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Thomas Lennon's & Ben Garant's FX Comedy Pilot 'Alabama' Starring Eddie Izzard Not Picked Up

27 Jul 2011

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Over the weekend I had the rare privilege of speaking with two of the funniest men in Hollywood, Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. The two have managed to maintain the rarest of comedy careers: they have had tremendous success in writing big studio films (Night At The Museum) while still working with their specific brand of off-beat humor (Reno 911!).

Their pilot for FX, 'Alabama', was a sci-fi comedy in the style of Star Trek meets Reno 911!. Due to some creative differences, the pilot was not picked up, but the guys were incredibly proud of the pilot, calling it without a doubt the best work they’ve ever done. They said FX President John Landgraf was a huge fan of the pilot, but some people at FX didn’t necessarily “get” the duo’s brand of humor and suggested the pilot be retooled. Garant and Lennon were so proud of the original pilot and decided it just wasn’t meant to be and opted not to rework the pilot. The duo described Eddie Izzard’s performance as the show’s villain as the best performance in any of the shows they’ve worked on, including Reno 911!

Source: Collider
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10 comments:

  1. Stickoxydal27 July 2011 at 15:58

    That's a pity, this sounds like it had the potential to be a great addition to FX's awesome line-up of comedies.
    Don't think any other network could be interested unless AMC suddenly
    decides to go into comedy and pick up a failed FX pilot like they did
    with Breaking Bad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matthew Obst27 July 2011 at 16:05

    Think about the success of Trailer Park Boys-- this could be huge!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steffen Linus Jensen Stø27 July 2011 at 16:50

    Please pick up Outlaw Country now. I want to see John Hawkes in a lead role again, after his awsome performance in 'Winters Bone' that led him to an Oscar-nom. Also Margo Martindale, Stephen Root and Mary Steenburgen(wife of Ted Danson and Golden Globe/Oscar-vinner). 

    ReplyDelete
  4. Adrian Sikora27 July 2011 at 17:13

    I read a while ago about this not being picked up. This guys have specific kind of humour and I bet FX was worried that it would turn into Testees 2.0.

    ReplyDelete
  5. pinkphoenix198527 July 2011 at 17:33

    sad it sounds like it would have been hysterical

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stickoxydal27 July 2011 at 17:56

    I'm pretty excited for Outlaw Country too, way more than I am for American Horror Story. The premise of Outlaw Country sounds great and the cast is awesome. Even liked hughes in his Lost stint as hippie-pirate-other. But this is the first time I hear/read that Martindale is involved. Are you sure about this? Sure hope those pilot reshoots make FX happy.
    American Horror Story on the other hand has a great cast too, but nobody seems to know what the show is about and it has Ryan Murphy. I despise Glee with every fiber of my heart and I was never able to get into Nip/Tuck.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stickoxydal27 July 2011 at 18:00

    Not exactly news, that's correct, but I read it on Collider today and thought it would be worth mentioning. Never actually saw any episode of Testees, but I heard good things about it and it still is on my to-watch-list.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Adrian Sikora27 July 2011 at 19:09

    Testees provided me many good laughs but it is one of these shows that you hate yourself you are laughing at it. FX canned it because it was "too low-brow" and I kind of agree with them, it didn't suit them.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bruce_F27 July 2011 at 23:23

    I gave Testees a shot.  I stuck it out for 3 episodes and just couldn't take it anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Stickoxydal28 July 2011 at 07:05

    Hmmm, wasn't a high priority on my to-watch-list anyway. It remains in the bottom area...

    ReplyDelete

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