June 7, 2010, - 2:23 pm
You Stay Classy, MTV
No, this isn’t about last night’s MTV Video Music Awards. It’s about the show that aired right afterward, “The Hard Times of R. J. Berger,” the topic of which is a Jewish high schooler with a large penis, who has sex-obsessed parents. Yup, just when you thought that vapid cable network–which once played cheesy music videos–couldn’t get any worse, the Viacom execs bring us more of the lewd, and that lewd, of course, has to involve Jews and one of the stereotypes against them. And it’s, of course, brought to us by a self-hating Jewish liberal, David Katzenberg, along with non-Jews Seth Grahame-Smith (his parents couldn’t decide on a last name), and David Janollari (as well as several gentile MTV execs). If the name Katzenberg sounds familiar, it’s because daddy’s name got him the gig. Pops is Dreamworks KSG’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, who taught Jr. little of his religion and a whole lot of what it’s like to be a spoiled Hollywood kid dating an Olsen twin. He’s the type of guy who would be right in there with the HAMAS Gaza flotilla-niks, and is doing the kind of PR work for anti-Semites that they could never dream of.
Now comes MTV’s The Hard Times of RJ Berger, in which a teenage Ohio nerd’s own large penis gives him new confidence — but no relief from the bullies and petty annoyances of high school. . . .
Berger, now played by Paul Iacono, is “this great underdog character, lovable, very relatable, trying to navigate that minefield of being 15,” says MTV senior VP Liz Gateley. But the show “also had an edge, a uniquely MTV voice” that would never find a home on CW or ABC Family.
“The big penis is still the hook,” says co-creator Seth Grahame-Smith (author of literary mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), mostly as “the thing that kicks off his confidence and lets him come out of his shell.”
But it goes unmentioned in the second episode and provides only a brief though pivotal moment of embarrassment in the third. Instead, the show revolves around RJ’s interaction with his randy parents, a pudgy pal, a goth-girl stalker, an unattainable blond classmate and her jock boyfriend.
“The stories are not penis-driven,” Katzenberg says. “If everyone saw (it) and he got the hottest girl in school and was popular, we wouldn’t have a show.”
Wow, thank Heavens for small favors. What’s next, an MTV show about a hermaphrodite baby? I mean, the culture hasn’t been pulled down low enough by MTV, and the floor can always be lowered. So why not? Ya know . . . just to make sure our civilization can never recover.
Says David Janollari, a former WB programming chief hired early this year to oversee scripted-series development, . . . “We also think that by offering a diverse plate, we have a better opportunity to keep more of our young audience watching the channel.”
The 12-episode Hard Times settles in Mondays at 10 ET/PT on June 14, where it will be paired with Warren the Ape, a spinoff of former Fox series Greg the Bunny about a celebrity puppet.
Also in the works: a remake of 1985 film Teen Wolf.
Ah, thank G-d. Afer all, Teen Wolf was such a masterpiece, it cries to be remade.
Bob Guccione and Larry Flynt missed the boat. If only they’d used their time machine to move ahead a few decades, they’d no longer be fringe purveyors of filth for dirty men in trench coats. They’d be glorified mainstream programming execs for teens and 20-somethings on major cable networks.
You stay classy, MTV.
Tags: David Janollari, David Katzenberg, Hard Times of R. J. Berger, Hard Times of RJ Berger, MTV, Paul Iacono, Seth Grahame-Smith
Teen Wolf was bad the 1st time around. This proves yet again that no one has had an original idea in Hollywood for at least the last 15 years. But, hey the A Team movie is coming out soon! Everyone was waiting for that!
John on June 7, 2010 at 2:35 pm