The Vital Spark

On Cinema

Tim Heidecker reviews the latest movies in theaters with a special guest.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is an American sketch comedy television series, created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, which premiered February 11, 2007 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim comedy block and ran until May 2010. The program features surrealistic and often satirical humor, public-access television–style musical acts, bizarre faux-commercials, and editing and special effects chosen to make the show appear camp. The program featured a wide range of actors, spanning from stars such as Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Will Forte and Zach Galifianakis, to alternative comedians like Neil Hamburger, to television actors like Alan Thicke, celebrity look-alikes and impressionists. The creators of the show have described it as "the nightmare version of television."

Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out

Nick Cannon and an A-list celebrity lead a team of improv comedians as they compete against each other.

Animaniacs

Yakko, Wakko and Dot return for all-new big laughs and the occasional epic takedown of authority figures in serious need of an ego check. Joining the Warners are Starbox & Cindy on their latest play date while Pinky and the Brain's ideas for world domination lead them to all new adventures.

Who's the Boss?

A former professional baseball player, along with his preteen daughter, moves into New York advertising executive Angela Bower's house to be both a housekeeper and a father figure to her young son. Tony 's laid-back personality contrasts with Angela's type-A behavior.

Game Shakers

A live-action sitcom about two 12-year-old girls who start a multi-million-dollar gaming company and take on rap superstar Double G as a business partner.

Dollface

After being dumped by her longtime boyfriend, a young woman must deal with her own imagination in order to literally and metaphorically re-enter the world of women, and rekindle the female friendships she left behind.

Jackass

Join sadomasochistic superheroes Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, and the rest of the Jackass crew as they terrorize your TV screens and everyone that gets in their way (especially themselves) with their own sick and twisted interpretation of physical entertainment. Their brand of pranks, goofball antics, and unabashed brutal comedy are sure to bring new meaning to the phrase "Don't Try This At Home!"

Human Giant

Human Giant is a sketch comedy show on MTV, starring writer/performers Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer and directed primarily by Jason Woliner. The show ran for two seasons. In interviews, the group has mentioned that they were offered a third season by MTV but were unable to complete it due to Ansari's commitments to the hit NBC show Parks and Recreation. However, the group has stated that MTV has left the door open for the group to complete a third season at a later date or to produce a special for the network. In 2010, Ansari, Huebel and Scheer reunited to do a skit for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. In November 2008, The Hollywood Reporter noted the group is currently developing a feature film with Red Hour Productions, the production company run by Ben Stiller and producer Stuart Cornfeld.

All That

A zany sketch comedy featuring many wacky characters hosted for kids and by kids.

A Black Lady Sketch Show

A narrative series set in a limitless magical reality full of dynamic, hilarious characters and celebrity guests presenting sketches performed by a core cast of black women.

One Day at a Time

The misadventures of a divorced mother, two teenage daughters, and new building superintendent in Indianapolis.

Carpool Karaoke: The Series

Celebrity pairings ride along in a car together as they sing tunes from their personal playlists and surprise fans who don't expect to see big stars belting out tunes one lane over.

Harry Hill's TV Burp

The big-collared comic gives his own spin on TV clips from recent programmes, plus contributions from a set of regular characters

Second City Television

Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.

The Brittas Empire

The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie plays Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. The show ran for seven series and 53 episodes — including two Christmas specials — from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Norriss and Fegen wrote the first five series, after which they left the show. The Brittas Empire enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained itself large mainstream audiences. In 2004 the show came 47th on the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom poll, and all series have been released on DVD. The creators Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen often combine farce with either surreal or dramatic elements in episodes. For example in the first series, the leisure centre prepares for a royal visit, only for the doors to seal, the boiler room to flood and a visitor to become electrocuted. Unlike the traditional sitcom, deaths were quite common in The Brittas Empire.

The Kids in the Hall

The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson.

The Last O.G.

An ex-felon is shocked to see just how much the world has changed when he is released from prison for good behavior after a 15-year stint and returns to his newly gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood.

Platonic

A platonic pair of former best friends approaching midlife reconnect after a long rift. The duo’s friendship becomes more consuming—and destabilizes their lives in a hilarious way.

Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule

See Dr. Steve learn about restaurants, spend time with his family, conquer his fears, and more. Featuring guest appearances by Jan Skylar, Wayne Skylar, and David Liebe Hart.

The Val Doonican Music Show

Jeeves and Wooster

Jeeves and Wooster is a British comedy-drama series adapted by Clive Exton from P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 1990 to 1993, starring Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, a young gentleman with a "distinctive blend of airy nonchalance and refined gormlessness", and Stephen Fry as Jeeves, his improbably well-informed and talented valet. Wooster is a bachelor, a minor aristocrat and member of the idle rich. He and his friends, who are mainly members of The Drones Club, are extricated from all manner of societal misadventures by the indispensable valet, Jeeves. The stories are set in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1930s.

First of the Summer Wine

Sitcom prequel to Last of the Summer Wine set in a small Yorkshire village in 1939 as Britain becomes poised for war.

Mapp & Lucia

Mapp & Lucia is a British television comedy, based on E. F. Benson's novels, beginning with the eponymous 1931 entry for series 1, with Lucia's Progress and Trouble for Lucia for series 2. Mrs Emmeline Lucas (nicknamed Lucia) has just moved to the small English town of Tilling where she comes into conflict with the social ambitions of Miss Elizabeth Mapp. Until now, Miss Mapp has led (and controlled) the social life of Tilling, but that was before they met Lucia.

Marriage Lines

George and Kate Starling are a young couple navigating the humourous challenges of early married life, including financial struggles, job issues, and starting a family

The Ronnie Barker Playhouse

The Ronnie Barker Playhouse is a British anthology of six half-hour comedies showcasing the talents of Ronnie Barker. All were broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion from 3 April to 8 May 1968. Of the six, two are lost.

The Adventures of Don Quick

The Adventures of Don Quick is a science fiction comedy television series broadcast from October–December 1970, on ITV. Starring Ian Hendry and Ronald Lacey, six 50 minute episodes were made, shown in a 60 minute time slot. Based on the characters of Don Quixote, astronaut Captain Don Quick and Sergeant Sam Czopanser (i.e. "Sancho Panza") are members of the Intergalactic Maintenance Squad. On each planet they visit, Quick attempts to right imaginary wrongs, often upsetting the inhabitants of whatever society he's in. As of 2008, only the first episode exists, the other five are now missing. A technologically impressive 30 foot model spaceship was built in the studio for the series. However the first three episodes in a primetime slot failed to draw the required ratings so the last three were in a much later slot before the show was cancelled.

Dr. Finlay's Casebook

Dr Finlay's Casebook is a BBC television series that was broadcast from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's novella Country Doctor, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s.

The Durrells

In 1935, financially strapped widow Louisa Durrell, whose life has fallen apart, decides to move from England, with her four children (three sons, one daughter), to the island of Corfu, Greece. Once there, the family moves into a dilapidated old house that has no electricity and that is crumbling apart. But life on Corfu is cheap, it's an earthly paradise, and the Durrells proceed to forge their new existence, with all its challenges, adventures, and forming relationships.

Remember WENN

The personal and professional lives of the staff of fictional Pittsburgh radio station WENN in the early 1940s, before and during World War II.

Mapp and Lucia

1930s comedy drama based on EF Benson's novels, about the rivalry between two women in a quaint village.

A Young Doctor's Notebook

A young doctor who has graduated at the top of his class from the Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry is thrust out into an isolated and impoverished country side as the village's only doctor. As he learns to adapt to his new lifestyle, he develops a morphine addiction to stay his sanity while realizing what being a doctor in the real world means.

Citizen James

At and around Soho cafe Charlie's Nosh Bar, Sidney Balmoral James ('Sid') is on the lookout for any get-rich-quick scheme. He is helped by William Montmorency Beaumont Kerr ('Billy the Kerr') and quite often frustrated by local bookmaker Albert Welshman. Meanwhile, Sid's long-suffering girlfriend Liz has been waiting for seven years for Sid to set the date.

Not in Front of the Children

Jennifer Corner is a rather scatterbrained middle-class housewife. Her husband Henry is a school art teacher, and they have three children, Henry, Robin and Trudi.

The World of Wooster

Based on P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, The World of Wooster, broadcast on BBC One from 1965 to 1967, followed the farcical adventures of young upper-class twit Bertie Wooster and his invaluable manservant Jeeves. It starred Ian Carmichael as Wooster and Dennis Price as Jeeves. Wodehouse initially felt that Carmichael would be fine as Wooster, but later believed that Carmichael overacted; however, Wodehouse was satisfied enough with to later ask Carmichael to portray Bertie or Jeeves in a musical comedy. Carmichael declined, feeling too old to play Bertie again and that public perception prevented him from playing Jeeves. Wodehouse was far more positive about Price's Jeeves, stating that Price was the best Jeeves he had ever seen. Like many other series of the time, much of the episodes were wiped, leaving all but two now lost. In 2018, it was included at #51 in a list of the top 100 most wanted missing television programmes by TV archivist organisation Kaleidoscope.

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Carnivàle

Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes Christian theology with gnosticism and Masonic lore, particularly that of the Knights Templar.

Nanny

A divorced woman decides to train as a Nanny in 1930s England.

The Quatermass Experiment

Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, the story of the first crewed flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group.

Detective L

Shanghai in 30s: An intriguing crime case emerges amidst the bustling city. A beautiful new graduate of police academy, Qin Xiaoman, joins the investigation unit. The famous detective Luo Fei becomes her colleague and neighbour.