In Which Ladel Ourselves Wet Fan Service

God & Jon Hamm

by ELEANOR MORROW

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
creators Michael Showalter & David Wain

It was right before Christmas in the year of our lord 1993 that The State debuted on MTV. Sketch comedy was previously the province of the old; Steve Martin was already in his late 60s by this time, and dating women a mere forty years younger. People still thought Eddie Murphy was hilarious. Non-Seinfeld based comedy as we know it was largely based around puns and the crankiness of Tim Allen's fictional wife Jill (Patricia Richardson). No one was sure what exactly was funny, or why. For some reason, people even found Chevy Chase amusing, or pretended to.

There was nothing to laugh at before The State came on the scene, and Wet Hot American Summer was basically a reunion show for the sketch comedy series that influenced so many young people of every profession. Did it matter that Ken Marino was now in his early forties and that apparently no one liked Kevin Allison enough to invite him back for this project? No. All that mattered is that we could laugh again.

The State's breadth was stunning, and its innovation fantastic — even its worst sketches were so mind-numbingly bizarre that they became even more humorous in retrospect thinking of the idea that MTV allowed them to air on cable television. Most older comedy shows just sit like lumps; quickly becoming dated because of a topical humor that is only understood in context. The State was nothing like that — those of its concepts which did not resonate at the time are now retrospectively funny twenty years later.

The one thing The State constantly avoided being was fan-service. Instead the half-hour show delivered what you did not expect, usually without incorporating profanity or lame cameos from more famous performers as surprises. The fact that it did not have to appeal to any extant audience is what allowed it to exist on its own terms. Well, all of that is flushed down the toilet with Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp.

The original cast of the film looks surprisingly spry in this short Netflix series, with even David Hyde Pierce seeming like he has been in cryogenic sleep since Frasier. Only Showalter himself looks meaningfully different from his original character. I was watching First Day of Camp with a friend of mine whose idea of comedy is Sam Waterson playing gay, and she asked me to explain what the joke was here. "So they were old too old to play campers? And now they're still too old?" I nodded and focused my eyes on the tiny tee-shirt worn by Gerald "Coop" Cooperberg (Michael Showalter).

One of the most embarrassing things Roger Ebert ever wrote was his review of the original movie. None of the jokes resonated for him at all, probably because he was a generation older than any of the writers or performers in the film. He should have at least appreciated the lush, colorful aesthetic that David Wain has made his signature style. No one does a better closeup in this industry, and the broad array of talent is so wonderfully directed that even Chris Pine comes off as a magnificent performer.

First Day of Camp is a prequel to the original film. Coop has arrived to meet up with his girlfriend Donna (Lake Bell), who seems more interested in visiting Israeli counselor Yaron (David Wain). A camp production of the musical ElectroCity pairs theater counselor Susie (Amy Poehler) and dessicating Broadway character actor Claude (John Slattery). A subplot involving the government dumping chemical waste near the camp allows camp directors Greg (Jason Schwartzman) and Beth (Janeane Garofalo) a romantic interlude and explains how Jonas (Christopher Meloni) became Gene, the disturbed camp cook of the original film. Lastly, reporter Lindsay (Elizabeth Banks) goes undercover as a counselor to get a story about reclusive musician Eric (Chris Pine).

What exactly is First Day of Camp missing? It is almost completely composed of fan service, but that is not really the problem. Opening up the universe to amusing scenes filmed in New York in the office of magazine editor Alan (Jordan Peele) adds something different to the experience, even if characters like John Slattery's lecherous veteran actor, Jon Hamm's government assassin The Falcon and Michaela Watkins' lecherous choreographer fall a bit flat.

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is such great fun it seems silly to ask for anything more. But extended scenes set at David Hyde Pierce's university or the courtroom of attorney Jim Stansel (Michael Cera) remind us of how exciting it would be to see a new comedy set in this wild universe instead of the familiar summer camp drama.

Demanding our most serious comedic talents revisit the scenes of their finest successes led to Beverly Hills Cop 3. Sure, without the comfort of the characters that proved so successful in the original film, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp would be an inconsistent mix of brilliant satire and completely bizarre flops (still not sure what Showalter was going for with his performance as Ronald Reagan), but that was pretty much The State. At least it wasn't content to trod out the same characters again and again, looking to resurrect whatever bit of genius captured the imagination the first time. Instead they moved onto the next thing.

Eleanor Morrow is the senior contributor to This Recording. She is a writer living in New York.

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In Which Divorce Reminds Me Of My Jeep

Jacob's Alimony

by DICK CHENEY

Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce
creator Marti Noxon

Abby McCarthy's husband Jake, in the wake of their separation, has taken up with a blonde actress named Becca. She lives at the Chateau Marmont and wants his kids to stay with them there. "You're a wonderful father," the young mistress coos to him in the most exciting moments of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.

You can't blame Jake (Paris Geller's real-life husband Paul Adelstein) for opting out of his marriage. In the show's premiere episode, his wife strongly suggests he close the door when he urinates, something no man should ever agree to do in the privacy of his own home.

personally I never smoke cigs named after scavenging animals but wtv

The real reason that Abby (Lisa Edelstein) and Jake's marriage has fallen apart is the overly close, touchy-feely relationship she has with her homosexual brother. After considering a lesbian fling, she informs her brother that "I love dick too much" and they hold each other weirdly.

Jake is grossed out by this and a million other things that his wife does. She racistly informs him that because his mother is not Jewish, he is "not a full Jew." When they meet with a mediator in lieu of a messy divorce, she suggests that she will want the kids every single Shabbat, which seems like a lot of work. She is also really unreasonable about his 24 year old blonde mistress.

The architecture of the greater Los Angeles-area can charitably be described as "dogshit"

Edelstein is believable as a mother and a disappointing wife. Even though she is a writer who works at home, her husband took care of the kids, probably because she shows only the most cursory interest in them and spends most of her free time hanging with her friends:

Abby with her friend Phoebe. If she was Phoebe Buffet this entire thing would have a lot more interest as a Friends prequel.

The only thing that is considerably out of the House veteran's range as an actress is demonstrating any kind of sexual appeal whatsoever. The show outfits her in a variety of slimming outfits, all of which serve to make her look like she is about to attend a talk at her local Rotary. In the throes of passion her face looks as excited as a matzoh ball.

There is plenty of sex on Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce in order to cater to Bravo's female and gay audience. None of it is terribly appealing - we mostly see a lot of huffing and puffing, and people looking exhausted and unhappy afterwards. Not one person on the show is in love.

unfortunately Janeane leaves the show after six episodes, which means so will I.

Since Edelstein can't project any sex appeal whatsoever, this gig is left to Janeane Garofalo, who looks absolutely stunning. Garofalo's red-haired ex-husband has been paying her alimony to a dominatrix, so she calls the police when she knows he is driving drunk. The kids look like this:

the nannies of the greater Los Angeles-area are a devoted bunch.

Watching this red-haired lothario do Janeane missionary-style before she called the police on him was enthralling, although I wanted to see more of both bodies. I think I am the only one who misses Garofalo's liberal radio show on Air America. She actually laughed when people mentioned God like it was real.

It must be hard to make sexy time with someone even a little bit famous - wouldn't you just think of their most famous roles? It must be hell to blow Jeff Bridges.

miss u Janeane. You should have been the Gone Girl

I guess on some level it is painful to see someone you spent two decades with moving on to another person. But Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce is not really about that - it is more concerned with how much of other people's lives you have appropriated for your own. Because we are so much more in touch with the world around us, it is a lot easier to be let down by it.

In Los Angeles, it would seem, people wake up each day and pretend to agree with each other about every single thing for 8-10 hours. Then, they head home to post the actual feelings on their baby blog. Sometimes I feel I have only ever had one real emotion in my life. There is no word for it in English: it is a sort of disappointed eroticism tinged by grief.

Dick Cheney is the senior contributor to This Recording.

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In Which We Look Back On The Larry Sanders Show

We Did It All For Larry

by ELEANOR MORROW

Garry Shandling would have been the perfect host of late night talk show, but instead he gave us The Larry Sanders Show, 89 brilliant episodes about being backstage at one. It was the first multi-camera sitcom that took advantage of the form, and probably the best ever done. They could run it on HBO today, promote it like a new show, and it would feel like one except for the noticeable lack of cell phones.

Garry Shandling has a puffy, round face like a blowfish, and a gee whiz surface personality. You don't expect a blowfish to have charisma, but Larry had it, and a Jewish sex appeal, and a likeability that would have made him the perfect person to come home to every night. Fortunately, he was a better sitcom star.

Unlike Larry David and Woody Allen, Sanders doesn't hate himself. He loves himself more than anything, except for perhaps his show. Bill Carter's classic recounting of the war over The Tonight Show proved how lonely and depraved such people were to try and do comedy day after day. You can't do comedy in this fashion, to offer something fresh and new is impossible.

This format is the epitome of The Show Must Go On. Larry is a trooper. He may not do his show live, but he does it live on tape.

Airing on HBO from 1992-1998, Larry took the backstage showbiz cliche and perfected it until it was startlingly original. No show had ever had such a perfect ensemble cast, but Larry was the bulbous center. He was the name on the show, the man who has to go out there every night and brave the elements.

What we learned along the way was that he had to survive a constant barrage of backstage elements, too: producers jostling over how to handle him, office assistants who need to be appreciated and loved, network suits that wanted to replace him with someone younger and less Jewish, writers who needed his approval and their jokes on the air. Oh to be Larry!

Above all, there was the sex. Near his happy home (it once belonged to Johnny) Shandling has a strange sex life. The sexual politics of The Larry Sanders Show were those of the early 1990s, when this weird Victorianism that was floating back into American culture began to take root. For now, the guests of The Larry Sanders Show loved to have sex with anyone and everyone, but they didn't feel that great about it afterwards.

Between these encounters, the behind-the-scenes was generally fraught with envy and hatred. The Larry Sanders Show is supposed to be a satire, but it was also just as good doing real life.

In one episode, Larry got Ellen DeGeneres on the show, slept with her before the interview, tried to get her to admit her character on Ellen was gay on the air, and got ambushed by Ellen on the show for his trouble, and yelled at by his lesbian fuck-buddy afterwards. It simply doesn't pay to try to draw ratings.

Underneath his persona, Larry loved being in the business, but he didn't like being in the business. He was more comfortable with his ego being the biggest in the room.

Larry was constantly buttressed by two polar opposite figures. The first is his producer Artie, played by Rip Torn in the finest comic performance since Basil Fawlty.

This was the role of Torn's life, and you can see the cheeky fun he has playing someone who will do anything for the show, and anything for Larry, even though he may not completely like it. As a result, Artie spent most of his days lying to his friend, and keeping other people off Larry's back.

Jeffrey Tambor immortalized the role of Larry's sidekick Hank Kingsley, doing Leaving Las Vegas but as a comedy bit and stringing it over six marvelous seasons. Hank is the saddest loser in the history of American television, and Tambor gave himself over to the role of bald-headed insecure prick. These three elements would have been enough for a fantastic sitcom, but the rest of the cast was just as good.

Janeane Garofalo played the crass booker Paula before giving way to Mary Lynn Rajskub's more understated performance. Garofalo never found a better role. Wallace Langham and Jeremy Piven were Larry's writers, before Larry fired Piven for banging Hayden Panettiere. Sarah Silverman also made several amazing appearances as a writer on the show.

Penny Johnson was Larry's assistant, a strong black woman in a time when network television tended to avoid them, and Linda Doucett (later Shandling's girlfriend) was Hank's bosomy, hilarious assistant. Bob Odenkirk was Larry's agent, among many young comedians who burst onto the national stage with a small part in play in Larry's sad little life.

Larry's wives were also fascinating. I preferred Larry's more dickish first wife, Francine, but his second wife Jeannie had her moments too.

Utterly obsessed with himself, Larry has a hard time dealing with a woman as an equal since he is the only man and the only woman in his life.

Underneath that surly veneer was a comedian who just wanted to be liked. The Larry Sanders Show was funny people before Funny People; shit, Judd Apatow did his best writing for this HBO gem. Every comedian has something inside them that needs more approval, now, faster. When you have to watch yourself every single night, it's a bear. Larry does it though; otherwise, he can't appreciate what other people see in him.

Eleanor Morrow is the senior contributor to This Recording. She tumbls right here for your pleasure.

You can download the first season of The Larry Sanders Show here.

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