I am – Hercules!! I’ve been hearing about “The Naked Trucker and T-Bones” as long as I’ve known Moriarty, but I’ve somehow never caught their storied live shows. I’ve however long been familiar with the two fellows who play the title characters. Dave “Gruber” Allen used to be in a hilarious improv team called The Higgins Boys and Gruber, then went on to play the hippie guidance counselor Russo on “Freaks and Geeks.” David Koechner started on “Saturday Night Live” the same day Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri did, but only lasted one season. Ferrell later cast him as sportscaster Champ Kind in “Anchorman” and Koechner hasn’t stopped making movies since. (Here’s something to give you a sense of Koechner’s post-“Anchorman” career trajectory. In the eight years between “SNL” and “Anchorman,” he had bit parts in eight movies - or at least eight movies that actually made it to the inside of a cinema. In the mere two calendar years since “Anchorman” he appeared in 13.) One hears this half-hour series vaguely resembles the old “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” The first episode features Ferrell as a guest star. Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B” and says:

… The writing's clever, though spotty, and the loopy Koechner is always a hoot as a thinking man's Larry the Cable Guy...which is more of a compliment than it sounds. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… It is not an impenetrable mystery, I suppose — writing and production and the aptness of the casting are the obvious culprits when comedy goes wrong, though in this case much or most or all of the blame must revert to the comedians themselves, who are the executive producers of this series, featuring characters they have created … funny in parts, which may be funny enough for some. But they must be plucked from a show that never quite gets going the way it should, never gathers satisfying speed but instead struggles like an overloaded semi on a mountain grade. Moving back and forth between filmed skits and segments taped before the suggestion of a live audience, "TNTTBS" interferes with itself; rhythmically, it gets in its own way. …

The Columbus Dispatch says:

… Naked is funny, but it’s more just plain bizarre, though not in that "What were they thinking?" kind of way that Comedy Central’s Stella was. Can’t really call it a train wreck, either. That would imply that Naked is awful, and it isn’t. Even when the show isn’t slap-your-knee funny, however, it grabs your attention. … Like cheap beer, Naked is best served right away — before you have time to analyze what you’re drinking.

The Detroit Free Press says:

… it's a bent boondocks channeling of the Smothers Brothers, a pleasurable hang loose dose of lowbrow lunacy for the smart set in a wigged-out Hicksville variety show. You mean stupid humor with a brain? Darn tootin'. … Oh sure, Allen and Koechner's gonzo comedy carnival can push the edge on taste. But like such Comedy Central staples as "South Park" and "The Daily Show," "The Naked Trucker & T-Bones" does so with real subversive wit and slaphappy imagination. Because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that hilarious zing. And the Naked Trucker & T-Bones are hauling a full, 18-wheel load of big laughs. …

The Boston Globe says:

… On the surface, T-Bones resembles a redneck comedy type who slings beers and beer jokes, but dig deeper and there's a hint of Monty Python-esque insanity and illogic afoot. All his stupidity is deliberately obscure; you have to think a moment to follow the point. … Ultimately, though, the show doesn't work. The humor isn't as sharp or imaginative or ironic as it needs to be, to justify all the free-floating oddness. "The Naked Trucker & T-Bones" may be smarter and more subversive than the "Blue Collar Comedy" dudes, but only very slightly …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… They work well together, especially considering their partnership is a relatively new facet of their careers. But their work as a comedy duo loses some of its edge when it is refined and processed, sliced and diced, and repackaged for half-hour episodes of television. … Each episode is supposed to hold an adventure from Trucker and T-Bones' travels down America's highways, but the video bits are too random and the stories too closely mimic studio-based skits. Even so, the series has promise. It is different enough to grow a fan base over its eight-episode run as loyal and enthusiastic as the one that greets the stage shows. What's more, the show has an undeniable spirit of anarchy. T-Bones, in particular, thumbs his nose at anything resembling authority, and the two create a sense that just about anything can happen at any moment.

Variety says:

… The small but loyal band that appreciates the Naked Trucker and T-Bones' rollicking stage show will no doubt find itself somewhat perplexed viewing this TV incarnation, which bears the familiar markings of a poorly adapted novel or out-of-tune screen version of a favorite musical. The outward resemblance is there, but the beast appears to have been defanged, or at least muzzled, leaving behind a pallid imitation. …

10:30 p.m. Wednesday. Comedy Central.

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