Mixed up sperm and Russian gangsters aside (and every satire from Jonathan Swift to Arrested Development needs its exaggerations) B&C is pretty accurate about the angst- ridden life of TV execs in LA- believe me, I know, I have been there. The swearing, if anything, is underdone - there are many places in America where cuss words are reserved for special occasions, but not in the Marines, the police or TV network head offices. The back-stabbing and social competition, too, is more prevalent than on, say, a Kentucky farm or at a Sunday morning bake sale, even on a Sunday morning.Which, as one commentator wisely said, is maybe why this (and, lets be honest, HBO"s brilliant Larry Sanders) did not travel far beyond its natural constituency - LA and its media buddies in New York and London, and a few college grads, freaks and geeks aware enough to appreciate that all offices share the touch of evil. The same people who can watch either the BBC original of the NBC remake of The Office and recognize it as a kind of everyday life.But TV-land is a degree nastier than working for a paper products firm because it's driven by the fear of 99% unemployment and the final one percent skilled/lucky.insane enough to have a job, being paid $250,000 a year plus, will do everything short of murder to hold onto that. Few would do that for a job paying minimum wage. Anyway, hey, we got two fun-filled seasons out of this, which I suspect actually made no economic sense. I would guess B&C getting picked up for a second series was all about Showtime execs enjoying the in-jokes and critical kudos rather than the audience numbers. maybe it has a protector on a higher board which kept it alive longer than it would have survived on basic cable or mainstream TV. PS The Showtime premium cable channel is almost HBO, but, somehow, routinely manages to lose its grip on some great novel programming- Dead Like Me, like B&C RIP after two series, Kistie Alley's Fat Actress (opened big and brave, shrinking faster than she is), etc. Showtime, right now, is the almost brilliant channel, that may one day be a lesson taught in business schools. PPS - Also Beggars and Choosers was and remains funny. And that is tough to get right.

It was good satire and was never designed to be a big crowd pleaser. Some good folks on it. Brian Kerwin seemed to be never more accessible as a comedic lead. If the show had gone to a bigger network they would have tried to push it into a Dick Van Dyke Show sort of blandness. Thank goodness it didn't. It kept the Russian mobsters around a lot longer than I would have imagined. Charlotte Ross and Gary Dourdan(to a much smaller degree)contributed to the shows contained anarchy. I lost track of the show after the lesbian birth doctors messed up and put the sperm of Rob Malone with his daughter's Audrey egg and Cecile's egg with Audrey's dead boyfriend sperm.

Now, I don't know much about how t.v. networks run and the people who work there, but I have a feeling it's a lot like Beggars and Choosers! From Rob Malone, network president, down to Lori Volpone, vice president of development-- the characters are both smart and funny. The series gives you an inside view of how a network runs, and how everyone working there deals with the trials and tribulations of life on the inside.Inside of this little fictional network, LGT, you see that it's very disfunctional, in a way that most could never imagine. Everyone and their brother are busy backstabbing everyone outside of the network to get ahead in the network, and doing everything they can think of to everyone outside of the network to get the network ahead as a team. Make sense? Maybe not...but it's network television, who said it made sense. All you have to know is this: the characters are funny, the acting is above top notch, and the storylines will keep you glued to the set every week. The show has a good way of keeping you involved...you're always hoping the network pulls thru and their ratings go up, and you find yourself hoping that the people trying to keep this from happening lose, and in the end, they usually do. You can't help but watch, and when you do, you can't help but stay by the t.v. till it's all over and the problems have been resolved. It's a great show with an awesome cast, and if you wanna get into the business, it might be a good learning tool as well. If you haven't seen the show already, watch it, it tends to grow on you.

(Contains spoilers)I *love* Beggars and Choosers. I love it to bits and pieces. The Irish TV station, Network 2, shows it on Friday nights (when it feels like it and there aren't too many sunspots or a vital tiddleywinks match), usually after midnight, and even though I'm always exhausted by Friday night I never miss it. How could I live without my weekly fix of Rob Malone, the only good man in Hollywood? Not to mention Brad, the whore of an agent; Yolanda, the actress with Tourette's Syndrome; Lori "the fox" Volpone, as ruthless as she is beautiful, and the Russian gangster Nicky Krasnikov who wears down her resistance with poetry and smouldering looks (oh, and killing people who threaten her); Malcolm, the VP of Talent who dithers about coming out and finally does it on national television. . .not to mention the two characters whose sole purpose is to be in the restaurants when the others are eating lunch and make phone calls about who's eating with who. ..Beggars and Choosers is a television show about television, and the gloves are definitely off. I'm frankly amazed that it got made at all, it's so scathing about the business. Rob Malone (boss of the fictional LGT network) at one point says that television is "sh***y"; and he's the only one who cares. Everybody else is out for themselves and only themselves. They don't care who they have to stab in the back to push themselves ahead.And yet even the scummiest of the characters have real motivations. Even though we *know* Lori Volpone is a workaholic megabitch who'd sell her own mother if it would get her the credit for a #1 Neilsen-rated show, it's impossible not to see through her eyes as she is gradually seduced by Krasnikov -- and even though Krasnikov is a ruthless killer, he is so honest, so straightforward, so undeniably *real*, that after the phoniness of Hollywood he comes as a breath of sweet, fresh air. Brad spends twenty minutes choosing socks, on the grounds that each pair of socks represents a different career track, and the scene is ludicrous yet at the same time logical; it's quite possible that the wrong socks *will* cripple his career, and his willingness to pay such attention to detail is what gives him the edge over the others.Beggars and Choosers is hugely funny, audacious, and sharp; but it's also surprisingly warm. Through all the back-stabbing and lies, the characters remain likeable as well as fascinating. I hope it runs for a long time.