''Lucky Louie'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

created by Louis C.K., which aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

for one season in 2006. As the show's creator, writer and executive producer, C.K. also starred as the eponymous central character, a part-time

mechanic A mechanic is a skilled tradesperson who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially engines. Formerly, the term meant any member of the handicraft trades, but by the early 20th century, it had come to mean one who works w ...

at a muffler shop. A first for HBO, ''Lucky Louie'' was filmed before a live

studio audience A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack (as opposed to canne ...

, in a

multiple-camera setup The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking, television production and video production. Several cameras—either film cameras, film or professional video cameras—are ...

. Inspired by

Norman Lear Norman Milton Lear (July 27, 1922December 5, 2023) was an American screenwriter and producer who produced, wrote, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear created and produced numerous popular 1970s sitcoms, including ''All in the Family'' (1 ...

s, the show depicts the life of an average

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family while using spartan sets and wardrobe. Dealing with a range of topics including

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

, the series uses considerable adult language and featured guest stars best known as

stand-up comedians Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehea ...

, including Jim Norton,

Laura Kightlinger Laura Kightlinger (born ) is an American actress, writer and comedian. She was a writer and consulting producer on ''Will & Grace'', while also occasionally appearing on the show as the character Nurse Sheila. She was also a writer on the CBS s ...

Nick DiPaolo Nicholas Rocco Di Paolo (born January 31, 1962) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, radio personality and podcast host. He is the host of ''The Nick Di Paolo Show'' podcast, and is best known for his appearances as a regular on ...

, Todd Barry and

Rick Shapiro Rick Shapiro (born April 13, 1959) is a Los Angeles–based comedian and actor. Life and career Shapiro was born in New Jersey. Spending his early years in New York City and New Jersey, Shapiro started his career in the early 1980s as a comedi ...

. HBO ordered 12 episodes, which aired during the 2006 summer season, as well as eight scripts for a second season, before canceling the show in September 2006 for numerous reasons ranging from the nature of the show to network economic pressure.

Plot

The show follows the life of Louie, a

part-time

at a

muffler A muffler (North American and Australian English) or silencer (British English) is a device for reducing the noise emitted by the exhaust of an internal combustion engine—especially a noise-deadening device forming part of the exhaust syst ...

shop owned by his best friend Mike; Louie's wife, Kim, a full-time

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

and the family breadwinner (

Pamela Adlon Pamela Adlon ( ; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American-British actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in '' Ju ...

); and their four-year-old daughter, Lucy ( Kelly Gould).

Cast

Crew

Louis C.K. served as creator, star, head writer and executive producer.

Mike Royce Mike Royce (born 1964) is an American screenwriter and television producer. Education Raised in Syracuse, New York, Royce graduated from Jamesville-Dewitt High School in 1982, then went on to film school at Ithaca College where he graduated in ...

served as showrunner and executive producer. Other executive producers included Dave Becky and Vic Kaplan. Writers included C.K. and Royce, Kit Boss (co-executive producer), Patricia Breen (executive story editor), Jon Ross (executive story editor), Mary Fitzgerald (staff writer),

Greg Fitzsimmons Gregory Sebastian Fitzsimmons (born April 5, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, and Emmy Award-winning television writer. Early life Fitzsimmons was raised in Tarrytown, New York to Bob (1939-1993) and Patricia Marie Judi ...

(staff writer), Dan Mintz (staff writer),

Dino Stamatopoulos Konstantinos Pollux Alexandros "Dino" Stamatopoulos (born December 14, 1964) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He has worked on TV programs such as '' Mr. Show'', '' TV Funhouse'', ''Mad TV'', '' The Dana Carvey Show'', ''Late Show wi ...

(writer), and Aaron Shure (consulting producer), formerly of ''

Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American television sitcom created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch and Wor ...

''. The theme, entitled "Lucky Louie Theme", was composed by Mark Rivers. The animated title sequence was by David Tristman. Andrew D. Weyman served as the series' main director. Producers on the show were Leo Clarke and Andrew D. Weyman. The associate producer was Ralph Paredes. and the consulting producer was Tracy Katsky.

Episodes

Critical reception

''Lucky Louie'' received mixed reviews from critics and holds a

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

score of 47 out of 100 based on 19 reviews.

Home media

HBO released the entire series of ''Lucky Louie'' on January 30, 2007.retrieved December 10, 2006
It includes an unaired episode "Clowntime is Over". The DVD also includes four commentaries and a look at the taping of an episode.

Criticism

In August 2006, during the show's run,

Bill Donohue William Anthony Donohue (born July 18, 1947) is an American Roman Catholic layman who has been president of the Catholic League in the United States since 1993. Life and career Donohue was born in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. ...

, president of the American organization Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, issued a news release about ''Lucky Louie'', calling the series "barbaric". The release provides a bulleted list of content from the show that the organization finds obscene, from the ten episodes that had been broadcast at that time. In January 2007, Louis C.K. was a guest in studio on the '' Opie & Anthony'' radio show (co-hosted by Jim Norton, who plays Rich on ''Lucky Louie''). Donohue appeared on the show as a phone-in guest that day, and C.K. started a conversation with him about his comments on ''Lucky Louie''. C.K. challenged Donohue's news release and accused him of misrepresenting the show by taking things out of context. Donohue admitted that even though the press release bears his name, he had never seen an episode of the show. Textual recap of the show:

References

External links

* {{HBONetwork Shows HBO sitcoms 2006 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings 2000s American multi-camera sitcoms American English-language television shows Television series created by Louis C.K. Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television series by Home Box Office Television series by HBO Independent Productions