distinguish "30 Rock" from the standard sitcom fare, and the thirteen-member ensemble cast puts the plausibility in improbably characters.

Enlightened brings the very talented Laura Dern to television as Amy Jellicoe, an executive who has found her job and her life to be too much to bear. When she suffers from a breakdown which just happens to be a very public embarrassing situation for her, she finds she must attempt to put her life back together by going through rehabilitation. Watch for Diane Ladd who plays Amy's mother, Helen Jellicoe (she is Dern's real life mother). Amy spends three months in Hawaii where she undergoes therapy to help with her problems, then returns home to face reality and the group of co-workers she embarrassed herself by breaking down in front of, living with her mother who is never short on unwelcome advice, and a lazy ex-husband (Luke Wilson) who enjoys his "recreational" drugs too much. Laura Dern is known for her roles in Jurassic Park, Rambling Rose, & Wild At Heart. Actress Diane Ladd has starred in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Primary Colors, & Wild At Heart. She and actor Bruce Dern are Laura's parents. Luke Wilson has been seen in 3:10 To Yuma, Blades of Glory, & Death at a Funeral; and he is brother of Owen Wilson.

"Looking" is a TV series that aired on HBO from 2014 to 2016. The show follows a group of gay friends who live in San Francisco and navigate their personal and professional lives.

Sketches are a comics best format for television and Nick Swardson has a show that's loaded with them. Each episode displays some sort of rank and raunchy humorous ingredients that will make 7th graders giggle and adults cover their heads. But along the way some of it is actually funny even if rather dark. Skits about cats in wheelchairs, snipers who masturbate, and incestual dreams involving the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are unusual fare for family television nights and when the show's main character sits and tells us about what we are about to see we begin to wonder what world this is. Nick's dead cat, Fitzgerald, is fair game for another episode as are a fatherly bucket list for a dying son, urine powered cars, and even a Gay Robot. Never one to be short on "off the wall" ideas, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time will give viewers a peek into a rather weird place, the mind of Swardson. Imagine, if you will, recovering a time capsule full of sex objects, or following Gay Robot as he buys airplane tickets to visit the alien probe site (area 51 come to mind?), or maybe learn how a forest ranger steps in to break up intimate moments between homosexuals. All this and more can be found on the Nick Swardson's Pretend Time show.

"Home Improvement" was a popular American sitcom that aired from 1991 to 1999. The show followed Tim Taylor, a handyman and host of a fictional TV show called "Tool Time," as he navigated the ups and downs of family life. Tim's wife, Jill, and their three sons, Brad, Randy, and Mark, were often the source of comedic mishaps as Tim tried to balance his career and family responsibilities.

David Oyelowo plays an ex-con inventor chasing a comeback in 1969 Los Angeles in Apple's surreal family comedy. Streaming on Apple TV+.