Livewire242

"Anything For A Laugh" is a clear case of false advertising. Chris Farley was a funny guy. But this doc hangs a pall over every clip by sandwiching them between dour c-list performers grumbling through their memories of Farley's addictions. Tom Arnold and Gary Busey, both addled and burned out by their own addictions, can barely string two sentences together.

They never dig too deeply into the addictions either. The exact drugs he did were only mentioned once. The circumstances of his death were not described. It's worth noting that a sex worker left the apartment on the night of his death knowing he was in distress but did not call for an ambulance. If you're doing a biography, give your viewers details.

No Tim Meadows, which is baffling. They worked together in Second City as well as SNL. The whole thing seems like half an effort.

Fans of Mr. Bean are likely to be left saddened by this effort, if you can even call it that. To begin with, Bean is now pudgy and doughy, and clearly getting on in years. In fact he looks more like the Pakistani Mr. Bean lookalike than the Rowan Atkinson we remember. That alone is depressing. The shorts themselves, silly DIY videos, are absolutely dreadful. Allegedly written by Atkinson himself, but seems like it was written by someone who has no sense of the Mr. Bean character. You could remove Bean and insert absolutely any halfwit character, and it wouldn't make a difference.

Atkinson has since announced that Mr. Bean is permanently retired, and honestly, this is the best news. Don't spoil the great memories.

While Designing Spaces is a real TV show that people are filming in Florida, it is also running an extremely sketchy advertising program behind the scenes. While probably not technically illegal, it is eyebrow raising.

Telemarketers phone up suppliers of home improvement products on behalf of the show's producer, and offer to showcase a product on the show, like a mini-infomercial. The telemarketer's sales pitch lasts a good 45 minutes. At the end of the sales pitch, a price tag of $49,700 is revealed. For a 1 to 3 minute spot. Which will be seen by virtually no one. Their viewer numbers are not available anywhere, but a 7:00 AM home improvement show on an unpopular cable channel is likely to reach somewhere in the hundreds of viewers, possibly less.

Since this network was acquired by A&E in 2009, I am sincerely surprised that this practise is allowed to continue.