The Good Place Renewed for a Fourth Season at NBC
Well, well, well. Here’s some good news with no strings attached.
By the way, at this pace with The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and the recently-transplanted-to-NBC Brooklyn Nine-Nine, we wouldn’t be surprised if Mike Schur ended up running NBC or, at least, NBC comedy if that’s what he wanted to do.
Well, we wish we could be more surprised that this happened, but since a TV network followed in the footsteps of a Chappelle’s Show sketch of “Trading Spouses” and made Wife Swap almost 15 years ago, it was almost inevitable that one of Nathan’s ludicrous business ideas from Nathan For You would actually happen without his help.
In the third season of Nathan For You, Nathan suggests that a moving company save money by replacing paid employees with incorporating a workout regimen that involves moving people’s stuff. Now, a woman who delivers packages for Amazon loses 100 pounds and her corporate overlords just pointed out how their delivery program could help you lose weight.
While you can say this is an instance of life imitating art, it hurts a little more when corporations are imitating the satire about him that was heightened for comedic effect.
Perhaps, seeing comedy and satire as agents for change is a fool’s errand, but at least you unequivocally know the absurdity of what’s happening when it’s happening.
Samantha Bee Launches Her Own Production Company Called Swimsuit Competition
If any of you thought the outcry against Sam Bee for using a certain expletive in reference to Ivanka Trump was going to impede her progress, know that she just launched her own production company that will produce narrative and documentary projects, mainly, for TV. We imagine that it’ll take a cue tone-wise and follow the M.O. of Full Frontal, which we’re on board for.
Also, we dig that she calls it something fun and edgy like Swimsuit Competition as opposed to individual numbers and letters together or various landscape features or locations.
They’ll soon also be doing an up and comers stand-up showcase series digitally called Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring that has sets from Tom Thakkar, Petey DeAbreu, Dina Hashem, Natasha Vaynblat, Ian Lara, Clare O’Kane, Stavros Halkias, Hanna Dickinson, Joyelle Nicole Johnson, Yedoye Travis, Marie Faustin, Ryan Beck, Martin Urbano, and Chris Cotton already lined-up. A round in LA will soon follow.
A told that’s over 14 hours of stand-up announced coming over the next year from Comedy Central. In fact, the hour specials from Davis, Funches, Wood Jr., and DiStefano are coming all in January.
Props to everyone here. We have no doubt some gold will be coming through these specials and we can’t wait to see it.
This pair of series orders for Awkwafina and Robbie at Comedy Central puts a smile on our faces over here at the Bureau.
Awkwafina continues Akwafina’s hot streak from Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians, and SNL to having her very own sitcom based on her salad days in Brooklyn. Robbie (co-written by Anthony King) also puts the amazing Rory Scovel in a role that we’ve already imagined him doing so well, a highly pressured youth basketball league coach. That’s probably because we’ve seen him riff out a hilarious half time speech on stage at least a few times.
Also, we’re pretty psyched for supporting roles from BD Wong and Beau Bridges in each show respectively.
We’ll be waiting as patiently as we can for their trailers to get that first taste of what’s to come.
My Favorite Murder’s Podcast Network Exactly Right Launches Today
It was less than three years ago that Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark enjoyed each other’s company in recounting infamous murders and releasing it as a podcast known as My Favorite Murder.
Now, having toured the globe and created a gigantic self-sustaining community of murderinos, Karen and Georgia have launched their very own podcast network with a handful of podcasts. Comedy podcasts Do You Need a Ride? where Karen and Chris Fairbanks interview comedians while going to or coming from the airport and The Purrrcast where many comedians get to dish about their cats will be under the Exactly Right banner.
We’re sure this is only the tip of the iceberg for Exactly Right, so you might want to start following them.
Conan in Japan Premieres Tonight
Just a friendly neighborhood reminder, especially if you’ve been missing Conan from your TV for awhile, that his special visit to Japan will air tonight on TBS at 10PM.
In it, you’ll also get to find out what the hell happened when he confronted the mayor of Conantown in addition to Conan’s normal hijinks when goes to foreign lands (that is probably some of the better PR that the U.S can get abroad right now).
If you’re feeling a bit nihilistic/existentially debilitated on Thanksgiving today, we like to share, once again, The Dollop’s deep dive into the first and much less picturesque second Thanksgiving.
It’s a new Thanksgiving tradition that we happen to really enjoy here at TCB (especially since we’re not fans of the holiday season in general).
Give it a listen/another listen to pair perfectly with today’s nationwide feast here.
Next Year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner Won’t Have Trump or a Comedian
Instead, the White House Correspondents Association has opted to have historian and author Ron Chernow to host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner next year, Saturday, April 27th, 2019. He’ll be focusing on the First Amendment, specifically freedom of the press, at this point in history.
It’s an unfortunate decision by the WHCA (and, if we had more conspiracy theory leanings, might think this has something to do with getting Jim Acosta’s White House press credentials back). Though it may not have been explicit intention of the WHCD at its inception, it has become a perfect symbol of how much us Americans get to speak against power, staring it right down the face while doing so.
We’re sure Chernow will have something very eloquent to say, possibly still critical of Trump and everything tangential to his Administration as well as the media covering it, but it’s hard to imagine it being as visible and effective as a skilled comedian roasting D.C. to their faces (even if Trump isn’t there).
Look, we’re not going to on and on about how it feels like the WHCD is chickening out here (not unlike Trump chickens out on never showing up to the dinner himself because he is a coward that rules out of fear), but we’re sure, above everyone else, C-SPAN is furious that this night of guaranteed ratings/views is very likely gone.
Big Mouth Renewed for Season 3 at Netflix
We definitely think this is a no-brainer on Netflix’s part as season 2 definitely elevated the animated series on all fronts (as well as getting even more topping how blue it could get), but we’re curious how long Kroll and Goldberg will aim to have this explicit animated series about puberty go as Andrew, Nick, Jay, and Jessi can’t stay teens forever.
Still, we’ll definitely be looking forward to checking over our shoulder if someone is watching us watch that at a coffee shop.
The 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations were just announced and, as they are a little more comedy friendly than their big brother, The Oscars, it’s worth taking a gander of what comedies are hitting with voters this time around.
For this year, there definitely seems to be a strong thread of comedy going to the darker corners of the human experience throughout as Eighth Grade scored multiple nominations along with the dark absurdist fantasy of Sorry to Bother You, Thoroughbreds (a buddy step-patricide comedy), Can You Ever Forgive Me? that has Melissa McCarthy attempting to make a living as a literary forger. From the moody color palate alone, you could toss Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest The Favourite, a period piece comedy about the struggle for power within a Queen’s court.
On the other end of this spectrum, you have more life affirming, specifically feminist, comedies such as Support The Girls and Never Goin’ Back.
All in all, a very nice, extensive round up of indie comedy nominees this past year as you can see below. Let’s hope a decent amount of them win when the Spirit Awards are handed out on Feb 23rd.
BEST FEATURE
EIGHTH GRADE-Producers: Eli Bush, Scott Rudin, Christopher Storer, Lila Yacoub
BEST FIRST FEATURE
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU-Director: Boots Riley
Producers: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Jonathan Duffy, Charles D. King, George Rush, Forest Whitaker, Kelly Williams
BEST SCREENPLAY
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?-Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
EIGHTH GRADE-Bo Burnham
THOROUGHBREDS-Cory Finley
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
NEVER GOIN’ BACK-Writer/Director: Augustine Frizzell
Producers: Liz Cardenas, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Elsie Fisher, EIGHTH GRADE
Regina Hall, SUPPORT THE GIRLS
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Richard E. Grant, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Josh Hamilton, EIGHTH GRADE
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
THE FAVOURITE (United Kingdom)-Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Read the full list of Spirit Award nominees here.
Trae Crowder, Corey Forrester & Drew Morgan Sell Southern Buddy Comedy to ABC
Trae Crowder AKA the Liberal Redneck and the WellRED banner that includes comedians Corey Forrester and Drew Morgan might have just scored their own show. They and writer Andrew Reich have just sold a comedy about three friends from the sticks in the South (ostensibly, we’re guessing it’s a semi-autobiographical single camera comedy).
It does seem as though networks are aiming for sitcoms that will appeal across the country and the aisle and maybe Crowder, Forrester, and Morgan are the ones to make that happen.
Kurt Braunohler Has a Multi Cam Sitcom “Dad vs. Father” in Development at CBS
If there someone to subvert the tropes of the multi cam sitcom, it might just be Kurt Braunohler.
Having hosted an absurdist game show, navigating the Mississippi River on a jetski, and driving across the country w/a giant double-sided butt sculpture, we can only wonder what Kurt has up his sleeve here. Also, we’re curious if and how his dads against dads joke might figure in here.
Hopefully, it’ll get a green light and we’ll find out.
39 Comedians You Should and Will Know
As you can see in the byline, we had a hand in making this list happen and feel honored to do so at Vulture.
Sure, we’re a bit biased (though we reached out to all sorts of industry folks in the know on who they thought you should watch out for and compiled a list from them-so maybe not too biased on our end?), but it’s one of the lists of comedians to watch that we think you can really rely on.
Also, there are 21 picks we made, but, as some of them are groups or duos, it added up to 39, FYI.
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend to Premiere on November 19th
Conan will indeed be attempting friendship with the likes of Will Ferrell, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, Wanda Sykes, Marc Maron, Bill Burr, Kristen Bell, Dax Shepherd via a podcast and his assistant Sona Movsesian will be tagging along as well to provide perspective about making friends via a professional produced and distributed podcast.
In any case, you should subscribe if you haven’t already, especially since that nice, new ½ hour version of his show isn’t coming until January.
In 2014, Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure made waves as a foreign comedy, deservedly getting awards nominations and wins when foreign comedies so rarely get into such consideration.
Fox Searchlight has a remake of Östlund’s masterpiece in the works and has lined-up an impressive cast and directing duo. Still, a combination of Ferrell, Louis-Dreyfus, Faxon, and Rash makes a little curious as to how much this remake, now titled Downhill, will resemble the European original or be a much more broad comedy. Perhaps, the Oscar winning pedigree of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash from The Descendants will come through here.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, please enjoy the trailer for Force Majeure here (and then go see it however you can).
Just off the name alone and it’s obvious middle-finger-esque reference to the Kevin James starrer Kevin Can Wait, we want this to get a greenlight and see what this will be.
Also, we’re fascinated by the prospect of that revelatory scene from Louie where they break the fourth wall on a hacky multi cam sitcom in the cold opening of the show being upgraded by Valerie Armstrong to following the perspective of the “sitcom wife” as a real person.
We haven’t been this excited by a mere show premise in quite a long time. So, order it to series already, AMC.
Respectively, IFC’s new additions to their development slate include a semi-autobiographical series about being a mixed race asian millennial from Katie Malia and Margaret Cho, a priest writing erotica under a pen name from FoD, an art heist comedy, an comedy about agoraphobia from Timm Sharp and Jonathan Ames, and a socio-political long form sketch comedy show focusing on the racial divide in the United States.
This all sounds very, very intriguing, especially as IFC is figuring out what to do with the face of their comedy brand once Portlandia ends. So, we hope we’ll get to see how any of this will look, sound, or feel in the not so distant future and get an idea of what IFC’s comedy will be like going onwards into the next decade.
YouTube Has Just Ordered an Animated Presentation of the Dumb People Town Podcast
So much of the fun that’s had by The Sklar Brothers, Daniel Van Kirk, and their guests might be brought further to life if this goes to series at YouTube.
If there does end up being a Dumb People Town animated series, we can’t wait to see how the riffs and runs as well as Dumb People Town’s most popular game Guess the Agee will play out in animated form.
Episodes of ‘Heathers’ Got Pulled Off the Air Again Following Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
You can still watch these pulled episodes that deal with school shootings in particular on Paramount Network’s app or on VOD, but we bet that this, of all the things you can be outraged about on TV with respect to what’s going on in the world, ranks pretty low.
We will say that Eighth Grade and BoJack Horseman did manage to handle the topic of mass shootings with delicacy, while also being caustically funny.
Don’t worry, something else terrible in the news cycle will pop up in about an hour or so and, as mentioned earlier, you can still see it via streaming before the finale tonight.
Richard Linklater Is Making a Bill Hicks Biopic
We bet this will focus a good deal on Hicks coming up in Texas, perhaps specifically at the Comedy Stop in Houston where Hicks made his bones.
This is one of two biopics that Linklater, a filmmaker famous for working in pretty much any genre of film, has in the works. As such, we’re intrigued to see what angle, both story-wise and style-wise, Richard takes.
Two things here:
1) James Adomian’s Bernie Sanders is, without a doubt, one of the best political comedy impersonations of this decade as shown by this performance at this past weekend’s Defundraiser event for Measure B in Los Angeles in the upcoming midterm elections.
2) Go out and vote on Nov. 6th. (Here’s more on Measure B if you’re curious)
Fox Makes Script Commitment Plus Penalty to Riki Lindhome’s “Tails”
This makes for yet another intriguing addition to Fox’s development slate as a project from Sabrina Jalees and Diablo Cody was also announced this week.
Lindhome, who we hope you’d know from Garfunkel and Oates and Another Period, will indeed be writing and starring in the project about a late 30s woman refusing to settle.
Based off of how incredible the song and music video for Garfunkel and Oates’ 29/31 is, we have no doubt that Riki’s take on what would might be a decade after that song will be worth watching.
We’ve dug Sabrina Jalees ever since she set foot in LA and started hitting the ground running on stand-up stages all around town. Her coming up with a series with Diablo Cody sounds intriguing, especially as it’s being made as a multi cam that deals with a family reconnecting with their lesbian daughter and her fiancé.
Though Jalees hasn’t nabbed the role of the daughter just yet, she is so fun to watch that we have a hard time imagining not being on screen for this project. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Also, it’s worth nothing that, If picked up, this will certainly be a fascinating addition to Fox’s comedy line-up, which currently includes Last Man Standing.
Puddles Pity Party Lands Las Vegas Residency at Caesar’s Palace at Start of 2019
A few years ago, we were at The Paul F. Tompkins Show at Largo and, in the middle of the show, Paul mysteriously got a call that he “had” to take. The stage was empty for a few seconds, but out of the corner of our eye, we caught the glow of lantern coming from behind us, walking through the aisle.
That lantern was carried by none other than the towering sad clown that is Puddles Pity Party, who then took the stage with several vintage trunks that were part of an ingenious bit and sang beautifully. It was enthralling, funny, and all kind of unbelievable simultaneously.
Naturally, we’re glad that Vegas will be giving him a residency at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesar’s Palace from Jan. 17th-Feb 9th next year, so many more rows of people can hopefully be witness to the magic and charm of Puddles Pity Party.