This week sees the DVD release of all six episodes of the short-lived but much-loved 2007 NBC series Andy Barker, P.I., which starred Andy Richter as the titular accountant-cum-private eye, and was co-created by Conan O'Brien. Read on for my review of the DVD.

Poor Andy Richter never really got the success he deserved after leaving Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and watching Andy Barker, P.I. (which was co-created by O'Brien himself), you really see what a missed opportunity that was. He's such a likeable, fun performer, and he brings great humor to his role as the world's nicest guy, who gets a strange thrill out of solving sordid crimes by sheer force of decency. Read the rest of the review ...

Image courtesy of Shout! Factory

A few bits of news from this past week:

• IFC has renewed horrible sketch-comedy show The Whitest Kids U'Know for a fourth season, which will begin January 19. The episodes have been expanded from 15 minutes to 30, which is terrible news for fans of humor, but good news for people looking for torture material, I guess.
• Veteran sitcom writer David Lloyd, whose resume is like a rundown of the greatest sitcoms of the last 30 years (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers, The Bob Newhart Show, Rhoda, Taxi, Wings, Frasier), passed away last week at age 75. Lloyd's most enduring legacy may be his writing of the infamous Mary Tyler Moore episode "Chuckles Bites the Dust," in which the characters are unable to contain their laughter at the passing of the titular clown, and for which Lloyd won an Emmy.
• Syfy has decided to get in on the TV-comedy action, picking up the live-action/animation hybrid Outer Space Astronauts, which will debut December 8. The show stars creator Russell Barrett as an inept spaceship captain and was, according to a press release, produced entirely in Barrett's basement, co-starring his friends. Filmmaker David O. Russell is on board as an executive producer.

Photo courtesy of IFC

The Pitch: Bob Einstein returns as Super Dave Osborne, the inept stuntman who was a Showtime and Saturday-morning-cartoon star in the late '80s and early '90s, in this four-episode series. Super Dave does the same thing he's always done, getting horribly injured in ridiculous stunts gone awry, with the added element of a fake "reality" show that follows him as he prepares for his daredevil feats.

Verdict: This show really feels like the relic of another era, and not in a good way. Super Dave is the kind of dopey, inoffensive caricature who's right at home on a Saturday-morning cartoon, but his one joke has really worn thin over time. There's a bit of nostalgic amusement to be had here, but otherwise it's pretty forgettable.

Airs: Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Spike TV

Premieres: Special preview tonight at 11 p.m. EST; regular premiere November 17

Photo courtesy of Spike TV

I suppose, given that we have sitcoms based on movies and books on the air right now, it makes sense that TV networks are now looking to websites for new comedy ideas. In the last week, two online concerns have been optioned for comedy pilots, one from an established comedy-creating enterprise, the other from some dude on Twitter. In the less surprising announcement, Comedy Central is teaming up with The Onion for a show based on the fake-news site's sports video segments. Turning two-minute videos (which often feature jokes that get old after one minute) into a half-hour series is going to be a tough task, but if the show can open up beyond lampooning sports commentary, it could work. Then again, the last show Comedy Central picked up based on online videos was the atrocious Secret Girlfriend.

More unlikely is the story of Jeff Halpern, creator of the Twitter feed S*** My Dad Says, which has been optioned by CBS for development as a sitcom. Halpern's Twitter feed is a collection of amusing things uttered by his crotchety 73-year-old dad, which basically means that CBS just paid money for the rights to a character type that's on half the sitcoms in existence (the acerbic old man). Will & Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan will executive produce, and chances are anything remotely edgy about the Twitter feed will get sanded into typical CBS blandness (starting with the title).

Meanwhile, About.com TV Comedies Guide is a great idea for a sitcom, right?

Image courtesy of Comedy Central