Old meets new in 'Curb'-like 'Comedians' on FX

The fifth season of FX's critically acclaimed “Louie” gets a new lead-in for its Thursday, April 9, premiere, and it's another half-hour comedy about real-life comedians — called “The Comedians.”

Billy Crystal and Josh Gad star as themselves in the new show that owes as much to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Office” as it does to the Swedish series it is adapted from, “Ulveson And Herngren.” In the pilot episode, we see Crystal pitching a sketch show to an FX Networks executive played by “American Horror Story” staple Denis O'Hare, who wants to pair the decidedly old-school comic with a younger talent.

Enter Gad, best known to the world as the voice of Olaf the snowman from Disney's “Frozen,” and so begins what the promotional materials are succinctly calling “an FX original comedy series about an FX original comedy series.” It's chiefly a mockumentary about the making of a fictional sketch show, but “The Comedians” also offers us glimpses of those sketches. (Example: “Lewis is the New Black,” which gives us Crystal's impression of perpetually angry comic Lewis Black in a women's prison.)

Much of the show's humor is derived from the clash of its stars' ages, cultures and comedy sensibilities. Much like Crystal's post-”City Slickers” career, some of it falls flat and feels outdated. The pilot, for instance, ends with the revelation that a male friend of Crystal's has undergone gender reassignment, and is played for a huge laugh it doesn't earn.

But after watching the first four episodes of “The Comedians,” I am on board — Crystal is a legend for a reason, and he and Gad quickly build a rapport. The third episode airing April 23, “Red Carpet,” gives the comics some room for improv when a stoned limo ride to an awards show gets sidetracked by a trip to the grocery store.

The supporting cast shines as well, particularly former “MADtv” cast member Stephnie Weir as the fictional show's producer and relative newcomer Megan Ferguson as a production assistant who doesn't seem to grasp the concept of assisting.

The guest stars are plentiful and mostly worth keeping a secret, but I will tease you with the April 30 appearance of “Frozen” songwriters Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who write a racy, raucously funny musical number for Gad and Crystal. (And Anderson-Lopez shows some impressive comedic timing in her scenes, too.)

“The Comedians” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. and is followed immediately by “Louie,” the wonderfully offbeat dramedy by stand-up comic Louis C.K. The first four episodes of the new season don't break any new ground, but put us (un)comfortably back in Louie's world. Perhaps in response to criticisms that Louie took advantage of his sort-of girlfriend, Pamela (Pamela Adlon), last season, the first few half-hours subject Louie to abject humiliation in the presence of the opposite sex.

The most striking thing about this fifth season is realizing how much C.K. himself has aged in the past few years. The rough cuts I saw reinstate the opening-credits sequence that was jettisoned last year, and he looks 10 years younger in it. The character of Louis C.K., both in real life and on the show, forever seems to be suffering for the sake of his art, and I don't think it's an exaggeration. Hey, he suffers, we laugh. Works for me.

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald copy editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.