Fans of things that are weird and hilarious will be pleased to know that the Funny or Die web series “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” is coming to Comedy Central in the form of a half-hour special. Like, soon.

“Ferns” producer Scott Aukerman confirmed on today’s Comedy Bang Bang podcast that he directed a 30-minute episode set to air May 6 on Comedy Central before this year’s Comedy Awards. Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, and Sir Richard Branson all participated in the episode, which is called “Between Two Ferns: A Fairy Tale of New York.” [Entertainment Weekly]

Yup, sounds good to me.

One other nice thing about this story is that it gives me an opportunity to tell you all how much I am looking forward to the “Comedy Bang Bang” TV show on IFC. I’ve posted a preview clip after the jump, featuring Galifianakis and Aukerman (who, in addition to hosting the “Comedy Bang Bang” TV show and podcast, was a writer for “Mr. Show”) imagining a world where dogs can talk. It is strange and goofy and I love it like a stack of money.

Read the rest of this entry »

Are you a fan of history and/or binge drinking? You are? GREAT! Comedy Central has given a pilot order presentation to a show titled “Drunk History Across America,” produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and based on the Funny or Die shorts by Derek Waters.

Like the web series, “Drunk History Across America” will feature historical reenactments presented by besotted narrators. The show will also include some travel elements and interviews with the city’s locals who will drunkenly narrate local and personal history which, too, will be re-enacted by guest actors. Among those who have done re-enactments in the original Web series are Ferrell, Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Jack Black, Don Cheadle, Michael Cera, Zooey Deschanel, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Jason Ritter and Danny McBride. [Deadline]

I’m sure some people (nerds, dweebs, fuddy-duddies, etc.) won’t be entirely pleased with a show that glorifies historical inaccuracies and drinking to excess, but my bigger concern — because I am cool [shoves geek, walks down hall with hand in head cheerleader's back jeans pocket] — is whether or not the funny five-minute shorts will translate into a successful half-hour show. I guess we’ll see. As long as it involves giving Jen Kirkman copious amounts of wine, I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a pipe dream, I know, but I’m a huge proponent a la carte cable programming. We shouldn’t have to pay for channels we don’t watch, right? In a dream world, we could call our cable providers and order the 10 or 12 channels that we do watch and spend, what? $20 – $25 a month. It’s never going to happen, of course, because it doesn’t make financial sense to the networks.

Why? Let’s say, in this example, that there are 100,000 cable subscribers in your city. Let’s say you wanted to buy only the FX Network, and the FX Network would cost you $5 per month. Let’s also say that maybe 20 percent of the 100,000 cable subscribers in your area wanted FX. In an a la carte model, FX would earn $100,000 from the 20,000 subscribers. Even if, in an a la carte model, you made subscribers pay double for individual channels, FX still earns only $200,000.

However, in the all or nothing model, if you want one channel, you have to pay for them all, so FX earns $5 from all 100,000 subscribers, or $500,000. Eighty percent of their revenue comes from the 80,000 subscribers who don’t want their channel. Changing to an a la carte model would essentially deprive FX of 80 percent of its revenue.

I was curious, however, how much each channel costs the individual, and what my cable bill would look like if I could order a la carte. I found wholesale estimated channel costs for 2009, and as it turns out, the only channel we spend much for is ESPN. In fact, most channels are relatively cheap — the industry average is around $.20 per channel wholesale, but when there are 150 channels, that costs adds up. Let’s say the retail costs is double ($.40 average per channel) and that we have to pay for all 150 channels to get even one: The cost comes out to around $60 a month, which is about how much each of us pay for cable before taxes, DVR, HD, satellite service, and other fees are taken into account (or HBO or Showtime, which adds another $12-$15 per month per channel).

Read the rest of this entry »

In what can be read as good news, bad news, or news that is neither good nor bad, but rather just “is,” because after all the sun is going to swallow up the Earth one day so it’s not like anything really matters, Comedy Central has picked up the rights to air the first three seasons of “Community” beginning in 2013. From Deadline:

Greendale Community College’s most famous study group will have a new member beginning in 2013 (and it’s not Beetlejuice) as COMEDY CENTRAL has reached a multi-year deal with Sony Picture Television to license the critically-acclaimed comedy series “Community,” it was announced today by David Bernath, Executive Vice President, Program Strategy & Multiplatform Programming/Dean of Students for COMEDY CENTRAL and [Sony Pictures Television]. The all-comedy channel will launch the series with three seasons beginning in the fall of 2013.

So, yeah. This could be (a) another revenue stream and outside show of confidence for the show that will give it the bump it needs to get another season and make it to the magic number of episodes for syndication (see also, the show’s deal with Hulu), (b) a sign that the show is not going to make it to syndication, so the vultures are circling the carcass, or (c) a case of me using the first two items in a list to read WAY too much into things. It’s probably (c). But hey, the worst case scenario here is that there will be reruns of “Community” on TV for at least a couple years, and here is my official comment on that:

Read the rest of this entry »

Many websites are doing March Madness-style brackets to declare the Best Drama Series of All-Time or the Best Sitcom Episode Ever. We’re getting into the fun, too, BUT BIGGER. This is our power rankings of the greatest seasons from nine of our favorite networks. Here’s how we did it:

1) We looked at the schedule for every season for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Showtime, AMC, FX, and Comedy Central (sorry, WB/UPN/CW!), ranging from the 1950s to the present, and chose the best overall one for each. (For network channels, we did 2011-2012; for cable, just a single year, like 2011. That’s just how they work.) We put into account not only the fact that, for example, “Cheers” was on, but whether “Cheers” was any good in that particular season.

2) We then compared the best season of each network against the best seasons of the other eight networks, to decide if, say, Showtime’s best year is better than Fox’s best year. (HINT: it’s not.)

No time for any more jabbering and/or jabbering. Place your bets now, ‘cause here we go.

Read the rest of this entry »