Hunger is an American television sitcom broadcasted for a season on FX for seven episodes in 2005. The series is about four friends who each suffer from eating disorders, who meet in a "shame-based" support group called Belt Tighteners. His characters include people with bulimia, anorexia, and eating disorders. Eric Schaeffer created the event and wrote, starred and directed it, based on his own struggle with eating disorders. In addition to his own life experience, Schaeffer also makes use of the experiences of other key cast members, each of whom by chance has struggled with their own food problems.
Hunger is the lead-in of the FX One-hour "Comedy's Another Block" block with Always Always in Philadelphia . FX executives want to use two series to start building comedy programs and broadening network demographics. The series debuted on August 4, 2005 to a poor critical review and was canceled in October 2005, when FX chose Sunny on Starve for updates.
Video Starved
Character
- Sam (Eric Schaeffer) is a commodity trader with anorexia and compulsive overeating. His interest quickly turned into an obsession. Although with several different women during the series, she is secretly in love with Billie.
- Billie Frasier (Laura Benanti) is an anorexic and bulimic sufferer who also has problems with alcohol abuse. Billie is bisexual and raised by two gay fathers. Previously a ballerina, a genuine impulse for his eating disorder, he is now a well-known songwriter and singer.
- And Roundtree (Del Pentecost) is a compulsive novelist and overeater. The only person who married among the main characters, he worried that his weight would cause his wife to leave him. He continues to schedule and cancel gastric bypass surgery. Adam Williams (Sterling K. Brown) is a police officer with bulimia. He abused his authority to extort food from restaurants and deliveryers, which ultimately led him to lose his job.
- Belt Tighteners Group Leader (Jackie Hoffman) leads a support group attended by friends. Sarcastic and rude, he constantly cursed four friends for their unsuccessful attempts at dealing with their food problems. Following his tirade, he led the group by chanting the support group slogan, "Not good!"
Maps Starved
Production
The serial star Eric Schaeffer created Hunger . Schaeffer, who is recovering for addiction to alcohol and drugs and describes himself as having "anorexia thinking," takes advantage of his own experiences with eating disorders and the experiences of others he knows in creating scenarios for the series. Other cast members are also struggling with food issues. Benanti spent three years fighting anorexia while he danced on Broadway. Pentecost, who weighed 310 pounds during filming, contributed stories from his own life to the series, including scenes in which his character weighed himself on the postal scale because he was too heavy for a conventional bathroom scale. Brown is as fat as a child and describes himself as "haunted by the 'fat kid mentality'." Producers only find that each of the main cast members has a food problem after the casting process is complete.
Hunger and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was developed for FX under the auspices of FX John Landgraf president, who seeks to expand network viewing by providing a wider variety of programs. This event is the network's first attempt at sitcoms following the 2003 short-lived series Lucky . FX at the time was known primarily for his dramatic edgy series. Bruce Lefkowitz, then executive vice president of Fox Cable Entertainment, outlined a strategy: "We sort of staked out unique spaces in dramatically different dramas from others, so the next natural evolution is doing something in the comedy room." Networks order seven episodes of each series.
Hunger was shot in the spring of 2005 in New York City using a single camera setting and no laugh tracks. This and Sunny are the first shows produced by FX at home.
Episode
Reception
Hunger caused controversy even before its premiere. A number of specialists in the treatment of eating disorders expressed concern that the program will create a bright or shocking eating disorder. Others, however, feel that Hunger may focus attention on eating disorders as a serious medical condition. The National Eating Disorders Association called for an event boycott and claimed that Diageo (the maker of Tanqueray) and Nautilus agreed to withdraw their advertisement. Schaeffer responded to the controversy, saying "there are some things that are hard to note, but I know my spirit and my intentions are good."
Hunger aired to audiences as many as 1.54 million viewers, scored Neilsen 0.8 and 2 share among adults 18-49, targeted demographic network. Reviews are not favorable. Variety echoed the Belt Tighteners slogan in rejecting the series as "not OK." Taking into account the edgy series content, Variety allows that "Pushing envelopes in terms of standards is all well and good, assuming that the series gets right to do so." Hunger , he said, did not get that right. "Punch series on pain is unconvincing and coercing" and "from an emotional point of view there is rarely a true record."
The Washington Post agreed in this assessment, describing the premise of the show as "Hey, what happens if you take a character from Seinfeld and give them an eating disorder?" While Starved credits for "some inventive laughter," the language and sexuality of performances are described as "very rough" and "outrageous for cable television, even later that night." Worse than this problem, Post felt that Schaeffer forgot to develop a supportive character coming up with a fictitious situation for them. "His failure to build an understanding into the show exposes him to emptiness, with sourness, as if you were just, you know, thrown off."
The New York Times credits this series for its bold premise and notes that the event provides some insight into eating disorders while offering "some flashes of dialogue and innuendo." In the end, however, the Times found that "Hunger depended heavily on sight jokes and crude jokes." The Los Angeles Times found the show "annoying" because "immediately convincing and shallow, successful and unconvincing, good acting and empty." This review shows the character of Schaeffer, Sam as "very unattractive" and shows Schaeffer's role as creator, producer, writer and director as "object lessons in the wisdom of the checks and balances system." Perhaps most damning, in recording Schaeffer's experience with addiction, the reviewer writes that "just because you have experience does not mean you have something interesting to say about it or are able to articulate any interesting thing you have to say."
New York magazine calls it the Best Show You May Never See. NBC uses clips from the second episode in "The Most Outrageous TV Moments".
FX canceled Hunger in October 2005. FX President John Landgraf said Variety , "The show has a lot of fans, so it's hard to choose [between it and Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in the end, we feel that we are not in a position to spread our resources, we launch our dramas one by one, and launching two [comedies] like we did this summer just did not work either. "
References
External links
- Hunger on IMDb
- Hunger on TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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