News

Some folks prefer to spend their TV hours soaking up procedural dramas.

Others prefer a soapy historical fiction.

As for me, I will die on the hill that the mockumentary-style sitcom is the best genre on television.

There's no way to discuss every masterpiece, so we'll focus on a few examples of mockumentary shows.

Why do they work?

Let me count the ways. First, it's the absence of the fourth wall for me.

There's something special about creating a universe with characters and ever-so-slightly unrealistic situations and making your audience feel like they're part of it.

Take The Office, for example. When Jim looks directly into the camera after Michael or someone says something absurd, we get to be in on the joke.

Instead of being spectators stuck on the other side of the screen, it's like we're transported into the bullpen, nodding in understanding as Jim stares down the lens.

Exclusive: I’m Sorry series creator Andrea Savage is set to direct the feature adaptation of Catya McMullen’s Off Broadway play Georgia Mertching Is Dead.

The play, which was awarded the 2019-2020 Gassner Award by the Outer Critics Circle for best new play by a new playwright, follows three 30-year old friends –Gretchen, Emma and Whitney. They’ve been friends since they were teenagers, and they’ve been sober since they were teenagers. As they set off on a road trip south to celebrate and mourn a figure from their past, they explore what it’s like to stay friends as adults after growing up weird and possibly broken. McMullen is adapting the feature script. McMullen is currently developing with NBCInternational and recently developed with Hulu.

Allan Mandelbaum and Mary Solomon are overseeing Georgia Mertching Is Dead for Star Thrower.

Star Thrower is currently in production on Reinaldo Marcus Green...

Podcaster Stitcher is launching Office Ladies, billed as “the ultimate podcast for nostalgic fans of NBC’s The Office,” thanks to the presence of two of the stars of the comedy series, Jenna Fischer (who played Pam Beesly) and Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin).

Office Ladies premieres October 16 on Stitcher’s comedy network, Earwolf, home to podcasts including Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, How Did This Get Made? and Comedy Bang! Bang!

Each week, Fischer and Kinsey break down an episode of The Office and give behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there would know. While watching the show that made them best friends, they will reminisce, share memories and answer questions from fans.

“What continues to bring audiences to Stitcher is a focus on stories listeners will love in every show, connecting through emotion – whether that’s making listeners laugh, think or empathize,...

Actress Andrea Savage is known in the comedy world for her time with the Groundlings and on single-camera series such as “The Hotwives of Orlando,” “Veep” and “Episodes.” In 2006 she also started writing and producing professionally, starting with Comedy Central’s “Dog Bites Man” and then “Funny or Die Presents” a few years later. But soon enough she wasn’t satisfied with being just a triple threat and added show creator, showrunner and director to her resume. Her semi-autobiographical series “I’m Sorry” is now airing its second season on truTV.

Did your approach for the second season of “I’m Sorry” change due to your experience working on, or watching audience reception of, the first?

I was scared going into the second season, I will say, because my show is based on real stories from my life and I was like, “Well I’m a shell of a person now.

We've been fans of Atypical since it aired its first season that focused on the dating life of 18-year-old autistic teenager Sam Gardner. It's one of our favorite teen dramas, and we're so glad it was renewed. The show just debuted its second season on Netflix, and the plot lines continue to push envelopes and tug at heartstrings.

The stellar cast is nothing short of impressive, with Keir Gilchrist starring as Sam, '80s icon Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fast Times of Ridgemont High) starring as Sam's mother, and Michael Rapaport (Friends) playing Sam's father. But while we were marathon-watching the latest season, we couldn't help but notice a familiar face playing new character Ms. Whitaker. Casey Wilson has been in the film and television game for years now, so even if you couldn't place her face, you've likely been a fan of her work for quite some time.

Wilson grew up in Virginia,...

After four seasons and 44 episodes, Zander Lehmann’s brother-sister relationship series “Casual” is signing off with a final season in which the growth for its characters mirrors the growth of Hulu, the streaming service that served as its home.

“‘Casual’ is a platform-defining series in the tradition of groundbreaking Lionsgate shows like ‘Weeds,’ ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Nurse Jackie,’ ‘Orange Is the New Black’ and ‘Dear White People,’” says Chris Selak, Lionsgate executive vice president and head of worldwide scripted television. “These shows underscore our commitment to carefully crafted episodes of serialized television. We are very proud of ‘Casual’ and the amazing creative team behind it, and grateful to our partners at Hulu for four seasons of support and commitment.”

Hulu began original programming in 2011 and moved into original scripted series in 2012. Back then, its lineup ranged from a mockumentary (“Battleground”) to a parody (“The Hotwives of Orlando”) to a supernatural comedy...

Joey McIntyre, the youngest member of the pioneering and hugely popular boy band The New Kids on the Block, a.k.a. NKotB, put his longtime family home on a particularly plum and picturesquely tree-lined block in L.A.’s historic Hancock Park ‘hood up for sale at $5.795 million. Mcintyre, who hasn’t had the kind of searing global success as a solo artist he enjoyed with NKotB but has none-the-less released half of a dozen solo albums and appeared in scads of television shows, “The Hotwives of Orlando,” “The McCarthys” and “Return of the Mac” among them, along with a variety of theater performances including, most recently, Stephen Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” at the Garry Marshall Theatre in Burbank, Calif., acquired the stately, stone-accented residence with his wife Barrett in April 2007 for $4.45 million. The listing, which makes no secret of the home’s celebrity ownership,...

Streaming service Hulu might not get all the attention that Netflix or HBO does, but it’s turning out some quality shows that rival the big networks and streaming services alike. Here are 10 Hulu original series you should add to your list of binge-worthy titles. 10. “The Hotwives of Orlando” Sending up reality TV shows about real housewives, “The Hotwives of Orlando” is has some great casting, including Kristen Schaal of “Bob’s Burgers” and “Last Man on Earth,” and Angela Kinsey of “The Office.” It constantly gets to the best absurdity of reality TV with some great, ridiculous characters. 9. “Chance” Hugh Laurie.

The Hotwives Of Orlando and Hotwives Of Las Vegas actress Andrea Savage has been tapped for recurring roles in the upcoming fifth season of HBO’s Veep and the current season of The CW’s iZombie. She’s also set to return for the upcoming fifth season of Showtime’s Episodes in her role as TV executive Helen Basch. On the Washington, DC-set comedy Veep, Savage will play Sen. Montez, joining Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky and others. Character details are being…...

Last year, they took Orlando by storm. In 2015, they’re off to Sin City. They’re the Hotwives, and as of August 18th, they have returned to Hulu for their second season.

Hotwives, which parodies the Real Housewives TV franchise, began in 2014 with The Hotwives of Orlando, which provided plenty of laughs and ultimately secured multiple nominations for the upcoming Streamy Awards. Season two is titled The Hotwives of Las Vegas, but while it may have a new setting, the show’s cast remains most intact. Casey Wilson, for example, portrays a trashy Southern belle named Jenfer Beudon after playing a “trophy wife” named Tawny St. John in season one. Series creators Dannah Phirman and Danielle Schneider also show up as two of the seven hotwives.

As with the web series Burning Love, Hotwives is a co-production between Paramount Digital and Abominable Pictures. Those two studios have developed a distinct flavor for their collaborations,...

VH1, Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter announced the nominees for the 5th annual Streamy Awards on Wednesday. Snapchat scripted series “SnapperHero” led the pack with six total nominations. “Epic Rap Battles of History” and “Video Game High School” both followed with four nominations, while “Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe” and “The Hotwives of Orlando” each secured three nominations. “If the strength of this year’s nominees is any indication, we are on track for the biggest Streamys ever,” said Streamy Awards Creator Drew Baldwin. “This past year, video creators have inspired, educated and entertained us like never before — and I can imagine.

This morning, some of the most influential creators and talent in online video, including Bart Baker, Flula and GloZell Green, announced The Streamy Awards nominees. The Streamy Awards is a multi-platform event that honors the very best in Youtube and online video that this year will air live on VH1, along with its digital platforms, from the Hollywood Palladium on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 10pm.  Read More: 2015 Streamy Awards to Honor the Best Online Videos...on VH1? The Snapchat scripted series, "SnapperHero," cleaned up with a total of 6 nominations, while "Epic Rap Battles of History," "Video Game High School," "Bootleg Universe" and "The Hotwives of Orlando" also stood out, earning a handful of nominations. The Streamys Blue Ribbon Panel, a judging body of creators, executives, and other experts from the online video industry, will declare the winners. There are also two fan-voted award, Entertainer of the Year and...

Read More: What Brings Comedians Together? According to 'Hotwives of Orlando' Creators, 'We Want to Feel Like We're Still in That Old Porn Theater' Hulu is ready to fill the void left by the Season 1 finale of Lifetime's "Bachelor" satire "UnREAL" with "Real Housewives" parody "The Hotwives of Las Vegas." The official series trailer went online today, promising a "scorching dose of drama, drinking and debauchery," and it looks like the new Hotwives are bound to deliver. The follow-up series to last year's "The Hotwives of Orlando" will feature a slate of mostly new characters, like "First Lady" Stephanie, pioneer of new food line "Anorexi-Yeah!" but will no doubt remain faithful to last season's depth and candor. Fans will also be pleased to see the return of the reformed Phenomenon “Phe Phe” Reed, who claims to have turned into a nicer, more agreeable Hotwife. Nicer than those other broke...

If you needed more evidence that Danny Trejo is not someone you want to upset, El Rey Network has provided Exhibit A.

The cabler on Friday released a photo from Trejo’s upcoming stint on From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, in which the Machete star will play “The Regulator,” a horrifying agent of evil who is summoned to perform a deadly errand.

RelatedCable Renewal Scorecard 2015: What’s Coming Back? What’s Cancelled? What’s on the Bubble?

From Dusk Till Dawn‘s sophomore season is slated to premiere this summer. Check out the photo below, in which The...

In 2014, Jonathan Stern and Keith Quinn--who both served as executives for the critically-acclaimed Yahoo web series Burning Love--teamed up with Fox for a first-look deal. Now, four comedy series born out of the partnership between Fox, Stern, and Quinn have been announced. Among other projects, the producing duo are planning Filthy Sexy Teen$, a salaciously-titled series that will premiere online via the Fullscreen network.

Filthy Sexy Teen$ will be produced through Stern's Abonimable Pictures, which in addition to Burning Love has produced two other reality TV parodies: The Hotwives of Orlando and Beef. In Teen$, "two wealthy teen siblings, thought to be lost at sea, return home and attempt to re-climb the high school social ladder," according to information from Fox.

Each of the eight episodes in Teen$'s first season will run for a half-hour. The series will make its North American debut via Fullscreen, which claims...

Angela Kinsey is standing by her man for ABC’s unromantic romantic comedy pilot The 46 Percenters.

RelatedPilot Season ’15: Scoop on This Fall’s (Possible) New Shows, Who’s In Them

The Office alumna will star in the multi-cam project about the 46 percent of the population who choose to stay married, told through the perspective of three couples, our sister site Deadline reports.

Kinsey will play half of one of the pairs, wife and mother Marni.

Kinsey’s recent TV credits include Bad Judge, New Girl and Hulu’s The Hotwives of Orlando.

Related storiesParenthood's Erika Christensen to Star in ABC's L.

The show that was perhaps Hulu's strongest original series of 2014 will return for another run. The Hotwives of Orlando, which makes fun of Bravo's Real Housewives franchise, will come back for a second season that will take place in Las Vegas.

Hotwives is one of three reality TV parodies produced by Paramount Digital Entertainment, which also brought Burning Love to Yahoo and Beef to on-demand platforms. As with the second season of Burning Love, round two of Hotwives will feature a mostly new cast of characters to fill the new setting. “Las Vegas was an obvious choice for the second season of the Hotwives franchise because it’s a city built on broken dreams, fake boobs and real magic,” said executive producer Paul Scheer, who also has a supporting role in the series. “Season 2 will focus on a new crop of wannabe socialites with some new faces as well as...

Paramount Digital Entertainment, the studio that previously provided a pair of hits in Burning Love and The Hotwives of Orlando, has officially released its third reality TV parody. Beef, which stars Christopher Meloni as a deli owner-turned-judge, can now be downloaded from on demand platforms. Beef, created by Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, and Jonathan Stern of Abominable Pictures, has Judge Judy in its sights. While Meloni's satirical take on daytime TV judges is the main attraction, Beef will follow the lead of other Paramount Digital series by loading up on guest appearances. Lizzy Caplan, Stefanie Beatriz, and Reckless Tortuga's James Pumphrey are a few of the familiar faces who show up across Beef's two-and-a-half-hour runtime. Here's the series trailer, courtesy of Paramount Digital: This time around, Paramount Digital is trying something new by opting for a direct release to VOD platforms rather than online streaming sites

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

Starting today, anyone with an internet connection and 23 minutes of free time can stream the season finale of The Hotwives of Orlando, the original Hulu series parodying the sprawling Real Housewives shows and the various franchises’ train-wreck stars. Like the reunion specials capping off Real Housewives seasons, the seventh episode of Hotwives reconvenes the titular narcissists (played by Casey Wilson and others) for a salacious update hosted by the show’s Andy Cohen–alike (Paul Scheer). Now that season one is in the books, Vulture closely examined the six O-Town hot messes and and ranked the Hotwives by their inherent hot-messness.6. Phenemon “Phe Phe” Reed (Tymberlee Hill) Real Housewives equivalent: Nene Leakes, Atlanta Husband: womanizing Rodney (Jerry Minor) Professions: lawyer, cake designer, Zumba instructor, foot model, Cpa, minister Hobbies: taxidermy, patronizing the Tools & Tapas strip club Events she hosted: Amanda’s Intervention Party, Group Staycation (with Weird Al as self-help...

Hulu's seven-episode series "The Hotwives of Orlando" lampoons Bravo's "Real Housewives" franchises in exactly the right ways: The catchphrases, the melodrama, the sham marriages, and the frightening fights are all parodied with very close attention to detail. Creators Dannah Phirman and Danielle Schneider have a cast of game ladies in their Florida-set series, including Schneider herself (who plays Shauna Maducci, the "bankrupt overspender"), "Happy Endings"/"SNL" vet Casey Wilson as trophy wife Tawny St. John, Tymberlee Hill as Phenomenon "Phe Phe" Reed, Andrea Savage as cougar Veronica Von Vandervon, Angela Kinsey of "The Office" as religious zealot Crystal Simmons, and "30 Rock" vet Kristen Schaal as drug-addled former child star Amanda Simmons.  HitFix caught a few minutes to interview Wilson, Hill, Savage, Schneider, and Phirman. Instead of asking them to name their favorite "Housewives" franchise or terrifying dream about Andy Cohen, we asked them to pick their favorite ladies from famous pop culture groups.

You can always count on a Real Housewife having something to say about someone else—which is why, when we put six costars of Hulu’s spoof The Hotwives of Orlando in the Hot Seat, we asked them to rate each other’s answers. Watch Casey Wilson, Andrea Savage, Angela Kinsey, Dannah Phirman, Tymberlee Hill, and Danielle Schneider judge each other below while they reveal their Real Housewives love guru, most prized pop culture possession, mood music, and go-to drink to throw in someone’s face.

Hulu has its Burning Love. The premium online video platform has released The Hotwives of Orlando, a seven-episode series that smartly pokes fun at Bravo's Real Housewives series. Much like Burning Love (which won Yahoo plenty of critical acclaim upon its release in 2012), The Hotwives of Orlando is a loving parody of its source material. Creators Dannah Phirman and Danielle Schneider have clearly done their research, since each character in their series parodies specific cast members from the show's various iterations. Real Housewives fans should love The Hotwives of Orlando most of all. For the rest of us, there is still plenty to enjoy. The Hotwives of Orlando's legitimately funny writing and acute genre awareness is buttressed by a strong cast. Familiar faces like Casey Wilson, Angela Kinsey, and Kristen Schaal all have leading roles, while supporting actors and guest stars add to each episode. Paul Scheer steals the...

Look, I don’t want any drama—I don’t want any drama—but I’m also not totally on board with The Hotwives of Orlando, a new Bravo-spoofing comedy that debuted on Hulu at midnight Tuesday. (Hulu Plus subscribers can watch all seven 22-minute episodes right now; Hulu Plus-less plebes can only see the first two today, while the rest will be released on a week-to-week basis.)

The basic gist: A large ensemble of ladies you already love (or should love), including Casey Wilson, Kristen Schaal, and The Office’s Angela Kinsey, don an assortment of skintight dresses and...