Posted on Sep 12, 2018
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On this day in 2004, the first season finale of the television comedy series Entourage, about a hot young actor in Hollywood and the posse of people surrounding him, premieres on HBO. Entourage, which debuted on July 18, 2004, stars Adrian Grenier as the up-and-coming movie heartthrob Vincent Chase, who is navigating his way through the pitfalls and excesses of Hollywood. Vince’s entourage includes Eric “E” Murphy (Kevin Connolly), his manager and childhood friend from Queens, New York; his half-brother, the C-list actor Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon, the real-life brother of the actor Matt Dillon); Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), another childhood friend from Queens who is content to ride Vince’s coattails; and Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), Vince’s aggressive, high-strung agent. Other recurring characters on the show include Vince’s sharp-tongued publicist Shauna (played by Debi Mazar) and Ari’s long-suffering gay assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee). The actor Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, Three Kings, The Departed) serves as one of the executive producers of Entourage and the idea for the show was reportedly based on some of his experiences as a rising star in Hollywood.
Prior to Entourage, Adrian Grenier, who was born on July 10, 1976, appeared in such movies as The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998), Woody Allen’s Celebrity (1998), Drive Me Crazy (1999) and Harvard Man (2001). In 2006, he was featured in the box-office hit The Devil Wears Prada, starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. Grenier is also the director and producer of Shot in the Dark, a documentary about his search for his biological father that aired on HBO in 2007.
The most seasoned main cast member of Entourage is Jeremy Piven, who was born on July 26, 1965, to parents who founded Chicago’s Piven Theater Workshop in the 1970s. Piven began his professional acting career in the late 1980s and has appeared in a long list of TV shows and movies, including several (Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, Serendipity) with his childhood friend John Cusack. As of 2008, Piven has earned three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as the volatile Ari Gold.
Since its debut, Entourage has featured numerous cameo appearances from celebrities, including Titanic director James Cameron, Seth Green, Mandy Moore, Brooke Shields (whose husband Chris Henchy has written for Entourage) and the actor-director Edward Burns (whose brother Brian is a writer and producer for the show). HBO, which launched in 1972, has broadcast a number of acclaimed series in addition to Entourage, including Sex and the City (1998 to 2004), The Sopranos (1999 to 2007),Six Feet Under (2001 to 2005),The Larry Sanders Show (1992 to 1998) and The Wire (2002 to 2008).
Prior to Entourage, Adrian Grenier, who was born on July 10, 1976, appeared in such movies as The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998), Woody Allen’s Celebrity (1998), Drive Me Crazy (1999) and Harvard Man (2001). In 2006, he was featured in the box-office hit The Devil Wears Prada, starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. Grenier is also the director and producer of Shot in the Dark, a documentary about his search for his biological father that aired on HBO in 2007.
The most seasoned main cast member of Entourage is Jeremy Piven, who was born on July 26, 1965, to parents who founded Chicago’s Piven Theater Workshop in the 1970s. Piven began his professional acting career in the late 1980s and has appeared in a long list of TV shows and movies, including several (Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, Serendipity) with his childhood friend John Cusack. As of 2008, Piven has earned three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as the volatile Ari Gold.
Since its debut, Entourage has featured numerous cameo appearances from celebrities, including Titanic director James Cameron, Seth Green, Mandy Moore, Brooke Shields (whose husband Chris Henchy has written for Entourage) and the actor-director Edward Burns (whose brother Brian is a writer and producer for the show). HBO, which launched in 1972, has broadcast a number of acclaimed series in addition to Entourage, including Sex and the City (1998 to 2004), The Sopranos (1999 to 2007),Six Feet Under (2001 to 2005),The Larry Sanders Show (1992 to 1998) and The Wire (2002 to 2008).
Season One of Entourage–a TV show about life in Hollywood–comes to an end
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Entourage Uncovered Part 1
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for reminding us that on September 12, 2004 the first season finale of the television comedy series Entourage, about a hot young actor in Hollywood and the posse of people surrounding him, premiered on HBO.
I am thankful I never watched this show. I prefer drama :-)
Background on
"Entourage, review: 'Hollywood at its most cynical'
The hit HBO comedy about a movie star and his lackeys has become a boorish exercise in big-screen superficiality
Entourage had its time and its place – on the small screen, between 2004 and (if we're really being generous) 2011. HBO’s LA comedy series was loosely based on the early career breaks of executive producer Mark Wahlberg, the actor formerly known as Marky Mark, then as an underwear model, and then a pushy wannabe on the Hollywood party circuit.
When A-list opportunities arrived, he brought to LA a loyal coterie of male friends from his days on the wrong side of the tracks in Boston. Their flailing efforts to make him a star, and bask in the reflected glory of his celebrity, was the pith of every episode made.
What gave the show its mileage was the desperation that goes hand in hand with trying this hard to make it in Hollywood. These felt like no-hopers, jokers, not millionaires in waiting. You watched them fail, and fail again, and still inch their way up the ladder through a series of sheer flukes.
After eight successful if downward-spiralling seasons, the concept hasn’t just run completely dry. In Doug Ellin’s feature-length spin-off, it feels starkly and cynically exposed. Entourage is no dagger to the underbelly of LA’s superficiality, vapid celebrity worship or false promises – it never was, of course. It now feels like a garish, laddish, doltish celebration of everything most depressing in contemporary Hollywood. There are those who might be able to dredge up enough loyalty to the brand to appreciate this victory lap. But, as the show's own characters regularly prove, there’s loyalty and there’s blind devotion. Enough is enough.
Sketchy A-list star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) has reached the point where he can commandeer his own franchise, a future-dystopian spin on RL Stevenson called Hyde, and even insist on directing it. His manager E, who used to be played with a short guy’s appealing self-deprecation by Kevin Connolly, has more or less sold his soul to the high life, sharkish promiscuity and all: his ex-girlfriend (poor Emmanuelle Chriqui) is pregnant, but he’s fooling around with anyone going. Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is about a third of his original weight, and has made untold millions with his tequila business. And Vincent’s half-brother Drama (Kevin Dillon) is the same tragic, deluded parasite, but not in a funny way, at all.
All this catch-up session has on its mind is wealth, re-upping stardom and girls in bikinis, with no irony and barely a glint of wit directed towards those obsessions. The first line of the script is about masturbation, and it might as well be every line, for all the memorable quips Ellin and Rob Weiss serve up. Their tonal skill makes the Inbetweeners films look like top-end Ernst Lubitsch.
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Even Jeremy Piven, as Vince’s grossly self-serving, perpetually furious agent Ari Gold – now so powerful he runs a studio – is deprived of any good material. Piven has painted himself into the corner of being so horribly convincing at this role, it’s hard to imagine him performing anything but variations on it for ever more.
But there’s hardly a moment where he scores an honest laugh here, because Ari’s tantrums and manipulations have entirely run their course. The character as written – unlike Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It, say – has become an empty quiver of insults.
The film’s cameos have the feel of shrug-worthy favours Ellin is calling in, except in the case of Piers Morgan, whose smirking presence as himself is a favour to literally no one. Billy Bob Thornton and Haley Joel Osment occupy a pointless, time-filling subplot as Texas money men, whose protection of their investment in Hyde blinds them to whether it’s any good or not.
What we see of this alleged blockbuster makes it look like a bad parody of something by Alex (The Crow) Proyas, all warehouse raves and brooding in hoodies. But every character we’re supposed to trust insists it’s amazing, the real deal. If Entourage wanted to paint Hollywood as a sexist circle of hell where taste is non-existent and frat-boy philistinism reigns supreme, that’s a goal thoroughly achieved. Just don’t ask us to join in the high-fives."
Entourage Uncovered Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3psbWh_ZH6s
FYI LTC Jeff ShearerSGT Philip Roncari Sgt Arthur Caesar Lt Col Jim CoeCWO3 Dennis M.SGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCordSGT Jim Arnold Sgt Albert Castro PO3 Phyllis Maynard Maj Robert Thornton 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Brent Scott CW5 John M. CMSgt (Join to see) PO2 Kevin Parker
I am thankful I never watched this show. I prefer drama :-)
Background on
"Entourage, review: 'Hollywood at its most cynical'
The hit HBO comedy about a movie star and his lackeys has become a boorish exercise in big-screen superficiality
Entourage had its time and its place – on the small screen, between 2004 and (if we're really being generous) 2011. HBO’s LA comedy series was loosely based on the early career breaks of executive producer Mark Wahlberg, the actor formerly known as Marky Mark, then as an underwear model, and then a pushy wannabe on the Hollywood party circuit.
When A-list opportunities arrived, he brought to LA a loyal coterie of male friends from his days on the wrong side of the tracks in Boston. Their flailing efforts to make him a star, and bask in the reflected glory of his celebrity, was the pith of every episode made.
What gave the show its mileage was the desperation that goes hand in hand with trying this hard to make it in Hollywood. These felt like no-hopers, jokers, not millionaires in waiting. You watched them fail, and fail again, and still inch their way up the ladder through a series of sheer flukes.
After eight successful if downward-spiralling seasons, the concept hasn’t just run completely dry. In Doug Ellin’s feature-length spin-off, it feels starkly and cynically exposed. Entourage is no dagger to the underbelly of LA’s superficiality, vapid celebrity worship or false promises – it never was, of course. It now feels like a garish, laddish, doltish celebration of everything most depressing in contemporary Hollywood. There are those who might be able to dredge up enough loyalty to the brand to appreciate this victory lap. But, as the show's own characters regularly prove, there’s loyalty and there’s blind devotion. Enough is enough.
Sketchy A-list star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) has reached the point where he can commandeer his own franchise, a future-dystopian spin on RL Stevenson called Hyde, and even insist on directing it. His manager E, who used to be played with a short guy’s appealing self-deprecation by Kevin Connolly, has more or less sold his soul to the high life, sharkish promiscuity and all: his ex-girlfriend (poor Emmanuelle Chriqui) is pregnant, but he’s fooling around with anyone going. Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is about a third of his original weight, and has made untold millions with his tequila business. And Vincent’s half-brother Drama (Kevin Dillon) is the same tragic, deluded parasite, but not in a funny way, at all.
All this catch-up session has on its mind is wealth, re-upping stardom and girls in bikinis, with no irony and barely a glint of wit directed towards those obsessions. The first line of the script is about masturbation, and it might as well be every line, for all the memorable quips Ellin and Rob Weiss serve up. Their tonal skill makes the Inbetweeners films look like top-end Ernst Lubitsch.
This video isn't encoded for your device
Reload your screen or try selecting a different video
Even Jeremy Piven, as Vince’s grossly self-serving, perpetually furious agent Ari Gold – now so powerful he runs a studio – is deprived of any good material. Piven has painted himself into the corner of being so horribly convincing at this role, it’s hard to imagine him performing anything but variations on it for ever more.
But there’s hardly a moment where he scores an honest laugh here, because Ari’s tantrums and manipulations have entirely run their course. The character as written – unlike Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It, say – has become an empty quiver of insults.
The film’s cameos have the feel of shrug-worthy favours Ellin is calling in, except in the case of Piers Morgan, whose smirking presence as himself is a favour to literally no one. Billy Bob Thornton and Haley Joel Osment occupy a pointless, time-filling subplot as Texas money men, whose protection of their investment in Hyde blinds them to whether it’s any good or not.
What we see of this alleged blockbuster makes it look like a bad parody of something by Alex (The Crow) Proyas, all warehouse raves and brooding in hoodies. But every character we’re supposed to trust insists it’s amazing, the real deal. If Entourage wanted to paint Hollywood as a sexist circle of hell where taste is non-existent and frat-boy philistinism reigns supreme, that’s a goal thoroughly achieved. Just don’t ask us to join in the high-fives."
Entourage Uncovered Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3psbWh_ZH6s
FYI LTC Jeff ShearerSGT Philip Roncari Sgt Arthur Caesar Lt Col Jim CoeCWO3 Dennis M.SGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCordSGT Jim Arnold Sgt Albert Castro PO3 Phyllis Maynard Maj Robert Thornton 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Brent Scott CW5 John M. CMSgt (Join to see) PO2 Kevin Parker
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SFC Shirley Whitfield COL Lee Flemming PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell Alan K. MSgt Stephen Council Sgt Trevor Barrett MSG Andrew White SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth Cpl Scott McCarroll LTC John Shaw LTC John Griscom SSgt (Join to see) SGT Jim Arnold SPC Margaret Higgins CWO3 Dennis M. (Join to see) Susan Foster
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