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.
Those who love to get that fuzzy and warm all over feeling while watching the Home Edition of Extreme Home Makeover will surely appreciate the latest concept in trivia game shows called You Deserve It! The show's premise is that the contestant is not trying to win big bucks or great prizes for themselves but rather for someone they care about, someone who deserves a reward. The true winners in this game show may well be us, the viewing audience! The Pay it Forward concept has become a movement lately with people paying off lay away bills for complete strangers and many more than usual buying gifts for children and adults who would otherwise have a bleak holiday season. This trivia game show finds one contestant per show answering trivial but challenging questions and their reward is making someone else happy. The contestant has chosen a recipient based on their needs. The first episode finds a young woman named Stacey who plays the game hoping to win money for her best friend. The friend, a mother of two, has recently lost her husband. This selfless act of kindness can bring us all to tears as we watch her win for her deserving friend. Not just another game show but rather an uplifting emotional study in human nature.
While on an excursion deep into the Amazon forests Dr Emmet Cole traveled along the Amazon River in search of magic held in the dark recesses of the Amazon. He turned up missing six months ago and now his locating beacon has turned up, giving off signals to help locate it. But when his wife Tess gathers together a crew to seek out the beacon and hopefully, her missing husband, they find their labors useless. Their son Lincoln has his own agenda and is ready to cross his father off as permanently gone. The crew, comprised of new acquaintances and old friends come to realize there is magic in this place and it comes alive when a ghost is unleashed, killing Jed and terrorizing the boat's crew. Starring Bruce Greenwood (Hollywood Homicide, Capote) is Dr. Emmet Cole, his wife Tess is played by Leslie Hope (Teri Bauer wife of Jack Bauer on 24), their son Lincoln is portrayed by Joseph Anderson (The Crazies, Love Happens), and Eloise Mumford previously seen on TV's Lone Star and Crash. Entertaining and filled with lush unfamiliar scenery.
Originally titled Townies, the animated Unsupervised was assigned to be a companion series to the popular Archer TV series running on the FX TV Network. One episode titled "Fresh Men" describes the theme of the show perfectly. These boys are 15 year olds who are struggling to make it through their teenage years and along the way, try to do the right thing without any aid from their parents. But as with the majority of teen agers (boys especially) they let their small head rule the big one, the one with the brain, and just can't quite get their "stuff" together. It's a shame to waste the acting talent, even just voices on an animated series, on this particular show because it's not going to last for long! Starring David Hornsby (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Six Feet Under) as Joel, Justin Long from Galaxy Quest, Live Free or Die Hard lends his voice to Gary, and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Burlesque) plays the part of Megan. Also in Unsupervised are Romany Malco and Sally Kellerman as Principal Stark.
Paul Fisher has been a modeling agent since the 1980's and he knows the business inside out. He has witnessed the poor treatment of models and how much trouble most of them have managing their own lives and keeping healthy. Now Fisher plans to bring the many hundreds of smaller modeling agencies across the world together in what he is calling The Network, to help the models help themselves. From Fly on the Wall Entertainment as well as Sony Pictures we can learn all about the modeling industry from the inside out on their new television show titled Remodeled. With many well known names in the fashion modeling industry including Allison Grodner, executive producer and formerly on Big Brother, She's Got The Look, Rich Meehan also from Big Brother, You're Cut Off, and Amy Palmer from Plain Jane and You're Cut Off. Additionally we will learn from Paul Fisher himself who's previous credits include I Want To Be A Hilton, Erik Stone from Live at the Fillmore Aisha Tyler is Lit, and Greg Suess from Tug, What's Wrong with Virginia. Should be an interesting insiders look at what it takes to become a super model
What they call a "backdoor pilot became the pilot for The Finder, a new procedural drama on the Fox network when the 19th episode of Bones premiered in January of 2012. That episode has the main characters of the popular series Bones traveling down to Key West, Florida. The main characters must be people we love to see each week and follow along with their lives on the program. Series creator Hart Hanson wanted each character to be memorable and one which we, the viewing audience, want to see back again next week. Episode plot lines include a Cinderella story, including missing shoe, finding a missing father who's airplane vanished in the wilderness of Florida, and lead character Walter Sherman (Geoff Stults from October Road, Happy Town) hunting for bullets from a murder involving a policeman's death from 20 years ago. Also starring are Michael Clark Duncan (The Green Mile, Redemption Road) as Leo Knox, Mercedes Masjohn (Now and Nowhere, Red Sands) as Isabel Zambada a US Deputy Marshall, and Maddie Hasson (God Bless America). The initial episode included a brief appearance from John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) who provides the theme music for The Finder.
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.
Ever since Candid Camera way back in TV show history there has been a wicked delight in watching ordinary people be caught up in pranks that wind up being out loud laughably funny. Shows such as Totally Hidden Video, TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, Pranked, and Punk'd have each had something in common and that was to watch as ordinary people who do ordinary things can be extremely funny when things don't go just quite right. Betty White takes that brand of humor to another level when her crew of blue haired senior citizens turn the tables on much younger people. They play pranks on the young resilient generation and show they still have a broad sense of humor too. Starring and hosted by the venerable 90 year old Betty White who has seen her career blossom and her life become increasingly busy recently gives us the chance to laugh out loud at ourselves through the cameras provided by NBC. If the younger set were to play practical jokes on the seniors the show would lose much of its humor but in this case the senior citizens prevail. Also on Betty White's Off Their Rockers are Madison Dylan (Entourage, Accidentally on Purpose), Elizabeth Carlisle (Pretty Little Liars, Parenthood), Reatha Grey (Baby Boom, The Fabulous Baker Boys), and Ann Benson (A Little Push, Patrick Carman's Dark Eden).
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.
With a spin off reality series from "The Rachel Zoe Project" Brad Goreski appears to have struck out on his own and finds his own set of troubles and tribulations in the world of show business and styling for the stars. It's not easy to be "real" with a camera crew trailing along with every business transaction. As assistant to Rachel Zoe he found life less complicated but now he "runs the ship" and finds it more difficult than he thought. US Weekly magazine finds Brad one of the hottest in Hollywood and interviews him. And while he appreciates the attention he does feel uncomfortable being the one on the red carpet. Now we get a look into his private life with partner Gary Janetti as well as his dog Penelope. Brad Goreski previously appeared on The Rachel Zoe Project and as himself in a TV movie titled 2010 New Now Next Awards. Gary Janetti has been supervising producer for Family Guy as well as a long run on Will & Grace.
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.