Joe Russo

Created by Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall fame, the ABC sitcom Carpoolers chronicled the zany misadventures of four male suburbanites who, twice each working day, drove to and from the jobs in the same carpool. The unofficial leader of the quartet was Gracen Brooker (Fred Goss), a professional mediator who was self-conscious over the fact that his real-estate agent wife Leila (Faith Ford) and his 22-year-old "onliner" son Marmaduke (T.J. Miller) both had higher incomes than he did. Gracen's best friend and fellow carpooler was dentist Laird (Jerry O'Connell), who was in the middle of a divorce from his spouse Joannifer (played on a recurring basis by O'Connell's real-life wife Rebecca Romjin). The third member of the foursome was Aubrey (Jerry Minor), who eagerly looked forward to his daily 90-minute round trip as a brief respite from his lazy, overbearing wife and his seven repulsive children. The youngest and least jaded of the carpoolers was Dougie (Tim Peper), recently married to sweet Cindy (Allison Munn) and the father of an adorable baby son named Reggie. An agreeable if not hilarious harkback to the "ensemble" sitcoms of old, Carpoolers debuted October 2, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A writer suffering from a creative block stumbles into a situation most middle-aged man would envy in this independent comedy-drama from writer and director Gary Walkow. Richard McMurray (Campbell Scott) is a novelist who enjoyed overnight success with the publication of his first book, The Trouble With Dick. Seven years later, Richard is working on his second novel but hates the story more with each passing day, while his marriage to a well-known actress is falling apart. Richard agrees to speak to the class of Diane (Alex Kingston), his former girlfriend who teaches a college literature course and inspired on of his novel's main characters. Spending the day with Diane is the last straw for Richard's wife, and she kicks him out of the house. During his lecture to the class, Richard comes clean about the sad state of his marriage and the fact he has no place to stay that night, and afterward one of the students, Kristin (Izabella Miko), offers Richard the use of the couch at her apartment. Jacqueline (Lizzy Caplan), Kristin's flatmate, is agreeable to Richard's presence, and offers a deal -- both Kristin and Jacqueline are aspiring writers, and in exchange for tutoring and "literary consultation," he's welcome to stay as long as he pleases. Before long, Richard's consultations with his new charges begin taking place in the bedroom, and Jacqueline informs him that she wants him to help her write a sexy novel that will help her become "the post-modern Jacqueline Suzanne." While Richard enjoys the ongoing ménage et trios at first, it doesn't take long for matters to become difficult and even dangerous. A sequel of sorts to Gary Walkow's first feature (called The Trouble With Dick), Crashing also features David Cross and Stephen Gyllenhaal. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

With 42,000 sightings in 68 countries, the elusive woodland creature known as Sasquatch, Yeti, and Bigfoot is one of the most enduring natural mysteries ever known to man. Hunted by humans for hundreds of years, the formerly reclusive man-like beast strikes out against his would-be captors in a mountain-based tale of survival and horror starring Jeffrey Combs, Lance Henriksen, and Dee Wallace-Stone. Years ago, mountain climber Preston Rogers (Matt McCoy) suffered a terrible injury that left him wheelchair-bound in his remote cabin. Something strange is happening in the woods these days, though, and if Rogers holds out any hope of saving the lives of either his neighbors or the young college girls on a weekend retreat to the California mountains, he's going to have to convince the skeptical Sheriff Halderman (Paul Gleason) that something sinister is happening amidst the thick foliage of the forest and that numerous lives will be lost if they don't act fast. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Making its Fox network bow on November 2, 2003, the weekly, half-hour Arrested Development would seem to meet all the qualifications of a "cult favorite." It was smart, hip, and savagely funny; it developed a fiercely loyal circle of fans; it was almost universally beloved of the critical establishment; and its ratings were seldom any better than mediocre. Jason Bateman headed the cast as Michael Bluth, a thirtysomething widower with a likable 13-year-old son named George Michael (Michael Cera). The level-headed Michael was disdained as the "white sheep" of his highly dysfunctional family because he refused to luxuriate in the wealth accumulated by his business entrepreneur father, George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), who had built a small Newport Beach frozen-banana stand into a vast financial empire. Instead, Michael broke from tradition by actually going to work for a living, and by not giving in to the ostentatious self-indulgence practiced by the rest of the Bluth clan. But when George Sr. was thrown in jail on a charge of fraud, Michael was forced to return to Orange County, CA, to take charge of the family and the family business, both of which were bankrupt because all of his father's assets had been frozen.

Now it was Michael's unenviable task to instill financial responsibility -- not to mention responsibility, period -- in the rest of the Bluth family. These included Michael's snobbish, boozy, hyperjudgmental mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), who resided in a posh Balboa Bay penthouse and to whom credit cards were life's blood. Also living in Lucille's digs was Michael's youngest brother, Buster (Tony Hale), a perennial graduate student helplessly tied to his mother's apron strings (Buster would later become even more ineffectual, and far more of a thorn in Michael's side, when he lost his hand in an accident and was forced to use an ill-fitting hook). Moving in with Michael until conditions improved (if ever!) were his twin sister, Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), a selfish, scatterbrained liberal activist; Lindsay's husband, Tobias Fünke (David Cross), a former doctor who'd lost his license after administering CPR to a man who didn't need it, and who was half-heartedly trying to break into the acting profession (Tobias was also a deeply closeted homosexual, a fact obvious to everyone but himself); and the couple's spoiled-rotten daughter, Mae, aka "Maeby" (Alia Shawkat), for whom Michael's son, George Michael, harbored a somewhat unnatural crush. And just when you thought that the Bluth family couldn't be any more screwed up, we submit for your approval oldest son George Oscar II, aka "Gob" (Will Arnett), a spectacularly inept stage magician who suffered from a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease and who never had a job -- except when, during Michael's absence in season two, he inexplicably became the darling of Bluth Inc.'s board of directors.

Arrested Development also boasted a large cast of semi-regulars, most prominently Henry Winkler as the Bluth family's lovable but dangerously incompetent lawyer, Barry Zuckerkorn; Liza Minnelli as Lucille Bluth's neighbor and chief social rival Lucille Austero, aka Lucille 2, who at one point entered into a ridiculously torrid romance with the very much younger Buster; Justin Lee as Annyong, a 14-year-old Korean orphan whom Lucille Bluth adopted just to spite Buster; Ed Begley Jr. as George Sr.'s unscrupulous business rival Stan Sitwell; and an unbilled Ron Howard (whose Imagine Entertainment company produced the series) as the series' omnipresent narrator, forever filling in plot gaps with vital information (signature phrase: "In fact...") -- and always several steps ahead of the thick-eared characters. It is virtually impossible to chronicle all of the series' off-the-wall dialogue and surrealistic sight gags; suffice to say that the decision to approach the material in a hand-held "documentary" fashion, and to dispense with the use of a laugh track, only served to emphasize the million and one absurdities. The consistency of the series' lofty quality can be attributed to the fact that its creator, Mitchell Hurwitz (a veteran of such sitcoms as The Golden Girls and The John Larroquette Show), devoted every ounce of his energy to Arrested Development, refusing to accept any other projects throughout the show's run. Arguably too smart for the room, Arrested Development never got the huge audience it deserved, though the devotion of its fans and its multitude of industry awards all but shamed Fox into renewing the series beyond its first and second season. At the risk of offending devotees of Seinfeld and The Honeymooners, there are millions who regard Arrested Development as one of the best comedy series to grace network TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A group of likable losers try to pull of what by their standards seems like a major heist in this offbeat crime comedy, loosely based on the classic Italian caper comedy I Soliti Ignoti. A group of sad sacks living in a rundown neighborhood in Cleveland all have one thing in common -- they need money, and aren't especially fussy about how they get it. Riley (William H. Macy) is a guy whose wife has been sent to jail, leaving him to look after their baby, when she's unable to pay a fine. Pero (Sam Rockwell) is in love with a beautiful girl (Jennifer Esposito) who has a roving eye, and he's convinced that a bigger bankroll would help him win her heart. Leon (Isaiah Washington) is a hipster who wants to keep his sister, Michelle (Gabrielle Union), out of trouble. Basil (Andrew Davoli) is a guy with bad luck, and eyes for Michelle. And Toto (Michael Jeter) is a small-time crook looking for something to do -- if it's profitable, all the better. Someone gets the bright idea that a robbery might be the answer to everyone's problems, and with the help of Jerzy (George Clooney), a safe-cracker confined to a wheelchair, they set out to find the right target. Welcome to Collinwood was the first feature film from the writing and directing team of Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and co-star George Clooney served as producers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide