Show Recommendations, Part I

There are some delightful shows that I’ve fallen into discovering. While I don't have the bandwidth to recap each one on a regular basis - I did want to call your attention to it...

The Sarah Silverman Program – The very first episode starts with Sarah sitting on the couch claiming to be having a case of the blahs. “I need some good news,” she says. This is when she finds a flyer on her coffee table for a free AIDS test, so she springs up and goes to get an AIDS test. At the clinic, they ask her things like – have you ever had unprotected sex? Her answer – Is there any other kind? The continued line of questioning indicates to the nurse and Sarah that it’s highly likely she have AIDS.



She finds her friends and sister and tells them all that she has AIDS. She then is inspired to start the Sarah Silverman AIDS awareness campaign with all of her sister’s money. Her sister discovers the missing money from her account when she is attempting to buy a bunch of party supplies for her husband’s birthday party – so he has to pay for it himself, creating a damper on the Sarah-brother-in-law relationship.

Sarah continues with her campaigning for AIDS awareness with posters and shirts that all have her face on them. She then organizes a rally to speak at. Meanwhile, the sister and husband are having the birthday party, and the husband says – Sarah can’t mess up my big day now. During the rally, Sarah’s cell phone rings, and she announces: “Oooh, it’s my test results,” leaving the crowd to figure out that Sarah doesn’t even know if she has AIDS, so they turn on her, and start throwing tomatoes at her and cause a riot. The sister’s husband, who is a cop, sees the rioting on TV and all of his cop friends at the party have to leave to tend to it, leaving him standing there with only three other people. Sarah finds out she doesn’t have AIDS and runs to her sister’s house and tells everyone the good news, and declares it her new birthday – taking all the thunder away from the brother-in-law. Hilarious.



In the second episode, she wants to compete to be Little Miss Rainbow and after her try out, the judges say: “We tell you this every year, Sarah. The age limit for this competition is 10 years old.” She sulks and stands at the side of the stage, when she sees a little girl try out, but claims she has no parents or guardian to enter her into the competition. Sarah claims her as her daughter, envisioning living out her dream of becoming Little Miss Rainbow (Sarah finished in second place when she was 10).

The episode goes on with Sarah prepping the little girl for competition. But the best part is when they’re at the event, and little Sarah is about to go out and answer a question from the judges, but is watching another little girl give the best answer so far. So little Sarah gets discouraged, and Sarah Silverman gives her a speech about not giving up: Ten years ago, she was pregnant and everybody around her wanted her to "give up" and have the baby. She finally decided to have an abortion after eight and a half months and spent hours in the hospital pushing out the baby. She then left through the hospital window.

Little Sarah goes on stage and they ask her who is her hero. She answers that it’s herself. Because ten years ago, she was orphaned by a mother in a hospital who fled through the window. Clearly implying that Sarah is her natural mom. After hearing all of this, Sarah gasps in realization and declares – “that answer might just win this competition!” And she does indeed win.