'Loiter Squad' dares to be dumb ... and gets a second season

The guys of the hip-hop collective Odd Future have a full-blown music career going and a TV show on the side. But now that Cartoon Network's Adult Swim has announced its decision to give the series "Loiter Squad" a second season, those TV careers could start taking up a lot more time.

"Loiter Squad" is a semi-sketch, semi-stunt mash-up of "Jackass" and "Chappelle's Show" starring Odd Future mastermind Tyler Okonma (Tyler, the Creator) as well as Odd Future cohorts Davon Wilson (Jasper Dolphin), Jason Keininger, Travis Bennet (Taco) and Lionel Boyce (L-Boy). Together they put out a scattershot collection of gags, stunts and spoofs that come at a rapid clip. Depending on whom you ask, they are either brilliantly funny or the stupidest things ever shown on TV. Discussion in the Twitter-sphere seems evenly divided.

Wilson says, "Basically me and my man Tyler wanted to make a show about random [stuff] that pops into our heads."

And they have. From a recurring "Cops" parody called "Black Cops" to "hidden cameraman on the street" hijinks to holding a stack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the side of a guy's head while the other person punches him, there's no real rhyme or reason to what appears on the show. Nothing connects to the next thing and there's no apparent theme. There are some limits, however.

"Everything we wanted to do [Cartoon Network] let us, except for one thing. But I might as well not bring that up because it'll make me look crazy," Wilson said.

Without much prompting, he elaborated.

"I wanted to make a skit about a son raping a dad. The dad's all sad and the mom don’t believe it because the son is 6 and the dad’s a grown ... brother. They said we can't go into the rape thing. It'd be weird."

The "Loiter Squad" guys continue to participate in Odd Future, which shares Tyler, the Creator as a main orchestrator. Several of the man-on-the-street sketches were filmed while the group was on tour last year. And by their own admission, the stunts they film for the show would be things they'd film amongst themselves anyway, just for a laugh. The only difference now is that they have money for costumes.

"I was thinking people would say, 'What is this? This is stupid,'" Wilson says. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks dumb ... is funny."

The show is very reminiscent of "Jackass," but it's not exactly by chance. "Loiter Squad" is produced by Dickhouse Productions -- also the company behind "Jackass" -- and both Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera made appearances during the first season.

Of "Jackass" comparisons, Boyce says: "I honestly thought before we started filming it would be along the lines of 'Grey's Anatomy' or 'Moesha' or something like that. But it came out different."

The first season is currently airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block Sundays at 11:30 p.m.

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Upfronts 2012: Adult Swim adds 'Harold & Kumar,' Dan Harmon show

-- Patrick Kevin Day

Photo: A sketch from "Loiter Squad." Credit: Cartoon Network

Upfronts 2012: Adult Swim adds 'Harold & Kumar,' Dan Harmon show

Cartoon Network's Adult Swim announced its new pilots for the upcoming season Wednesday, including an untitled animated Harold & Kumar series and new animated series from "Community" creator Dan Harmon and from "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" writer Seth Grahame-Smith.

Harmon has dabbled in animation before, with a stop-motion animated holiday episode of "Community," but "Rick & Morty" is the writer's first animated series. Co-created with Justin Roiland, the half-hour series tells the stories of a genius inventor and his less-than-genius grandson.

"Rolling With Dad," from Grahame-Smith, who also wrote "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" as well as creating MTV's "The Hard Times of R.J. Berger," is about a disabled genius and his idiot family.

VIDEO: Watch 2012 TV previews

Other series on the Adult Swim development slate include "Colonel Wallace," about the adventures of an eccentric Southern fried chicken magnate (reminiscent of a certain corporate Southern fried chicken icon) and his wacky family, from former Conan O'Brien writer Greg Cohen.

"Coffin Dodgers," from Dave Silverstein and Matt Jeser of the series "Drawn Together," takes on the frat house-like antics of the residents of a retirement home.

The sketch comedy troupe Green Bench has a live-action series, "Green Bench: The American Day Dream," about a group of friends who pool their money to rent office space for their business, even though they don't know what their business will be.

"Freestyle Love Supreme" recounts the exploits of a group of information technology guys who are also freestyle rappers.

"King Star King," from artist J.J. Villard and "Big Bang Theory" writer Eric Kaplan, is about a warrior who is also quite stupid. Adult Swim: Home for stupid characters?

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-- Patrick Kevin Day

Photo: Kal Penn, left, and John Cho in "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas." An animated Harold & Kumar series is on Adult Swim's fall schedule. Credit: Warner Bros.

Rob Corddry talks about clowns, nudity and the new season of 'Childrens Hospital'

If you haven't seen an episode of "Childrens Hospital," which returned Thursday night to Adult Swim, then you've missed out on some good clowny, doctory, relationshipy, need-tutorials-on-bedside-mannery fun. The show, created by "The Daily Show's" Rob Corddry (the doctor in clown makeup -- Blake Downs -- pictured above), is in its third season, so we had a very quick chat with the actor/writer/producer about his creative processes. On his Twitter page, where he live-tweeted the show's premiere last night, Corddry also announced that Nick Offerman and Sarah Silverman are guests on next week's episode.

Is "Childrens Hospital" a wackier "Scrubs" for the short-attention-span crowd?

Uhhhh ... No. I would go so far as to say that this show is nothing like "Scrubs," so please watch it.  I'd say it's like "Grey's Anatomy," but with [penis] jokes.

What are you watching now, and what were you watching when you came up with the concept for the show?

I don't think I was watching a lot of anything when I came up with "Childrens Hospital." Nowadays, my favorite shows are "Community," "Mad Men" (which I'm in the second season of), just bought "Breaking Bad," and my favorite show maybe of all time could be "Louie" on FX.

I'm not precious about genres or anything. I've also just started rewatching "The Sopranos" too. Sunday nights just haven't been the same the last couple of years. My wife and I, with David Wain ("Children's Hospital" director) and his wife, watch "The Sopranos" every Sunday night. It's a lot of fun returning to that.

Everyone from Michael Cera to Henry Winkler to Megan Mullally to Malin Akerman has appeared on the show. How do you approach casting?

Basically, I just cast my friends. I've worked with everybody in the cast at least once. If I've had fun with you on a movie set, you either have been, or will be, on "Children's Hospital." But you know, like anything else, if we write a part, we brainstorm people we think would be right for it, but also go for people we know will have a good comic sensibility.

Is there a drawn-out process for writing? Seems like there are many hands in those scripts.

We get together with a bunch of people and pitch a bunch of ideas. Then we'll collect those and pick and choose our favorites from a huge outline of ideas. And then we'll just put ideas together that seem to want to go together. We'll either write the episodes ourselves or farm them out to friends.

They sometimes seem to be vignettes that merge to form a complete episode.

The most satisfying episodes are the ones where two or three stories intersect. But we definitely stick to a traditional A-B-C sort of structure. The good thing being that we don't really have to get into it. It's sort of there to organize all of these jokes because it's a joke-driven show, not character-driven or story-driven.

What would Dr. Blake do with a patient that had a fear of clowns?

I don't even think it would register to him.  He's kind of autistic and can't really read or express emotion. Actually, a kid in this coming season pees himself and my character says, 'Oh look. He's peed himself with happiness." He just doesn't get it.

Speaking of the coming season, what can we look forward to?

A lot of partial nudity.

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Can Adult Swim grow up but stay weird?

-- Jevon Phillips

Fall TV Season: Adult Swim adds a soap opera, crime parody and animated blaxploitation

Is there any popular TV genre that Adult Swim won't knock off and tear down?

The answer is, "Probably not," judging from the six new series announced late Wednesday for the nighttime cable block, which shares channel space with Cartoon Network. The shows are scheduled to start rolling out this summer.

Adult Swim, which has grown into a programming powerhouse aimed at irony-loving young men, also announced 10 returning series during its upfront presentation in New York. Those include veteran hits "Robot Chicken," "Metalocalpyse," "Squidbillies," "Childrens Hospital" and "Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1," the adventures of talking food formerly known as "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

New offerings include "NTSF:SD:SUV," which takes the ever-present crime procedural and turns it on its head. The show -- translated it means "National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle" -- follows a team of crack government agents protecting that beachside town from the likes of Mexico, Canada and Guam. Like its over-earnest network forerunners, "NTSF" promises ripped-from-the-headlines stories. At least once during the 15-minute episodes, though, expect someone to rip off his sunglasses and deliver a trite line of cheese-filled dialogue. The cast includes Paul Scheer, Rebecca Romjin, Rob Riggle and Kate Mulgrew.

"Black Dynamite," an animated series based on the cult favorite blaxploitation flick from 2009, continues the title character's ongoing battle against kung-fu masters, drug-dealing pimps and The Man. It comes from "Boondocks'" Carl Jones, with voices of the original film's stars (Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, Kyn Whitley and Byron Minns). It will air next spring.

Can Adult Swim grow up but stay weird?

"They don't seem to care about advertisers or audience," comedian Rob Corddry says of Adult Swim, the cable network that runs his oddball medical comedy series, "Children's Hospital."

He means it in the best possible way. "They've never said, 'You can't do that.' They've never given us negative notes. It's always positive or nudges in a certain direction. Like, 'More nudity.' "

Adult Swim began as a late-night spinoff of Cartoon Network that ran cult cartoons ("Aqua Teen Hunger Force," "Harvey Birdman") based around old Hanna Barbera characters. But these days, the network is way more than a cult phenomenon. It regularly dominates cable ratings for its youthful demographic. It's also expanded into prime time and taken on live-action comedies like the meta-sketch show "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" The most recent addition to their roster is "Eagleheart" starring Chris Elliott as a "Walker, Texas Ranger"-style marshal.

Although it's established itself as the go-to spot for off-kilter late-night comedy, how will Adult Swim do as quirky comedies ("Portlandia," "Onion Sports Network,""Archer") pop up all over the cable landscape?

Read this Calendar feature for more on Adult Swim.

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Rob Corddry's "Children's Hospital" hits Adult Swim

Photo: Chris Elliott. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

TCA Press Tour 2011 Day 2: Dr. Drew, Mike Tyson and Oprah

The winter 2011 edition of the Television Critics' Assn. press tour got busy today in Pasadena with presentations from Turner Communications' networks, Playboy, BET, and Discovery Communications.

Rob Corddry took the stage with the cast (including Megan Mullally and Henry Winkler) of Adult Swim hospital satire "Children's Hospital." Corddry asked the crowd to address him with questions for Dr Drew, who was also at TCA waiting for his own panel -- and then Corddry responded to the journalist as Dr Drew. "Were you molested?"

When the real Dr. Drew presented his new HLN talk show, he spoke more seriously about using this new show as a platform to get to "the bottom line" on addicted and troubled celebrities and others. Up next, Piers Morgan served up a full dose of bravado as he boasted about the delights soon to come as he takes over Larry King's throne at CNN.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar showed off his good hair in his panel for the upcoming TNT legal drama "Franklin and Bash," in which he stars with Breckin Meyer and Malcolm McDowell and Ray Romano discussed the appeal of "Men of a Certain Age."

 Mike Tyson kicked off the afternoon session with a panel on his forthcoming Animal Planet series "Taking on Tyson" -- not a show about boxing but about pigeon racing, a topic vhe spoke about very excitedly.

Tyson (and then Ricky Gervais, who followed with a seemingly science-free show, "An Idiot Abroad," to air on the Science Channel) was just an aperitif to the main event of the afternoon, which was the arrival of OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The network presented the contestants who are auditioning for "Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next Reality Star," Oprah BFF Gayle King took questions on her new live show, and then finally Oprah herself appeared, clad in vivid shades of purple. Oprah talked -- and talked and talked -- about her mission for the new brand new network. "I don’t think it’s wise for us at this moment to go announcing that we’re the spiritual channel," she said. "There are many different ways to assert the nature of what is good without labeling it that.

Up tomorrow: more cable networks, among them AMC, WE, IFC, A&E, Hallmark, Starz, and HBO, featuring everyone from Joan and Melissa Rivers to Kate Winslet and Pee-wee Herman.

 -- Joy Press

twitter.com/joypress

Photo: Oprah Winfrey at TCA. Credit: Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images.

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TCA Press Tour 2011 Day 1: Old is new again

 

 

 

TCA Press Tour 2011: Dr. Drew to talk 'the bottom line' on Miley Cyrus and Snooki [Updated]

This post has been corrected. See note below.

The morning session of Day 2 of the TV press tour dealt with light fare such as Adult Swim's "Children's Hospital" and TNT's "Men of a Certain Age." But Dr. Drew Pinsky brought a bit more seriousness into the gathering as he talked about his new HLN series.

Pinsky, who also has his "Celebrity Rehab" series, says "The Dr. Drew Show" on HLN will give him a platform to provide his perspective on news and newsmakers. The point of the series, which will premiere in March, is to get to "the bottom line" on addicted and troubled celebrities and others.

"I do have a point of view," said Pinsky.

Referring to the recent pictures of Miley Cyrus smoking a bong containing salvia, Pinsky called her "a young woman in pain" who is suffering through her parents' divorce. He also talked about the outrageous behavior of Snooki of "Jersey Shore" and how its entertainment value overshadows the destructive pattern.

"It will all come to bear, and she will be regretful of what she says and what she does," Pinsky said.

For the record, 4:01 p.m. Jan. 6: The headline on an earlier version of this post, "Dr. Drew to talk 'the bottom line' on Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan," erred in referring to Lohan. The show's title was mistakenly described as "The Dr. Drew Pinsky Show" in an early version of this post and has also been corrected.

— Greg Braxton

Photo: Dr. Drew Pinsky. Credit: HLN

 

'The Boondocks' goes uncut on iTunes

There's no shortage of bleeps covering up the raunchy language of young black militant Huey Freeman and other foul-mouthed characters on "The Boondocks." 

The N-word is heard frequently when the animated series airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim late-night slate, but most expletives are deleted.

But now fans of "The Boondocks" can get their Huey raw and uncut.

Uncensored episodes of "The Boondocks," which tallied its highest ratings ever when it returned for its third season Sunday after an absence of more than two years, will be available on iTunes 12 hours after the tamer versions air on Adult Swim. Each episode costs $2.99, or viewers can purchase a season pass for all 15 episodes for $37.99.

The season-opener, "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman," in which the young militant is mysteriously depressed following the election of President Barack Obama, scored Adult Swim's highest ratings for an original series in over a year, attracting more than 2.5 million viewers. It also triumphed over its basic cable compeition in key demographics during it's 11:30 p.m. Sunday time slot.

The show's popularity appears to be fueled by online fans. The episode has generated more than 197,000 views on Adultswim.com, and "The Boondocks" and various names associated with the show took over five of the 10 trending topics on Twitter. 

—Greg Braxton

Photo: Huey Freeman of "The Boondocks." Credit: Sony Pictures Television

 

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