Better Things

Two cousins try to work their way up through the Atlanta rap scene.

Lucky was the weekly comedy drama series for which star John Corbett turned down the opportunity to recreate his role in My Big Fat Greek Wedding for the CBS spin-off sitcom My Big Fat Greek Life. The title was a bit ironic; to be sure, high-stakes gambler Michael Linkletter fully deserved his nickname "Lucky," but he nearly always ran out of luck by the end of each episode. Determined to give up his compulsive gambling, "Lucky" did not do himself a favor by continuing to reside in the heart of Las Vegas. A typical episode was the series premiere, in which Linkletter garnered one million dollars at during a championship poker tournament, only to lose it all within a matter of hours. Even when he managed to build up a bankroll, Lucky was beholden to number of creditors: his so-called pals, a few assorted shady types with broken noses and cities for nicknames, and the parents of his deceased wife, from whom he borrowed 8,000 dollars to pay for her funeral. As reckless as Lucky was with his cash, he was even more so with his emotions, falling hard for another recovering gambler named Theresa McWatt (Ever Carradine) -- who happened to already have a husband. Adroitly wringing laughs from otherwise pathetic people and situations, Lucky first aired April 8, 2003, on the FX cable network.

This typically iconoclastic FX network comedy-drama series was dedicated to the proposition of "Stealing the American Dream." The Malloys were a family of "travellers", roving con artists who lived perpetually on the fringes of society and just outside the reach of the law. After years of running scams and fleecing the unsuspecting, Wayne Malloy (Eddie Izzard) began to wonder if it was all worth the effort. At the same time, Wayne's drug-addict wife Dahlia (Minnie Driver) had been released from prison after a two-year stretch, and was raring to go back on the road with her husband and her equally disreputable children Sam (Aidan Mitchell), Cael (Noel Fisher) and Dehliah (Shannon Marie Woodward). While barreling through the Southland in their RV, the Malloys were involved in a traffic accident (not their fault, for a change!) in which the other drivers, a married couple, were killed. Rifling through the dead motorists' belongings, Wayne and Dahlia discovered that the victims were Doug and Cherein Rich, an upper-middle-class couple who'd just purchased a mansion in a gated community somewhere in Louisiana. Thus handed an opportunity to start life anew, the Malloys "became" the Riches and moved into that selfsame mansion, using their conning-and-hustling skills to convince their new neighbors that they were whom they claimed to be. Carrying the charade to the ultimate, Wayne, alias Mr. Rich, sweettalked his way into a job with family lawyer Hugh Panetta (Gregg Henry), while Dahlia found work as a dental hygienist and the kids tried to fit in at the local high school. Of course, there was always the possibility (or rather the likelihood) that the Malloys would revert to their old dishonest ways, especially whenever the former crooked associates would breeze into town. Forever playing fast and loose with manners, morals and audience expectations, the weekly, 60-minute The Riches made its cable-TV bow on March 12, 2007.

Starved is an FX Network television situation comedy that aired for one season of seven episodes in 2005. The series was about four friends who each suffer from eating disorders, who met at a "shame-based" support group called Belt Tighteners. Its characters included those with bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating disorder. Eric Schaeffer created the show as well as writing, starring in and directing it, based upon his own struggle with eating disorders. In addition to his own life experiences, Schaeffer also drew upon the experiences of the other members of the principal cast, each of whom coincidentally had struggled with food issues of their own.Starved was the lead-in of FX's hour-long "Other Side of Comedy" block with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. FX executives wanted to use the two series to begin building comedy programming and broaden the network's demographic. The series debuted on August 4, 2005 to poor critical reviews and was cancelled in October 2005, when FX picked Sunny over Starved for renewal.

Paul and Ally juggle full-time careers, aging parents, a mortgage, upheavals in their relationship and the unenviable curveballs of raising their young children, Luke and Ava.

The comedian's late-night musings on current events, politics and pop culture.