tv – The Comedy Bureau

Please Watch The Dress Up Gang, One of the Best TV Shows That Was Set to Air and Then Was Shelved Indefinitely (Until Now)

February 25, 2020

Thank goodness, The Dress Up Gang, the TV show, will actually see the light of day.

To call the prospect of making a television “daunting” is a vast understatement. The fact that any TV show gets made and then makes it to air is nothing short of a miracle. The development process, often and aptly referred to “development hell’ is where so many scripts and pilots stay put and never progress. Past that, the odds of getting a pilot shot for a TV network are so minuscule and then, getting an actual premiere date and air time is a whole other level of rarefied air.

After all of that, one would hope that their show is received well, which often isn’t the case.

Knowing all of that, sketch group The Dress Up Gang not only jumped through all of those hopes, defying the odds at every turn to bring their absurdist, nuanced, low key, yet very silly humor into a full-fledged TV, but they had an entire season shot, edited, and in the can, ready to go, ready to premiere at TBS. Unfortunately, there was a change in network brass and that sort of transition can get quite territorial resulting in an unfair and unnecessary pulling of the plug on a truly great series like The Dress Up Gang.

Fortunately, we got to a super secret special sneak peek a couple years ago and Cory Loykasek, Frankie Quinones, and Donny Divanian along with DeMorge Brown, Kirk Fox, Christian DuGuay, Brent Weinbach, Kevin Camia, Chase Bernstein, and Andie MacDowell made one of the most uniquely funny comedies we’ve seen in quite some time with the TV series. In so many ways, The Dress Up Gang is more “about nothing” than Seinfeld and yet, takes bigger comedic risks always pay off for them. Everyone seems to be on the same subtle, yet offbeat wavelength in their own individual way and it’s such a damn delight.

The fate of The Dress Up Gang, for awhile, seemed, unsure at best. Yet, the will of the show and its creators seem to deem that it needs to be seen.

So, now you can (and very, very, very much should) watch the episodes of The Dress Up Gang ASAP. Do so at http://thedressupgang.com/.

John Mulaney’s Next Comedy Special Will Be Modeled After a Children’s Variety Show and Be For Kids and Adults

September 12, 2019

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comedy, for the kids, john mulaney, stand up, tv

John Mulaney’s Next Comedy Special Will Be Modeled After a Children’s Variety Show and Be For Kids and Adults

This time where comedians seem to be shifting away from just writing and telling the best jokes and bits possible with a mic on an empty stage in front of a big crowd was inevitable.

What was to come in this shift, however, was a mystery until a few years ago.

Julio Torres showed off his favorite shapes, Drew Michael performed with no audience, and Maria Bamford performed in front of just her parents in her living room. Revealed today in an Esquire profile of John Mulaney, John will be taking a swing at making a comedy special that will be truly for all ages and takes on a bit more of a Sesame Street vibe.

Our mind is racing as to even conceptualize what that might be, but we trust that Mulaney will make something special with this project.

Colin Quinn’s Red State Blue State Is Now Going from Off-Broadway Show to Comedy Special at CNN

May 10, 2019

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cnn, colin quinn, comedy, comedy specials, tv

Colin Quinn’s Red State Blue State Is Now Going from Off-Broadway Show to Comedy Special at CNN

Colin Quinn’s new hour has found a new home. It’s pretty much assumed that his solo shows will eventually become specials. It’s interesting that there is a move from Netflix (where his last special was) to CNN, but we’re going to guess that Colin is getting to do pretty much what he wants at either place.

Also, maybe this will stream for free on CNN.com for brief period of time as well? We’ll just have to wait and see.

With W. Kamau Bell and United Shades of America and this recent announcement of a new Colin Quinn special (specifically focused on the political divisiveness all around right now), it would seem the CNN is aiming for a niche in political comedy specifically.

Niecy Nash Will Be the Host of a TNT Late-Night Show Pilot

August 20, 2018

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comedy, naked with niecy nash, pilots, tnt, tv

Niecy Nash Will Be the Host of a TNT Late-Night Show Pilot

Niecy Nash of both Claws and Reno 911! fame getting a pilot for a late night might be signaling a new trend. Along with Michelle Wolf’s The Break was just cancelled at Netflix and Busy Philipps getting ready for Busy Tonight, it might seem late night might be shifting away from off-shoots of The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight into something that’s more personal and less socio-political.

Also, Niecy, if this show gets picked up, would also be one of many late night hosts these days that didn’t come from a stand-up comedy background, which used to be the primary pedigree for those hosting late night.

Called Naked with Niecy Nash will be curious to see where this might end up being like as “no topic will be off limits” and it will have a “late night feel”. That could mean any number of things at this point, but that’s appropriate as we feel as though the world of late night is heading into uncharted waters.

Atlanta, Better Things, Nathan For You, Veep, Last Week Tonight, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, BoJack Horseman Score WGA Awards TV Nominations

December 5, 2016

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atlanta, better things, last week tonight, nominees, tv, unbreakable kimmy schmidt, veep, wga, wga awards

Atlanta, Better Things, Nathan For You, Veep, Last Week Tonight, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, BoJack Horseman Score WGA Awards TV Nominations

The perennial prestige comedy of HBO is alive and well, but upstarts at FX (Atlanta and Better Things) are also riding high for this year’s Writers Guild Awards TV nominations.

That being said, there’s one very noticeable snub: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

It didn’t get nominated next to Last Week Tonight, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. We certainly hope that won’t happen elsewhere this awards season.

*Comedy nominees are in italics

COMEDY SERIES

-Atlanta
Written by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms; FX
-Silicon Valley
Written by Megan Amram, Alec Berg, Donick Cary, Adam Countee, Jonathan Dotan, Mike Judge, Carrie Kemper, John Levenstein, Dan Lyons, Carson Mell, Dan O’Keefe, Clay Tarver, Ron Weiner; HBO
-Transparent
Written by Arabella Anderson, Bridget Bedard, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, Jessi Klein, Stephanie Kornick, Ethan Kuperberg, Ali Liebegott, Our Lady J, Faith Soloway, Jill Soloway; Amazon Studios
-Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Written by Emily Altman, Robert Carlock, Azie Mira Dungey, Tina Fey, Lauren Gurganous, Sam Means, Dylan Morgan, Marlena Rodriguez, Dan Rubin, Meredith Scardino, Josh Siegal, Allison Silverman, Leila Strachan; Netflix
-Veep
Written by Rachel Axler, Sean Gray, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Eric Kenward, Billy Kimball, Steve Koren, David Mandel, Jim Margolis, Lew Morton, Georgia Pritchett, Will Smith, Alexis Wilkinson; HBO

NEW SERIES

-Atlanta
Written by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms; FX
-Better Things
Written by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K., Cindy Chupack, Gina Fattore; FX
-Stranger Things
Written by Paul Dichter, Justin Doble, The Duffer Brothers, Jessica Mecklenburg, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Alison Tatlock; Netflix
-This Is Us
Written by Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger, Bekah Brunstetter, Dan Fogelman, Vera Herbert, Joe Lawson, Kay Oyegun, Aurin Squire, K.J. Steinberg, Donald Todd; NBC
-Westworld
Written by Ed Brubaker, Bridget Carpenter, Dan Dietz, Halley Gross, Lisa Joy, Katherine Lingenfelter, Dominic Mitchell, Jonathan Nolan, Roberto Patino, Daniel T. Thomsen, Charles Yu; HBO

ANIMATION

-“Barthood” (The Simpsons)
Written by Dan Greaney; Fox
-“First Day of Rule” (Elena of Avalor)
Written by Craig Gerber; Disney Channel
-“Fish Out of Water” (BoJack Horseman)
Written by Elijah Aron & Jordan Young; Netflix
-“A Princess on Lothal” (Star Wars Rebels)
Written by Steven Melching; Disney XD
-“Stop the Presses” (BoJack Horseman)
Written by Joe Lawson; Netflix

EPISODIC COMEDY

-“Kimmy Finds Her Mom!” (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)
Written by Tina Fey & Sam Means; Netflix
-“Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!” (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)
Written by Robert Carlock; Netflix
-“Pilot” (One Mississippi)
Written by Diablo Cody & Tig Notaro; Amazon Studios
-“R-A-Y-C-Ray-Cation” (Speechless)
Written by Carrie Rosen & Seth Kurland; ABC
-“Streets on Lock” (Atlanta)
Written by Stephen Glover; FX
-“A Taste of Zephyria” (Son of Zorn)
Written by Dan Mintz; Fox

COMEDY / VARIETY (INCLUDING TALK) – SERIES

-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Writers: Dan Amira, David Angelo, Steve Bodow, Devin Delliquanti, Zach DiLanzo, Travon Free, Hallie Haglund, David Kibuuka, Matt Koff, Adam Lowitt, Dan McCoy, Lauren Sarver Means, Trevor Noah, Joe Opio, Zhubin Parang, Owen Parson, Daniel Radosh, Michelle Wolf; Comedy Central
-Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Writers: Kevin Avery, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, John Oliver, Scott Sherman, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Juli Weiner; HBO
-Late Night with Seth Meyers
Writers: Jermaine Affonso, Alex Baze, Bryan Donaldson, Sal Gentile, Matt Goldich, Jenny Hagel, Allison Hord, Mike Karnell, Andrew Law, John Lutz, Aparna Nancherla, Chioke Nassor, Seth Meyers, Ian Morgan, Conner O’Malley, Seth Reiss, Amber Ruffin, Mike Scollins, Mike Shoemaker, Ben Warheit, Michelle Wolf; NBC
-The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Writers: Mike Brumm, Nate Charny, Aaron Cohen, Stephen Colbert, Cullen Crawford, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Ariel Dumas, Glenn Eichler, Gabe Gronli, Barry Julien, Jay Katsir, Daniel Kibblesmith, Matt Lappin, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Jen Spyra, Brian Stack; NBC

COMEDY / VARIETY – SKETCH SERIES

-Documentary Now!
Writers: Bill Hader, John Mulaney, Seth Meyers; IFC
-Inside Amy Schumer
Writers: Kim Carmele, Kyle Dunnigan, Jessi Klein, Michael Lawrence, Kurt Metzger, Christine Nangle, Claudia O’Doherty, Dan Powell, Tami Sagher, Amy Schumer; Comedy Central
-Maya and Marty in Manhattan
Head Writers: Mikey Day, Matt Roberts, Bryan Tucker Writers: Eli Bauman, Jeremy Beiler, Chris Belair, Hallie Cantor, David Feldman, R J Fried, Melissa Hunter, Paul Masella, Tim McAuliffe, John Mulaney, Diallo Riddle, Maya Rudolph, Bashir Salahuddin, Marika Sawyer, Streeter Seidell, Martin Short; Emily Spivey, Steve Young; NBC
-Nathan For You
Written by Leo Allen, Nathan Fielder, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola; Comedy Central
-Saturday Night Live
Head Writers: Rob Klein, Bryan Tucker Writers: James Anderson, Fred Armisen, Jeremy Beiler, Chris Belair, Megan Callahan, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Jim Downey, Tina Fey, Fran Gillespie, Sudi Green, Tim Herlihy, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Zach Kanin, Chris Kelly, Erik Kenward, Paul Masella, Dave McCary, Dennis McNicholas, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, Josh Patten, Paula Pell, Katie Rich, Tim Robinson, Sarah Schneider, Pete Schultz, Streeter Seidell, Dave Sirus, Emily Spivey, Andrew Steele, Will Stephen, Kent Sublette; NBC

COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS

-68th Primetime Emmy Awards
Written by Jack Allison, Tony Barbieri, Jonathan Bines, Joelle Boucai, Robert Cohen, Gary Greenberg, Josh Halloway, Sal Iacono, Eric Immerman, Jimmy Kimmel, Bess Kalb, Jeff Loveness, Jon Macks, Molly McNearney, Danny Ricker, Jeff Stilson, Joe Strazzullo, Alexis Wilkinson; ABC
-73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards
Written by Barry Adelman; Special Material Written by Dave Boone, Ricky Gervais, Jon Macks, Matthew Robinson; NBC
-88th Annual Academy Awards
Written by Dave Boone, Billy Kimball; Special Material Written by Scott Aukerman, Rodney Barnes, Neil Campbell, Matthew Claybrooks, Lance Crouther, Mike Ferrucci, Langston Kerman, Jon Macks, Steve O’Donnell, Nimesh Patel, Vanessa Ramos, Chris Rock, Frank Sebastiano, Chuck Sklar, Jeff Stilson, Michelle Wolf; CBS
-Triumph’s Election Special
Written by Andy Breckman, Josh Comers, David Feldman, R J Fried, Jarrett Grode, Ben Joseph, Matthew Kirsch, Michael Koman, Mike Lawrence, Brian Reich, Craig Rowin, Robert Smigel, Zach Smilovitz, Andrew Weinberg; Hulu

Get full list of WGA TV nominees here.

Adult Swim Cancels Its “Alt-Right” Show ‘Million Dollar Extreme’

December 5, 2016

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adult swim, alt right, cancelled, million dollar extreme, tv

Adult Swim Cancels Its “Alt-Right” Show ‘Million Dollar Extreme’

While it was admirable for Adult Swim to welcome voices outside of their generally left-leaning programming and found some promise starting out with this Ted Talk prank, we hope they find something better than anything that’s a comedic platform with ties to the racist, White Nationalist fringe group known as the “alt-right”.

Now that Million Dollar Extreme is officially canned and Brett Gelman left the network in protest, Adult Swim has the chance for a real rebirth now. They have some room to to move towards being more inclusive with their development and programming slates, especially when it comes to giving credence to female perspectives.

In that spirit, may we suggest giving Natalie Palamides, Jo Firestone, Jamie Loftus, or Kyle Mizono their own Adult Swim shows or, at least, be brought into the fold. They’d definitely keep the weird going at the network in their own unique, great way.

Brett Gelman Says He Has Severed Ties with Adult Swim Due to Their Treatment of Women

November 14, 2016

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adult swim, brett gelman, dinner with, tv

Brett Gelman Says He Has Severed Ties with Adult Swim Due to Their Treatment of Women

Given Adult Swim head Mike Lazzo’s comments on hiring women along with having an alt-right comedy show coming up, Brett Gelman will be taking his “Dinner with…” specials elsewhere.

Unless Adult Swim changes their tune soon with their actions, this might be only the beginning of the fallout between the niche comedy network and its talent.

Jim Jefferies and Anthony Jeselnik Sit Down and Interview Each Other

August 17, 2016

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anthony jeselnik, comedy, comics talk to comics, jim jeffries, tv, vulture

Jim Jefferies and Anthony Jeselnik Sit Down and Interview Each Other

As far as toeing the line of controversy in comedy goes, Jim Jefferies and Anthony Jeselnik have made very successful careers in pulling that off (even if they apparently cross it).

Their conversation, set up by Vulture, is an enlightening one that goes through their brands of comedy, mutual admiration, and how to continue to toe that controversial line.

TV Shows to Get Rotten Tomatoes Ratings

September 16, 2013

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ratings, rotten tomatoes, tv

TV Shows to Get Rotten Tomatoes Ratings

When this happens, especially when watching TV and being on the Internet is a single experience (it’s only a matter of technology that’s keeping that from happening), it’ll be interesting to see how this stacks up against the Nielsen ratings.

Most assuredly, viewers will rely on this more than a ratings share to pick what they watch, which, we hope will help critically acclaimed shows like Louie or recent Emmy winners Children’s Hospital.