HBS

If you're not watching Jon Benjamin Has a Van, you're wasting your life. There. I said it.

The Game Done Changed

David Mills, writer of Homicide: Life on the Streets, NYPD Blue, The Wire, and the upcoming Treme, has died at the age of 48.

The Cribbster remembers this gem from Mills delivered to journalism students seeking advice on writing: "I don’t know. . . uh. . . It’s a little like fucking: You do it more, you get better at it. Other than that there’s not much else I can say.” Check out David Mills' own blog, Undercover Black Man. It is definitely worth a read. Forty-eight is far too soon to go, but thank goodness for the work he has left us and thank goodness for DVDs. Mills changed the game with television, and he was one of the few who changed it for the better.

FDR: A One-Man Show

It kills me that Chris Elliot isn't a household name. While he has earned a size-able cult, Elliot deserves to be a bigger star than his recurring role in so many lacklustre projects as, "ooooh, that guy!" When I read that Chris Elliot was working on a new live-action comedy pilot for Adult Swim, I was thrilled. The pilot will centre on Elliot as an over the hill action star who uses his show as a vehicle for far-right wing politics. He clashes with a young executive sent to watch over the series' production and hilarity ensues! Obviously. Eagleheart looks to be Elliot's most promising project in years, and I think Adult Swim is the perfect home for him. His brand of humour is finally growing more popular, and the network should expose him to a new generation of fans.

As if this pilot needed any further seal of approval, the producers are none other than Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel. If the premise of Eagleheart sounds somewhat familiar, that's because Smigel and O'Brien created a similar show in the early nineties with Adam West. Lookwell only made it to one episode, but it was a hell of an episode. Let's hope for better luck this time around.

Whilst waiting for Eagleheart to make its debut, i recommend a viewing of Elliott's brilliant 1986 special, FDR: A One-Man Show. Also available on YouTube is the only episode of Lookwell. I first watched these shows on a battered VHS tape dub. I love you, Internet.