THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TIM

"The life and times of Tim" is another one of HBO's "hidden" classic comedies.  Originally developed for FOX, somehow it made its way over to HBO and premiered in 2008.  It was HBO's second foray into traditional animation, and its first animated comedy.

The life and times of Tim premiered on September 28, 2008. The series was created by Steve Dildarian, and is about a hapless man in his mid-20's named Tim (Steve Dildarian) who lives in New York City with his girlfriend Amy. Throughout the series, Tim constantly finds himself in increasingly awkward situations in both his work and personal life.

In this video Dildarian gives the history behind "Tim" as well as the animation process.

The show can be best summed up as poorly drawn cousin to "Curb your Enthusiasm."  The situations that Tim gets himself into mirror that of Larry David on Curb.

Voiced and drawn by Dildarian, the poorly drawn characters have a charm to them as if they were comic strip characters come to life.  Having higher quality animation would have spoiled that charm.  The characters look the way they do because that's the best Dildarian could draw them.  Sort of like web comic artist Natalie Dee.  Her charm is that her humor is so good that it overcomes her artistic abilities.  Something she pokes fun at in her comics.

Much like Larry David's wife in Curb, Tim has a long suffering girlfriend named Amy that seems to put up with Tim's antics longer than most girlfriends would have put up with.  

The cast is rounded out by Tim's friend Stu, played by "The League's" Nick Kroll, who is a constant source of getting Tim into trouble.

Throught the series, Tim is constantly beholden to the crazy schemes his boss puts together.  In one episode Tim's boss (only know as Boss), hires the screenwriter from "Ocean's 11" to write a kidnap scenario so the boss and Tim can kidnap/rescue the boss' dog from his ex-wife.

The boss also gets Tim into trouble in other ways as well.

If you have ever worked in a corporate situation, you have run into the humorless dicks that work in Human Resources.  This scene showcases how terrible HR departments are, and is the only time ever the subject of "Bum Rape" has actually been funny.

The Show only ended up lasting three short seasons, which is a shame because it was as funny as "Curb" and dare I say it, sometimes funnier.  In retrospect, HBO should have paired it with Curb as either a lead in, or had Tim follow after Curb.  It seems that when HBO gets a hold of a niche comedy show, they don't know what to do with it (much like Fox).

"The life and times of Tim" is available on dvd.  If you love "Curb," this is a must buy.