You’ve heard of the summer of Sam?
Well, this was the summer of Murray. And unfortunately, it ends this week with the season finale of HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords.”
Murray is Murray Hewitt, goateed cultural attache to the New York office of the New Zealand consulate and hapless manager of the two-man band known as the Flight of the Conchords.
Murray (played by New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby) livened up my summer immensely with his ludicrous, by-the-book rollcalls (when the only other attendees at his band meetings were the two band members) and absurd prohibitions on such things as booking the band into nighttime gigs because he felt the streets of New York would be unsafe for them after dark.
Murray was one of the standout characters seen anywhere on TV this summer, although he could not have attained that status without the Conchords themselves – deadpan musicians and fellow New Zealanders Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement.
Playing wide-eyed innocents in the tradition of Laurel and Hardy, the Conchords created a TV show so endearing and childlike it was hard to believe it was airing at 10:30 p.m. Sundays on adult-oriented HBO – just after “Entourage.”
And as funny as “Conchords” was, the real reason to cherish this show was its innovative use of music – at least two original song parodies by the Conchords woven with great creativity into each half-hour episode.
No one who watched “Flight of the Conchords” this season will soon forget such songs as “The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room” from the series premiere; the Barry White-influenced seduction ballad “Business Time the rap parody “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros the nonsensical salute to French romantic films, “Foux Da Fa Fa and the elaborate stop-motion animation of “Albi the Racist Dragon,” a sendup of New Zealand kids TV.
With its sometimes hard-to-understand New Zealand accents and difficult-to-decipher song lyrics, “Conchords” proved too strange for some. As a result, it never really attracted enough viewers to truly earn it a renewal for a second season. And yet, with hopes for a higher-rated second go-round, HBO renewed it anyway because this show was just too clever to cancel.
That means we only have to say good-bye for a little while to Bret and Jemaine; their sole fan, Mel (Kristen Schaal); their only friend, Dave (Arj Barker), the pawn shop owner; and, of course, Murray.
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
Sunday, 10:30 p.m., HBO