the comic's comic

Fall TV previews 2011: Sneak a peek at NBC's "Free Agents" pilot

NBC's new sitcom, Free Agents, will debut in the 8:30 p.m. Wednesday timeslot. It stars Hank Azaria and Kathyrn Hahn as co-workers with benefits. Sort of.

The workplace comedy also has roles for stand-up comedians Al Madrigal, Mo Mandel and Natasha Leggero. And Jo Lo Truglio has a role as the building's security guard.

Let's roll the clips from the pilot!

Rare audio, video from the 1990s: Watch The State sing "The Boner Song" and buy their 1996 CD

Here's something you didn't see almost 20 years ago. It's rare footage of The State in their first MTV office in the early 1990s, singing a version of "The Boner Song." See how young they all look! Also, they're college kids singing about boners.

Roll it.

 

If you think it's unusual for footage from The State to linger in archives for more than 14 years, then you probably also didn't know that it took that long for their January 1996 recording to become public. But that's exactly what happened with their CD, "Comedy For Gracious Living." It captures all of them at their youthful indiscretioniest. Is that a word? Who knows. This is an actual CD, though.

A.D. Miles presents "Hot Sluts"

Before A.D. Miles headed up the writing staff for NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but after he had completed his true-to-its-word online mockery of soap operas, Horrible People, he wrote and produced a second Internet series for you to enjoy. Showing his true understanding of how the Internet works, Miles presents for your pleasure...Hot Sluts. The Atom.com series, co-written with Joe Lo Truglio and starring Alison Brie (stuck in a terrible TV marriage as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men), is set in a seedy nightclub called Scenario's (where anything can happen!), and "sort of borrows from the sexploitation women-in-prison films of the 70s and 80s, but I don't think anyone under 35 will ever get that," Miles told C.J. Arabia earlier this year. "So hopefully super hot girls in skimpy outfits who stab each other for no reason will be enough to get people to tune in." Done, and done.

All five episodes went online yesterday, and you can enjoy them all...after the jump. Did we mention mature content? Alrighty then. You asked for this, Internet, and now you have it: "Hot Sluts."

Live from Wainy Days Live at 92YTribeca

When you throw a party for a TV show, much less a Web series, you're never quite sure how it will translate as a live experience for audiences to sit and enjoy. No such worries last night at the 92YTribeca, which hosted "Wainy Days Live," a party that not only marked the start of the fourth season for David Wain's amusing ode to seeking love and finding plenty of sex jokes along the way, but also the relaunch of a newly designed My Damn Channel, which made Wainy Days possible.

Rob Barnett, head of the small, plucky crew at My Damn Channel, told the audience at the start: "My Damn Channel is a brand-new thing today." The redesigned site features a larger player and a cleaner design. Barnett told me that his strategy all along has been to focus on a small group of talented performers and give them free reign to do what they do. That's how My Damn Channel can stand out from the many other players in Web comedy. He told me that Sam Seder's "Pilot Season" had gotten two million views in its first two weeks as a reborn Web series. So far, so good.

David Wain kept the live show moving at a nice pace last night. In between video clips of this week's latest episode (Amanda Peet has a curious fetish in #27, "Jill") and a snippet from #28 that features Lake Bell -- Wain warned before screening it, "If it shows up on YouTube, I will kill you!" -- he treated the crowd to several musical performances from Wainy Days (Wain has skills both on the drums and piano), readings and an anti-chat.

Leo Allen and Callie Thorne re-enacted their performances from Episode #4: Cyrano d'Bluetooth, with Joe Lo Truglio playing Wain's part. Live, the pacing was a bit slower and the reactions a bit more animated. But still quite amusing and over-the-top NSFW. Amy Miles sang selections from an upcoming "two-part epic rock opera" that may not be epic, but certainly provided reason enough to bring Paul Rudd onstage. The crowd also got a sort-of Stella reunion when Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter arrived to perform a sketch the Michaels claim Comedy Central does not want them to produce for their upcoming series, Michael and Michael Have Issues. Though for the life of me, I could not see what could be so wrong about having "extra farts" with dinner. "Can you believe it? They don't want us to do that one," Ian Black said. "But we're going to tell them that the f---ers at 92YTribeca f---ing loved it!" Wain got most of the actors from Wainy Days, plus Thorne and Rudd, to stage a reading of what Wain claimed was his first draft of the series, written when he was 12 (but most likely last week). Let's just say that even as a middle-schooler, he was preoccupied with sex. Best offensively funny line: "That's cool. What's the point of Roe v. Wade if we're not going to use it?" The "Stella" trio also got the audience to indulge them in their own spin on Mad-Libs. And he topped off the evening with an anti-chat segment with Rudd (sample topics: How much fun must it be on a Judd Apatow set? And the cast of Friends really are friends!).

Videos after the jump:

The State has a complete DVD release date

The kids who spawned Reno 911!, Stella, Viva Variety and the upcoming Michael and Michael Have Issues are all grown up now, and they're finally bringing their original 1990s MTV sketch showcase, The State, to DVD. Five discs full of extras, coming July 14, 2009. Here's the trailer!

Ian Roberts, Joe Lo Truglio join ranks of Reno 911!

Comedy Central announced that Reno 911! will return for a sixth season in March 2009 featuring two new cast members with old ties to the fake police force. Ian Roberts and Joe Lo Truglio both had roles in the Reno 911!: Miami movie. But they'll join the squad in March as Sgt. Jack Declan (Roberts) and Deputy Franky Rizzo (Lo Truglio). They should fit in just fine. More than fine. Lo Truglio goes back many years with the Reno gang as a fellow founding member of The State, wheras Roberts is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Wainy Days: The end?

Where did the summer go? One minute, I look up from my computer monitor and find out that several Wainy Days have passed us by, and here it is, episode #26, and David Wain himself is saying, "If my life was a webseries, I would say there is enough episodes and it's time to stop!" The Hollywood sets really did give the series a different feel from Brooklyn, wouldn't you agree? Well, that, and having Elizabeth Banks make out with Alicia Witt. That always helps. Not a spoiler alert, but a major tease! So, with yet another NSFW warning, enjoy. Oh, and a brief glimpse at Wain's upcoming motion picture, Role Models, due out in November. To catch up with all of the third season of Wainy Days, start here on My Damn Channel.

The Line on CSpot!

The funniest thing I've seen on Sony's CSpot just so happens to have been filmed in my neighborhood this summer. Coincidence? Who cares. Just sit back and enjoy the online series, "The Line," featuring the crazed fans of the fictional movie FutureSpace, including Bill Hader, Joe Lo Truglio, Jon Glaser, Bobby Moynihan, Chris Gethard, with Jason Sudeikis as the cinema manager, Paul Scheer as "the spoiler," and more. Fun fact: The Cobble Hill Cinemas only charges $6.50 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hooray! The season finale went up today. Directed by Seth Meyers. Written by Hader and Simon Rich. You can see all of "The Line" episodes here big and even in HD. But begin at the beginning, please:

UPDATED: The New York Times wrote about it today, notes that Hader and Rich wrote the online series during last year's strike, and also the Sony Pictures product placements. Ah, comedy meeting commerce.

More special guest stars for Wainy Days

After a week off, Wainy Days returned this week with a new episode, and David Wain has plenty of star casting help, including Lee Majors as his NSFW dad. Also Sarah Clarke and Xander Berkeley. Women continue to fall prey to Wain's quirky, NSFW charms. This week, it's "Rebecca." Look out! She's a spy! Joe Lo Truglio, get the handcuffs! Just when you think you know what's going on in this episode, I'm fairly sure you won't...I thought I posted this earlier, but perhaps I was merely dreaming in my prison cell again.

Horrible People season finale!

Could you imagine an entire 10-episode Web series that began and ended within one very NSFW engagement party? A.D. Miles did, and it was Horrible People, which unveils its season finale tonight. Turds! The End? Speaking of the end: Wow. Nicely done. Did not see that coming. Not so nicely done: Whereas the ironic Horrible People pop-up ads added humor, the actual pop-up ads every minute did not. What's the deal, My Damn Channel? Here's episode #10 of 10.

Horrible People #9

It's the penultimate episode of this horrible online spoof of horrible soap operas, so why am I linking to it? Because that's what I do. Apparently. Only one more episode remains! Enjoy.

Mon Dieu! Horrible People #8

If it's Monday, it must be time to check in on the satirical, definitely NSFW soap opera, Horrible People. Now with subtitles! Pardon my French, s'il vous plait. Merci. I mean, mercy! With a bilingual bit from Bobby Tisdale, as well.

Horrible People #7

The latest episode of the NSFW soap opera satire Horrible People is available for your viewing pleasure and/or disgust and/or mock outrage:

P.S. Andrea Rosen, nice credit!

Horrible People #6

The completely NSFW soap opera satire continues. Profanity, masturbation, drinking, racism, juggling and more. This week:

Horrible People, episode five

My comedy weekend was so big...(how big was it?)...so big that before I can fully decompress and tell you all about it, I'm going to need you to watch this new episode of A.D. Miles' satiric soap opera that's definitely NSFW because it's Horrible People!

Catching up with Horrible People

Here is episode four of the satirical soap opera...

If you need further catching up first, episode three is after the jump.

Episode 2 of Horrible People

The melodrama mockery continues on this second episode of Horrible People, thanks to creator A.D. Miles and a couple of cameos from Bobby Tisdale and Kurt Braunohler. Language NSFW.

Horrible People debuts

The new soap opera satire from A.D. Miles, Horrible People, officially debuted today on My Damn Channel with an episode that lives up to its title. It got a sneak peek screening at last month's ECNY Awards. The Web series also features Kristen Schaal, Mather Zickel and Joe Lo Truglio.