Everyone in “Tanner on Tanner” seems happy to be alive – most especially the great 79-year-old man behind the camera, Robert Altman. He has reason to be happy; with “Tanner” Altman has delivered yet another groovy entertainment for people who love a little style with their stories. This Sundance Channel exclusive picks up the story where Mr. Altman’s fabled 1988 HBO series, “Tanner ’88,” left off, and raises it to a whole new level. When Mr. Altman’s turns his satiric talents on politics and movies, he consistently finds his most compelling voice. It’s the same joyous, all-American Altman that made “Nashville,” and the same sturdy storyteller behind “The Player.” Hey, and it’s only four episodes!

The original (and more tedious) “Tanner ’88” aired as a limited series in February 1988, with Jack Tanner as a fictional candidate for President; this one (also written by Garry Trudeau) picks up the story with Jack’s daughter, Alex, directing a documentary about her father’s 1988 campaign. It couldn’t have been that hard to come up with the conceit; Mr. Trudeau took the character (and first name) of Alexandra Pelosi, whose 2002 HBO documentary about President George W. Bush earned her acclaim, and it evolved into Alex Tanner, given breathtaking life by the luminous talent Cynthia Nixon. Within seconds, you’ll forget you ever saw her as Miranda on that other show. At last given a father and a life, Ms. Nixon turns them into perfect props for her whacked-out character. What a wondrous addition to the Altman repertory company Cynthia Nixon makes.

In the first episode, “Dinner at Elaine’s,” one comical sequence takes us on a shoe-shopping spree in the middle of a disastrous screening of her movie, followed by her return and humiliation in front of her premiere audience. But it turns out that one person hasn’t walked out: a world-famous superstar with the perfect insight into the flaw in Alex’s movie. (I won’t ruin the element of surprise in this terrific scene.) In the course of her afternoon, Ms. Nixon has outfitted her character with so many nuances and dimensions – including, most touchingly, a loving and tender relationship with her father, or “The Candidate,” as her movie refers to him. It’s such a pleasure to see Michael Murphy again, too, looking great and still peeling off witty remarks with the same ease he showed in so many great movies of the 1970s and 1980s.

Somehow it seems just right for the action to unfold at Elaine’s, a restaurant that has fallen off most radar screens in recent years. It’s easy to imagine it having been Mr. Altman’s fantasy for years to shoot a sequence in Elaine’s. Anyone who relishes the sound of overlapping dialogue would be desperate to capture the cacophony of a hot night in the celebrity hangout on Second Avenue. Of course, Mr. Altman has done his best to favorably stack the deck by inviting such real-life celebrities as Mario Cuomo, Martin Scorsese, and Steve Buscemi to dinner on the night that Jack and Alex Tanner eat there. It’s a great moment when Messrs. Scorsese and Cuomo connect, just the kind of treat we’ve come to expect from Mr. Altman. (And don’t always get, if I remember “Gosford Park” correctly.)

The cameo at the end of the first episode drives the rest of the series, when the unnamed celebrity challenges Alex with a different way to make her movie. It’s a great moment, made not only by the element of surprise but also by its insight into the creative process. (I don’t know a writer alive who hasn’t had to turn an entire project upside down at least once, because of somebody’s annoyingly insightful observation.) What sets Mr. Altman apart is his willingness to go deeper than anyone else; he likes a little pain with his pleasure. His characters often spend a long time suffering before they figure things out, and Alex Tanner appears to be no different. This time, she even has a cute boy toy filming a documentary about her; as always with Mr. Altman, the layers of possible complications are endless. Alex’s journey into darkness – episode two concerns her coverage of the convention, where she hopes to start turning things around – has the makings of a great two hours of television. I’m not going to miss any of it.

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Someone should stand up and take credit for the idea of putting Amy Poehler on “Weekend Update” to replace Jimmy Fallon. She was perfect. I always admired Mr. Fallon’s easygoing nature, but never connected to it. This past Saturday’s “Weekend Update” made me laugh harder than I had in years at the segment. Ms. Poehler’s characters and impressions – I especially loved her Avril Lavigne and Kelly Ripa – have always been A-list “Saturday Night Live,” and it’s taken too long for Hollywood to notice her. Maybe now that she’s at the SNL newsdesk in a hot election year it’ll speed things up. The whole show was funny this past Saturday, even the opening sketch with Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin, in which Mr. Baldwin accused Mr. Affleck of copying his career choices. Eerie how dead-on it was. It may only be months before Mr. Affleck becomes known as The Bloviator.