Yesterday we relayed the news that Comedy Central has ordered 10 episodes of a new sitcom starring Jon Heder (from Napoleon Dynamite -- remember him?). The new series, slated to be written by Will Ferrell and longtime collaborator Adam McKay -- will premiere in 2010. If the series proves to be a hit, Comedy Central will order 90 more episodes, reports Variety.
This isn't Ferrell and Heder's first collaboration -- they faced off as male figure skaters in 2007's Blades of Glory -- but it is the latter actor's first big leap into the sitcom world (he previously guest-starred in a 2008 episode of My Name is Earl). In his new series, Heder will play an unemployed IT worker who leaves the city to move back in with his family.
Considering Ferrell and McKay's Funny or Die has been a viral hit since it launched in April 2007 and the fact that Heder still has a cult following from Napoleon Dynamite, this project could be a coup for Comedy Central. But, of course, there's the chance that the project could also flop. Heder hasn't been involved in a major project since 2007, long enough to fall off the pop-culture radar for anyone beyond the most die-hard Napoleon Dynamite fans. And in the wake of Land of the Lost's poor box-office showing, Ferrell himself seems like less of a sure bet than he might have a year or two ago. (See my colleague Chris Nashawaty's recent PopWatch item: Is America over Will Ferrell?) What's your prediction, PopWatchers? Will Heder's project be the next great cable sitcom, or go the way of Lil' Bush? More importantly, will you tune in?
If Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was narrating a documentary about the San Diego Comic-Con, he'd greet the announcement of the con's programming -- which lists all the panel-related goodies -- with something like, "And with these directions entered into the navicomputer, the March of the Nerdguins can begin."
The Comic-Con masterminds don't just drop their programming infodump in one fell swoop like some eager teenager, they parcel it out over a few days. All the better to whet eager appetites. Yesterday, Wednesday and Thursday's schedules went public, and we're gonna whittle it down to the stuff that sounds the awesomeist. Okay, here we go:
The long-awaited 13th episode of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, the post-apocalyptic "Epitaph One," will debut July 24 at Comic-Con, then on the season 1 DVD and Blu-ray July 28. In the issue of EW out today, we have the first look at SPOILER ALERT! Caroline (Eliza Dushku), who, having escaped for some time, is seen in the top photo entering an abandoned Dollhouse in the year 2019 with Paul (Tahmoh Penikett).
We also have an EW.com exclusive photo of SPOILER ALERT! Whiskey (Amy Acker), who has been left behind in the Dollhouse in a "wiped" state. She is discovered by a group of rebels (including Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog's Felicia Day), which you see in the clip below.
Fox had declined to air "Epitaph One," which Whedon says was designed to either close out the series or to lead into the
second season (which premieres Sept. 25). "So you will find out snippets of everything and all of nothing," Whedon tells EW. "Every flashback answers something about where people are heading but brings up a lot more questions about where they end up or how they got there." (Whedon says the season 2 opener he's writing and directing won't pick up right where the May season 1 finale left off, with "We've got to find Alpha!", but a little bit later.)
Though he would've loved to have seen "Epitaph One" air on TV, Whedon understands Fox's decision to save it for the DVD. "It has a very different structure and feel from what we do on Dollhouse, so it would have been ridiculously startling to have aired it the week after the season finale as just this insane coda," he says. "And it is a little bit insane, except that we sort of follow everything through to its logical conclusion. As always, it's logical to conclude that people are terrible and will try to destroy each other."
Tell us: Do these images calm your nerves about Project Runway's August 20th move to Lifetime? From left to right, for me, that would be a no, ahellllll no, and an ah, okay, there's our Tim Gunn. The sight of him with that outstretched arm does wonders for my confidence level. Can you imagine if the show had made the move without him? Shudder. Don't.
Somewhere in my past or childhood, I must have done something pretty darn good, because hallelujah holy Moses, Dead Like Me is now on Hulu. All of it! Both seasons!
For a show with such a stunning pedigree -- holla atcha, Bryan Fuller; we still love you -- DLM flew kind of under the radar. It's a show I recommend to people all the time, especially to anyone who mentions liking Pushing Daisies or, seriously, Our Town. That whole "I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another" vibe? Combine that with a sense of whimsy and some hyperliteracy, and poof! Dead Like Me, the story of a group of Grim Reapers as told by their youngest member, the angsty college dropout George.
Who's with me, PopWatchers? Did you love this show when it was on, and are you pumped that its made its Web debut?
I missed last night's premiere of the newly minted Syfy Channel's Warehouse 13 -- though judging by Ken Tucker's take, I didn't miss much -- in favor of catching up with a couple of DVR'd episodes of Kings. You remember Kings, don't you? That fantastic NBC show that reconceptualizes and recontexualizes the story of David, he who slew Goliath? The one that has Ian McShane melting a hole through the screen with sheer acting luminescence? The one nobody watched and is now being unceremoniously burned off on Saturday nights?
That Kings. So, as I was sitting there, basking in the plummy, almost Arthurian dialogue and the stentorian production design, I had an epiphany: Why doesn't Syfy pick up Kings? Given that part of their whole name-change raison d'etre is to be able to program beyond the sci-fi spectrum, they could do far worse than roll the dice on a show as well-produced as this one.
Yes, I know, there is the whole "Kings had less viewers than my honeymoon video" problem. I firmly believe that isn't the show's fault; it's NBC's. They had no idea how to market Kings, so they mismarketed it: all those mysterious butterfly posters and trailers that told you nothing about the show besides that it was pretty and it had McShane in nice suits. Was it science fiction? An alternate reality? A soap opera? All of the above? John Rogers, executive producer of TNT's Leverage, summed up the misfire -- and missed opportunity -- quite succinctly: "After years of the cultural Right bitching and moaning about how Hollywood doesn't provide for them, NBC could have gone to every evangelical church in America and said 'We're serializing the story of King David in a modern, very relatable way. Here you go, a multi-million dollar series, in prime time, based on a Bible story. You're frikkin' welcome.'"
That's still money left on the table, Syfy. Money that could be yours. The stink of failure would fade, in time, and you'd be left with one of the best shows on television, one that could fill the sucking vacuum left by Battlestar Galactica, and you could sell those DVD sets to church congregations, Sunday schools, and synagogues until kingdom come.
Just look at this clip; listen to the words, watch McShane work like the devil himself, and wonder why you don't deserve more of this on TV:
Did you know about Kings while it was on? Would you watch it if someone levied some confidence behind it?
Sacha Baron Cohen stopped by The Late Show with David Letterman last night to promote his upcoming film, Bruno, and his appearance was full of surprises. For one, he came as himself -- not as his outrageously gay alter ego. Then he regaled Dave with the story of his quest to find and interview a real terrorist for the film. "It's not that easy to find an actual terrorist. In fact, your government has been looking for one for about nine years," he joked. Watch:
Honestly, I'll never know whether to believe Baron Cohen, but that hardly matters, I suppose. After some quick research, however, I do have to correct him about one point: There is, in fact, a Beirut Craigslist, so maybe locating a terrorist isn't as difficult as you might think.
Were you anticipating him to appear as "Brüno," PopWatchers? Do you have any difficulty believing his terrorist story, and are you interested in a sublet in Hamra?
Jay Leno's getting a bigger-than-normal soundstage for his new prime-time talk show on NBC this fall, just so he can drive onto the set in some of his famous vintage cars. Seems a little tone-deaf, given that people are selling their Chevys just to feed their families and dealerships are going under in record numbers. But it could, in fact, be Leno's own way of surviving the recession: The gambit is a clever way to sneak product placement into the show during a time when car manufacturers are offering to pay your bills just to get you to buy from them. Essentially, it could seamlessly give automakers some extra bang for their advertising buck while helping make cars seem a little bit cool again. (Between gas prices, impending environmental devastation, and government bailouts, U.S. autos are soooo far from their '57 Chevy days.)
What do you think, PopWatchers? Are you turned off by the prospect of Jay arriving in motorized style? Or impressed with the ingenuity of such product placement?
Well, everyone, the day you totally forgot to mark on your calendar is here: The Sci Fi Channel is no more. It's been body-snatched by Syfy. It looks the same. Sounds the same. Does much of the same stuff. Just with a distinct lack of vowels.
We commented on the apparent silliness of the name change back when it was announced, a few months ago. And all of that logic still applies. But time has reduced the level of outrage to the equivalent of a pebble in the sneaker: kind of annoying, but not catastrophic.
Time will tell if this branding experiment will pay off, or if "Syfy" will, eventually, go the way of Crystal Pepsi or The WB's frog mascot. All I want is more quality science fiction on television. If they'll give me that, they can call themselves the Brenda Network for all I care.
And you, P-Dubbies? Does the name Syfy make you more or less likely to tune in to the Warehouse 13 premiere tonight?
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Jason Schwartzman and Jonathan Ames on the set of Bored to Death, their HBO series premiering in September. Watch the video below. The show's about a writer, named Jonathan Ames (Schwartzman), who's so bored he posts an ad on Craigslist claiming to be a private detective and begins accepting cases. We've already wondered if it's a hipster version of Castle, but after watching the video below, and hearing Ames talk about how he first thinks of a case for each episode, then builds the character, I started thinking about how most "procedurals" have far more character in them than you'd think. (Well, actually, the only people who'd think that are folks who never watch 'em.) I mean, I didn't tear up talking to NCIS' Cote de Pablo because of a case; I teared up because of what it was doing to her character Ziva's relationship with Michael Weatherly's Tony. Procedurals often get a bad rap as sterile, cold hours, when the best ones are anything but.
So, who are your favorite characters on "procedurals" and why? Nominate away!
