TVSquad

When I wrapped up my interview with Bruce McCulloch -- executive producer of ABC's Carpoolers and a member of the legendary comedy troupe Kids In The Hall -- I asked him if there was anything else he might be working on. "Yeah, I'm going to have a heart attack next March, and I wanted people to know about that," he joked. For a guy who has worn a lot of hats in his career, nothing has kept him busier than being the boss.

Carpoolers, a single-camera comedy premiering on ABC tonight at 8:30 PM ET, is about four guys who use their carpool to explore what's going on in each other's lives. The show is McCulloch's brainchild, which means he's involved with everything from the writing to how many donuts will be on the craft services table. Yet he still has time to write and perform his own surreal works, as well as perform occasionally with the Kids, who have been together for almost a quarter-century.

I got a chance to speak to McCulloch last week, and we talked about what it's like to premiere after the season's most lambasted new show (Cavemen), what parts of himself he sees in each of his main characters, what it's like to work with Fred Goss and Jerry O'Connell (who spoke to our friends at AOL last week), and why the Kids have managed to stay together for so long. Highlights are after the jump, as well as an audio embed of the interview (35 minutes).

I had heard rumblings here and there about a pilot for a sketch series from Mr. Show co-creator Bob Odenkirk called Next!, but the series was never picked up for a full season. According to Wikipedia, the show was created in 2002, and as you can tell from the clips below, it featured Odenkirk and some of his Mr. Show co-stars, including Jerry Minor (Lucky Louie) and Jay Johnston (The Sarah Silverman Program and Moral Orel).

The clips definitely have a Mr. Show-like vibe, especially the ad for a car dealership featuring Johnston as the inept brother of the owner (Odenkirk), and Minor singing a ballad to the American flag and its booty ("it's only Panama, baby").

Anyway, here's a small sample of what might have been (or what once was and then wasn't):

[via Dead Frog and CC Insider]