Have you ever walked down the halls of your high school feeling lonely and dejected, like your life just could not get any worse? And then you slipped into eighth-period gym class, a bully pantsed you, and your entire class realized that your penis was abnormally large? Like, so abnormally large that it was about to change your fortune in life? Well that is the tale that MTV's first single-cam comedy The Hard Times of RJ Berger is telling -- or as we here at Movieline have been calling it -- Hung For the Young.
The fantasy comedy series, created by David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith (both of CBS's internet TV series Clark and Michael), will premiere June 6, about a year after HBO unveiled its triumphant comedy appendage Hung. Being peddled by the network as The Wonder Years meets Superbad, Hard Times appears to be more of a censored version of the pay cable series starring Thomas Jane. Instead of a ruggedly handsome Detroit father (Jane) who uses his anatomical gift to pad his high school teacher's salary, Hard Times features a classic geek (Paul Iacono) who uses his tool to pad his popularity with women. Neighborhood cougars, that normal-looking-but-for-the-sake-of-teen-fantasy "ugly" girl (Kara Taitz) and even R.J.'s comically unattainable dream girl (Amber Lancaster) flock to his side upon the discovery. A fun premise, sure, as long as MTV spares us the teen angst.
Take a look for yourself and let the double entendre fun begin.