NEW SERIES
Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT - Debut
The Spirit of the Three Stooges Alive and Well in Stella, Premiering September 20 on The Comedy Network
-- Cult heros Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain star in kooky US import -
The masterminds behind cult hits The State and Wet Hot American Summer write and star in the hot new comedy series Stella, a new-Millenium cross between the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. Starring Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain, Stella premieres Tuesday, September 20 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT exclusively on The Comedy Network. Described by The Hollywood Reporter as “the Marx Brothers on acid,” the 10-part, half-hour surreality series features special cameo appearances by Ed Norton, Alan Ruck, Topher Grace, Sam Rockwell, Paul Rudd, Tim Blake Nelson, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Charles and Janeane Garofalo.
Not a sitcom or a sketch series, Stella defies description. With absurdist narrative and unlike anything else on television, the series is an unconventional blend of clever send-ups, ridiculous situations and deadpan hijinx, satirizing everyday experiences like apartment hunting, hanging out at a coffee shop, camping and meeting women. Clad in suits à la a modern-day Marx clan, the misguided misfits encounter madcap misadventures in a surreal world.
In the season opener, the guys are evicted from their apartment by their long-suffering landlord, who turns out to be a former Nazi. Suddenly homeless, they attempt to win over a luxury building’s co-op board with a choreographed Flashdance routine. But the unit’s exorbitant price tag is an obstacle. When their old apartment is back on the market, they hit on the ingenious scheme of disguising themselves with fake mustaches and succeed in hoodwinking their landlord. When he realizes he’s been duped, he suffers a massive coronary, prompting the guys to perform impromptu open-heart surgery with a butter knife and a straw.
Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain make up the unique three-man comedy group, Stella. The Black/Showalter/Wain co-venture began in 1997 as a weekly stage show. Praised by Time Out, The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly, the show quickly became New York's premier showcase for alternative and mainstream comedy, hosting guests such as Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller and David Cross. Stella has spawned a live performance special on Comedy Central and a series of short films online at
www.stellacomedy.com <
http://www.stellacomedy.com> (on Entertainment Weekly’s Top Ten Websites of 2001).
As a comedy trio they have performed to sold-out audiences across the U.S. The three have been writing, producing and performing comedy together and apart for 16 years. They met at New York University in 1988, where they helped create the sketch comedy troupe The State which went on to a successful run on MTV (Top Ten Shows on Television according to The Wall Street Journal), a primetime special on CBS, a book - State by State with the State, several tours and a comedy album for Warner Brothers Records. Also Tj and Nick saw them in Pittsburgh with Eugene Mirman.