‘This Is Where I Leave You’ with Jason Bateman and Tina Fey To Come Out Sept. 2014
Post Arrested Development/30 Rock, both Jason Bateman and Tina Fey have been both extremely busy with developing plenty of projects, being in The Muppets, etc. and we’re curious to see what a dark family comedy with the two will become.
Dramedy Reigns in This Year’s Spirit Awards Nominations
While there absolutely is a bias towards drama with The Oscars, comedy has a little more of a chance with The Spirit Awards as many indie comedies tend to be better received critically.
Even with that in mind, this year’s Spirit Awards definitely skewed towards dramas with lots of hilarious moments, comedies with lots of tension (and the two outright comedies in the wonderful In A World and Computer Chess) including Nebraska, Spectacular Now, Blue Jasmine, Inside Llewyn Davis, Frances Ha, Crystal Fairy, , Afternoon Delight, and Don Jon.
We’re not suggesting that’s necessarily a bad thing (we’ve seen the majority of these films and they were all pretty great), but it’s definitely a trend.
MSNBC Cancels ‘Up Late with Alec Baldwin’
The controversy between Alec Baldwin and the paparazzi amongst other things has unfortunately led to Up Late with Alec Baldwin on MSNBC getting the ax.
This is saddening for the fact that we all didn’t even have enough time to figure out where the show was headed (and maybe they would have changed course had it stayed on the air), whether it be comedy or a more serious talk show.
Dave Hill To Take Over Tom Scharpling’s ‘Best Show’ Slot on WFMU
For those, especially you comedy fans, distraught over the impending end of Tom Scharpling’s Best Show on WFMU, worry not. The amazing Dave Hill is going to take over the time slot from Scharpling with his very own show.
Whether it’s a mix of all of Dave’s big bag of talents as a comedian, writer, host, TV personality, and more or just a few of those things, we’re confident it’s going to be pretty great.
Here’s Who Will Be Taping for Dave Attell New Stand Up Series on Comedy Central
A great collection of comedians in Judah Friedlander, Ali Wong, Joe DeRosa, Nikki Glaser, Junior Stopka, and more are going to be featured on Dave Attell’s upcoming Comedy Central stand up series.
Catch tapings if you’re in NYC.
The LA Film Festival Taking Submissions for 2014
Deadlines range from Dec. 6th to Feb. 21st to enter The LA Film Festival for american and international narrative and documentaries, short, mid-length films, music videos, and now, high school short films.
With that said, please enter so we can get more comedy into higher profile film festivals instead of just having ones focus on comedy.
Patton Oswalt’s Next Special “Comedy Plus Tragedy Equals Time” Coming to Epix Jan. 17th
Created in Patton Oswalt’s veritable laboratory of venues around Southern California, mostly in the Greater LA area, the wonderfully titled Comedy Plus Tragedy Equals Time is Oswalt latest comedy special that will make its premiere on Epix. If it’s anything like what we saw Patton working out during the Summer, this is going to be pretty great.
Make an event reminder (because “marking your calendars” is dated) Jan. 17th, 2014 for Comedy Plus Tragedy Equals Time.
Doug Benson Inks Deal for ‘Movie Interruption’ with Alamo Drafthouse
Doug Benson has achieved the dreams of many in that he has just gotten a deal to make fun of movies across the country in one of the coolest theater chains, Alamo Drafthouse.
For Some Reason, Scientists Are Still Trying to Build a Robot That Can Do Stand Up
Apparently, robots that perform micro surgery, manufacturing, and offer challenges to chess grandmasters have been perfected since robotics developers have kept on trying to come up with a reliable stand up comedian robot.
Little do they know that broken animatronic robots (a closer approximation to the human condition, perhaps?) are way funnier that a robot programmed to tell jokes.
Ron Burgundy to Call Pro Curling Event
Though plenty of people will be seeing Anchorman 2 next month, Will Ferrell and co. are putting on a marketing blitz to remember.
Having already released a memoir, sang a campaign song for Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford, single handedly spearhead a campaign for the new Dodge Durango, something tell us that Will Ferrell almost enjoys doing publicity stunts as much as making the Anchorman sequel.
With that being said, we hope he makes fun of the sport of curling the whole time he’s an official color commentator.
As We Hoped, Monty Python Extends Run of Reunion Stage Show
We’re guessing that Monty Python found out that people still want so badly to see them.
They’ll be doing a week of shows and possibly more around the world as tickets sold out in probably less time than it takes to realize you set an alarm to buy Monty Python tickets.
Funny or Die’s Occasional To Be Published Online
After being distributed pretty much just for the iPad, Funny or Die is taking it’s digital magazine The Occasional into the more appropriate digital space of the whole Internet.
If you haven’t had an iPad to see what they’re up to, the Occasional has had some really great features and spreads that deserve to be reblogged/RT’d/whatever the verb for Pinterest is.
‘Last Call With Carson Daly’ Carries On With New Format Focusing on Interviews
Last Call with Carson Daly will remain on the air despite rumors, but much more stripped down from when the show first started. The show will now center around interviews, which have been the highlight of the show, many that feature great comedy folks like Marlo Meekins, Deon Cole, The Sklar Brothers, Key & Peele, Chris Elliott, and more.
The Black List Expands to Include Television, Web Series, and Series Pilots
What used to be the word-of-mouth hot list of unproduced screenplays known as The Black List has expanded into an entire of network that allows for blind submissions, professional evaluation services of shorter form screenwriting that includes TV, web content, and more.
As to whether your comedy web series pilot has potential to make it to the actual highly publicized and circulated Black List has yet to be seen, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.
David Letterman Is “Fascinated” by Ken Burns’ The Address
David Letterman was just blown away by legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns ‘The Address’ where several celebrities read The Gettysburg Address in montage. In fact, he liked it so much that he decided to play a clip at The Late Show.
Well, we tried our best to not spoil this quick bit, but CBS’ social media team had other ideas.
Andy Kindler Taping an Album in December
The hilarious Andy Kindler has decided to take this most recent comedy chunk and make it into album material by recording a comedy album at UCB Theatre here in LA.
On Dec. 3rd and 5th at 9:30PM, Kindler will tape his very next comedy album and you absolutely shouldn’t miss out, especially to see how meta Andy might get with his own jokes.
Bill Cosby and Sarah Silverman’s Long Awaited Comedy Specials Both Airing This Saturday
If you haven’t connected the dots, this is going to be a pretty big night for stand-up comedy, or really comedy in general, with Bill Cosby’s Far From Finished and Sarah Silverman’s We Are Miracles airing back to back, 8PM on Comedy Central and 10PM on HBO, respectively.
Rodney Dangerfield Finally Gets Respect with Retrospective Website
Rodney Dangerfield’s wife Joan Dangerfield launched a site in his memory and somehow was able to snatch the URL www.rodney.com as well as make it like a high class museum. It features clips of Rodney, and exhibits, if you will, showcasing his wonderful career.
Also, you can win Rodney Dangerfield’s Cadillac, so perhaps check it out soon.
Amazon Studios Original Series “Betas” Now Available
Amazon Studios’ second original comedy series Betas just dropped today with first three episodes available to watch for free.
The hilarious Jon Daly stars in it, so maybe check it out soon.
HBO Developing Comedy from Diablo Cody and Oprah Winfrey
Diablo Cody is having a nice year in doing a TBS talk show pilot, developing a series with Jack Black, Amanda Lund, and Matt Gourley at Fox, and now developing another series with, you did read that headline right, Oprah Winfrey at HBO.
So, 2014 could be a banner TV year for Cody and Oprah WInfrey, we’re guessing, really liked Juno.
Stephen Fry To Return As Host For BAFTA Film Awards
It will be Stephen Fry’s 9th time hosting the prestigious British awards ceremony, which is a feat that we thought no one would get to in this current era of awards presentations because people on Twitter demean whoever happens to be hosting, no matter if they’re actually good or not.
Comedy Central Orders Asylum Comedy Pilot From Nick Turner & Lee Rubenstein
Two very funny people in Nick Turner and Lee Rubenstein get a comedy pilot order from Comedy Central.
Yet, another good recent move (in addition to ordering a pilot of The Chris Gethard Show and renewing Adam DeVine’s House Party) by Comedy Central and we hope they keep it up.
Steve Buscemi, Dustin Hoffman, and Method Man Join Adam Sandler in ‘The Cobbler’
For those of you waiting for Adam Sandler to take his next role that was akin to ones he had in Punch Drunk Love and Reign Over Me, this Tom McCarthy (director of Win Win) directed indie comedy project, The Cobbler, might just be it.
Also, having Steve Buscemi, Dustin Hoffman, and Method Man added to the cast doesn’t hurt.
MTV Didn’t Pick Up ‘Nikki & Sara Live’ For a 3rd Season
First Totally Biased is off the air and now Nikki & Sara Live won’t get a 3rd season. The announcement comes from Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer on their great podcast You Had To Be There, which was part of the reason they got a show in the first place, with their staff at Sara’s apartment.
We know that there are probably solid financial aspects, demographic and branding research behind why MTV isn’t keeping Nikki & Sara Live on the air, but we’re really shocked about this and probably whatever MTV is going to have as a replacement.
John Goodman, Paul Rudd, Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake to Host Saturday Night Live in December
All we’re saying is that these are three upcoming episodes of Saturday Night Live set for December are ones you might want to plan to watch.
Perhaps, given the timing, there’ll be a great Inside Llewyn Davis sketch?