The Comedy Central test of showing via a series of interstitial spots pulled from the HOUSE ARREST pilot worked as the cablenet has given the show a greenlight for 13 half-hours to premiere in 2004. The new animated show, from comic Denis Leary and Jim Serpico's Apostle studio, started airing as spots at 9:58 pm on May 1, 2003.
HOUSE ARREST, created by Eric Brown, Sellitti and Serpico, is a half-hour animated pilot that star Chico and star Chico and Beanie, two grossly unmotivated, underachievers in their mid-twenties. Their main pleasure in life, while adhering to Chico's mandatory house arrest sentence, is to ride the couch and watch animated interstitials of such comedians as Dane Cook, Greg Fitzsimmons, Janeane Garofalo, Leary, Jay Mohr, Patrice Oneal and Jeffrey Ross. While confined to within 50 yards of the premises, the guys still manage to find their share of trouble in and around the apartment building.
"The HOUSE ARREST interstitials clearly resonated with our viewers," said Lauren Corrao, svp original programming and head of development, COMEDY CENTRAL. "Apostle and Eric Brown have created a wonderful world in which these animated interstitials can exist as part of a half-hour narrative, with additional storylines from the original characters, Chico and Beanie."
Leary and Serpico will serve as executive producers with Sellitti and Brown as co-exec producers. Lou Wallach is the executive in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL.Apostle, Leary, Serpico and Sellitti are represented by the Writers and Artists Agency and the law firm of Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie & Stiffleman. Brown is represented by the William Morris Agency and Steinberg Talent Management.
Augenblick Studios produced the animation of the interstitals in Flash at 24 frames-per-second for Apostle. Animation producer Augenblick Studios (www.AugenblickStudios.com) is located in Brooklyn, New York. COMEDY CENTRAL (www.comedycentral.com), the only all-comedy network, is seen in more than 82 million homes nationwide.
