Arliss (1996)

Original title

Arli$$

Genre

sitcom

Country

United States

Length

7 seasons, 80 episodes

Rated

TV-MA

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A sports agent in Los Angeles juggles the egos of his rich and famous clients while constantly getting into tricky situations. The show follows his attempts to solve problems with optimism and endless negotiation, revealing the greed and hypocrisy behind professional sports.

fast-pacedsatiricalwittycynicalglossysharpunflinching

What happens

Arliss (rendered in its logo as Arli$$) is an American dark comedy series, created by and starring Robert Wuhl (who was also the series' showrunner), about the glitzy, big-money world of professional sports, with Wuhl playing the eternally optimistic and endlessly resourceful L.A. sports agent Arliss Michaels, whose Achilles' heel is his inability to say "no" to clients and employees. Arliss ran for seven seasons and 80 episodes on HBO, from August 10, 1996, to September 8, 2002. After almost two decades off the air, the entire catalog of Arliss episodes returned to Max in a streaming format in 2022. The New York Times called the show "One of the freshest shows to come along in a while." It was well known for taking on very controversial (at the time) topics, including point shaving, political corruption, personal seat license fees, relocation of professional sports teams, sports in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, right to work law states, domestic abuse, steroid use, Alzheimer's disease, gay and transgender athletes, alcoholism, and unwanted athlete pregnancies. The idea behind Arliss was to show the hype, greed, and hypocrisy of powerful sports agents like Arliss Michaels, and what really happens "behind the scenes" in professional sports. In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wuhl said the idea for Arliss was based on the book The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump and journalist Tony Schwartz: I had read The Art of the Deal and I thought, "This is total, 100 percent bullshit. He's saying stuff that I don't believe a fuckin' word of it. He's telling you what happened, but I want to see what really happened." We can use this, as Arliss the sports agent, telling you what happens and then prove he's full of shit and show what really happened. Over 400 celebrities had cameo appearances on Arliss, including Les Moonves, George Wallace, Bobcat Goldthwait, Shannon Elizabeth, Fred Williamson, Al Michaels, John Elway, Derek Jeter, Dan Marino, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Warren Moon, Alonzo Mourning, Bob Costas, Jimmy Johnson, Jerry Jones, Picabo Street, Katarina Witt, and Barry Bonds. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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