“The Whitest Kids U Know”
Tuesday 11pm, Fuse
Man, do we need a good sketch comedy troupe. Long gone are the heydays of Monty Python or Kids in the Hall or Broken Lizard or even Upright Citizens Brigade. Our country needs existentialism disguised as stupidity. Our country needs young men dressed up in sexually inappropriate costumes. Our country needs The Whitest Kids U Know. The five-man troupe is based in New York, but one of the members—Trevor Moore—actually got his start in little ol’ Charlottesville. See how he’s doing with this 10-episode show that starts tonight on the Fuse cable channel.
“This American Life”
Thursday 10:30pm, Showtime
Ira Glass’ award-winning radio documentary show hits the tube on cable’s Showtime, a channel previously known for its sex-, drug-, and violence-filled programming. Guess somebody decided to class up the joint. If you like the “American Life” radio show, you’re in luck: The TV program basically just adds video to the audio content. Glass and his intrepid team ferret out the interesting, weird and often touching stories taking place right under your nose. Among the tales chronicled this season: a California filmmaker shooting his first movie, life on an Iowa pig farm, and what goes on at a late-night hot dog stand in Illinois. In tonight’s debut episode a rancher resuscitates a beloved pet, but it turns on him. Only in America, people!
“Acceptable TV”
Friday 10pm, VH1
From the mind of Jack Black (Wait! Don’t leave yet!) comes this bizarre show that marries “American Idol” with YouTube. Each episode features five three-minute “pilots” for TV shows, and one three-minute clip sent in via the Internets. Viewers then go online to www.acceptable.tv and vote for their favorite “show.” The two pieces with the most votes come back with new episodes the next week, along with three new pilots. So America gets to decide what TV is acceptable, and what is not. A novel idea, except isn’t that kind of how TV already works? I mean, we wouldn’t have 14 “CSI” shows if people weren’t watching them. I guess the thought is that this democratizes the pitch process and also allows for more inventive concepts to make it to air instead of being killed by network heads. Except here the “network head” is the man who brought you Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, so I’m not sure if he should be making these decisions either.