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STELLA Fans!! Comedy Central Giving Black And Showalter Another Pilot!! UPDATED With Taping Report!!
I am – Hercules!!
Comedy Central's new Michael Showalter/Michael Ian Black pilot is titled “Michael and Michael Have Issues.” The duo previously worked together on "The State" and "Stella" and a million other things. The Hollywood Reporter describes the proposed series' premise:
... a half-hour project with segments addressing issues that the two men have with themselves, each other and the world at large.
Read all of the Reporter’s story on the matter here.
UPDATE!! A spy new to AICN attended the pilot taping:
Herc,
I recently attended a taping of 'Michael and Michael Have Issues' in NYC. The following will be a recap of the taping, as spoiler free as possible.
The theater seated about 100 people, and the set was simple and small, looking like a cross between a therapist's office and a side of a living room in an expensive New York apartment, with large art deco-esque windows and blue lights behind them implying sky. There were two brown chairs in the center of the set, with strange props framing them for ambience, such as a cluster of ancient bowling pins, and a white bust of someone. I knew nothing about the show (beyond the title) going in, and figured seeing the set would answer some questions. It most certainly didn't, but after everyone was seated, Michael and Michael came out and did.
They explained the format of the show, all the while ragging on each other to get the crowd loose and laughing. It's kind of like Mr. Show, in that you have stuff in front of an audience, filmed sketch shorts, and a basic overall plot to the episode. On Michael and Michael, the stuff in front of an audience is them discussing topics that bug them, then introducing a filmed sketch short that deals with the subject. The plot aspect involves them getting into arguments or competitions for attention behind the scenes of the show, which spills into their home lives, and into how they behave when introducing shorts.
They told us we'd be seeing a few shorts, as well as them introducing the shorts. The behind the scenes stuff they hadn't shot yet, but they described the plot of the first episode (which I won't spoil here) and it's very Stella-esque absurd, and sounded very funny.
The shorts we saw were hilarious, and very similar in style to The State shorts, with a little Kids in the Hall vibe in there too. Each were no more than 2 or 3 minutes. Obviously the meat of the show will be the behind the scenes stuff.
The introductions to the shorts were equally as funny. If you've ever seen them live, or Stella live, you know the style of their banter. They also taped a bit where they didn't introduce a short, but instead had a little slideshow presentation for the audience. This bit brought the house down. Absolutely hilarious, very obscene, and will be mostly bleeps when it airs on Comedy Central.
After they shot everything, they came out and said very genuine thank you's to the audience. It was a hilarious night, all in all about two hours of taping. Anyone who is a fan of the Michael's, The State, Wain, Stella, all of that will be very pleased. It feels way more accessible than Stella, and I'm sure will do a lot better as a result.
If you use this, call me Joey Joe-Joe Junior Shabadoo.
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I recently attended a taping of 'Michael and Michael Have Issues' in NYC. The following will be a recap of the taping, as spoiler free as possible.
The theater seated about 100 people, and the set was simple and small, looking like a cross between a therapist's office and a side of a living room in an expensive New York apartment, with large art deco-esque windows and blue lights behind them implying sky. There were two brown chairs in the center of the set, with strange props framing them for ambience, such as a cluster of ancient bowling pins, and a white bust of someone. I knew nothing about the show (beyond the title) going in, and figured seeing the set would answer some questions. It most certainly didn't, but after everyone was seated, Michael and Michael came out and did.
They explained the format of the show, all the while ragging on each other to get the crowd loose and laughing. It's kind of like Mr. Show, in that you have stuff in front of an audience, filmed sketch shorts, and a basic overall plot to the episode. On Michael and Michael, the stuff in front of an audience is them discussing topics that bug them, then introducing a filmed sketch short that deals with the subject. The plot aspect involves them getting into arguments or competitions for attention behind the scenes of the show, which spills into their home lives, and into how they behave when introducing shorts.
They told us we'd be seeing a few shorts, as well as them introducing the shorts. The behind the scenes stuff they hadn't shot yet, but they described the plot of the first episode (which I won't spoil here) and it's very Stella-esque absurd, and sounded very funny.
The shorts we saw were hilarious, and very similar in style to The State shorts, with a little Kids in the Hall vibe in there too. Each were no more than 2 or 3 minutes. Obviously the meat of the show will be the behind the scenes stuff.
The introductions to the shorts were equally as funny. If you've ever seen them live, or Stella live, you know the style of their banter. They also taped a bit where they didn't introduce a short, but instead had a little slideshow presentation for the audience. This bit brought the house down. Absolutely hilarious, very obscene, and will be mostly bleeps when it airs on Comedy Central.
After they shot everything, they came out and said very genuine thank you's to the audience. It was a hilarious night, all in all about two hours of taping. Anyone who is a fan of the Michael's, The State, Wain, Stella, all of that will be very pleased. It feels way more accessible than Stella, and I'm sure will do a lot better as a result.
If you use this, call me Joey Joe-Joe Junior Shabadoo.
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+ Expand All
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I love The State
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it'll probably go the way of Stella, smart funny, very strange humor that the mindless Mencia audience won't get
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So let's see, on TV that makes it The State (obviously); Viva Variety; Reno 911!; Stella; and now this (I'm not counting solo projects like Ed or Men Behaving Badly). In theaters, we've gotten Wet Hot American Summer; The Baxter; The Ten; and Reno 911: Miami. Did I miss anything? This crew really gives the Apatow squad a run for their money (and Paul Rudd wins either way!)
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Not to mention Black's commentary on VH1 is like nails on a chalkboard.
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It was a pre-premiere preview disc given away free with an issue of Spin, I think. Or Details or Maxim of one of those kiddy nags. I've watch the Stella Pilot three times - it's nice and quirky. I showed it to my pal the Poozer and he totally hated it. But you're right, Bloo - he's a Mencia fan.
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My guess is if it is good, Comedy Central will cancel it.
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if you are a fan of the post 'State' stuff, then definitely check out wainy days on mydamnchannel... now in it's third season.
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Gonna have to keep calling you out on the wilfully ignored Middleman
Is it not Buffy enough for you ? -
...Why on earth did Herc block the TB??? I wanted to talk bond! Its a great geek subject to bitch/praise, I dont get it. So what if the sale is 24hrs. All the other sales before were time limited, whats that got to do with the TB?? Come AICN, I appreciate times a moving but some of your actions are simply mind boggling these days.
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http://tinyurl.com/6c8a7r...most of you wont read the article...even more wont care...the fact remains, the writers of "reality" tv got screwed big time by the wga...so remember this herc, the next time you go pimpin out these shows
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Napoleon, had a similar situation with my brother, I've tried to show him some stuff from these guys (and some other smart comedy) and he LOVES Mencia and doesn't get it. I've even told him about the Mencia stolen bits and he's like "well he does that stuff good then, probably better then the guys he stole it from"2Leggedfreak, while I'm not Herc's biggest fan, I have to go to his defense there have been Middleman articles, he's posted them in post Talkbacks, with the admission that you can't find them using the AICN search engine. Last year i called him out on the lack of Burn Notice and was proven wrong, he had covered it, just didn't find it as good as I did. As for The Middleman, it's a cute little monster of the week show, I've found if I happen to catch it cool, if I miss it well then that's cool too
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the 24 hour specials always have blocked talkbacks, have had for as long as Herc's done the 24 hour pimping
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We don't... HAVE... this money
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I've watched my Stella DVD countless times, and in my opinion, it's maybe a perfect show. I'm genuinely jealous of the scripts for each episode, as it is exactly the type of television show I want to make. The mixture of jokes, them fucking mugging to the camera at any opportunity, etc. The pilot is gold. I really hope this is just as good, and it gets more than one season.
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"We said AULDE maid."
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"Reality Bites Back" is my new fave reality show now that Hell's Kitchen is off the air. Even if its cancelled after four episodes it will still be better than 3/4 of the shit on television...
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Norton, Rockwell, Rudd, Garofalo, Topher Grace. Almost every epiode had someone huge in it. You'd think that maybe could have saved it.
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What?!? I never knew that. When did this 24hr thing started, I dont come on here everyday so I can only assume whenever I do, they've all vanished and expired and I'm a UK git, so I come here at strange hours. So basically, these 24hr posts with blocked TBs are purely blatant Amazon adverts? And since I am from UK, I cant even buy the fucking box set. I might well be banned from here on, since I offer no opportunity of helping AICN's advertising revenue. Am not bitching about the advertising, every website needs it to sustain themselves. I just think, blocking the TB is an unfortunate decision and I see no reason why the actual thing has to dissappear. Thanks for pointing it out to me, man.
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sounds like every stand up routine ever. But given the talent, it could be a keeper. GOT to be better than that reality show spoof thats running now. Could only watch 5 minutes of that. Or the rehab house spoof series..Am I the only one who kind of misses that Colin Quinn show that used to follow the Daily Show? The barely veiled hostility between comics was hilarious. Introduced me to the comic gnome that is Jim Norton.
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God damnit!
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MTV is being a fucking tard
if you took the time to put it on a dvd let it out!! -
"The pizza...you guys...the pizza...you guys...the pizza...you guys...the pizza...you guys..."
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That show is pretty damn funny. I never knew Micheal Ian Black was funny outside of Ed. The Biggest Fatty episode is probably the funniest thing I've seen all summer, except for maybe those Rescue Me shorts. Fucking strike pushing the best show on TV back a year.
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Aug 14, 2008 12:20:40 PM CDT
It'll follow the pattern of some other Comedy Central shows
by mr spork
Premiere after South Park, get it's time slot moved around enough that no one knows when it's on, then cancelled.
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Wet Hot American Summer was one of the funniest movies of all time, and I'm not even Jewish.
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It's possible. I'm a smart enough dude to get the Stella sensibility, I just don't think it's funny. And Black is a giant smarmy douche.
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If only their comedy central show had been more like the internet shorts. Of course then it would have been cancelled three times as fast; so that the network could shore up room for the vast expanse of intelligent programming they consistently produce. In all seriousness, Comedy Central has now become one of the dumbest television channels in cable history. Mind of Mencia, Blue Collar 'Comedy' marathons, Drawn Together, it's all a gruesome trainwreck of lowest common denominator fart/poop/penis/racial/redneck humor. I miss the old days, when it was actually funny. All they have going for them now is South Park, and they've been running on fumes for years now.
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I wish Comedy Central could re-unite the cast of the State, and just let them do sketch comedy. Reno and Stella are both hilarious in their own ways, but I don't think locking the cast into specific characters works as well as the State did. Also, for whoever pointed out the cameos on Stella...don't forget Elizabeth Banks!
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Okay, so I'm shallow - I think Michael Ian Black is cute, but Showalter is unattractive and unfunny. So sue me. Why do they have to be constantly intertwined? Bleh.
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All members of The State as THE STATE (not Reno, Stella, etc.) are currently working on a made-for-tv movie that will air on Comedy Central. It will be a bunch of skits that all loosely tie-in to American history.
I was fortunate enough to see them reunite in LA earlier this year where they performed (tested) most of the new material live in front of an audience.
Was looking very funny and can't come to TV soon enough!!!
Found some photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/liezlwashere/sets/72157604134497251/ -
It was like they were trying to not be funny. That's edgy comedy, I guess: comedy so good it's just not funny.
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Just not to everyone. And I don't mean that in some snobby, art-school way. I just mean that it's a certain style of comedy you either love or hate. I don't think I've ever met anyone that just "liked" Stella.
Stella was almost like a modern Marx Brothers with a lot of absurdity thrown in. I personally loved it and love everything those guys do, but I also love Tim & Eric Awesome Show and almost everyone I know thinks that show is beyond stupid and accuses me of having the mentality of a toddler for liking it. So be it! -
Read about this in Showalters MySpace blog a while back and was hoping it would get picked up. So very happy it did. Im a huge Stella fan. "BOY?!?"
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Hold on to your love of Tim & Eric, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
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agreed about took me a couple of viewings to get into it, but it's good stuff.
I guess I'm gonna have to continue to watch Barry and LeVon on youtube until eMpTy V gets its shit together. This new show MAY tide me over 'til then... -
that should read "agreed about Tim and Eric." fuckingnoeditfeature grumble grumble
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Yeah, it seems like MTV can never uncork its thumbs from its ass long enough to get THE STATE released on DVD. ("Mista Bouchet, see if you can get a shot'a this puddin' over here...)
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What sucks is that the DVD has been done for I think over a year now -- they're just sitting on it!
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Whitest Kids U'Know.
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At least select episodes
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was (is?) pretty funny. I've always loved Stella. But I have to agree with the first few posters that it probably won't find an audience despite it sounding waaay more sensible than Stella. I loved The Ten and I almost prefer that The State stick to film. I don't see how absurd comedy goes over some people's heads and not others. Most of this type of humor is pretty tasteless...yet still in good taste somehow. Weird.
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It doesn't go over my head. I get the jokes, I just don't particularly find them funny. I react the same way to Tim & Eric. The majority of their humor is just throwing crazy and/or stupid shit at a wall and seeing if it sticks. Some people maybe don't "get it", but I think most of us do and just don't find it humorous.
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those of us who don't laugh at Tim & Eric and Stella.
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