Lucky Louie

Lucky Louie
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Louis C.K.
Directed by	Gary Halvorson (pilot) Andrew D. Weyman
Starring	Louis C.K. Pamela Adlon Kelly Gould Mike Hagerty Jim Norton Laura Kightlinger Rick Shapiro Jerry Minor Kim Hawthorne
Theme music composer	Mark Rivers
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (1 unaired) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Louis C.K. Mike Royce Vic Kaplan Dave Becky
Producer(s)	Leo Clarke
Editor(s)	Brian Schnuckel
Cinematography	Bruce L. Finn
Camera setup	Multiple-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	HBO
Original run	June 11, 2006 (2006-06-11) – August 27, 2006 (2006-08-27)

Lucky Louie was an American television sitcom created by Louis C.K., that aired for one season on HBO in 2006. In addition to being the creator, writer and executive producer of the series, C.K. stars as the eponymous Louie, a part-time mechanic. The show revolves around the life of Louie, who lives with his wife, Kim, who is a full-time nurse (played by Pamela Adlon), and their four-year-old daughter, Lucy (Kelly Gould). A first for HBO, Lucky Louie was filmed before a live studio audience, in a multiple-camera setup.

HBO ordered 12 episodes of the series which aired during the 2006 summer season. In addition, eight scripts for a second season were ordered. In September 2006, however, HBO announced that the show had been canceled.

Creator Louis C.K. has claimed that the show's swift cancellation was not primarily attributed to ratings, and that the show rated higher than Deadwood. In Canada, Lucky Louie was shown on Movie Central, The Movie Network, and on The Comedy Network.

Lucky Louie is, at first glance, a classic-style situation comedy inspired by Norman Lear's classic shows. Unlike many of its contemporaries, it features a three-camera shoot in front of a live audience with no artificial laugh track, much like the classic sitcoms of the 1970s such as All in the Family. In premise, Lucky Louie is similar to other classic sitcoms like All in the Family or Roseanne, telling the story of an unsophisticated working-class family. In interviews, Louis C.K. criticized other sitcoms for making the settings too elaborate and decided to have his show's sets look simple, shallow, and spartan. However, the show aired on HBO, a subscriber-supported network without content restrictions, and deals with serious mature topics like sex and racism, as well as using adult language and displaying nudity.

The cast of Lucky Louie is notable for including performers more known for stand-up comedy than acting, including Jim Norton, Laura Kightlinger, Nick DiPaolo, Todd Barry and Rick Shapiro.

Plot

The series revolves around Louie who lives with his wife, Kim, and their four-year-old daughter, Lucy. Louie works part-time at the local muffler shop owned by his friend Mike. Kim is a full-time registered nurse at a hospital and is the family's breadwinner.

Cast

Actor	Role	Notes
Louis C.K.	Louie	Protagonist
Pamela Adlon	Kim	Louie's wife
Kelly Gould	Lucy	Louie's & Kim's daughter
Michael G. Hagerty	Mike	Louie's employer and friend
Laura Kightlinger	Tina	Mike's wife
Jerry Minor	Walter	Louie's & Kim's neighbor
Kim Hawthorne	Ellen	Walter's wife
Rick Shapiro	Jerry	Kim's brother
Jim Norton	Rich	Louie's friend

Crew

Louis C.K. served as creator, star, head writer and executive producer. Mike Royce served as showrunner and executive producer. Other executive producers included Dave Becky and Vic Kaplan. For the first season, writers included C.K. and Royce, Kit Boss (Co-Executive Producer), Patricia Breen (Executive Story Editor), Jon Ross (Executive Story Editor), Mary Fitzgerald (Staff Writer), Greg Fitzsimmons (Staff Writer), Dan Mintz (Staff Writer), Dino Stamatopoulos (writer), and Aaron Shure (Consulting Producer), formerly of Everybody Loves Raymond.

The theme, entitled "Lucky Louie Theme", was composed by Mark Rivers.

Andrew D. Weyman served as the series' main director. Producers on the show were Leo Clarke and Andrew D. Weyman. Associate producer was Ralph Paredes. Consulting producer was Tracy Katsky.

Episodes

Main article: List of Lucky Louie episodes

Lucky Louie aired twelve episodes in its sole season, with a thirteenth that was only featured on the DVD release.

Critical Reception

Lucky Louie received mixed reviews from critics and retains a Metacritic score of 48 out of 100 based on 19 reviews.

DVD release

HBO released the entire series of Lucky Louie on January 30, 2007. It includes an unaired episode "Clowntime is Over". The DVD also includes four commentaries and a look at the taping of an episode.

Controversy

Catholic League

In August 2006, during the show's run, Bill Donohue, president of the American organization Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, issued a news release about Lucky Louie, calling the series "barbaric". The release provides a bulletted list of content from the show that the organization finds obscene, from the ten episodes that had been broadcast at that time. In January 2007, Louis C.K. was a guest in studio on the Opie & Anthony radio show (co-hosted by Jim Norton, who plays Rich on Lucky Louie). Donohue appeared on the show as a phone-in guest that day, and C.K. started a conversation with him about his comments on Lucky Louie. C.K. challenged Donohue's news release, and accused him of misrepresenting the show by taking things out of context. Donohue admitted that even though the press release bears his name, he had never seen an episode of the show.

External links

• Lucky Louie at the Internet Movie Database
• Lucky Louie at TV.com