NTSF:SD:SUV: Christmas Will Be Terrifiying!

Tonight! Adult Swim!

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NTSF:SD:SUV Will Rule The World

It's a double dose of hilarity on tonight's episode of NTSF: SD:SUV. Executive Producer Curtis Gwinn wrote and appears, plus Childrens' Hospital's Rob Huebel will portray Piper's ex-husband, Dragon Shumway (brilliant name!), back to seek revenge. To add more to the goodness, the ladies of NTSF are going to hit the town with guns-a-blaze for the bachelorette party.

NTSF has ruled my heart as my favorite comedy these days, edging Childrens' off its pedestal. Paul Scheer and company have produced a terrific niche comedy, and the outreach among the cast and crew to TV bloggers who've championed them has been nothing but generous.

NTSF has also been renewed by Adult Swim for a third season. Childrens' Hospital has been given the nod for season 5, and is currently writing new episodes. (Source: Adult Swim)

If you haven't already - check out my interview with NTSF's Kate Mulgrew.

Exclusive Interview: Kate Mulgrew Finds Her Funny Side

The day Kate Mulgrew returned to her hometown of Dubuque, Iowa to receive the Pioneer Spirit Award at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival in April, it was almost her last day on Earth. After a calm takeoff out of Chicago O'Hare, the weather took a turn for the worst as the plane approached her destination. "We were flying in a soup!" the co-star of Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV  recalls, the memory of this harrowing experience still fresh in her mind. "Dubuque is in a valley. But when we got close to the landing strip, there was zero visibility. The pilot tried to land and he couldn't get the nose down. We hit the tarmac, but we then went straight up like a rocket with the plane shaking side to side."

One can imagine how Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starfleet Starship USS Voyager on Star Trek: Voyager, a role Mulgrew inhabited to much acclaim, would have handled such hideous turbulence: With steely eyed determination? Perhaps. But this was real life in the face of a massive storm, and the real Kate, who wasn't the Captain on this flight, was ready to meet her maker until the pilot gained control of the aircraft and landed safely. "Ten  minutes after landing, I was on stage getting this award! But, then to add insult to injury, I told the whole audience the story and said, 'Can you believe it? I almost crashed on American Airlines!'".

Why "insult to injury?"  The whole evening was  sponsored by  American Airlines. "Comedy of errors!" laughs Kate, obviously still shaken, but never stirred. (More on the Bond reference later.)

With forty years of hard earned stage and television work under her belt, (some viewers may remember her as Mary Ryan in the soap Ryan's Hope), it's a curious turn to see her join the ranks of alternative comedy on NTSF:SD:SUV, where she plays Kove, the eyeball challenged head honcho of the National Terrorist Strike Force in San Diego, a fun send up of the plethora of cop procedural shows that infest the network airways. 

I spoke to Kate about working on NTSF and this new genre of niche comedy Adult Swim is championing. She was charming, hilarious, charismatic and open to the world of the absurd.

Paul Scheer and Kate Mulgrew in NTSF:SD:SUV

  
You've done everything from Shakespeare to Star Trek Voyager to portraying Katherine Hepburn on stage. What made you join the NTSF team at Adult Swim?

Paul Scheer. He's beyond wonderful. I keep saying it, and I can't say it often enough or emphatically enough. He's a singular human being in Hollywood. Kind, generous, funny. He called me, and I had no idea who he was. He watched me on Star Trek and had this idea that I would be "M" 007, and he said "What do you think?", and I said "Is it lunacy?", and he said "Complete lunacy", and I said "I'm in."


Alternative comedians have such a sense of the absurd, which opens an outlet of creativity that doesn't fit within the boundaries of mainstream entertainment.

Well, I think Paul is held in great regard because every time I turned around in the second season, there was another terrific comedian. Everyone wants to work with him and for him.

Is there a little Captain Janeway in Kove?

No. Paul was thinking of Judy Dench in the James Bond movies. He was thinking of a serious female figure, so of course, he put an eyepatch on me.(Laughs)

Is there a back story on how Kove got the eyepatch? I don't remember anything eluding to the reason why she has one.

We haven't examined the back story, but Paul and I are always laughing about it. I think that I should switch the eye patch to the other eye! Maybe we'll have an episode about the history of the eyepatch!

Does Scheer keep the door open for you to contribute to a scene?

Oh yes, he's collaborative. He knows the best work must be collective. He listens to you with every part of his being. He uses what he can use. Never once does anyone feel less than necessary. He has that fantastic gift.

Does the cast come to you for acting advice, or how they should approach their character?

No, but they often look at me and say "does anybody know you're funny?" (laughs) because they know I've had a 40 year career as a legitimate actress, and it's so much fun to play with them and be, in their eyes, a comedian.  It's very freeing.

The show is so kooky, was there ever a time or a scene that was so over the top that you had to say, "Oh no, Paul I can't do this?"

I've never said I can't do it. I don't know how to say those words, but the chopping off of thumbs and appendages with a machete last season - that was very challenging. I did look at Paul and thought "Arrrgggh!" But you have to let it go. There is nothing precious. Nothing.

Trent and Kove have been married and divorced twice...

Right!  And we have two children Jericho and Cherokee. Neither of them speak, but they are karate champions.

Of course!  What else would they be? Do you think Trent and Kove will get married and divorced twice again?

Well, hope springs eternal! I think it would be brilliant, don't you? To be married and divorced twice in the same season - it would be brilliant. Someone actually does get married this season. But it doesn't last.

I hear that Kove now has a podcast? What kind of guests will she invite in for an up-close-and-personal interview?

We'll, she's less interested in sane people than she is in bizarre people. But Kove wants to be highly regarded by the team. She would give anything, her right hand and her left eye - her only remaining eye - to be part of the group. But she's so un-hip, and Kove is so desperate to be hip.

It's the whole aspect of her character, that off-center pattern of characteristics that make her so funny.

Right! And it's her self-importance. She just knows that she's never going to be invited to the party. Just like that whole episode in last season when they wouldn't invite her to a birthday party. She's obssessed.

Since NTSF and Childrens' Hospital pool of talent and producers are intertwined, has Rob Corddry ever asked you to make a guest appearance as Kove at Childrens? Perhaps in a NTSF/Childrens' Hospital crossover?

I don't know anything about that, but it sounds intriguing. It's the new wave, but I think Adult Swim has a pretty good idea what's amusing to every demographic. You should suggest that! (TVBlogster: If anyone in power is reading this...hint, hint.)

Any plans on returning to Broadway or the off-Broadway stage in the near future?

Yes, I'm doing a play in the Spring called Somewhere Fun, written by the very gifted playwright Jenny Schwartz, directed by Ann Kaufman. We go into rehearsals in April in New York. I've been working on this play, workshopped for them and with them, the last two years, and now we're going into the theater. I'm very excited. It's a dark comedy, but it's brilliant. The playwright is truly magnificent - a great, great mind. So come and see it if you can.

I would love to get back to New York to see it!

Well, Get your buddy pass and get on Jet Blue now!

For more on Kate Mulgrew and for updates on her upcoming projects, please check out her Twitter feed @TotallyKate and her official website www.KateMulgrew.wordpress.com

NTSF:SD:SUV: When Ordinary Cops Won't Do

Paul Scheer and his team of funny men and women bring you a world where cops have perpetual five o'clock shadows and lady detectives wear only the coolest of casual pant suits. NTSF: SD:SUV is back, tomorrow night on Adult Swim at 12:15am after Childrens' Hospital. 

Now that CSI: Miami is a ghost, David Caruso can shine the shoes of Trent Hauser, a bad ass detective of the National Terrorist Strike Force: San Diego: Special Utility Vehicle.  Along with Trent's crew of special agents, lead by Kove (Kate Mulligrew), the members of the NTSF destroy villains with such fierce skill, Alan Rickman will poop his pants.

What a season it's going to be. Watch this show and be treated to a 21 Jump Street spoof as Trent and Piper go undercover as high school students to capture a kidnapper who abducts bullies. Stick around for Alaskan native Alphonse, an NTSF special agent and former member of NTSF:AK:CANOE team, as  he reconnects with his evil father who places his partners under a spell with large doses of salmon. See cameos by Aubrey Plaza, Ray Liotta, and Jay Johnston. Stick around for Rob Riggle, President of the Navy. I love this show, but from what I've seen, season is going to be even better than season one.

One more time: NTSF:SD:SUV season two premieres Thursday at 12:15am on Adult Swim. Watch it nerds!

NTSF:SD:SVU

Prepare to have your face slapped off August 9th at 12:15am.

Comic Con Nugget

The cast of NTSF:SD:SVU and Childrens' Hospital at Comic Con with an audience of devotees. And a dummy in the middle.

Jon Hamm Goes Back in Time

Image Credit: Darren Michaels

Jon Hamm will re-appear in the upcoming season of the Emmy nominated Childrens' Hospital as an old timey man of the 1930's. The episode, according to EW,  involves Dr. Downs (Rob Corddry) and Dr. Maestro traveling back in time to uncover the identity of  hospital P.A. announcer Sal Viscuso (voice over performed by Michael Cera).

Hamm has already appeared on the Adult Swim series as Derek Childrens, the illegitimate son of the hospital's founder, who in an absurd way, exists undercover as Dr. Valerie Flame, played by Malin Akerman. Yes, the lady is really a dude.

Childrens' Hospital premieres on August 9th at Midnight, followed by the season premiere of NTSF:SD:SVU.

Also, check out Childrens' Hospital Season 3 on DVD - just released and available on Amazon. 

 

Comic Con Spawned Some Panels: Adult Swim Favorites

Comic Con is over. I didn't go. In fact, I'll probably never be able to attend since tickets get sold early in the year before I can even think of SDCC, and the idea of being committed to hotel bookings so far in advance is nuts to me. But if you were there and missed the cast of Childrens' Hospital, Adult Swim provides.  The new season of Childrens' premieres on August 9th at midnight.  The cast took the stage for some Q&A during the conference. 

NSTF:SD:SVU, the hard hitting, gut busting answer to all procedural cop dramas will return on the same night, same channel after Childrens' Hospital. Here's the NTSF cast at SDCC.

Adult Swim's Upfront Explosion

Adult Swim has the type of comedy programming I can get behind. Weird, disturbing, hilarious, and dare I say it - groundbreaking. Here are some new shows (mostly live action) we fans of top notch strange, fun and icky comedy can believe in for the upcoming season.

Robot Chicken's sixth season begins this Fall. This well written, star studded show is stop motion action at it's best. Silly, stupid, absurd - it sends up pop culture and wins all kinds of Emmy awards for the taking. Some of the guests stars voicing the weird and wonderfulness will be Elizabeth Banks, Gillian Jacobs, Stanley Tucci, Olivia Wilde, and Jon Stewart.

NTSF:SD:SUV is back this August for a second season of insane cop procedural parody. Special Agent Trent Hauser, (Paul Scheer) and his elite team of counter-terrorist specialists return for more explosions and blood. This year we'll be see time travel, robot murders and talking dogs. Have you ever wanted to see a killer Santa Claus? Done. NTSF:SD:SUV premieres this August.

The Heart She Holler is returning for a second season. I don't know how to write about it than this: This show is a live action horror soap opera with whole lot of holy crap and a big dose of what the fuck. Patton Oswalt is a mutant man-child who inherits the town of Heart She Holler from his late wealthy insane father who communicates to him via video tape from the dead. Kristen Schaal and Heather Lawless are his horrifying sisters. You'll laugh hysterically and then take 10 hot showers. It's bizarro.

Childrens' Hospital. What can I say? This show rules the Adult Swim airwaves. Back for its fourth season, the medical "drama" will go further than it has ever gone before - to jolly England with a British version of the legendary show!  Also, the search for the mysterious PA announcer Sal Viscuso unveils an evil so fierce it takes over the hospital. They'll be deadly airborne viruses, a beloved doctor will die over and over again, and Sy adopts a dog! Season four of Childrens' Hospital will premiere in August.

'NTSF' Back on Board

Fans of NTSF:SD:SUV will be happy to know that the show started production for season 2 yesterday. A new Adult Swim sensation, the show, created by Paul Scheer and his team of funny people was renewed after a successful first season. The show is due to air later this year.

Jeff Goldblum...

...on NTSF:SD: SUV. Need I say more?

Take that, David Caruso.

Tonight. 12:15am on Adult Swim.

NTSF: SD: SUV

If you dwell around the CBS network during any given weekday night, you'll stumble across a litter of cop dramas that, in recent years, have multiplied like bunnies. CSI: Criminal Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, Criminal Minds, NCIS, and NCIS: Los Angeles. It's a veritable poo-poo platter of dead frat boys, gory autopsies, lady detectives in pant suits and acronyms. Yes, America: These are your prime time procedurals, and it's time for some spoofing to keep their heads on straight.

Much like Childrens Hospital, which is a send up of medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy, Adult Swim has taken an idea by comedian Paul Scheer and given the cop drama it's own hilarious punch in the gut. NTSF: SD: SUV originally aired as a spoof trailer after Childrens' last season, and was picked up by the network for full 15 minute episodes. It's currently in it's third week of broadcast, and has proven to be a pitch perfect procedural satire. Alongside Scheer as Trent, is June Raphael as Piper, Rebecca Romjin as the brainiac Jesse, whom everyone thinks is ugly but it gorgeous, Kate Mulligrew as Trent's ex-wife and commander Kove, Brandon Johnson as Alphonse (a UCB favorite of mine, who is incredibly funny and needs to be famous now), and Party Down's Martin Starr as Sam. There's a robot. There's sex. There's histrionics. And David Caruso's spirit lingers in the details.

NTSF:SD:SUV airs right after Childrens Hospital at 12:15am on Thursday nights. Watch it, and prepare your mind before it gets blown away.

NTSF: SD: SUV

NTSF: SD: SUV premieres on Thursday, July 21st at 12:15am on Adult Swim. (After Childrens' Hospital). Get ready to have your face blown off...ironically.

NTSF:SD:SUV...

Get ready. Later this summer, NTSF:SD:SUV premieres on Adult Swim. Take all those notions of procedural cop dramas and bury them, because this show looks more interesting than anything the CSI or NCIS or Law & Order spawns can cook up - or would even want to.

More to come...