'Ricky Gervais Show' on HBO continues, podcasts save the day for one Chilean

By April MacIntyre Mar 7, 2010, 17:22 GMT

The animated trio, courtesy of HBO

Fans of Mancunian round-headed Karl Pilkington and his two (now animated) cohorts, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant can celebrate, as it was announced that new episodes of "The Ricky Gervais Show" are set to air on premium cable channel HBO.

This hit animates series is based on the podcasts (first a radio show) of Gervais and collaborators Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, the show now animated for an HBO series which first debuted on the network February 19, 2010.

Upcoming episodes include the back and forth between the earnest blanket statements of small town Karl with the usually gobsmacked and bemused Gervais and the ever reasoning Merchant.

They will continue more sketches including the "Monkey News," where they recount quasi-fictitious stories involving primates.

The show will air at 9 p.m. ET/PT Fridays, with upcoming episodes on March 5, 12, 19 and 26.

Gervais is an avid blogger, and he recently posted a brilliant email exchange he received from a man in Chile whose life was upended in the massive 8.8 earthquake:

From rickygervais.com:

Gervais writes: "Got this amazing email via my agent from a guy in Chile...

Forgive me if i'm wrong by sending you this email, but i want Ricky Gervais to know this:

I'm from Chile, where we just had an enormous eartquake, tons of people died (though not as much as in Haiti) and over a million people's homes were hit hard. Personally i wasn't struck as hard, but i was left without electricity and running water for three days. I had enough food and bottled water to last me at least a week, so that wasn't a problem; and a battery-operated radio to listen to news about the earthquake.

This is where Ricky comes along. I was horribly bored, i had nothing to do (apart from listening to the news, which get a bit depressing), when i remembered something trascendental: My Ipod was fully charged AND HAD THE COMPLETE PODCASTS, XFM SHOWS AND GUIDES TO...

Ricky Gervais' audio work really helped me get through the days while keeping me in a good mood, thinking about things other than the horrible destruction of my country. The stories of the round-headed buffoon Karl asking what were the names of "those things in the movie gremlins", or when Steve was trying to be cool driving a car in his teens only to end up crying because some cooler kids wanted to get a pig in the car, really made the difference to me in that moment of despair.

What i'm going with really is, thanks Ricky and the gang for keeping me laughing and sane for three days.

For ever grateful,

Max.

Gervais ends the post with: "If you would like to help please check out the Red Cross website.  Good luck Max."