big bang theory – The Comedy Bureau

Jermaine Fowler’s Superior Donuts To Get Special Thursday Preview with The Big Bang Theory as a Lead-In

It’s good to see that CBS wants to kick-off its sitcom from Jermaine Fowler (also a sitcom that’s noticeably different than the other new CBS sitcoms The Great Indoors, Kevin Can Wait, and Man with a Plan) by potentially having the most eyes on it when it first airs (The Big Bang Theory still draws huge ratings).

This special preview will happen on Thursday, February 2nd at 8:30PM, then have the series follow 2 Broke Girls with a slot on Mondays at 9PM.

Transparent, Veep, Key & Peele, Bill Murray, and More Get Nominations for 22nd SAG Awards

December 9, 2015

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big bang theory, carol burnett, key & peele, kristen wiig, louie, louis c.k., modern family, orange is the new black, sag awards, screen actors guild, shameless, spoils before dying, transparent, veep

Most of these nominations are, by now, the usual awards season suspects.

The nominees for this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, coming up on Jan. 30th, have just been announced. As far as comedy is concerned, the perennial favorites are around again: Veep, Modern Family, Louis C.K., Key & Peele, Transparent, The Big Bang Theory. Some inclusions of note among the field are Bill Murray for his special that was just released very recently, Kristen Wiig for The Spoils Before Dying, and Carol Burnett receiving a lifetime achievement award.

See the rest of the comedy nominees below and the full list here.

Unlike The Emmys thought, The SAG Awards have put Orange Is The New Black and Shameless into consideration in the comedy category and both garner nominations.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
BILL MURRAY “A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
KRISTEN WIIG “THE SPOILS BEFORE DYING” (IFC)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)
LOUIS C.K. / Louie – “LOUIE” (FX Networks)
WILLIAM H. MACY / Frank – “SHAMELESS” (Showtime)
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper – “THE BIG BANG THEORY” (CBS)
JEFFREY TAMBOR / Maura Pfefferman – “TRANSPARENT” (Amazon)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
UZO ADUBA / Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren – “ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK” (Netflix)
EDIE FALCO / Jackie Peyton – “NURSE JACKIE” (Showtime)
ELLIE KEMPER / Kimmy Schmidt – “UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT” (Netflix)
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / President Selina Meyer – “VEEP” (HBO)
AMY POEHLER / Leslie Knope – “PARKS AND RECREATION” (NBC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS)
MAYIM BIALIK / Amy Farrah Fowler
KALEY CUOCO / Penny
JOHNNY GALECKI / Leonard Hofstadter
SIMON HELBERG / Howard Wolowitz
KUNAL NAYYAR / Rajesh Koothrappali
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper
MELISSA RAUCH / Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz

KEY & PEELE (Comedy Central)
KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY / Various Characters
JORDAN PEELE / Various Characters

MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy
AUBREY ANDERSON EMMONS / Lily Tucker-Pritchett
JESSE TYLER FERGUSON / Mitchell Pritchett
NOLAN GOULD / Luke Dunphy
SARAH HYLAND / Haley Dunphy
ED O’NEILL / Jay Pritchett
RICO RODRIGUEZ / Manny Delgado
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker
SOFIA VERGARA / Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
ARIEL WINTER / Alex Dunphy

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix)
UZO ADUBA / Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren
MIKE BIRBIGLIA / Danny Pearson
MARSHA STEPHANIE BLAKE / Berdie Rogers
DANIELLE BROOKS / Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson
LAVERNE COX / Sophia Burset
JACKIE CRUZ / Marisol “Flaca” Gonzales
CATHERINE CURTIN / Wanda Bell
LEA DELARIA / Carrie “Big Boo” Black
BETH FOWLER / Sister Jane Ingalls
JOEL MARSH GARLAND / Scott O’Neill
KIMIKO GLENN / Brook Soso
ANNIE GOLDEN / Norma Romano
DIANE GUERRERO / Maritza Ramos
MICHAEL J. HARNEY / Sam Healy
VICKY JEUDY / Janae Watson
SELENIS LEYVA / Gloria Mendoza
TARYN MANNING / Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett
ADRIENNE C. MOORE / Black Cindy
KATE MULGREW / Galina “Red” Reznikov
EMMA MYLES / Leanne Taylor
MATT PETERS / Joel Luschek
LORI PETTY / Lolly Whitehill
JESSICA PIMENTEL / Maria Ruiz
DASCHA POLANCO / Dayanara Diaz
LAURA PREPON / Alex Vause
ELIZABETH RODRIGUEZ / Aleida Diaz
RUBY ROSE / Stella Carlin
NICK SANDOW / Joe Caputo
ABIGAIL SAVAGE / Gina
TAYLOR SCHILLING / Piper Chapman
CONSTANCE SHULMAN / Yoga Jones
DALE SOULES / Frieda
YAEL STONE / Lorna Morello
SAMIRA WILEY / Poussey Washington

TRANSPARENT (Amazon)
ALEXANDRA BILLINGS / Davina Rejennae
CARRIE BROWNSTEIN / Syd Feldman
JAY DUPLASS / Josh Pfefferman
KATHRYN HAHN / Raquel Fein
GABY HOFFMANN / Ali Pfefferman
CHERRY JONES / Leslie Mackinaw
AMY LANDECKER / Sarah Pfefferman
JUDITH LIGHT / Shelly Pfefferman
HARI NEF / Gittel/Gerson
EMILY ROBINSON / Rose Boymelgreen
JEFFREY TAMBOR / Maura Pfefferman

VEEP (HBO)
DIEDRICH BADER / Bill Ericsson
SUFE BRADSHAW / Sue Wilson
ANNA CHLUMSKY / Amy Brookheimer
GARY COLE / Kent Davidson
KEVIN DUNN / Ben Cafferty
TONY HALE / Gary Walsh
HUGH LAURIE / Tom James
PHIL REEVES / Doyle
SAM RICHARDSON / Richard
REID SCOTT / Dan Egan
TIMOTHY SIMONS / Jonah Ryan
SARAH SUTHERLAND / Catherine
MATT WALSH / Mike McLintock

52nd Annual SAG Life Achievement Award
CAROL BURNETT

Jenny Slate Finishes The Drunk History of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson Discovering Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

September 3, 2015

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arno penzias, big bang theory, cosmic microwave background radiation, derek waters, drunk history, jason ritter, jenny slate, justin long, robert wilson

Before this week’s season 3 premiere of Drunk History, a teaser of Jenny Slate recounting the story of how evidence for The Big Bang Theory was found by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson was released.

Here’s the rest of the amazing story, joyfully told by a tipsy Slate, which is how more revelations of the universe should be shared.

What Has Happened to Comedy on Broadcast Networks? (Hint: Lots of Canceling)

It would be a little premature to say that there’s writing on the wall, but comedy definitely seems like it is playing second fiddle (or almost no fiddle at all) to hour long dramas at NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. Comedy is currently flourishing on cable and online and, perhaps, that is where episodic comedy, wholly, is headed.

This TV season alone, freshman comedies Selfie, A to Z, Manhattan Love Story, and Bad Judge have been canceled along with relative new comers The Millers.

Community, Arrested Development, and now The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which had a series order from NBC but didn’t even make it to air, have moved from TV networks to online streaming services.

Just yesterday, it was announced ABC also scrapped a sitcom they had already ordered to series, Members Only starring John Stamos.

Bloggers and John Mulaney alike keep talking about whether Mulaney will last on Fox. On top of all of that, there are rumors that NBC has halted production on Last Comic Standing after it already had brought it back from the dead.

We’re not saying broadcast networks have drawn a hard line on in the sand (yet) prohibiting comedy from their airwaves. Cristela, black-ish, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have found success just starting out and the networks have a few comedy mainstays like Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and Half Men. New Girl and The Mindy Project have also seemed to fared well in their tenure at Fox. Also, cable networks TBS and TNT have recently canceled Sullivan & Son and Franklin & Bash, respectively.

Still, this last couple of years have seen an unprecedented shift of the comedy genre as an aggregate on TV from going live on air to every household with a TV on a weeknight to niche cable networks and various online entities ranging anywhere from Netflix to YouTube to Amazon. Key & Peele, Louie, Portlandia, Veep, Transparent, and Children’s Hospital are all just a few perfect examples of this new paradigm.

The future for comedy on TV and the behemoths of television does have yet to be decided. The highly anticipated Last Man on Earth from Chris Miller and Phil Lord starring Will Forte is premiering next year. Networks, like CBS, are starting to get on board with their own streaming service.

What is clear in the current TV landscape, above all, is that the Internet isn’t going away and, because of that, viewers can watch whatever they want whenever they want to watch it. Thus, people will watch their favorite Key & Peele sketch as many as times as they can stand, binge watch The Simpsons via The Simpsons World app/site, consume as much media that exists online of their favorite comedians (i.e. web series, podcasts, stand-up clips, etc.), and do so at any time of any day in any place versus Thursdays at 8 at home,

In such an environment, it’s much harder than it used to be to launch a broad franchise sitcom that lasts 10 seasons and lives on in syndication, which has been the network TV model for comedy for decades. So, for now, as NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt poignantly remarked during Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s move to Netflix, “…we have a very drama-heavy midseason schedule.”

Armando Iannucci, Mike Schur, Jenji Kohan, Mike Judge, Jenni Konner, Chuck Lorre, and Marc Maron Have a Fascinating Chat

The Hollywood Reporter gathered together comedy showrunners Mike Schur from Parks and Recreation, Jenji Kohan from Orange Is The New Black, Mike Judge from SIlicon Valley, Armando Iannucci from Veep, Jenni Konner from Girls, Chuck Lorre from Two and Half Men (and so many more), and Marc Maron from Maron to chat for awhile about being a showrunner for a comedy series in 2014.

The results are pretty intriguing and enlightening. At one point, due to the modifier asking the entire group a number questions that they qualified with an exemption of Lorre’s shows, Chuck Lorre asked, “What am I doing here?”