(via Variety)
More comedy is finding its way from network to cable as Fox ADHD, which used to be an entire block on Fox, has two of their shows, Lucas Bros. Moving Co. and Stone Quackers, head over to FXx.
Thursdays in Jan. 2015 at midnight, FXx will have an animated block that will feature both of these shows as well as The Simpsons and probably more.
We’re guessing they’ll be more appreciated over at FXx?
Good News & Bad News @theleaguefxx is coming back for one last season. #7Years2Networks549DickJokes
— Paul Scheer (@paulscheer)
It’s impressive to see any comedy series making it to seven seasons these days. It’s even more impressive to see one that centers on a fantasy football league like The League has just done.
They’re getting a seventh and final season at FXx, which is news perfectly punctuated by Paul Scheer’s hashtag #7Years2Networks549DickJokes.
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.”
(via HitFix)
January 2015 is setting to be a good month to tune into FX and FXx.
Both networks have premieres of several season and series premieres lined up, which you shouldn’t miss.
Season 6 of Archer starts Thurs. Jan. 8th 10PM on FX.
Season 10 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia starts Wed. Jan. 14th 10PM on FXx.
Series premiere of Man Seeking Woman starring Jay Baruchel debuts Wed. Jan. 14th at 10:30PM on FXx.
Plan your January accordingly.
The site and app that allows you to watch every episode of The Simpsons ever, Simpsons World, has been officially launched by FXx.
There are plenty of other fun features including statistics of popularity of each episodes, themed playlists, news, and more, but we’ll let you get to watching and find out about all that stuff later.
(via The Daily Beast)
With the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, you might have noticed that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria share the same letters in their acronym with the International Secret Intelligence Service, the fictitious spy agency depicted on animated series Archer.
As the atrocities of the real life ISIS tally up more and more every day, Archer’s showrunner Adam Reed and producers have decided to get rid the name in the show. There’s no word on what will replace it, but there won’t be any addressing it other than the removal of their ISIS logo.
Perhaps, Federation of United Bureaus Agency Reconnaissance or FUBAR could be a fun one?
From 11:20-25:23 of this episode of Estrella TV’s Noches Con Platanito’s, which is, from what we can gather, a Mexican version of The Tonight Show with a host dressed up as a clown the entire time, Paul Scheer and Nadine Velazquez from The League were guests.
While Nadine speaks Spanish, Paul really doesn’t and they didn’t give him a translator. Also, apparently, they get away with a whole lot more bizarre, crazy stuff on Mexican late night than they do on American late night.
Also, you get to see Paul give an inspired lipsyncing performance of “Let It Go” from Frozen.
(via Variety)
FXx’s recent Simpsons marathon was a pretty big success and they’re not letting up. Tomorrow night, they will run a 4 hour Simpsons marathon that will featured the music themed episodes starting at 8PM on FXx.
Yes, to answer your question, this marathon is also being run in conjunction with The Simpsons Take Over the [Hollywood] Bowl.
With the return of football, the return of The League is also here. Tonight, at 10PM, The League makes its sixth season premiere on FXx. Make sure to amend your plans this evening as necessary.
If you can’t wait for the few hours from now until the premiere, you can even catch up with season 5 that just got posted to Netflix yesterday.
While we are well underway into FXx’s Simpsons marathon of Every Simpsons Ever, there’s something extra special going on right this very second as Ben Schwartz is hosting a livestream featuring writers, producers, etc. of The Simpsons as well as a whole other bunch of comedians and fun people.
Schwartz is aiming to keep this going all day long, so just make this whole day about The Simpsons like you were going to anyway.
In less than 30 minutes from when this post was written, FXx will be embarking on their Simpsons programming streak by airing every episode of the legendary animated series back-to-back-to-back-and-so-on all the way until Sept. 1st.
Here is a schedule of when each episode will air to guide you through this.
So, maybe you want to use some of your vacation days now.
The League is back for its sixth season, if you can (and you should) believe it, in just over a month at FXx. Wed. Sept. 3rd at 10PM, specifically, will be when the season premiere airs.
Just note that even though you’ll probably be watching FXx anyway for The Simpsons marathon starting near the end of next month.
(via Splitsider)
This is more than just an unusually long episode title for the FXx series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Sweet Dee, and Frank are indeed all putting together a book of advice, which will undoubtedly words to live by, so long as well all move to South Philly and work at a dive bar.
While they’ll cover such topics as varied as fashion and survival, we hope that the DENNIS system is broken down in even greater and more disgusting detail. The book is real and on pre-order.
(via HitFix)
Along with running a marathon of The Simpsons canon on FXx, there will be a Simpsons World website/app that will allow anyone to find, watch, research, make playlists, and more of any Simpsons episode ever.
You’ll have to have cable in order to get in on this, but if you don’t already have the boxed DVD sets of The Simpsons, it might be worth it.
Man Seeking Woman Starring Jay Baruchel Gets Series Order at FXx
FXx finally gets a new comedy series following the last few series pick ups of FX including Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll. Jay Baruchel will star in this series that extolls the horrors of dating based on the book The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich.
Given the subject matter, we wonder if FX and FXx will have a crossover episode with You’re The Worst or Married.
You Do Know That Louie Is Playing on FX and Not FXx, Right?
Since Louie’s long hiatus, FX has expanded to feature FXx, which is supposed to be a comedy channel. However, when Louie returned, it didn’t air on FXx like one might think.
It has mysteriously stayed on FX in its 4th season, despite it being a sitcom. “We” explore what forces might be at work here in a piece we wrote at Nerdist.
FX Supports Tracy Morgan, Says “His Show Will Be Waiting For Him” When He Recovers
Despite Tracy Morgan’s severe injuries and long recovery ahead from a horrific car accident this past weekend, FX will still move ahead with his show set to premiere on FXx when Morgan feels ready he can go back to work.
Tracy is currently in stable condition, but the show’s schedule is probably going to be pushed back a few months, if not several.
Legit made it two seasons and Chozen only made it to one before getting cancelled by FX. Stuck on FXx, they undoubtedly suffered ratings wise, but, supposedly there are more original series on the way at FX and FXx.
Also note that, Louie, which is still a sitcom, albeit an experimental one, is on FX, which is supposed to be a dramatically bent channel and not FXx, which is intended for comedy only. Ruminate on that while you also ponder how much longer will FXx go through growing pains.
Comedy Central Picks Up Off-Network Rights To Archer
Archer has made it into syndication folks. Reruns before midnight are set to air exclusively at Comedy Central starting as soon as Spring 2015 through 2017. FXx will air them after midnight.
So, you can binge on Archer nightly between Comedy and FXx next year.
FXx to Launch Simpsons Syndication with 12 Day Marathon
If, for some reason, you haven’t gotten The Simpsons on DVD box sets, you’ll be happy to know that in moving into syndication on FXx, there will be a 12 day marathon of The Simpsons to start it off.
We’ll see what the record books say afterwards, but, as far as we can tell, this would indeed be, as FX’s Jon Landgraf says, the longest continuous TV marathon in history.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been good to FX/FXx in both ratings and establishing a brand and FX/FXx is now returning the favor.
Always Sunny is getting renewed for two seasons to play through 2016 and RCG Productions (Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton) are developing a series that is already greenlit starring Tracy Morgan in addition to three script projects and a pilot.
At least in real life, Mac, Charlie, and Dennis are on top.
It’s short and doesn’t reveal much, but this promo a friendly reminder that Louie is returning May 5th, just over a month from now, and you need to get ready, however you’ll do so, for that date.
Archer: Vice To Go Back To Just Being Archer
Archer is getting out of the drug game and back into the world of goofy espionage. As they have gotten picked up by FX for two seasons, you’ll get plenty more of Sterling Archer showing the intelligence community a thing or two about being a spy.
Sally Hawkins & Catherine Keener Join Charlie Kaufman’s FX Pilot ‘How And Why’
Charlie Kaufman’s pilot How and Why at FX is still in play and he’s gathering a solid cast in Catherine Keener and Sally Hawkins.
Knowing this makes what FX will order from their development slate all the more enticing.
FX Networks & U.K.’s BSkyB to Co-Develop Comedies
For years, U.S. TV networks have developed many shows by adapting them from British formats. Most famously, The Office was adapted into a U.S. version from Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais’ UK original, but several pilots a year are indeed U.S adaptations of successful UK comedies.
With that in mind, FX and BSkyB might be cutting the adaptation part of that process and just develop comedies together for both sides of the pond. Hopefully, this will mean that we’ll get to see the likes of great UK comedy (Steve Coogan, Peter Serafinowicz, Stewart Lee, Dylan Moran, Daniel Sloss, etc.) in the States more often.