Lucky Louie
HBO June 11 10:30 p.m.HBO's first multicamera, live-audience sitcom centers on a broke, foulmouthed family man (comedian and Pootie Tang auteur Louis C.K.) whose simple goals in life include trying to keep his wife, Kim (Pamela Adlon, voice of King of the Hill's Bobby), from catching him masturbating, and convincing his new African-American neighbors that he's not a racist. The rampant profanity may seem jarring given the traditional Happy Days format, but executive producer and Everybody Loves Raymond veteran Mike Royce says it's not there for shock value: ''It's a matter of letting Louis talk the way he talks.''
C.K., a 22-year stand-up vet who's written for Conan O'Brien, Chris Rock, and David Letterman, made a similar but PG-rated sitcom pilot for CBS in 2004 that wasn't entirely faithful to his act: One of his favorite bits involves calling his young daughter an ''a--hole'' for asking questions he can't answer. ''The best thing that ever happened to me was that that show didn't get picked up,'' says C.K. ''It would have been uninspiring.... I got the experience and confidence to pull this one off. I couldn't have had [the HBO program] without that.'' But even with the freedom to curse his TV spawn, Louie will aim to reflect the series of yore. ''Louis' model is The Honeymooners,'' says Royce. ''We have the goals of good sitcoms. We want to have real drama and comedy — a little play on stage.'' To the motherf---ing moon, Alice!
