To me, Christopher Guest is a Comedy God. This is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show,  A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration – Guest’s brand of improvisational comedy, the “mockumentary” – well, I’ve loved his work ever since he was one of the writers and cast of National Lampoon’s Lemmings (which I saw live) in the early 70s.

If you haven’t already heard, he’s now directing and co-writing a new TV series called Family Tree. The first episode aired on HBO over the weekend. The basic premise is that Tom Chadwick is an out-of-work just-dumped-by-his-girlfriend 30 year old who inherits a chest full of crap from his recently deceased great aunt. He realizes that the items in the chest provide clues to his family history and, with nothing better to do, starts investigating them.  This being a Christopher Guest comedy, you’ve probably already guessed (sorry) that Chadwick will encounter a motley collection of oddball characters along his journey. There’s his father, a failed inventor – rather an old premise but nicely played here by Michael McKean – and his sister, who does a ventriloquism thing with a stuffed monkey that’s funnier than it probably sounds.

The lead in the series is played by Chris O’Dowd, who you’ll recognize from This is 40, Bridesmaids and others.  The writing is a collaboration between Guest and British actor Jim Piddock, who has a nice small role in the first episode.  I see that Fred Willard is going to be in two episodes and I can’t wait for those.

It’s hard to judge a sitcom from just a single episode, but for the most part this seems promising. My only problem? Guest’s work has been so influential, especially when you think about Larry David and Ricky Gervais.  Maybe it’s because of all of the British accents here (the show is set in London – btw Guest, though born in the U.S., was a member of the House of Lords until the system changed in 1999) but I kept thinking about The Office and Extras as I was watching this. This happens – you influence others and they in turn influence you.  And some of the humor seems a bit easy – the ventriloquism jokes, the failed inventions.

But I’ve always liked O’Dowd, I’ve always loved Guest, and I’m willing to continue watching this show to see where it goes.

The start of season 3 of Game of Thrones is almost upon us.  If you want to remember where things left off with season 2 9 months ago, you could go back and re-watch all the episodes (recently released on Blu-Ray and DVD) or you could save some time and watch this 15 minute recap.

The Emmy Awards are the big deal for U.S. TV shows.  They’re a combination of politics and popularity, voted by the industry, which can sometimes lead to some unusual selections.  Here’s a partial list of this year’s winners:

• Game Change – mini series or TV movie, actress in mini series or TV movie (Julianne Moore), directing in a mini series or TV movie, writing in a mini series or TV movie
• Homeland – drama series, actor in a drama series (Damian Lewis), actress in a drama series (Claire Danes), writing in a drama series
• Modern Family – comedy series, supporting actor in a comedy series (Eric Stonestreet), supporting actress in a comedy series (Julie Bowen), directing in a comedy series
• Daily Show -variety series, writing in a variety series
• Kennedy Center Honors – variety special
• Undercover Boss – reality program
• Amazing Race – reality competition
• Veep – actress in a comedy series (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss)
• Two and a Half Men – actor in a comedy series (Jon Cryer)(and the whole world says WTF?)
• Breaking Bad – supporting actor in a drama series (Aaron Paul)
• Downton Abbey – supporting actress in a drama series (Maggie Smith)
• Hatfields and McCoys – actor in mini series or TV movie (Kevin Costner), supporting actor in mini series or TV movie (Tom Berenger)
• American Horror Story – supporting actress in mini series or TV movie (Jessica Lange)
• Dancing With the Stars – reality host (Tom Bergeron)
• Boardwalk Empire – directing in a drama series
• Saturday Night Live – directing in a variety series
• Tony Awards – directing in a variety special, writing in a variety special (tie?)
• Louie – writing in a comedy series
• Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater – writing in a variety special (tie? it won something for writing, not sure which category)

Immediately noted – no awards for Game of Thrones (2 nominations) or Mad Men (9 nominations).  Breaking Bad shut out from the major categories (6 nominations, 1 win).  Homeland is the new king, Modern Family retains its crown.

But how do you explain comedy series best actor Jon Cryer over Alec Baldwin, Jim Parsons, Louis C.K., Don Cheadle, Larry David?  Okay, Larry David for acting is a stretch.  Parsons and Big Bang Theory have been going on for way too long.  Almost no one liked Cheadle’s House of Lies series. Louis C.K. is probably seen as not “acting” and besides he won two writing awards.  Cryer’s award is perhaps the industry saying Fuck You! to Charlie Sheen?

And Louis C.K. wins a writing award for a TV special that was really initially distributed only on the internet but then picked up by a cable TV network.

Out of the 30 awards listed above, roughly 2/3rds went to cable networks.

Have you been watching Luck?  I have, and I’ve been enjoying it and meant to write about it sooner.  And now it’s canceled.

It was created by David Milch – the guy responsible for Deadwood.  The director of the pilot episode (and one of the producers) is Michael Mann, the guy who brought us Miami Vice, Heat, The Insider, Last of the Mohicans.  That’s a pretty good pedigree right there.  The cast?  Try Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte plus a great supporting cast that includes Dennis Farina, Richard Kind, Kevin Dunn, Michael Gambon and a host of other faces that you would probably recognize even if you don’t know the names.

The series takes place in and around the Santa Anita race track in California.  Hoffman is a very rich gambler, just out of prison after a three year stretch, plotting his revenge.  Nolte is an old horse owner looking for one more great horse.  And the whole gamut of characters who you’d imagine would be around a racetrack – trainers, jockeys, vets, gamblers, con artists, you name it.  There’s plenty of sex and violence, just as you might imagine there would be in an HBO series.  While the show hasn’t received great ratings, it did get great reviews and was reviewed for a second season the day after its first episode aired.  The horse racing sequences are some of the best ever filmed.

However, two horses died during the filming of the first season.  Each was injured while filming a racing sequence and then euthanized.  This week, during the filming of the first episode for season 2, another horse died.  That was enough – more than enough actually – and HBO pulled the plug.

Speaking of “luck”, David Milch doesn’t seem to be having much of that lately.  Deadwood was dead before its time and his next series, John From Cincinnati, left everyone scratching their heads and was gone after one brief season.  Regardless, I think Milch is a tremendous talent and I look forward to whatever he does next.