mockumentary-related stories
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 3:35PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Exciting news for both fans of
Summer Heights High and men dressing as multiple characters in general! HBO is helping to launch a new
Chris Lilley project called
Angry Boys, set to begin production this month.
I've seen some of Lilley's other work and, while it's intriguing, none of it has been quite as amazing as the sheer ridiculousness that was
Summer Heights High. It became a phenomenon on the Internet and found a good deal of success when it finally came to the States via HBO.
Continue reading New Chris Lilley project in the works
Posted Apr 10th 2009 12:36AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E01) While at its heart, and based on its creators (Michael Schur and Greg Daniels of
The Office), you can't help but compare
Parks & Recreation to
The Office. They both film in that mockumentary style, they both feature clueless leads, and they have some of the same comic sensibilities. But how many multi-camera family sitcoms were on the air back in the '80s?
Seinfeld and
Friends clones in the '90s? Crime procedurals in the '00s?
It doesn't matter if a show shares similar traits with another if it has a voice all its own. And as I indicated in my
"Early Look" of Parks & Recreation, they even use the documentary-style camera work differently. But the real difference for me is in the work of Amy Poehler.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Make My Pit a Park (series premiere)
Posted Apr 8th 2009 5:12PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Early Looks, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
First there was talk of a spin-off of
The Office. Word was that Amy Poehler was attached. Then we got the notion that Rashida Jones may just reprise her role of Karen in that spin-off. And then it became
Parks and Recreation. The show follows the exploits of the Parks Department in a small city in Indiana. So our spin-off went from more office politics to ... well, politics. But Amy Poehler is here. And while Rashida Jones is on board, it's not as Karen.
Still, the comparisons are going to be inevitable. Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who are both key parts of
The Office team, created this show, it airs right before
The Office, and both are shot in that mock documentary style. Then you have Poehler's lead role as Deputy Director Leslie Knope. She appears to be as oblivious to the world that truly exists around her as Michael Scott is on
The Office, but more in a naively optimistic way than a narcissistic asshat way. As Jones' character Ann Perkins describes her: "She's a little doofy, but she's sweet."
Continue reading Parks and Recreation -- An early look
Posted Mar 29th 2007 3:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, In the Limelight, Celebrities
Last year, after multiple recommendations from my English friends, I got around to watching a few episodes of
The IT Crowd. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to all the wild hype generated by my buddies, but something did stick in my mind... The crazy-haired, nasal Moss character, played by
Richard Ayoade. There was something wonderfully weird about him and, since I was so intrigued by his strange voice, I decided to look him up. Well, as it turns out, his usual voice is really that weird and nasal, which just made him a million times more better in my mind. In fact, Ayoade's the only cast member who has been carried over from the original version of
The IT Crowd to the American adaptation, reprising his role as Moss.
Continue reading Richard Ayoade: In the Limelight
Posted Feb 5th 2007 12:02PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, The Office
Here's one way to score an internship with an Emmy Award-winning comedy.
Buffalo Grove High School senior Josh Golden wrote and directed a spoof of
The Office set in his high school. He shot over 14 hours of footage in order to meticulously recreate the show's mockumentary-cam angles and talking head interviews. Golden sent the finished product to
The Office's producers, who were, in turn, so impressed by the spoof that they invited Golden and his cast to the set. Once there, Golden managed to snag himself an internship with the show. (You can watch the spoof, entitled "The Tech Lab,"
here.)
Screw the Science Fair and the Yale Book Award. This kid clearly knows where it's at. Start blogging about it now, Josh. Pretty soon you'll have yourself a deal with UTA and a mini-media empire. Take the time to smell the multi-platform development deals. College isn't going anywhere.
Posted Nov 9th 2006 4:21PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, FOX, TV Royalty
Thomas Schlamme is creating an American version of a popular Canadian series called
The Tournament. The comedy series is done mockumentary style (think:
The Office) about a group of misfit youth hockey players and their quest to win the championship tournament. Actually, it sounds similar to the premise of Christopher Guest's
Waiting for Guffman. Schlamme is Americanizing the show by making it about a youth baseball team instead of hockey. Three of the people behind the original
Tournament will write and executive produce the Fox version.
The Tournament had two seasons on CBC and so far Fox has given script commitment.
Schlamme is the executive producer of
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and he also EP'd
The West Wing and
SportsNight. He's also married to actress Christine Lahti.
Posted Nov 8th 2006 12:01PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, Web, Documentary
No doubt capitalizing on
Borat fever, CBS' broadband channel
Innertube is broadcasting the
full-length pilot episode of The Papdits created by
Da Ali G Show writer and producer Ant Hines. The show's
Borat-type premise follows the misadventures of a family from Kashmir as they interact with Americans while looking for the perfect place to settle and make their fortune. Their journey begins in Arkansas.
The show, again like
Borat, is a comedy/reality hybrid. You've got mockumentary, talking head shots like
The Office, but also scenes in which the actors are improvising off of unwitting American dupes.
The Papdits perpetuate that uncomfortable, cringe-inducing humor we've all come to know and love.
Continue reading Meet the Papdits
Posted Jul 26th 2006 10:27AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E03) This episode focused mostly on David's growing disgust/jealousy toward Neil and the near-breakdown of Tim and Dawn's friendship. The constant jokes about David's heeled boots were great because I really do see men wearing those around... It was just the right amount of ridiculous. Wearing a knock-off version of Neil's jacket was the icing on the cake. We learned that David's idea of being bad-ass is slightly different from the rest of the world's...
David: You know that old thing... "Live fast, die young"? Not my way. Live fast, sure. Live too bloody fast sometimes! But... die young?
[shakes his head] Die old. That's the way I -- I'm not orthodox. I don't live by "the rules".
Continue reading The Office: Episode 9
Posted Jun 6th 2006 11:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.
(S01E02) In the very beginning of this episode, we saw David Brent showing a hot, new, female employee (whom we'd later know as Donna) around his office. To work his humor, he pretended to throw his office answering machine out the window, jokingly frustrated with all the messages. As he started to set it back down, the machine slipped out of his hand and fell on the floor, clattering next to the trash can. The sheer seamlessness of this brief moment (and Brent's frantic mumbling) still throws me into hysterics. I love it when a moment looks so organic that I can't tell if it was improvised, accidental, or geniusly scripted.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 2
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