Poor Mojo's Newswire

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A romantic comedy in which the "gay best friend" of the female lead tells her to fuck off and solve her own problems; he isn't some magical pixie that can fix everything for her with the power of homosexuality.

A mystery in which the resolution does not hinge on some fact with-held from the audience in order to make the detective look smarter.

A children's film without poop or fart jokes.

In fact, the show is an authorized copy of the American sitcom “Married With Children,” with a Russian cast and dialogue but scripts that hew closely to those of the original. This knockoff is such a sensation, especially among younger viewers, that its actors have become household names, and advertisements for its new season are plastered around Moscow.

"HBO purchased the North American television rights," Gayeton e-mails me. "They have decided to first submit it for an Oscar in the Animated Short Subject category." It'll soon be screened in a Los Angeles theater to meet the Academy's qualifications for nomination. "They are then hoping to premiere it at Sundance. It will probably screen next spring on HBO." (Originally called "My Second Life", it'll probably air under a new name, likely something reminiscent of a 19th century novel title.)

“The show will follow Buffy’s mentor Giles after he decides to come out of retirement in his native England to solve ghost stories and other mysteries.

“Josh studied in Winchester and is quite an Anglophile despite being a native New Yorker and he’s keen to work with the BBC and, of course, Anthony again.

“He admires Russell T. Davies’s pop references in Doctor Who and thought it would be great to get some British musical and comic cameos in the new series.