Ricky Gervais is perhaps the most influential British comedian ever; he’s certainly an influence in my life. His body of work covers just about everything an inspiring writer and or comedian could hope to achieve. From his days on XFM Radio to sell out stand up tours, Gervais is an icon.
The Office is the most critically acclaimed sitcom of all time becoming the first British comedy to win a Golden Globe. Ricky Gervais has won three Golden Globes, two Primetime Emmys, and seven BAFTAS.

His Fame tour became the fastest selling UK stand up show in history selling 100,000 tickets in 9 minutes.He performed his first US tour, which was recorded as an HBO Special at Madison Square Garden, the show went on to earn three Emmy nominations. In between all of this he finds time to write children’s books and write, direct and or star in feature films.

In 2005 Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington began the Guinness Record breaking podcast The Ricky Gervais Show, the number one selling audio book in the world since 2006 with over 300 million downloads. The podcast became an animated series for HBO. In 2006 he did a guest spot on an episode of The Simpsons which he also wrote. In January 2010 he was the first host of the Golden Globes since 1995 and returned in 2011 (there was some controversy with that).

This is just a modest gloss over of what Ricky Gervais has accomplished, this week we will be highlighting his career with a past, present and future retrospective. Welcome to Ricky Gervais Week.

She could kick Bella's ass.

Here is our weekend preview of what is opening in theaters and what you might want to catch on TV. Have a great weekend everyone, check back Sunday night for a Box Office Report and return Monday to see our 50th CITY STRIP COMIC!  Also, did you know The Dark Knight Returns will be the best movie ever?  And Here We…Go!

HANNA – IMDB – RT (70%)

In what looks like a solid action/thriller, one of my favorites Saoirse Ronan is a home schooled killing machine on the run.  Forget what you saw Angelina Jolie do once upon a time; this is a movie as I said in the header that should be considered a chick flick.  Instead that term is saved for films like When In Rome and The Back-up Plan, disappointing.  Not every chick flick mind you would have to be action heavy showing off empowered girls, but the drivel that comes out these days that portrays girls as husband needing, wedding ring hungry tramps isn’t anything I’d like to categorize other than dreck.

YOUR HIGHNESS – IMDB – RT (24%)

Here’s proof that a great director and cast doesn’t always mean it’s going to be a great movie.  The trailers were sloppy and unfunny, and that’s strange because having a drug reference in the title I thought was sure way to tantalize the senses of comedy.  So instead, check out Natalie Portman in Black Swan, Danny McBride in Eastbound & Down, James Franco in 127 Hours.  David Gordon Green directed Pineapple Express which also stars McBride and Franco, and was very well directed, his best.

ARTHUR – IMDB – RT (24%)

Russell Brand takes on a role made famous by Dudley Moore in a remake of Arthur.  This time around we get updated references and music.  I enjoy Brand, and this is a good movie for him, a gentle comedy that looks to have some heart.  For anyone who’s read his autobiography My Booky Wook knows he’s come a long way from drug and sex addiction, a box office bomb might set him off, wait to go you bunch of enablers.

SOUL SURFER – IMDB – RT (50%)

This has to be one of the worst movie posters ever.  As far as inspiring stories go, this looks like it does the job.  AnnaSophia Robb loses her arm to a shark attack and “summons the courage to go back into the ocean”.  It’s a true story with a layer of filmmaking cheese, enjoy.

And Such:

The Ricky Gervais Show (Friday, HBO) – This week they discuss art from their Guide To… series, it’s a goon yin.

Real Time With Bill Maher (Friday, HBO) – Tonight’s guests are Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, Colin Quinn, Katty Kay, Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Sullivan

Saturday Night Live (NBC, Saturday) – Helen Mirren is the guest. Elton John was great last week, I guess SNL isn’t pandering to stoners in college anymore?

Animation Domination (Sunday, FOX) – Kevin and I were just saying American Dad is consistently funny and the only show on Sunday we look forward to.  He also admitted he watched The Cleveland Show for some reason.  He’s in time out.

Here’s a look at some of the goods coming from HBO this year, it’s not a definite list so check your local listings and or HBO for more.  So gone are the days of The Wire, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under – and here are the days of great returning shows and mini-series events of 2011, let’s take a look.

HBO 2010 Year in Review, Looking Forward 2011

Favorite TV Character of 2010

Boardwalk Empire- Just recently wrapped up its very impressive first season, following resounding critical acclaim and high viewer numbers for the series, HBO has renewed Boardwalk Empire for a second season.  A show that has contributions from the likes of Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) and Terence Winter (The Sopranos), and a cast that includes Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt, you just know it’s going to succeed.  This show was nothing short of amazing, I can’t wait for season 2.

Eastbound & Down – If this intro doesn’t make you want to watch this show, then I feel sorry for you.  Eastbound recently finished its second glorious season on HBO, a comedy show starring Danny McBride as Kenny Powers, a former professional baseball pitcher.  Producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay received an order for six episodes for the first season from HBO.  Its second season, consisting of seven episodes, began on September 26, 2010. On October 27, HBO announced they were renewing the show for a third season.  Get ready!

Premiering this Friday the 14th, The Ricky Gervais Show in its highly anticipated second season.  If you’re like me and had listened to the podcasts ad nauseum, the animations were an added bonus, and if you’re new to the whole Ricky experience, isn’t it great?  Also returning is Real Time with Bill Maher, a lot of people don’t seem to like him for some reason, I once called him the smartest man on television and some people stopped speaking to me.  You got your head in the sand there pretty deep Mom.

The end is near for Big Love [Jan 16th] and Entourage [Summer, with movie planned afterwards], both HBO staples will bow out following their respective seasons this year.  Do you think Jeremy Piven will be hard up to find work playing…Jeremy Piven?

Treme [April 2011] – After a stellar first season that held up mainly due to the outstanding cast, HBO renewed the show for a second season.

True Blood [Summer] – I haven’t watched season 3 yet, I just had too much to watch I guess.  On June 21 2010, HBO renewed True Blood for a fourth season, set to debut in summer 2011.  I better catch up.

Curb Your Enthusiasm – Little is known at this time (Larry David likes it that way), but what is known is  season eight will air in 2011—will be set in New York, instead of Los Angeles. Additionally, Ricky Gervais will guest star in at least one episode…prettay…pretty….prettay good.

Angry Boys is an upcoming television series. It was created by, and stars, Australian actor and comedian Chris Lilley, creator of TV series Summer Heights High, which you should check out right away if you haven’t [clip].  There are twelve half-hour episodes of this series scheduled to start airing in March 2011, HBO stated that the network would be co-producing the series with the ABC and the BBC.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Game of Thrones [April 17, 2011] is an upcoming “medieval fantasy” based George R. R. Martin’s best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels, it chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among noble families for control of the Iron Throne of Westeros.  I played the card game once; something tells me this series might be more exciting.

The Sunset Limited – February 12th 2011
Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) will star in HBO Films The Sunset Limited, based on the play of the same name by Cormac McCarthy (The Road, All the Pretty Horses).  Directed and executive produced by Jones from a script by McCarthy it will reunite Jones and Jackson once again as the two shared the screen in 2000 with Rules of Engagement.  The Sunset Limited is a searing two-character drama that tells the story of a stranger who saves another man from throwing himself in front of the Sunset Limited, a Harlem subway train. Secluded in the apartment of the rescuer, the two men from vastly different backgrounds engage in an intense exchange of ideologies as they debate the value of their existence.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cinema Verite – 2011
Diane Lane (Secretariat), Tim Robbins (Mystic River) and James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) star in Cinema Verite, the HBO Films presentation takes a behind-the-scenes look at the groundbreaking documentary “An American Family”, which chronicled the lives of the Louds in the early 1970s and catapulted the Santa Barbara family to notoriety in the creation of a new television genre – the reality TV series.

Mildred Pierce - Spring 2011
Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road) stars in the title role of the HBO Miniseries presentation Mildred Pierce, along with Guy Pearce (Memento) and Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood).  Directed by Todd Haynes (I’m Not There) Mildred Pierce is the epic story of a proud single mother struggling to earn her daughter’s love during the Great Depression in middle-class Los Angeles. The five-part miniseries, produced in association with MGM, will follow the story laid out by James M. Cain in his 1941 novel of the same name.

Click here to view the embedded video.

THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW

The Ricky Gervais Show audiobooks have been developed into an animated TV series, which premiered on February 19, 2010, on HBO.  The Animated Podcast of The Ricky Gervais Show is an animated version of the popular podcasts of the same name. It features real audio from conversations between Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington from the first series of podcasts which were released starting in December of 2005.  A lot of people were expecting new material (for some reason) but as advertising and Ricky’s Blog indicated, it was money for old rope, as they put the old audio on top of new animation.  It is very funny and the animation in my view adds a new layer to the hilarity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

LIFE’S TOO SHORT

In April 2010 it was announced that Gervais and Stephen Merchant will be writing a new show, called Life’s Too Short, which they described as, “A cross between Extras and Curb your Enthusiasm and One Foot in the Grave but with a dwarf. That is out and out funny.”

Life’s Too Short will star Warwick Davis.  Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant will write and direct the show much like they did with The Office and Extras. Warwick will play himself in this observational comedy based on his real life trials and tribulations being an actor with dwarfism. The show is similar in style to that of Larry David’s HBO  show Curb your Enthusiasm as it has a very similar concept and will be shot in a single-camera style.

When speaking of Warwick in a recent interview Ricky Gervais stated that “pound for pound he is one of the funniest men I know”. Gervais & Merchant have stated that for this project they plan to focus purely on comedy rather than the mix of comedy and drama that their previous projects have consisted of.  Gervais confirmed via his blog that they will probably shoot 6 episodes for the first season. In April 2010 Gevais announced that the first production meeting has been held and it was “very exciting”.

Davis is best known as the title character in Willow and the Leprechaun  series; other prominent roles include Professor Filius Flitwick in the Harry Potter movies and Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Davis played himself in the third episode of the second series of Extras (clip below).

For anyone who has not heard or seen of the HBO animated Ricky Gervais Show, hi welcome to Coolville, population: you.   The great news is that The Ricky Gervais Show has been granted a second series on HBO.  The first run of the animation, created by Gervais, Stephen Merchant and their friend and producer Karl Pilkington first aired on the network in February.  It’s an animation based on their world recording selling audio podcast, which I am listening to as you read.  Jump for a clip.“With this second series we would have already done as many episodes as The Office and Extras put together,” said Gervais.  “This can run and run as long as Karl remains a global village idiot,” he added.

How cheap must this show be to produce with old audio, no live actors and few animators; money for old rope indeed.  They are also working on other projects (no longer resting on their laurels); Gervais and Merchant’s first film collaboration, Cemetery Junction, will be released in the UK on April 14th.