Tom Shales Previews HBO Series 'Hung'  Network News  X Profile
View More Activity By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 27, 2009  HBO is trumpeting its new comedy series
"Hung" as a television breakthrough, obviously having forgotten
that a show with the same premise popped up roughly three
decades ago: "Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute," an uproarious
sketch starring Dan Aykroyd that aired during the first five
historic seasons of "Saturday Night Live."  "Garvin" wasn't a
fully formed weekly half-hour series, true, but it was
considerably funnier than "Hung." The distinguishing feature of
HBO's hero, the one that prompts him to go into prostitution, is
that he's "well-endowed," like the hero of the 1997 movie
"Boogie Nights." That chap exploited his gift by going into
hard-core porn, whereas "Hung" hero Ray Drecker decides to try
his hand, so to speak, at the flesh trade.  The premise is
sensational, yes, but unfortunately co-creators Dmitry Lipkin
and Colette Burson seem to be afraid of it,