Pilot Watch: Community with Joel McHale

WHAT: New NBC sitcom pilot with a hot comic on his way up and a formerly hot comic that's not so much on his way up.
WHO: Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, John Oliver, others you probably don't know yet
WHEN: This Fall at some point

SYNOPSIS: After years of toiling away on the E! network and appearing as your favorite Spider-Man 2 cameo, Joel McHale has finally appeared in a pilot which got picked up. In the laugh track-free Community, McHale plays a lawyer with a bogus law degree, and now he has to go back to college so he can go back to his lawyer-like ways. Along the way he meets people and finds a girl he'd like to bang. Will his attempt at making a fake Spanish study group get him some action, or will he be cock-blocked by Chevy Chase like so many before him?

SO HOW WAS IT: After hearing about the abortion that was the US I.T. Crowd pilot, it's great to see the host of E!'s The Soup get a chance at a starring role in a major network sitcom. While this one isn't a localization of a British show, it does feel like a TV version of a movie you've seen many, many times before.

The pilot itself looks like it has promise, but nothing really stands out-- McHale plays a greasy lawyer type which is a spin on the Dangerfield role in movies like Back to School, and The Daily Show's Oliver shines as the corrupt college official. Aside from the back-and-forth game of blackmail which drives the story forward, there's not much going on here other than brief character introductions on very few sets.

While it's difficult to fully judge a show based on its pilot, some recent greats like Newsradio and Arrested Development had top-notch first episodes that kicked open the door to wonderful characters right off the bat. This felt more like a movie that more or less resolved itself and didn't necessarily leave me wanting to spend more time with any of these people. Perhaps zany schemes and crazy capers await, but other than a "will they or won't they" romantic subplot there's not a lot to look forward to other than years of studying and hard work. In other words, exactly the kinds of things you aspire toward in a good comedy!

GIANT-SIZE Weekly Comedy - San Diego Comic-Con Edition

So this week is San Diego Comic-con, when nerds, comedy nerds, and some nerdy comedians descend on the San Diego Convention Center for 5 solid days of being even geekier than usual. We’ve got a special edition Weekly Comedy to let you know what’s going on at Comic-Con that might interest the discerning comedy dork who wants to mix his interest in spandex-clad superheroes and Star Wars with his interest in decent comedy.

COMIC-CON STUFF

THURSDAY, JULY 23

Robot Chicken and Titan Maximum: 3-4pm, Room 6A –Seth Green and the Robot Chicken crew shows up, presumably to chat about the new season (which starts this Sunday) and their new series Titan Maximum. Will there be clips? Yes, probably.

Kick-Ass: 5:45-6:30pm Hall H – We don’t know too much about this flick but apparently it’s kind of a dark action-comedy based on the comic by Mark Millar, involving superheroes. On the panel will be Role Models’ Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clark Duke, who you may know from his web series Michael & Clark with Michael Cera. Might be worth checking out!

Drawn Together The Movie Roundtable: 7pm-8pm, Room 6BCF – Yeah apparently there’s a fucking MOVIE for Drawn Together coming out and it’ll probably be just like the mostly-unfunny and eye-rollingly “offensive” TV series, only longer. But it’s here if you want to wallow

FRIDAY, JULY 24

The Big Bang Theory Screening and Panel: 1-2pm, Ballroom 20 – This room will probably fill up faster than any other sitcom panel at the convention because nerds love the shit out of this show and the entire cast will be in attendance. Presumably the screening is a season 3 episode, but who knows?

The Mighty Boosh: 4:45-5:45pm, Room 6A – The popular and extremely strange Britcom (which you can catch in reruns on Adult Swim or on DVD) from the folks behind The IT Crowd shows up for a little panel action.

Rifftrax Live: 7:15-8:15pm Room 6DE – Although you’ll have a chance to see a live Rifftrax event in theaters around the country later this year, if you show up early enough and manage to get in the room, Mike, Bill and Kevin will be here to offer up a live show with a new short.

Stan Helsing: 7:30-8:45pm Room 6BCF – Someone decided to exhume and animate the corpse of Leslie Nielsen, and he’s in this really not-at-all-funny-looking “spoof” about a monster hunter who’s tracking down famous movie monsters. There will probably be farts involved. Leslie will be at this panel, which is strange because he’s 124 years old and surely 7:30pm is way past his bedtime.

…LESLIE NIELSEN IS OLD

SATURDAY, JULY 25

Family Guy + The Cleveland Show: 11:15-1pm, Ballroom 20 – Yeah yeah, bitch about Family Guy all you want, but for fans of the show the cast is here, and they’re going to presumably reveal just what the hell is going on with The Cleveland Show which still seems like a weird, potentially bad idea. We’ll just have to see.

Futurama: 1-1:45pm, Ballroom 20 – Stick around another hour and you’ll see the Futurama panel, which thanks to the recent news will probably be 100 percent bitching about Fox and fans angrily asking about the potential voice cast changes. Have fun!

Extract: 1:30-2:30pm, Hall H: Mike Judge’s new comedy has been getting some decent reviews, so check this out for a peek at it. Stars Jason Bateman, Kristin Wiig and Mila Kunis will be there, and they’re all funny, so it’ll probably be worth it even if the movie doesn’t tickle your fancy.

The Simpsons: 1:45-2:30pm, Ballroom 20 – Stick around for yet another hour to wade among the fading glory of The Simpsons. I guess they’re showing clips from the as-yet-unaired Treehouse of Horror XX, which sounds like a porno. One I do not want to think about.

Kevin Smith: 5:15-6:15 Hall H – Smith has a new buddy cop comedy coming up starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis called A Couple of Dicks, which could be good (although after Zach and Miri it’s hard to trust Smith’s comic sensibilities). It’s a remote live event from New York, so expect lots of screen-watchin’.

The Venture Bros: 6-7:15pm, Room 6DE – Maybe it’s my ridiculous bias and giant Venture Bros fanboyism coming through here but this will probably be the coolest panel at Comic-Con. Just sayin’.

SUNDAY, JULY 26

American Dad: 11:15-12:15pm, Ballroom 20 – You can either go to the American Dad panel on Sunday or go the fuck home and sleep off the convention. I know which one I’ll be doing.

AROUND TOWN IN SAN DIEGO

Joel McHale at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay: 7pm Friday Jul. 24 – It’s a comedy deathmatch showdown! Joel McHale takes the stage at Humphrey’s at 7pm, which is only an hour before…

Doug Benson and Brian Posehn at Gaslamp Theatre: 8pm Friday Jul. 24 – You can’t possibly see both shows! We here at CID are big fans of all three comedians, but frankly, at the Benson & Posehn show you get two great comics and the tickets are only $25 a head, whereas McHale is charging $50. The choice is fairly obvious to us.

DVD

Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II – The latest all-Star Wars episode from Robot Chicken was decent enough and if you buy the DVD you get priority entrance to the admittedly wacky bus tour the show’s crew is taking around America, which features rollerskating.

The Mighty Boosh seasons 1-3 – All three seasons of this show which as mentioned before I know almost nothing about.

The Great Buck Howard – This little flick, not-so-subtly based on The Amazing Kreskin features a pretty great and really funny performance by John Malkovich; it was produced by Tom Hanks’ Playtone production company, and didn’t get much of a theatrical release, but it’s pretty funny and breezy and watchable. Give it a rent, you won’t regret it.

Visioneers – Zach Galifianakis stars in this little-seen dark satire about corporate America. Haven’t seen it yet but it’s a must-rent; apparently it’s a pretty solid, if strange, comedy.

LATE NIGHT

Letterman:
7.22 – Tracy Morgan

Conan:
7.20 – Adam Sandler
7.21 – Jonah Hill
7.23 – Zach Galifianakis
7.24 – Seth Rogen

Ferguson:
7.20 – Margaret Cho
7.24 – Jim Breuer

Fallon:
7.20 – Will Arnett
7.21 – Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter
7.22 – Mighty Boosh
7.23 – Kevin Nealon

Kimmel:
7.21 Seth Green

This has been your official Longest Goddamn Weekly Comedy Update Ever.