Ben Stiller was on hand at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday to present two upcoming Comedy Central series executive produced by his Red Hour production company.
Another Period, which debuts this summer, is a sort of Downton Abbey for for people who loathe Downton Abbey — messy, ribald and hilarious, but also surprisingly well researched. Series stars Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome, who created the series from a short film with the same premise, spent time in the show’s Newport, R.I., to get a feel for the era and setting in which their turn-of-the-century socialite sisters Lillian and Beatrice Bellacourt lived.
The series also stars Paget Brewster as the girls’ morphine-loving mother Dodo, Michael Ian Black as a fusty butler named Peepers, Christina Hendricks as a devious maid christened “Chair” by the dimwitted Beatrice and Jason Ritter as the sisters’, er, excessively loving brother Fredrick.
“The pilot, to me, set the bar for this mix of tones in terms of the comedy coming from this sort of ‘reality show’ vibe and then also just the anachronistic sort of thing is going on,” said Stiller of the show’s deliriously paced, confessional style. “But it’s just also really stupid at times, too.”
Look for Stiller to drop in on Another Period as Ponzi-scheme inventor Charles Ponzi, who charms the money-hungry Lillian (Leggero).
Stiller next sat in with the crew of Big Time in Hollywood, Fl , including creators Alex Anfanger and Dan Schimpf, who were tapped by Stiller to produce the series after he discovered their web series Next Time on Lonny.
Big Time features Anfanger and Lenny Jacobsen (Nurse Jackie) as a pair of wanna-be Scorceses whose lives go spectacularly awry when their parents (the splendid Kathy Baker and Stephen Tobolowsky) attempt to kick them out of the house. With the aid of their sweetly dimwitted buddy Del (Jon Bass), the pair concoct a scheme to keep their cushy lifestyle that backfires, leading them on an adventure that rivals their homemade productions.
Marcus Giamatti, Cuba Gooding Jr., Keith David and Michael Madsen costar.
Stiller praised twenty-somethings Anfanger and Schmipf, who met as students at New York University, for their ability to unite their cast and create a series that breaks the scripted-comedy mold.
“As I was watching the dailies come in, seeing the trust that was with the actors and what Dan and Alex — I feel like they have a very special thing together,” Stiller said. “It sort of just emanated out to everybody else, and I saw people taking chances.”
Stiller added that the two shows are great representations of the kind of projects and talent that Red Hour wants to foster.
“When I saw what Alex and Dan were doing on the internet and this little show they made for no money at all called Next Time on Lonny, which just blew me away in terms of the tone, the comedy, the production value — and which had an element of satire and parody, but in a different framework where it wasn’t just, ‘Here’s a sketch, here’s a sketch’ — that, to me, was something that I just felt was very fresh. And I think Another Period, it has its own tone. What I’m most impressed with are these young people who have these incredibly specific and unique voices and self‑realized work that they’re doing.
“We have this little headquarters on La Brea that used to be a hair-dressing salon that we have people editing shows and making stuff in, and it’s become this really great little creative hub” Stiller continues. “That’s what’s wonderful —just to be able to see stuff actually getting done and getting made, and giving people a chance to do something that hopefully people might just look at and go, ‘What the hell is this?’ But that’s great because they’re doing something that’s different. And if we think it’s good, we think it’s funny, then that’s the criteria.”
Big Time in Hollywood, Fl premieres March 25 at 10:30pm ET/PT on Comedy Central. For more on the series, check out the March issue of Channel Guide Magazine. Another Period premieres this summer.
Photos: Comedy Central
