Lombardo said that "Hung" fulfills HBO's criteria of looking for shows that have a distinct point of view, work on multiple thematic and dramatic levels, and are "wildly entertaining."
The cultural and psychological terrain that "Hung" traverses isn't quite as outlandish or novel as its premise. Ray bears certain similarities of character and background to Harry Angstrom, the former star athlete-turned-car-salesman protagonist of John Updike's "Rabbit" novels. The 1990s film (and later Broadway musical) "The Full Monty," about unemployed workers who decide to form a male striptease act, also charts the uneasy intersection of socioeconomic insecurity and traditional male sexual identity under siege. Another current HBO series, "Eastbound & Down," concerns a former big league relief pitcher whose obnoxious persona and slowing fastball ended his promising career, and who's now hoping for a shot at redemption.
Heche said she thinks that "Hung" addresses serious, anxious questions that many Americans, men and women alike, are asking themselves as home prices tumble, jobs dwindle and the roles and habits that formerly defined their lives shift overnight or, in many cases, simply disappear.
"I think a lot of Americans are looking at their lives right now and saying, 'What happened?' " she said. The show, she added, "does raise the question of how far would we go, when there seems to be no answer and no one is going to be doing it for us."
Like many of her friends in Hollywood, Heche said, in recent months she personally has felt the economic pinch precipitated by last year's writers strike. "It was very scary. I was pregnant. And of course when you're in it, you think it's never going to end," she said. " 'Hung' has saved my butt."
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Striking a chord
Adams, probably best known for her performance as the friend Carrie in Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," said that although her character, Tanya, opines that "Men suck sometimes," she tends not to generalize about gender-based behavior. "Both sexes are capable of being their own worst enemy, both sexes are capable of being delusional," she said.
That certainly applies to the male and female characters in "Hung," whose emotional depth appears to be the product of long discussions and tight collaboration between its creators. Lipkin, as the child of immigrants, and Burson, a product of small-town Virginia, always viewed themselves as outsiders trying to fit into environments beyond their comfort zones. Later in life, they spent a dozen years struggling in New York to become playwrights.
Despite growing professional success on the West Coast -- Lipkin is creator and executive producer of FX's "The Riches"; Burson's writing credits include the 1999 feature "Coming Soon" with Mia Farrow, which she co-authored with Kate Robin -- that self-perception, and the ambition it feeds, hasn't left either of them.
"We're very attracted to people whose souls are yearning or aspirational, but they're not fulfilled," said Lipkin, again overlapping in conversation with his wife.
"Sometimes we think of 'Hung' as a comedy of awkwardness," Burson chimed in. "I hope it will appeal to people with creative yearnings and idealism who are stuck in a non-creative place."
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reed.johnson@latimes.com
