John Moffitt (Directing)

Talking Funny

What does it mean to be a successful comedian? How far can the boundaries of taste be pushed to get a laugh? Four top comics, Ricky Gervais, Louis C.K., Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, discuss and debate their craft.

Release Date:2011-04-22

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:57

Colin Quinn: Long Story Short

In LONG STORY SHORT, Colin Quinn focuses his articulate brand of comedy on the demise of empires, including our own. More than standup comedy, LONG STORY SHORT is a hilarious blend of incisive observation, sharp commentary, and Colin's channeling of the personalities of the past. From Socrates to Snooki, Quinn is at his satirical best, taking on the attitudes, appetites and bad habits that toppled the world's most powerful nations. Long Story Short proves that throughout human history, the joke has always been on us.

Release Date:2011-04-09

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:11

Ricky Gervais: Out of England 2

The comic performs at the Chicago Theatre.

Release Date:2010-12-18

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:59

Tracy Morgan: Black & Blue

Tracy Morgan’s first stand-up special on the channel, Black and Blue. Performing at New York City’s Apollo Theater, the 30 Rock star let his demented brand of humor loose on the crowd. His jokes hit on everything from politics and airport security to borderline inappropriate quips we can’t include here. Audience members doubled over in laughter. Yup, he was that funny.

Release Date:2010-11-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:10

Bill Maher: But I'm Not Wrong

In front of a live audience at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Emmy-nominated host of Real Time with Bill Maher performs an all-new hour of stand-up comedy. Among the topics Bill discusses in his ninth HBO solo special are: Whether the "Great Recession" is really over; the fake patriotism of the right wing; what goes on in the mind of a terrorist; why Obama needs a posse instead of the secret service; the drug war; Michael Jackson; getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan; racism; the Teabagger movement; religion; the health-care fight; why Gov. Mark Sanford will come out looking good, and how silly it is to ask "Why do men cheat?"; and why comedy most definitely didn't die when George Bush left office.

Release Date:2010-02-18

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:24

Jim Jefferies: I Swear to God

Jim Jefferies: I Swear to God: The easily offended might do best to avoid Jim Jefferies’ raunchy, rude humor (or at least imbibe the two-drink minimum beforehand), but the Australian-born comedian provides plenty of laughs for everyone else in this HBO special. In I Swear to God, Jefferies continues his patented brand of comedy that once got him punched by an audience member, discussing the idiocy of no-smoking signs, sluts vs. studs, and his father’s Holocaust jokes.

Release Date:2009-05-16

Department:Production

Job:Producer

Vote Count:79

Ricky Gervais: Out of England

Taped live before a sold-out audience at the WaMu Theater at New York Citys Madison Square Garden, Ricky Gervais: Out of England The Stand-Up Special is a high-spirited hour of offbeat observations and understated humor from the actor/comedian/writer/director.

Release Date:2008-11-15

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:79

Dana Carvey: Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies

As always, Carvey never crosses the line into mean-spiritedness, but easily glides in and out of every impression & expression, reminding us of the huge talent we came to know and love before he left the scene due to his heart condition. It's a bittersweet irony that Dana Carvey is one comic who is ALL heart...

Release Date:2008-06-14

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:11

Bill Maher: The Decider

Superstar comedian/writer Bill Maher, one of the most highly credited comic minds today, is back in an all-new solo HBO comedy special performed live. Maher, known for his sharp wit, offers his candid and hilarious opinions on a wide range of social and political issues including sex, drugs, Iraq, immigration, President Bush, and much more in this can't miss special. Live show from Berklee Performance Center, Boston, Massachusetts

Release Date:2007-07-21

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:19

The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men are an English sketch comedy group consisting of David Armand, Nick Tanner, Rupert Russell, and Sam Spedding. The Hollow Men is also the title of their TV show broadcast in the United States by Comedy Central. The show follows the kind of silliness from sketch comedy shows like Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Kids in the Hall. The first and only season, consisting of six episodes, aired in early 2005. The group's name comes from a grim T.S. Eliot poem. In 2006 they broadcast a BBC Radio 4 sketch show, also of the same name. The radio show was recommissioned and a second series was aired in September 2007. Both series also featured Katy Brand.

Release Date:2005-03-10

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:3

Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home

Maher addresses contemporary political, social and cultural topics -- Iraq, President Bush and the so called Axis of Evil. The opinionated Maher said about Victory Begins at Home: "We've heard everything about the War on Terrorism except what we can actually do to help win it. The government used to do that for us through propaganda (the positive kind) posters, so taking my cue from the great old posters of World War I and World War II ('Loose Lips Sink Ships,' 'Buy War Bonds,' 'Plant a Victory Garden,' etc.) I commissioned artists to paint the posters our government today should be putting out to help us win this war."

Release Date:2003-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:13

Mr. Show and the Incredible, Fantastical News Report

A seventies-looking news broadcast sets up several "Mr. Show" (1995) clips for the upcoming season. Only these newscasters aren't the professionals that they should be, and eventually reveal that what you have been watching probably wasn't what you thought it was.

Release Date:1998-10-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Hollywood Squares

On September 14, 1998, a Hollywood Squares revival debuted with Tom Bergeron as its host. In addition to her production duties, Whoopi Goldberg served as the permanent center square, with series head writer Bruce Vilanch, Gilbert Gottfried, Martin Mull, and Caroline Rhea as regular panelists and Brad Garrett, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jeffrey Tambor, George Wallace, Kathy Griffin and various others as semi-regular panelists. Shadoe Stevens returned to announce, although he was not given a square on the panel as he had been when John Davidson was host.

Release Date:1998-09-14

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:690

Vote Count:4

George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy

George Carlin celebrates 40 years of comedy and here, he presents 2 new standup bits, comedian Jon Stewart gives an interview with him, and we look at his old comedy work through the last 4 decades.

Release Date:1997-02-28

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:25

Bill Maher: The Golden Goose Special

Bill Maher's second feature-length stand-up comedy special for HBO. Premiered January 6th, 1997

Release Date:1997-01-06

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1

Rodney Dangerfield's 75th Birthday Toast

Roast of Rodney Dangerfield recorded in Aspen on his 75th birthday.

Release Date:1997-01-01

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Bill Maher: Stuff That Struck Me Funny

Bill Maher's first feature-length stand-up comedy special for HBO. Premiered September 23, 1995.

Release Date:1995-09-23

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1

Gilbert Gottfried: Command Performance

Comedy legend Gilbert Gottfried brings his brilliant blend of improvisation and impersonation to this uproarious 1992 stand-up special.

Release Date:1992-11-01

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

A Classic Christmas From The Ed Sullivan Show

A Christmas collection of performances from various episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show.

Release Date:1992-10-25

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Dana Gould: One Night Stand

HBO's "One Night Stand" spotlights comedian Dana Gould in this follow-up to his 1991 Showtime special "Panic, Lust and Confusion."

Release Date:1992-10-04

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Don't Try This at Home!

Penn and Teller play with mirrors, teach 900 people to make a hankie disappear, play with clear acrylic boxes, turn marshmallows into tools of violence, do some erotic fire-eating, become the King of Animal Traps, produce bees without end, make Jane Curtin do a magic trick with a needle, dental floss, and her pierced ear, and drive a truck filled with concrete over Teller.

Release Date:1990-11-23

Department:Production

Job:Producer

Vote Count:6

Comic Relief '90

Several celebrity comedians take on sadness in the fourth laugh for charity.

Release Date:1990-05-12

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

50 Years of Television: A Golden Celebration

A special highlighting fifty years in the history of television. Includes tributes to Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Walter Cronkite, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope and Ed Sullivan. Clips of classic television moments are presented.

Release Date:1989-11-26

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Comic Relief III

The third event from Comic Relief USA. Hosted, as with the first two specials, by Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams. The event debuted the song "Mr. President"—written by Joe Sterling, Ray Reach and Mike Loveless, and sung by Al Jarreau and Natalie Cole. Featured Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrell; Catherine O'Hara smoking between bites of food and drink; Arsenio Hall on women with plastic surgery; Woody Harrelson talking to an "audience member" (Shelley Long) who, when asked if she watched Cheers, said, "Not that much."

Release Date:1989-03-18

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Love at Stake

Salem, 1692. The mayor and judge are accusing land owner of witchery in order to grab their land. No one knows that are handsome stranger is a real witch and has evil plans for the town.

Release Date:1987-08-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:12

Not Necessarily the News

Not Necessarily the News is a satirical sketch comedy series that first aired on HBO in September 1982 as a comedy special, and then ran as a series from 1983 to 1990. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. It was based on the British series, Not the Nine O'Clock News. Not Necessarily the News was also the birthplace of Rich Hall's sniglets.

Release Date:1983-08-08

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:4

Fridays

Fridays is the name of ABC's weekly late-night live comedy show, which aired on Friday nights from April 11, 1980 to April 23, 1982.

Release Date:1980-04-11

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:60

Vote Count:5

The Richard Pryor Special?

Richard Pryor wanders around the NBC Studio, encountering various eccentrics. Meanwhile, the Reverend James L. White, the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada and others are taping their own segments.

Release Date:1977-05-05

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:4

The Captain and Tennille

Hosted by the chart-topping husband and wife team, this 1976-1977 television variety series features a mix of hit music and comedy.

Release Date:1976-09-20

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:2

The Werewolf of Woodstock

At the site of the 1969 rock concert at Woodstock, New York, an electrical charge turns a local farmer into a murderous werewolf.

Release Date:1975-01-24

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:2

Don't Call Me Mama Anymore

Musical special of Cass Elliot formerly known as Mama Cass, featuring Cass' mother, Dick Van Dyke, Joel Grey and fellow Mama Michelle Phillips

Release Date:1973-09-28

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Mitzi... The First Time

Mitzi Gaynor in a song-dance-comedy hour with guests Ken Berry (Mayberry R.F.D.), Dan Dailey (My Blue Heaven) and Mike Connors (Manix) as they relive memorable "First Times" of life. Television technical advances also allow for a studio-bound Mitzi to electronically dance in and out of the newly installed $1.6 million jumbo scoreboard at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Release Date:1973-03-28

Department:Directing

Job:Director

The Great Santa Claus Switch

Santa Claus and his elves are ready to deliver presents to children everywhere but Cosmo Scam has hatched a plan to kidnap Santa and take his place! One by one, Cosmo abducts Santa's elves and replaces them with his evil henchmen. Can Fred the Elf save Christmas before Cosmo burglarizes the world?

Release Date:1970-12-05

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:6

The 5th Dimension Special: An Odyssey in the Cosmic Universe of Peter Max

Artist Peter Max pulls the strings as the pop group The Fifth Dimension travels through a technicolor land inhabited by wacky people.

Release Date:1970-05-21

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1

The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

Release Date:1948-06-20

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:20