Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

With his ABC "Surviving Suburbia" set to debut on April 6, Bob Saget is hitting the road to polish some new stand-up material that will be markedly different than the raunch that's marked his comedy routines. "I don't know what's happening, my jokes aren't as blue anymore," says the comic. "I don't know why. I guess I've purged myself. My mother actually thinks my stuff is funny now -- that worries me."

TV Mix: Bob Saget is Surviving Suburbia (Image: WENN)

The funny man analyzes that his ultra-blue comedy routines were born of anger "over things that have happened in my life ... a lot of death ... My sister Gay dying at age 42 of scleroderma, my sister Andrea dying at age 34 of a brain aneurism, my father losing four brothers ... "

Stand up, he says, has given him a chance to vent. "It's an art form," he says. "I'm emotional about it. When I pull the mike off the stand, it's like pulling a sword from the sheath … After all these years, I'm still passionate about it."

Passion is what he also feels for "Suburbia," which was originally made to air on the CW, ended up in limbo midway through shooting in December and was finally picked up for airing by ABC in the plum berth behind "Dancing With the Stars."

Saget who's been single since his divorce from Sherri Kramer, the mother of his three daughters, in 1997, describes "Suburbia" as "a mirror of my life, like a post-marriage diary." He terms the show a "Kind of 'Revolutionary Road,' the comedy. "

With Cynthia Stevenson playing the wife, and Jere Burns and Lorna Scott the neighbors, it paints a picture, he says, "Of what a lot of my friends are going through these days. They just want to be left alone. In one episode Cynthia tells me, 'If you don't do this, the neighbors will think you don't care,' and I answer, 'I don't care!'"

With Kevin Abbott, whose past credits include "Roseanne" serving as executive producer, the show, says Bob, "will feature a lot of confrontations around the kitchen counter. It will also have some wild and wooly storylines, including one that has Bob and Cynthia reading an instructional book that prompts them to undertake having sex for 40 days in a row. "After 14 days," says Saget, "I can't take anymore, and I go on a business trip."

DRAMATIC MOVE: The king of reality TV, Jonathan Murray, who created "The Real World," tells us he and his company have been tossing around the idea of delving into the world of scripted material. "I think we're definitely interested in the area of indie features. We'd love to do a scripted television series, but it's got to be the right material and subject matter," says Murray, who is anticipating the TV release of their movie "Pedro."

"We shot a really cool scripted film on Pedro Zamora, who was on the third season of 'The Real World.' He was an HIV educator, and he passed away shortly after filming. It will be airing on MTV sometime in the spring, though it's possible it could have a small theatrical release before."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: "There's nudity, cussing, full-blown fights. It's so hysterical, live -- they go the full distance." That's musician and Howie Mandel foil DJ Ravidrums, talking about what viewers at home don't see on "Howie Do It," NBC's practical joke comedy show that's proven a ratings-grabber since being unleashed Jan. 9. Yes, things get rude on the show that cooks up fun at unsuspecting folks' expense. But as far as DJ Ravi is concerned, "In this day and age, if you're not going to go there, it's not going to work. They keep raising the stakes and raising the stakes … I think one of the guys got beat up pretty bad."

He's referring to "Howie Do It's" man on the street, Vic Cohen, who DJ Ravi says took off his clothes as part of a gag in which he was trying to convince a fellow up in rural Canada that his wife wanted to have an extramarital sexual encounter with Vic, right then and there. At least, to hear the drummer tell it. The man evidently took offense.

According to DJ Ravi, "There is one episode coming up that is a soap opera audition that was so bad -- it's that awful train wreck you can't help but look at. It was so funny, I was gagging because I couldn't stop laughing. I almost threw up onstage."

Now there's an endorsement we won't forget.

MEANWHILE: DJ Ravi, inventor of the live remix, isn't letting his music career slide while playing Paul Shaffer to Mandel's Letterman. The percussion whiz (www.ravidrums.com) has a hot career going at the drum set as well -- as evidenced by his recent gigs in Las Vegas, Orlando and the Black Eyed Peas' Peapod Foundation benefit.

With reports by Emily Feimster.