Ken Finkleman and Larry David

Little (or nothing) has been said on IMDb about the similarities between Ken Finkleman's scheming, petty, cheap, conniving, envious, vindictive, nitpicking, small-minded (pick your adjective) George Findlay, and Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. These two guys make mountains out of molehills every day. The Fifty Dollars episode on the second season of The Newsroom is a great example of Findlay's neurosis and pathetic little obsessive mind in full tilt. Larry David would have behaved almost exactly the same way. It's a terrific episode, but for me, they all were. Very funny stuff with fabulous acting by all concerned, but also terrific satire: the famed CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), or any other large media organization for that matter, is loaded with neurotically obsessed characters like the ones who rise and fall weekly on The Newsroom.

It's interesting to note that in the very funny 1996-97 season, Finkleman's character was more or less the same as the one in 2004-05. In other words, the deeply flawed (and all-too-human and real, at least to me) George Findlay was a character that long predated David's on Curb, which didn't debut until, I think, 2001. Finkleman is something special, and I'm glad Canada still has him after his various forays into U.S. show biz.