"Monkey Love"

Watching Kenny vs. Spenny, I always felt badly for Spencer Rice. He always seemed to lose out in the challenges he faced against Kenny Hotz, and when he did, he was left a broken man, little chin quivering and puppy-dog eyes brimming with tears. We’re still waiting for Kenny’s new series to debut later this summer on Showcase Action, but from where I stand, Rice has won this latest challenge: who has got the better new show on TV. Single White Spenny is rude, raw and wildly over-the-top, but it also has heart.

Spenny boasts a who’s who of the TV sitcom elite. Howard Busgang, the man behind the excellent — and criminally-mistreated-by-the-CBC — An American in Canada, is an executive producer, as are Ira Levy and Peter Williamson, who worked on both Kenny vs. Spenny and Less than Kind. And veteran funny man David Steinberg, who lists appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, roles on Mad About You and directing over 50 projects, is also an executive producer.

Throw all that into a bowl, and you get a highly entertaining series. Rice, of course, plays to his strength in the sitcom, as sad-sack Spenny, a man who was kicked out of his house and marriage, and seeks to better himself when it comes to relationships.

Last night’s instalment found Spenny going to extreme lengths to score with a young woman he met in a city park. After observing her pleading to passers-by to donate money to the plight of an endangered monkey species. Spenny threw himself behind her, going so far as to suggest they acquire one of the monkey’s to really play up on people’s guilty consciences. Of course, once they did get one of the primates, it wasn’t all cute and cuddly. (It actually looked a lot like Marcel from Friends.) Screeching constantly, throwing things and firing streams of pee at Spenny, the little monster made everyone’s life hell.

Overall, a very funny episode, made even more so by veteran actress Deb McGrath, who portrays Spenny’s mom, Sheila. The biggest laugh for me was the scene in which Sheila, out for dinner with her son, called a neighbour to set him up with the woman’s daughter.

“Spenny, are you a back door man?” she inquired. Something about hearing a middle-age woman ask that type of question struck me as hilarious.

Yeah, I know. Pretty puerile, right? Well, that’s Single White Spenny in a nutshell, and it’s pretty damn great.