Kanye West’s long-discussed television collaboration with Curb Your Enthusiasm producer Larry Charles appears to be dead, according to Charles, because the show was “too hardcore.” While the idea of Kanye on television every week is a dream come true for me as a blogging professional, is it possible HBO is passing on the show because it’s just not a great idea?
Charles described the show as “like a Kanye-and-Curb show, it’s kind of improvised about the situations and stuff.” Sure, that sounds amusing in elevator-pitch form, but it seems like it would be difficult to keep the show interesting over more than, say, two episodes. After all, any show described as a slightly different version of a previous show isn’t likely to be destined for creative greatness. Still, Charles did get one somewhat odd cheap shot in at HBO saying that the network “doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to black shows.” Although it would be difficult to find a network with a really great track record with black shows (Baldwin Hills isn’t exactly Native Son, after all), I think HBO would have some room to disagree between Def Comedy, Def Poetry, The Chris Rock Show (and his recent comedy special) and, to some extent, The Wire.
Kanye West’s TV Show ‘Too Hard-Core’ For HBO, Larry Charles Says [MTV]
@Al Shipley: Awww, Lucky Louie was good! And that theme song was awesome.
HBO is now less essential to my viewing diet than AMC. Sniff.
[blog.newsok.com]
Lucky Louie was a wonderful show - i miss it.
there’s a difference between “not a good TV show” and “not enough ideas to even sustain more than one episode of a TV show”.
many bad shows are made - even by HBO. but no show without even the necessary quantity of horrible, unfunny ideas is made.
Dave Chappelle already made this show in two short sketches called “Kneehigh Park” - unnecessary.
I actually think HBO has a much better track record for black shows than, say, shows about women of any color.
@westartedthis: Kanye’s improvised live-action series that was being pitched to HBO has nothing to do with Kanye’s hip hop puppet show that Comedy Central already greenlit. Also, no, Lucky Louie was a decent idea executed terribly.
if this show was going to turn out like margaret cho’s show on vh-1, then hbo’s making the right decision.
@Al Shipley: Word.
This show idea has been kicking around HBO for nearly two years, so it probably was never going to happen anyway. Here’s Idolator’s earlier write-up about it when the project was first in the news:
[idolator.com]
(brilliant pun in the post title, BTW)
@Al Shipley: i was confused - it’s probably the understatement of the century to say i have a hard time keeping up with all of kanye west’s wheelings and dealings. i can barely keep up with larry charles’ wheelings and dealings.
is it possible HBO is passing on the show because it’s just not a great idea?
Didn’t stop them with Def Poetry, True Blood, Little Britain USA, Tell Me You Love Me, John From Cincinatti, Dane Cook’s Tourgasm or Lucky Louie.