Here's Adam Scott on Conan last night, talking about the new, totally real company he started with his wife, Gettin' Rad Productions, a name they picked because it's a terrible name. Scott runs through some other awful name options, but the company's "tiger with sunglasses" logo is so good it can make any of these names work.
TBS now owns 10% of Funny or Die or as Adam McKay put it: "We're thrilled by our acquisition of Turner." The relationship will largely be about ad sales but also FoD will begin working with TBS and Adult Swim to create original programming. Remember when FoD was just that site you watched to see that baby curse a lot? Baby's all growns up now.
Funny or Die's making a move into iPad content like many other comedy creators – but this app will represent a distinct publication, a "digital magazine" called The Occasional (see the cover of the first issue below). A "satire of the magazine format itself," the publication will cost $1.99 per bimonthly issue, or $9.99 a year. And while it's produced by the same people who make Funny or Die's videos, The Occasional will take advantage of its digital format with features like interactive Marc Maron-voiced games and projected Mitt Romney hair timelines.
Any prediction on the outcome of Funny or Die's experiment? On one hand, ten bucks is [...]
A few weeks ago we reported that Jay Leno took a "tremendous" pay cut to try and save some jobs at the Tonight Show. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that "tremendous" meant 50%, which is a lot percent. It's like A LOT a lot. Do you have a job? Cut your salary in half and start to cry. It moved his salary to "only" $15 million. NBC chief confirmed that the move stems from when the show moved from 10:00pm back to 11:35pm. As he put it: "All we did was bring it back down to pre-prime-time levels." Also, there is the fact that NBC's banana [...]
Dangerously Delicious, Aziz Ansari's latest standup special that was released directly to fans on the internet via Ansari's website for $5, is coming to TV after all. Comedy Central is set to broadcast the special on Sunday, May 20th at 10pm. Then, the following Tuesday, it'll be released as an uncensored album by Comedy Central Records.
Louis CK is doing the same thing with his direct-to-the-web special, which is set to air on. It makes this whole experiment even more brilliant, doesn't it? These guys get to clean up with their serious fans, selling directly to them, getting their contact info, building loyalty, cutting out the middleman. And [...]
Former MTV executive Brooke Posch has been named Comedy Central's new VP of Original Programming and Development East Coast. I know this is so inside baseball that you're probably walking to first base right now from being hit by a pitch but at the end of the day, Posch is going to make many decisions that will influence your TV viewing. This move is particularly interesting following Richard Morgan's "What's Wrong with Comedy Central?" feature from earlier this year, in which he stated, "Comedy Central has a reputation as perhaps the most professionally thoughtless and creatively obtuse operation in the business." For what it's worth, Posch [...]
The ten cast members of Modern Family are re-negotiating their contracts, and they're looking for a seriously gigundo raise before the next season. Just one of the perks of starring in a show that's basically a straight-up Emmy factory.
