Smallscreen News

Green Room, Big C and new L Word join returning Showtime hit series this summer

By April MacIntyre Mar 18, 2010, 5:49 GMT

01/28/2010 - Laura Linney - © Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos

Showtime heats up the summer with new and returning programming, including three series debuts: The Big C, The Real L Word and The Green Room with Paul Provenza, which looks to be an enjoyable, no holds barred bull pen of various comics.

It was one of the more lively Showtime panels at the winter TCA's this past January in Pasadena. Provenza began the panel joking that sitting in front of a bunch of sleepy, poker faced TV critics was like being at a "f*cking Senate confirmation hearing," and then summed up the series. When asked what the vibe of the show was, Provenza said, "What we tried to do on the show was essentially verbal jazz.  I tried to put groups of comedians together who I thought would be interesting with each other, either because they have ideas that play well off each other or conflict with each other, or people do certain kinds of material that I thought would be interesting with somebody else who I know something personal about.  The way that people are grouped is really great, fertile  territory, and then we essentially just treated it like jazz.  We just started talking, and it just took its own shape and form."

There is the return of Weeds (season 6) and Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (season 8).

The big-ticket premiere night on Monday, August 16th beginning with the return of hit comedy Weeds at 10pm PT/ET picking up after the shocking cliffhanger at the end of last season, followed by the debut of highly-anticipated new dark comedy series The Big C at 10:30pm, starring three-time Emmy winner Laura Linney as a wife, mother and teacher who upends her life after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.  Emmy nominee Oliver Platt stars as her immature, yet well-meaning husband, and Gabourey Sidibe plays her precocious student.

Weeds' viewers, still stunned by the last year’s season finale, will finally learn what will become of the Botwins after Shane (Alexander Gould) clubbed Pilar (Kate del Castillo) to death.

In June, the series premiere of The Real L Word will air on Sunday, June 20th at 10pm, a new reality show inspired by the original L Word series.

This show will follow a group of real-life, hot and happening lesbians in their daily lives at work and play in Los Angeles.  Sometimes real life is even more compelling than fiction.

Promising is the debut of an unprecedented new comedy series – The Green Room with Paul Provenza on Thursday, June 10th at 10:30p – featuring comedian/actor/producer Paul Provenza and the world’s greatest comedians in a roundtable setting, speaking off-the-cuff and uncensored before a studio audience.

Panelists include Roseanne Barr, Sandra Bernhard, Eddie Izzard, Paul Mooney, Bob Saget, and Jonathan Winters, among other notable and legendary talents.

And Thursday, June 10th comes the return of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! featuring America’s favorite muckrakers back on track for an amazing 8th season of skewering beloved topics, including “Cheerleaders,” "Vaccinations," and “Teen Sex.”

Schedule is as follows:

Thursday, June 10th

PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! – 10 pm

THE GREEN ROOM WITH PAUL PROVENZA – 10:30 pm

Sunday, June 20th

THE REAL L WORD – 10 pm

Monday, August 16th

WEEDS – 10 pm

THE BIG C – 10:30 pm

All times Eastern/Pacific