Summer Nose-talgia #5: Happy Birthday to Richard Lewis of "Anything but Love"!

Maybe you don't remember his ABC sitcom Anything but Love but how can you have anything BUT love for the charming and hilarious comedian/actor Richard Lewis who made neurosis sexy as well as funny?  Lewis turns 68 today and he's still utterly relevant and delightful.  Most recently he appeared in many episodes of his childhood pal Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, but there was a time at the end of the 1980s when the only slightly unconventionally handsome Lewis was the hottest of stuff.

He had made his mark with his breathless, non-stop, jam-packed comedy sets, such as this one from 1981:



Or this from maybe about ten years later:
















Anything but Love had a simple rom-com premise:  a pair of colleagues working at a Chicago magazine begin a tentative romance and hope it doesn't ruin their terrific platonic friendship. Lewis' co-star was the talented and personable Jamie Lee Curtis; her Halloween, Prom Night and Terror Train days of starring as the Scream Queen of Teen Slasher Films were a decade or so behind her but she had branched out with well-regarded movies like My Girl and A Fish Called Wanda.  Pairing the hyperkinetic Lewis with the strong and self-confident Curtis was a study in contrasts.  Working from the timeworn assumption that opposites attract, the pairing in Anything but Love was both realistic and great fodder for a sitcom.


Here's a promo for the debut of the show on March 7, 1989:



One of the show's opening credit sequences:



And here's a different one:



Here's another promo for an episode of the show:



An episode with John Ritter!



Anything but Love aired on ABC beginning in March of 1989 and found some measure of success over the next three years, making it to 56 episodes in four different "seasons" but lacked the solid audience support that studio 20th Century Fox was looking for. Evidently they were the ones who pulled the plug on the series, citing the slim odds that the show would last long enough to garner the industry-standard number of episodes for a successful syndication run which was the Holy Grail for episodic TV producers. Anything but Love ended its network run on June 3, 1992.

In several ways Anything but Love was a bit of a thematic precursor to the very successful NBC sitcom Mad About You which came along in the Fall 1992 season.  Slightly neurotic male lead -- played by former stand-up comedian Paul Reiser -- plays a creative guy who marries his best friend -- played by actress Helen Hunt -- and they try to find a way to keep their modern marriage fresh and relevant.  In contract to Anything but Love, Mad About You was able to hang in for seven strong seasons and amass 164 episodes, more than enough for a good second life.

While Anything but Love may not have been everything it promised, it did showcase two talented performers and allowed us to see a slightly tamed-down Richard Lewis, one of America's funniest stand-up comedians ever.

There are lots of photos related to Anything but Love at the Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries, here.

And a very Happy Birthday to the eternally amusing Richard Lewis!

Summer TV: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Summer TV is well underway, with just a few series left to roll out their new seasons. It's time to weigh in on what's working and what's tanking for me.

THE GOOD:

--Breaking Bad: OK, it doesn't officially start until this Sunday (July 17th) but the anticipation is almost making me high. This show is so good, it would be nearly impossible for them to screw it up at this point. Furthermore, it is most likely the last season, so I can imagine the producers will want to go out with a bang. It's a Southwest existential morality tale on AMC. I will be there with bells on.

--Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations: Premiered this past Monday at 9pm on the Travel Channel, this is my favorite food/adventure/travel show in the whole world. Anthony Bourdain is perfect. He's handsome...he's funny...he's adventurous. I think he makes it cool to be American these days (God knows we could use it). At the very least, he makes it extra cool to be a traveling New York Foodie. This week's new season opened with a trip to Cuba. Light on politics, heavy on baseball and black beans. Mmmmm, the tastiest treat on TV.

--Louie on fX: Season two kicked off a couple of weeks ago (Thursdays at 10:30pm). I am so very happy to say that it still enthralls. Brilliant, uncomfortable, tragic, beautiful and sometimes (because yeah, technically it is a comedy) balls to the wall funny. There is absolutely nobody like Louie ck on television. Nobody. I have to hand it to Fox for not meddling with this gem so far. Maybe they forgot it was on. It is mesmerizing. Last week's pregnant sister episode gave a whole new spin on the good Samaritan neighbor theme. This show is my obsession.

Rescue Me: Rescue Me returns tonight (July 13th) on fX at 10pm. This is the last season for Denis Leary's firehouse opus and it is timed perfectly to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9-11. I want to see how he resolves his ghosts and demons and I think Leary's Tommy Gavin character is always interesting and funny, although incredibly messed up. I have never doubted the sincerity of Rescue Me and have great faith that they will do something profound before the FDNY crew is closed down forever.

THE BAD:

--True Blood: Everybody knows how much I love HBO, but this series has seriously gone bonkers. Someday I will write of Alan Ball's Six Feet Under saga about the L.A. Fisher family and how it was the greatest television show in the history of the universe. But he's gone crazy with True Blood and I'm about to abandon ship. I don't care about the over the top sex or violence or the fact that in the season premier they used a fake boulder and sand desert background set that looked like it was straight out a 1960's episode of Star Trek. What I care about it that I'm bored. Bored to death with Sookie and Tara and Bill and Eric. Well maybe not so much with Eric. Don't want to see Jason raped by a pack of trailer trash zombies. I like Marnie the witch's dead parrot...I hate Marnie the witch. You know how every year you have to sort out the Christmas lights that have mysteriously mated like a pile of snakes in the garage? That's what this feels like. The story line is a hot tangled mess.

--Falling Skies: I had high hopes for this TNT series. Sci Fi, original, Steven Spielberg, lavish production, cool scary aliens taking over (we'll call them Skitters). I've watched the first couple of episodes and I don't think I'll be coming back. It's just not compelling. We never get to see the aliens, so the threat seems very remote. And the survivors in this post apocalyptic world are way...way too clean. Why would they all be so fashion model clean? Even the kids look like they've been air brushed! I don't know why but it really bothers me. I can't go on a day long road trip without looking like a refugee, and these people have been without electricity, washing machines and running water for quite some time. They should at least be a little smudged. Note to Falling Skies producers...watch the movie Road Warrior. You can make your end of the world characters stylish AND dirty! And show a few aliens eating little kids with their tentacles or something!

THE UGLY

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry has a long conversation with a 13 year old girl scout about her first period and tampons. Really? What planet is this creepy scene even remotely funny on? Anyway, I only like Jeff Garlin and Susie. If someone wants to make a clip show of them, I'll still watch. Otherwise...buh bye Larry!

Here's a little taste of Breaking Bad. Oh my, can't wait for Sunday!

I'm in Love with Ted Danson on HBO's "Bored to Death"!

Ted Danson racks up another of his impeccable performances in HBO's Bored to Death. If you aren't watching this show, start as soon as possible! It's delightful. Here's a little compilation clip, featuring Danson and his co-stars Jason Schwartzman and Zack Galifianakis.



(Danson also tends to show up as himself in Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, new episodes also now on HBO. Don't miss either of these terrific shows!)

Curb Your Enthusiasm -- This Sunday

The next-to-last of the latest batch of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm is on this coming Sunday, and I just found out (courtesy of a great article in The New Yorker) that Steve Coogan, one of my favorite British comedians, is making a guest appearance as a psychiatrist.

Now, unfortunately, though a lot of The New Yorker is available online, whenever I want to recommend something, it's never one of the articles that is, including the one in the Nov. 5th issue about Steve Coogan. So, sorry about that! (If you're terribly interested, let me know and I'll scan it for you, or you could buy it, of course. The free flow of information is what I'm all about.)

Anyway, you may already be familiar with Steve Coogan from his movie appearances -- mainstream like his turn with Jackie Chan in Disney's Around the World in 80 Days from a few years ago, or otherwise like A Cock and Bull Story or 24 Hour Party People and others. More likely is that you've seen his comedy series playing on BBC America, including his several starring Coogan as the character of hapless media personality Alan Partridge and the current Saxondale. I think he's amazing, and you might like to check out some of his stuff on YouTube, including this hilarious clip where Partridge interviews an outraged farmer or this one where he meets up with an old enemy with a microwaved apple pie as his only weapon. As The New Yorker article by John Lahr points out, Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge is in the same broad comedy vein as Larry David's character on CYE, only even more extreme. Only the British seem to be able to dive headlong into absurdity with such relish; I love it.

Coogan, who's beyond a household name in Britain yet fairly under-celebrated here, should be incredible in this episode so I highly recommend it! Even without Steve Coogan, Curb Your Enthusiasm is a prickly delight and always to be enjoyed!