Before we get into any of that, does anyone remember Amy Sherman-Palladino? Before she quit her own show between the sixth and seventh (final) seasons, she was the creator of "Gilmore Girls," a show that was miles better than it had any business being.
The CW show starred Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as a single mother and her teenage daughter, and on paper that should have been enough to keep me away. And for the first couple of seasons, it was, but I eventually caught on an up, and I'm certainly glad I did.
Along with the great relationship - and two electric stars - at its core, the show had genuine quirk, not the forced and piled on kind (though there was a whole lot of it), but the organic kind that genuinely makes you laugh (and is sorely missing almost everywhere else on TV.) And it also had very fast - and almost equally smart and funny - banter, something you don't find outside of Aaron Sorkin's best work.
And I tell you all that to tell you this: After first attempting a post-"Gilmore Girls" comeback with the disastrously short-lived "The Return of Jezebel Jones" with Lauren Ambrose and Parker Posey (how in the world do you make her not funny? Sheesh), she's now back in a pretty big way, scripting a pilot for ABC based on the best-selling book "The Nanny Diaries."
If that sounds familiar, it's already been made into a movie I somehow managed to miss starring Scarlett Johansson and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (who also made the delightful "American Splendor" and, more recently, "The Extra Man," well worth a rental.)
And on paper, this new show, about an NYU undergrad hired to care for the 4-year-old child of a wealthy New York family, sounds as unpromising as "Gilmore Girls" first did to me, too, but since I was wrong once, I'll probably at least tune in for the pilot for this, when and if it ever materializes. Welcome back.
OK, after that today, it's nothing but filthy fun, I promise, starting with the first trailer I've seen for "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas." Yes, 3D, but as you'll see from the trailer, it's as much a target as a prop, and should be put to some pretty friggin funny use. I'm not sure there really needs to be a premise for a Harold and Kumar movie, but this time out Harold (John Cho) is happily married when Kumar (Kal Penn), of course, shows up to drag him back into his hedonistic ways. I hope I never get too old to enjoy a good stoner movie, and here's hoping also that this turns out to be one (I'm betting on yes) when it opens in November. Enjoy.
And finally, satires don't get much smarter or funnier than what Michael Jai White and director Scott Sanders cooked up with "Black Dynamite," so I was plenty happy to hear the saga was continuing in animated form on Adult Swim. I have no idea if this is going to series, but with the first short episode embedded below, I can tell you two things: Though it's not quite as funny as the movie (and really, few things are), it's still pretty darn good, and also, please be warned, this is EXTREMELY not safe for work. Enjoy it when you're sure it won't get you in trouble. Peace out.
