Ever since his debut as a director with "Night Shift", Ron Howard’s films have tended to fall into two categories: treacly, over-sincere slush ("Cocoon", "Far and Away", "Parenthood", "Apollo 13") or spot-on comedic farces ("Splash", "Gung Ho", "The Paper"). "EDtv" can easily be filed in the latter category - not a bad thing at all.

Coming in the wake of other media-skewering films this year, "EDtv" comes across with a decidedly different agenda. Whereas both "The Truman Show" and "Pleasantville" aimed to critique the mass media first, and entertain second, Howard’s film is first and foremost an entertaining bit of fluff with unexpected levels of depth that creep in. The stridently breezy and bouncy tone of the film helps separate it from the earlier movies this year, and also proves to be incredibly fun viewing.

The storyline about Ed (Matthew McConnaughey), a video store clerk with nothing in the future who accepts the True TV network’s offer to broadcast his life all the time, and the escalating number of problems that arise as his friends and family become unwittingly roped into the increasing media frenzy as the show becomes a hit, pretty much writes itself. There are obvious jokes aplenty, and many unexpected moments of hilarity as the script, by Bubbaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz, meanders in this familiar territory. Strung along for the ride are Ed’s brittle mother, Jeanette (Sally Kirkland), his wheelchair bound stepfather Al (Martin Landau), his grotesquely trashy brother Ray (Woody Harrelson) and his long-suffering girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman). As Ed’s celebrity grows, the price inflicted upon each of these individuals is ignored by Cynthia (Ellen DeGeneres), the producer of the show, and Whitaker (Rob Reiner), the heartless television station owner who refuses to take the show off air even though the toll being exacted on Ed and the ones he loves has turned them into an ongoing Jerry Springer show.

Based on a French-Canadian film, "Louis 19, King of the Airwaves", Mandel and Ganz’s script is peppered with the standard number of pot shots about the media and fame. It also often wanders into sticky sweet terrain, but these moments are saved from becoming maudlin by Howard’s perfectly assembled cast.

In fact, the greatest star of the film may be casting directors Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins who have helped put together a dream all-star cast as well as believable supporting actors who fill-in as audiences for Edtv. Finally finding a role that allows him to shine, Matthew McConnaughey - unlike Ed - is finally justifiably famous for being an actor, rather than just being famous for being famous. His performance is high on charm, which is important, since Ed is a sometimes selfish and dislikable character. The underused Martin Landau shines in the few moments where he is called upon to be the moral center of the film, and Sally Kirkland is suitably shrill and scary as Ed’s slightly unhinged mother. Woody Harrelson is generous in his supporting performance, and Jenna Elfman plumbs unexpected depths with her performance which often brings to mind Renee Zellwegger’s star-making turn in "Jerry Maguire".

Apart from Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper and Ron’s brother, Clint Howard, who give amusing performances as stock characters, the really intriguing casting choices in the context of the film are Ellen DeGeneres and Elizabeth Hurley. DeGeneres, who plays a television executive who comes out of her corporate, money grubbing mode in order to tell the truth and do the right thing by Ed, seems to be using the film to comment on her own television fiasco where she came out with the truth but got burned instead of lionized as she does in the script here. And Hurley, whose fame continues to defy reason (there are tonnes of models out there who’ve dated famous actors and who’ve dabbled in acting, but exactly why is she the most favored?), here seems to be playing herself as a model who tempts Ed away from Shari while using his celebrity to further her own agenda. Since both actors are called to play characters so close to their real-life personas, they are absolutely perfect and bring that tinge of an edge to Howard’s otherwise vanilla-flavored confection.

Edtv is an often hilarious, crowd-pleasing comedy that never aims too high and which insists on entertaining. There are more offensive ways to spend a few hours than with this group of talented actors and a director in his element.

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