WebProNews

Tag: variety show

  • Neil Patrick Harris: Variety Show Preview

    Neil Patrick Harris: Variety Show Preview

    Neil Patrick Harris’ new variety show released a promo video that attempted, and failed, to squeeze all of the greatness of the new show into a 15-second super bowl ad spot.

    Neil Patrick Harris begins the spot with, “I only have 15 seconds to tell you about my new really big show, so I thought, instead, why not perform a thrilling number to give you a glimpse of what’s coming? Let’s do it!”

    Then, of course, someone says, “We’re out of time, Neil.”

    Comedic genius.

    The new show will air in the fall and will be a 10-episode old-school-style variety show with Neil Patrick Harris as host.

    Almost broke off my arm during a show last week. Gots the bruises to prove it. Hedwig's outta control. #battlescars

    Fotka zveřejněná uživatelem Neil Patrick Harris (@instagranph),

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91tZ_3srlLs

    The show will have comedy sketches, musical numbers, mini game shows, hidden-camera celebrity pranks, and tons of celebs.

    It was announced back in October that Neil Patrick Harris would be bringing a great new variety show to America. The show itself is fashioned off of the U.K.’s long-running Saturday Night Takeaway from ITV.

    Thank you @TomFord for dressing us for the Tony Awards! Our tuxes were classy fantastic!

    Fotka zveřejněná uživatelem Neil Patrick Harris (@instagranph),

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut8QW9IqDxc

    After the announcement, Neil Patrick Harris said of his first experience with Saturday Night Takeaway, “As I watched the show, I couldn’t stop smiling. Now that I’ve seen many seasons, my face hurts. It’s a game changer. Nothing like this has been done before, and its unique structure fits right into my random skill set. I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and have some fun!”

    Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and late-night programming at NBC Entertainment, said of the partnership with Neil Patrick Harris, “All of us here at NBC have been dying to work with Neil, as we’ve watched him brilliantly host the Tonys and Emmys. This series will suit his extraordinary talents perfectly. He is a versatile and thrilling talent for us to welcome into the NBC family.”

    Are you excited to see what Neil Patrick Harris’ new variety show will be like?

  • Maya Rudolph May Ink Variety Show Deal With NBC

    On May 19, Maya Rudolph made her television producing debut with the airing of her variety show special, The Maya Rudolph Show. Rudolph, whose career took-off as an actress on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, meant for the show to be a refurbished 70’s era variety show reincarnation. What audiences received was…. questionable. Despite the mixed reviews of the show’s pilot run, however, NBC has announced intentions to return The Maya Rudolph Show to air sometime in the near future.

    The pilot version of The Maya Rudolph Show aired directly after part one of the season finale of The Voice, a popular singing competition. That night, some 7.2 million viewers tuned in to watch Rudolph and her comedian friends attempt to bring the variety genre back to NBC, something which the network had not attempted since 2010’s disastrous results with Rosie O’Donnell (a show which aired only once).

    After the show aired, however, it was clear that the viewers who had tuned in did so for one of two simple reasons: 1) They loved Rudolph and company in Saturday Night Live and/or Bridesmaids; or 2) A large majority of the 11.5 million who tuned into The Voice simply left the TV on. My vote is for the latter.

    While Rudolph may have had good intentions with the show, stating, “… ‘You know what, I really feel like this is what people want right now.’ I think people want to watch TV and feel good and laugh… I do feel like people want this and need this. And I wouldn’t say that they’re lacking it, but in the sense that there’s a whole generation that doesn’t even really know TV in this way,” she simply missed the boat.

    Rudolph herself mentions that there is a whole generation of people that have never really seen a 70’s era variety show… and that’s probably for a reason. Audiences today aren’t near as entertained by a few B-list actors getting on stage and performing in some poorly written and acted scenes with some more poorly written and performed musical numbers spliced in-between. And with the plethora of glorious entertainment with high production values and amazing acting, who would?

    Exhibit A:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAKZGXXM4Mg

    Simply put, The Maya Rudolph Show wasn’t funny and potentially belonged in a completely different time and place altogether. If NBC decides to bring the show back to air, hopefully it is not as a full-time series but rather as a monthly special. If given a month to produce one show, hopefully Rudolph and crew could pull together something with better comedic theme, timing, and pizzazz. If not, Rudolph may find herself heading down the same road as Rosie O’Donnell (and no one would wish that upon anybody).

    Image via YouTube

  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt Gets His Own Variety Show

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has spent the last few years working on and promoting his site HitRECcord, is now seeing that site come to life with its own variety show, HitRECord On TV. The show premieres on Pivot on January 18th with two back-to-back episodes. The first season is scheduled for eight episodes and contains content right from the website itself, HitRECord. The half hour show will be made up of short films, interviews, performances and more. Each episode will revolve around a different theme, based on the thousands of contributions from the website.

    “We like to call ourselves an open collaborative production company, where hundreds of thousands of artists around the world form a community around the art we make together,” co-creator Jared Geller tells SPIN magazine. The first episode alone uses content from over 400 contributors on the site. Plus, if your content is used, there’s a sweet cut from the $50,000 per episode check.

    If you don’t want to wait to catch the premiere episode on January 18th, or don’t have the cable channel Pivot (which seems likely), Joseph kindly uploaded the entire first episode to Youtube for fans to check out:

    In the Youtube introduction, Joseph writes: “I’m deeply proud of this show, and I think you’re realllllly gonna like it. Honestly, making this thing together with all the artists from around the world in our hitRECord community has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life so far.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons