TV Comedy Movies

Kenny Vs. Spenny writer/creator Kenny Hotz crafts this sitcom centering on a pair of roommates and longtime friends who both work as test subjects at an off-the-wall product testing factory. Peter (Steve Markle) and Ron (Jeff Kassel) are both in their early thirties. They've been friends for years, but these days they share an apartment and work together at Testico, the local product testing facility. Each week the hapless duo is given a new product to test and asked to report back on the side effects. Despite the fact that the side effects of the products being tested are generally ridiculous and consistently negative, Peter and Ron both do their best to carry on with their lives until the next line of products rolls around and the cycle starts all over again. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Moving from Saturdays to Thursdays for its sixth and final season, Leave It to Beaver acknowledges the fact that both Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) and his brother Wally (Tony Dow) are now teenagers by reorchestrating the series' familiar theme music in emulation of a rock & roll beat. Also, whereas Wally was previously the only sports hero in the family, now Beaver is old enough to win a football award, and to score a winning touchdown -- though he's still not mature enough to handle the responsibilities of athletic fame and adulation. Additionally, for the first time in the series, Beav and Wally go on a double date with two attractive sisters -- and later on, Beav and not Wally gets in trouble for scheduling two dates on the same night! Too, Wally's hormones have kicked in to the extent that he seriously considers growing a moustache to impress his steady.
Yes, six years have definitely gone by since Leave It to Beaver's first season. Episode highlights this year include "Eddie the Businessman," in which that unregenerate creep Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) unwittingly becomes accessory to a robbery scheme, and the thematically similar "Beaver the Caddy," in which The Beav must choose between telling a lie and getting a big tip on the links; "Tell It to Ella," wherein Beaver's complaint to a newspaper advice columnist about unfair parents backfires big-time (watch for a young Tim Matheson in this episode); and "Wally and the Fraternity," in which Wally's plan to pledge to his father Ward's (Hugh Beaumont) old fraternity may be scuttled by the words of a disgruntled ex-pledge. One of the season's best offerings showcases Doris Packer in the role of Beaver's eighth-grade teacher Miss Rayburn; in "Beaver's Book Report," Beav attempts to summarize The Three Musketeers based on the 1939 film version starring the Ritz Brothers. The series' 234th and final episode is also the only "cheater" in Leave It to Beaver's history: "Family Album" is a retrospective of clips from classic earlier episodes, including the series' very first offering, 1957's "Beaver Gets 'Spelled." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Baywatch and America's Got Talent star David Hasselhoff gets roasted by some of the best comics of their time thanks to Comedy Central. Appearing to skewer the man whose music career made him a legend in Germany are Gilbert Gottfried, Lisa Lampanelli, and the "roastmaster general" Jeffrey Ross. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

As Leave It to Beaver enters its fifth season, Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) has somehow been promoted to the sixth grade, while brother Wally (Tony Dow) is a junior in high school. Perhaps sensing that Beaver had outgrown his natural cuteness, the producers contrived to build several of the season's better episodes around Wally. Examples: In "Wally Goes Steady," the elder Cleaver kid gets a crash course in marital bliss (or the lack of it); in "Wally's Car," it cannot be denied that he gets his money's worth when he spends 25 bucks on an old beater that won't even start; and in "Wally's Weekend Job," a practical joke prods Wally into depositing two full quarts of ice cream on the heads of his friends Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) and Lumpy Rutherford (Frank Bank). Beaver's best showings this season include "Beaver Takes a Drive," or another example of why he should never, ever accept a dare from his pal Gilbert (Stephen Talbot); "Beaver's Ice Skates," featuring former "Bowery Boy" Stanley Clements as a none too ethical department store clerk; "Beaver's English Test," yet another "crisis of conscience" for our boy Beav when he aces a test that happens to be a carbon copy as the one he used for a study guide; and "Beaver's First Date," which, for all you trivia buffs, is with one Betsy Patterson (Pam Smith). Other season highlights: Beaver overcomes his fear of roller coasters; Eddie and Lumpy come to grief when trying to scare Beav and Wally during a nocturnal camp-out; Eddie quits school for a "high-paying job," and, as usual, overestimates both the quality of the job and his own competence; and an "older woman" uses an unwitting Wally to make her boyfriend jealous. If for nothing else, this season will be remembered for the episode wherein Beaver and his buddies decide to make a few prank phone calls, and end up connecting with baseball great Don Drysdale -- a "thrill of a lifetime" that ultimately totes up a long-distance bill of a then-astronomical nine dollars! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi