Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

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Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
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Genre Avant-garde, anti-humor, surreal, satire, alternative comedy, black comedy, absurdism, gross-out humor, sketch comedy, experimental, horror, camp, farce
Created by Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Starring Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Composer(s) Davin Wood
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 50 (and 1 special) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Co-Executive Producers:
Jonathan Krisel (season 2–5)
Producer(s) Jon Mugar (season 2–5)
Dave Kneebone (season 2)
Supervising Producers:
Jed Alarcon (season 1–2)
Dave Kneebone (season 3–5)
Associate Producers:
Ben Berman (season 1)
Jon Mugar (season 1)
Running time 11 minutes
Production company(s) Abso Lutely Productions
Williams Street
Release
Original network Adult Swim
Picture format 4:3 SDTV (2007–2009)
16:9 HDTV (2010)
Original release February 11, 2007 (2007-02-11) –
May 2, 2010 (2010-05-02)
"Chrimbus Special":
December 5, 2010
Chronology
Followed by Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule
Related shows Tim and Eric Nite Live!
External links
Website

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is an American sketch comedy television series, created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, which premiered February 11, 2007 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim comedy block[1] and ran until May 2010. The program features surrealistic and often satirical humor (at points anti-humor), public-access television–style musical acts, bizarre faux-commercials, and editing and special effects chosen to make the show appear camp.

The program featured a wide range of actors, spanning from stars such as Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Will Forte and Zach Galifianakis to alternative comedians like Neil Hamburger, to television actors like Alan Thicke, celebrity look-alikes and impressionists. The creators of the show have described it as "the nightmare version of television."[2]

Overview

The show, which expands the genre of the live-action material featured in Heidecker and Wareheim's previous show, Tom Goes to the Mayor, consists of sketches, songs, and commercials. It features several characters and segments seen in Tom Goes to the Mayor, such as Gibbons, the "Channel 5 Married News Team," and the Cinco Corporation with its variety of inefficient and tasteless products. New recurring characters and sketches include "Uncle Muscles Hour," a public-access television variety program hosted by a gravelly-voiced "Weird Al" Yankovic and Channel 5 News Correspondent Dr. Steve Brule, played by John C. Reilly.

The show featured a variety of celebrity cameos from actors, comedians, and musicians including Fred Armisen, Maria Bamford, Ed Begley, Jr., Corbin Bernsen, The Bird and the Bee, Karen Black, Michael Ian Black, Abbey Brooks, LeVar Burton, Michael Cera, Peter Cetera, Stephanie Courtney, David Cross, Elisha Cuthbert, Ted Danson, Patrick Duffy, Richard Dunn, John Ennis, Tami Erin, Will Ferrell, Flight of the Conchords, Will Forte, Black Francis, Zach Galifianakis, Jeff Goldblum, Josh Groban, Michael Gross, Bill Hader, Neil Hamburger, David Liebe Hart, Jonah Hill, Karen O, Sergio Kato, Tom Kenny, The Lonely Island, Ron Lynch, Aimee Mann, Marilyn Manson, Doug Martsch, Richard Marx, John Mayer, Jack McBrayer, A.D. Miles, Larry Miller, Dave Navarro, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Harout Pamboukjian, Jerry Penacoli, Steve Pemberton, Wendell Pierce, Brian Posehn, Samuel Proof, John C. Reilly, Paul Reubens, Daphne Rosen, Paul Rudd, William Sanderson, Steve Schirripa, Michael Q. Schmidt, Palmer Scott, The Shins, Tony Siragusa, Tom Skerritt, Frank Stallone, Sydnee Steele, Ben Stiller, Peter Stormare, Alan Thicke, Scott Thompson, Danny Trejo, Branden Vickery, David Wain, Derek Waters, Fred Willard, Rainn Wilson, Ray Wise, Tommy Wiseau, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

The series' theme music was composed by Davin Wood, who had also composed the theme music for the earlier Tom Goes to the Mayor, and for related series Derek & Simon, American Misfits, Stupidface, and Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule.[3]

Halfway through the broadcasting of the first season, Cartoon Network picked up Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! for another season ordering as many as 30 new episodes.[4] The second season began airing on November 18, 2007. Season one was released on DVD in April, 2008. The third season began on July 27, 2008 and ended on September 28, 2008. Eric posted a MySpace bulletin Oct 1, 2008, announcing that as a "holiday surprise" season four would be airing in January 2009. The show was later renewed for a fifth season.[5]

One of Tim and Eric's first live performances incorporating characters from Awesome Show was Muscles for Bones, a spoof telethon seeking bones for Richard Dunn.[6] This was performed at Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood, California.[7] Major portions of this live performance were incorporated into season three, episode 8 "Muscles for Bones".[8] An extended version of this show can be found as an extra on the Season 3 DVD. The extended version features performances not seen on the original TV episode, from performers such as Pierre and Michael Q. Schmidt. Prior to the beginning of seasons two and three, Tim and Eric combined "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" Live in Vegas (2007). The second of these, listed as season 3 episode 0, shared their 2008 cross-country tour[9][10][11][12] and was titled Awesome Tour Live 2008.[13]

Speaking with Vanity Fair in July 2009, Wareheim said that season five (or "Season Cinco") would represent "a very dark side of the Awesome Show series. I think people are going to be very scared and very disturbed by it."[14] He also noted that the pair draw equal humor from the awkwardness of The Office as they do from the awkwardness of David Lynch's films.[14] The duo went on to state that they had begun an unconscious tradition by starting the first episode of seasons two, three, and four each with fecal-related fake commercials; they plan to "outdo" themselves on season five with a "diarrhea disease"-based commercial.[14] The fifth season premiered on February 28, 2010. The series finale aired on May 2, 2010. On May 16, 2010 the spin-off Check it Out! premiered.[15]

Tim and Eric acquired funding to shoot and air a one hour special that aired on December 5, 2010, called The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job Chrimbus Special. Simultaneous to this announcement, the duo also released a list of dates and cities for their upcoming 2010 tour. Tim and Eric also announced plans for a movie, entitled Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie; in the film, released online and on pay-per-view on January 27, 2012, the pair try to revitalize a run–down mall in order to pay a billion-dollar debt.[16] Following the release of the movie, they may make additional seasons of Awesome Show.[17]

The duo's Abso Lutely Productions signoff bumper features a video clip of Heidecker's father during a family vacation in 1991; when asked to sum the trip up in two words, he responded "Abso-lutely." The full clip can be found on their website, DVD, and also on YouTube.[18]

Featured sketches and recurring characters

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Main article: List of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! sketches and characters

Reception

Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! has had a wide range of reviews with many differing in opinion. Columnist for The New York Times Dave Itzkoff writes, “‘Awesome Show’ revels in an aesthetic of awkwardness.” And also adds, “To populate their twisted universe they frequently cast average-looking actors (and nonactors) recruited from Web sites like Craigslist, who bring an additional layer of deliberate amateurishness to their skits.”[19]

James Norton from Flak Magazine says, “If Adult Swim is the bleeding edge of TV comedy, Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! [sic] is the bleeding edge of the bleeding edge.”

He adds, “The program has been much hated-upon by the Adult Swim fan base.... But the program also represents a foray into one of the most dangerous and exciting realms of the comedy world: sheer individualistic creativity.”[20]

Episodes

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Main article: List of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! episodes

Awesome Record, Great Songs!

On May 6, 2008, Williams Street Records released Awesome Record, Great Songs!, a compilation of songs from the first two seasons. Williams Street also released Uncle Muscles Presents Casey And His Brother in July of that year, an EP featuring 11 songs sung by Heidecker in character as Casey Tatum.[21]

Spin-offs

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See also: Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule

While doing press for the first season of the program, Heidecker and Wareheim told an interviewer that they had aspirations to create a spinoff featuring Awesome Show regular Richard Dunn; "It's just him interviewing people like The Charlie Rose Show. We would love to produce that. No one would ever watch it."[22]

Using characters and skits from Awesome Show, Heidecker and Wareheim (via their Absolutely production company) created an online-only show called Tim and Eric Nite Live!, originally broadcast on the website SuperDeluxe.

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In July 2008, the New York Times reported that an Awesome Show spin-off, Check It Out!, with Steve Brule, would air on Cartoon Network beginning sometime in 2009.[2] The show parodies local newscasts, and as Heidecker briefly described it: "It's like his half-hour to go around town and interview the local beer-maker or whatever."[23] The show will have an episode run time of approximately 11 minutes, and it will feature John C. Reilly reprising his role as Dr. Steve Brule. According to Heidecker, Reilly had the original idea of giving the Dr. Steve character an entire show.[14] Vanity Fair reported that the program would begin airing on August 23, 2009;[14] however, the program did not air on that date, and LA Weekly reported in September 2009 that Check It Out! was "forthcoming."[24] The first episode aired May 16, 2010[25] and the last on June 20, 2010, with a total of six episodes. The show returned with six more episodes, the first airing March 18, 2012, and the last on April 12, 2012.

In the same July 2008 New York Times article, it was reported that the duo was in the process of developing a surreal game show series starring Neil Hamburger, titled The New Big Ball with Neil Hamburger.[2][26] Wareheim described it as a mix between "bizarre Japanese game shows and The Price Is Right."[2] In late July 2009, Neil Hamburger posted a blog on Myspace stating that a pilot had been filmed, but that Adult Swim was not satisfied and had "pulled the plug on the project."[27] As of November 8, 2013, the pilot has been uploaded to the official Adult Swim website.[28]

Home releases

All five seasons and the Chrimbus Special have been released on DVD in Region 1 and 4 with distribution for the latter being handled by Madman Entertainment. The Chrimbus Special is included as a special feature on the Season 5 DVD for both regions, but the standalone DVD is only available in Region 1. Only the first and second seasons have been released on DVD in Region 2.

DVD Original year of broadcast Region 1 release date Region 2 release date Region 4 release date
Season 1 2007 April 22, 2008 April 27, 2009 June 11, 2008
Season 2 2007–08 February 10, 2009 August 2, 2010 June 24, 2009
Season 3 2008 August 4, 2009 N/A December 2, 2009
Season 4 2009 September 14, 2010 N/A December 1, 2010
Season 5 2010 May 17, 2011 N/A November 28, 2012
Chrimbus Special 2010 December 15, 2010 (Out of Print) N/A N/A

References

  1. ↑ Turner Newsroom Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Fact Sheet
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 New York Times article: "The Bizarre Brains of Nightmare TV".
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ http://www.timanderic.com/images/mfb_flyer.jpg
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ http://www.timanderic.com/images/awsometourflyer08.jpg
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Vanity Fair article: "Q&A: Tim and Eric on Child Abuse, Diarrhea, and Yerba-Mate Tea".
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Tim and Eric Celebrate Chrimbus and Talk Tour, 'SNL' and a Possible Season 6
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ LA Weekly article: Are Tim and Eric Getting Political?".
  25. ↑ Teaser posted by Eric Wareheim. video:[1]"
  26. ↑ Hardford Advocate article: "Hamburger Helper: America's 'worst' comedian performs in New Haven and then in Northampton[dead link]".
  27. ↑ MySpace blog post by Neil Hamburger: "The New Big Ball".
  28. ↑ http://video.adultswim.com/the-new-big-ball/index.html

External links

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