sitcom
Latest
Peacock's 'Saved By The Bell' reboot premieres on November 25th
Zack Morris is governor of California, which is both surprising and totally logical.
'3 out of 10' is a free, interactive sitcom out today on the Epic Games Store
It’s a serialized comedy show and mini-game extravaganza bundled into one completely free package.
The Paul Feig space comedy everybody missed will stream next month for free
It was a glitzy Yahoo Screen original created by Paul Feig that, like everything on Yahoo Screen, failed to find its audience.
Hulu orders an animated sci-fi sitcom from 'Rick and Morty' co-creator
Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland is going to be busy for the foreseeable future. He's just signed a two-season series order with Hulu for Solar Opposites, an animated sitcom about aliens living in America's heartland, according to Deadline. Apparently, the extraterrestrials bicker about whether their spot on earth is "awful or awesome," the publication writes. Details are scant, but Roiland will be joined by Mike McMahan, who has worked as a writer's assistant and story editor on Rick and Morty. McMahan will serve as co-creator and executive producer on Solar Opposites.
Hulu scores new and old episodes of 'Will & Grace'
Will & Grace is set to return to our screens next week. But, its fabulous comeback won't just be relegated to network television. The show's original run, and its new episodes, are also making their on-demand debut on Hulu. The streaming service, which now produces its own Emmy award-wining shows, just nabbed every single episode of the hit programme. You can binge watch all eight seasons of Will & Grace starting today, which should prep you for the revival (with each new episode set to hit Hulu the day after its TV premiere). Alongside pay TV, the show will also be available on the NBC app.
Hulu is the new home of old TGIF sitcoms
Hulu's collection of classic sitcoms already includes Seinfeld and The Golden Girls. Now, its library is getting even bigger with the addition of several shows from ABC's TGIF comedy line-up. The likes of Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters were Friday night staples for viewers across America in the nineties -- and soon, they'll be available for you to (legally) binge online. Hulu's latest deal with Warner Bros. Television also includes Step by Step and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. All five shows (totaling 800 episodes) will hit the streaming service on September 29th.
Seth Rogen is developing a sitcom about the Singularity
If you've never heard of The Singularity, it's the concept made famous by Ray Kurzweil that society's going to be up-ended by the rise of AI. Give it a few years and it might be more well-known as a sitcom created by Seth Rogen and his writing/producing partner Evan Goldberg. Rogen told the Nerdist podcast (as reported by Slashfilm) that they're currently working on a script with a view to shooting a half-hour pilot for FX in 2017.
Samsung's new online sitcom tries to make its employees look hip
Samsung doesn't just want to make its products look cool -- it wants its jobs to look cool, too. It's accordingly launching Best Future, an online-only musical sitcom that portrays Samsung as a hip place to work for young South Koreans. The star is Mirae ("future" in Korean), a fictional worker at the tech giant's Suwon headquarters; the six-episode series will follow her and her roommate Chaego ("best") as they dance their way through the workday. There aren't too many clues as to the storyline, but Samsung is teasing the prospect of "song battles" when the series arrives in October. Suffice it to say this won't be a deep, introspective masterpiece.
Yahoo could make original TV shows like Netflix and Amazon
Looks like it's not just Microsoft that wants in on Netflix and Amazon's turf. The WSJ is reporting that Marissa Mayer wants Yahoo to produce sitcoms to air on its rumored new video service. According to those persons familiar with the matter, the CEO wants well-known names from TV to produce four, ten-episode series, each one budgeted between $700,000 and a few million dollars -- the going rate for the average network comedy. We won't have long to wait and see if the rumors are true, as Yahoo is said to announce the shows at an event on April 28th. Maybe this is the moment to get pitching our modern-day remake of The Facts of Life that's gonna make us all stars.
Netflix confirms 14 new Arrested Development episodes, the Bluth family returns to screens this May
If you asked Netflix, it'd probably agree there's more money to be had from the Bluth Family's banana stand -- after all, it did buy the exclusive rights to it. After months of waiting and anticipation, the company has confirmed that the fourth season of Arrested Development will arrive in May. This run of the revived sitcom will consist of 14 episodes in total, all of which will only be streamable from the house of Hastings servers. All we can hope for in the meantime is that, Maeby maybe, just maybe, a certain Gob Bluth will finally get his act together.
Siri guest stars on CBS's Big Bang Theory
The most recent episode of CBS's sitcom The Big Bang Theory rather prominently features Siri in its "B" storyline. Astrophysicist Raj, one of the show's main characters, buys an iPhone 4S and spends most of the episode interacting with the voice-activated "personal assistant." As is typical for the show, Raj's interaction with Siri rapidly goes off the deep end; the character is notorious for striking out with women due to a psychologically-induced speech block when any females are nearby, but he has no problem talking to Siri. His interactions with his iPhone begin with the initial novelty that all iPhone 4S users likely experience when they first use Siri, but over the course of the episode Raj's attitude toward Siri starts to become increasingly creepier. Both my wife and I noticed that Siri's real voice isn't used in the episode; we initially put it down to licensing issues, but it turned out there was an in-episode reason for using a human substitute for Siri's voice that pays off at the end. When I watched this episode last week I thought this storyline was pretty funny (the half-bottle of Merlot I had with dinner probably helped), but watching it again now makes me feel more uncomfortable than amused. I get that The Big Bang Theory derives most of its laughs from over-the-top exaggerations of geeky behavior, but toward the end of this latest episode it got to be a little bit too exaggerated. What's most interesting about this episode is that it must have gone into production not too long after the iPhone 4S was first announced, and probably no more than a week or two after the handset became available in the States. Within a relatively short space of time the show's writers managed to assemble most of the more humorous Siri interactions into a coherent storyline that's perfectly in line with the show's conventions. A video of Raj's interactions with Siri is embedded below, or at least until CBS releases the hounds on YouTube.
Reminder: Woz on Big Bang Theory tonight
Finally! Tonight's the night! We first heard months ago that our own Steve Wozniak was coming to the nerdy sitcom Big Bang Theory, and tonight is the night that he makes his appearance. We're still not sure how or why he'll show up, but tonight's episode is about scientist Sheldon trying to put his brain into the body of a robot, so maybe he'll consult the Woz for a little computing insight. The show airs at 8pm Eastern and Pacific time, and 7pm Central, so either tune in or set your DVR to CBS to check it out. And if you do watch the show live, Woz has tweeted that he'll be chatting along with viewers on the iPad's yap.tv app, which is a free download from the App Store (and I guess creates a chat room for shows while they're airing). Should be a lot of fun -- we're looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.
Woz coming to the Big Bang Theory
Our own Steve Wozniak is scheduled to appear on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory sometime later this year, the cast and crew told an audience at their Comic-Con panel this weekend. Woz is already no stranger to television, of course, but I think this is the first time he's appeared on a non-reality show, so we'll get to take a look at the guy's acting chops. There weren't any details on who he'd be playing (presumably himself), or how he came into contact with the show's four nerdy scientists and/or their pretty neighbor. I like the Big Bang Theory -- while it does succumb to the sitcom genre's usually corny conventions, it's a pretty smart show, and the nerd references are sincere and constant (geekstar Wil Wheaton has also appeared on the show a few times, and I remember seeing Firefly's Summer Glau and BSG's Katee Sackhoff on there as well). Plus, it's always great to see Woz out and about -- we'll keep an eye out for his appearance on the show's season four this year.
Funny or Die introduces us to Seinfeld: Rock Band
Look, we know Funny or Die Team UK's latest gag video, which reveals that the next single-artist iteration of Harmonix's rhythm franchise will be based upon Jerry Seinfeld's prolific sitcom, isn't actually real. We can totally recognize a joke when we see one, especially when said joke is hosted on a website dedicated to the distribution and adjudication of jokes. That being said, though we wouldn't necessarily have much interest in a Rock Band game dedicated to Seinfeld's slap bass-heavy soundtrack, there's no amount of money we wouldn't pay for a Classic Sitcom Theme Songs: Rock Band. Think about it! Golden Girls? Perfect Strangers? WKRP in Cincinnati? Full House? We must have it.
ModNation Racers makes appearance in NBC's 'Community'
Guess who's been playing ModNation Racers before its release? Yes, video game bloggers. But what about some more interesting people? The cast of NBC's sitcom Community have been getting their hands on Sony's upcoming PS3 (and PSP) racer. Three members of Greendale Community College (including Chevy Chase!) can be seen playing three-player split-screen in the brief clip available on Hulu (embedded after the break, available only for US readers). So, how did the cast of this TV series score an early copy of the game? The product placement comes courtesy of the show's producers: Sony Pictures Television. [Thanks, Marc O.!]
Age of Conan conquers The Big Bang Theory
This week's episode of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory prominently featured Age of Conan, and its A-story dealt in a light-hearted way with online gaming addiction. If you're unfamiliar with the show, the premise is as follows: two extremely geeky twenty-something males -- both scientists at Caltech -- move in across the hall from a pretty but not-too-terribly sophisticated blonde woman. Commence unlikely friendship and all the humor that comes with it!In this week's episode, one of the two geeks is playing Age of Conan when the girl comes over. She starts playing the game and becomes addicted, rejecting responsibilities and basic hygiene for the remainder of the episode. The premise sounds typical, but the episode has a certain wink-like-quality to it. It's all in good humor, and there are a lot of inside jokes that only players of the game could get. Funcom's active participation becomes evident when cut-scenes rendered exclusively for the show make an appearance. It's likely that Funcom paid for this product placement, actually. We've embedded a brief clip after the break, but you should check out other (unembeddable) scenes at the show's website (watch any clip from season two, episode three), but be aware that CBS insists on living in some long-dead century by not making the complete episode available online.[Thanks, C.A.] Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Wii invades another sitcom
It seems the Wii is the hip new thing for sitcom characters. Actually, the Wii is the hip new thing period, so we guess its latest appearance on CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother is appropriate. And, for two men engaged in the heat of battle to choose an evening of Wii over the adventures that wait in the outside world is something we can identify with. [Via Go Nintendo]
WoW to make appearance on Ted Danson sitcom
Blizzard has dropped a note on the homepage that not a week after the South Park episode, WoW is coming to TV yet again-- it's going to make a quick appearance on a new Ted Danson sitcom tonight called "Help Me, Help You." The show is about a group of people in therapy (hmm...) who, comedically, I assume, struggle to get their chaotic lives together. WoW is supposed to appear in the life of a woman who's been dealing with online dating, so I'm guessing either she meets or breaks up with (the latter would probably be more funny) a guy in the world of Azeroth.That much you can learn from Blizzard's page, but here's what you really want to know: is the show any good? There's a short preview on the show's homepage, and I have to say that by the end, it sold me. Can't say Ted Danson makes me laugh much (excepting a few CYE appearances), but the vibe I got from the preview reminds me (and I know what you're going to think when I say this) of Arrested Development. There's some good acting, some morally questionable characters, and some good situations-- this one might turn out to have legs.Not if you listen to the New York Times, however. They say while "HMHY" tries hard, its potential may not pan out. Then again, if you don't want to bother wasting your time checking out a Ted Danson sitcom (it's on ABC at 9:30 Eastern), rest assured the WoW footage will find its way onto the video sites (and your favorite blog) as soon as we can possibly find it.
