Day: October 19, 2010

Look. I get it. We all get it. Running Wilde is not Arrested Development. Even though both shows feature the same creator, two of its stars, a voiceover narration and a love for ridiculousness, they're not the same. They're not going to be the same. And we should all be OK with that. In fact, we should just let Mitch Hurwitz, Will Arnett, Peter Serafinowicz and company see where their crazy train is heading and follow their own titular advice. Run wild! After watching the first four episodes — which, if you haven't seen yet, you can do so at the show's site or on Running Wilde's Hulu page — you can see that whatever stretch you had to make to make sense of the pilot episode, there's something endearingly silly about where this series is heading. That is, if I even could tell you where it's heading. But it's worth finding out. I could go back decades to cite Seinfeld or Cheers as examples of shows that found their footing and then some, but even just going back to Parks and Recreation may do the trick. P&R started as a blind spin-off of The Office that attempted to spin its entire first season around a literal hole in the ground. Once they got that storyline out of the way, P&R soared in its second season by focusing on...

I know I'm supposed to be excited by the exclusive news that CBS has signed comedian Demetri Martin to a script deal, but who is going to be the person to tell Demetri that, in recent years, CBS also has supposedly been ready to grant TV shows to Louis CK, Mike Birbiglia, Rob Riggle, and Jason Jones and Samantha Bee? You remember all of those series from the past couple of years, right? Great shows! In fact, their recent track record makes you think CBS has sought out funny comedians and paid them money not to make TV shows on a rival network. Conspiracy! In that same period, CBS did turn a Twitter feed called @shitmydadsays into an actual TV series. And it bought two other very similar Twitter feed concepts. Keep your perspective,...