Thursday, July 08, 2010

pre-Ricky Gervais

I found the first season of Ken Finkleman's show THE NEWSROOM at Housing Works, and I was immediately struck by how much it's a predecessor of THE OFFICE. You have an irritating, petty, two-faced, grandiose boss lording it over a work environment; and the jokes are deadpan "embarrassing silence" type jokes, not punchlines. At the time (1996), that was pretty revolutionary. Five years later, when Ricky Gervais did it, it was still considered revolutionary.

I wonder what Ken Finkleman's up to now?

5 comments:

DMc said...

Shooting a show for TMN called "GOOD DOG."

Mark Slutsky said...

I always thought The Newsroom was heavily, heavily, heavily indebted to The Larry Sanders Show.

Diane Kristine Wild said...

Yup, Good Dog:
http://www.tv-eh.com/2010/06/29/ken-finkelmans-good-dog-in-production/

Alex Epstein said...

I wonder if they'll issue a double DVD with the cartoon series, GOOD DOG / BAD DOG?

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