Reno 911!

Thomas Lennon Talks A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS, RENO 911!, Karaoke, and Zac Efron

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 31st, 2011 at 8:07 pm

With director Todd-Strauss-Schulson’s A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opening this weekend, I recently got to speak with the cast and every day this week I’ll have a new interview.  Up first is Thomas Lennon.  As you might expect from Lennon, our conversation is all over the place and very funny.

During the interview, Lennon talked about how a KJ (Karaoke Jockey) saved his life in Las Vegas, how when people meet him all they want to talk about is Zac Efron, what was he able to add to A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, is Reno 911! really coming back, and what moments in the movie he couldn’t believe made it into the final release.  Hit the jump to watch.

Netflix Wants to Make New Episodes of RENO 911!

by Ethan Anderton    Posted: October 6th, 2011 at 4:31 pm

While the service is currently part of the bidding war to bring Arrested Development back for new episodes, apparently Netflix is also interested in bringing another canceled series back from the dead. Vulture is reporting that the pay service is currently talking with the show’s producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher about bringing Reno 911! back for new episodes after its cancellation in 2009. However, a deal with series co-creators and stars Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney-Silver has not been closed just yet.

One of the other hold-ups might be Comedy Central’s copyrights over the show since the cable network would have to agree to let Netflix exclusively host the new episodes initially. As of now these are just early talks, and nothing is set in stone, but the discussion actually was happening before Netflix even came into the mix on the Arrested Development front. Either way, it sounds like Netflix is becoming a serious competitor in hosting exclusive content, almost to the point of becoming their own channel. The question is whether there are enough fans of Reno 911! to make it worth their while. Personally, I’d love to see Thomas Lennon back in the shades and short-shorts.  Hit the jump for a few clips of the show.

Exclusive Details on Thomas Lennon’s New Sci-Fi Improv Show ALABAMA; Says it’s “Reno 911! Meets Battlestar Galactica”

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 8th, 2010 at 10:30 pm

A few days ago we reported FX had ordered a part-scripted/part-improvised science fiction comedy pilot called Alabama from Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, the screenwriters and creators behind Reno 911! The synopsis was:

“Set a thousand years in the future, the show follows the crew of the space ship USS Alabama as they continue a seven-year mission to maintain interplanetary peace.”

Since the idea sounded awesome, I decided to do a little more digging and managed to land an exclusive interview with Thomas Lennon. During the interview he revealed:

• They only have an order for the pilot
• Call it “Reno 911! meets Battlestar Galactica.” In their mind it’s not really a Star Trek parody
• They’re shooting the pilot either end of September-beginning of October and they want it to feel like Das Boot.
• He said he thinks Natasha Leggero will be on it and a lot of Reno 911! regulars. He also said “I wouldn’t be surprised if the series has a few people from The State.”
• There is a major also overarching plot to the entire series and there’s two twists in the series that have sort of already been designed. Also, they know how it ends no matter how long the series goes.
• “There may be some characters on the show who are puppets. There will certainly be some characters on the show who are cyborgs. So it’s just Reno 911! with a much larger buffet of problems to choose from.”
• Regarding costumes: “No one’s ever going to be in like sort of clean like Starfleet looking stuff. The show is way more like Moss Eisley Spaceport style than like Episodes 1,2, 3.”

So much more after the jump:

Exclusive: Thomas Lennon on A VERY HAROLD AND KUMAR CHRISTMAS 3D; Says There’s a Lot of Nudity Including Showering Nuns

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 5th, 2010 at 8:46 pm

If you’re a fan of the Harold and Kumar movies, you probably know Kal Penn, John Cho and the rest of the cast are currently filming the third installment, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D, in Michigan right now.  As you most likely noticed from the title, the third installment is being filming in 3D (NOT post converted) and I’m sure the filmmakers are going to offer many new and innovative ways to watch smoke being inhaled and exhaled in 3D.  As a big fan of the franchise,  I can’t wait to see it.

Anyway, I was able to get on the phone with Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!, The State, Night at the Museum) yesterday to talk about a few of the projects he working on and of course we talked about his work in Harold and Kumar.  While I knew his character was named Todd, he revealed he’s Harold’s new best friend and “the best way to describe him is he’s the anti-Kumar in every way.” He went on to say “he is a douchey, uptight white person.”  He also confirmed the movie gets released Christmas of 2011 and they’re using the double Genesis camera system for the 3D.

But the best news he told me was “there’s a tremendous amount of pot in the movie and a lot of nudity.”  When pressed for more…he told me they were filming naked nuns taking a shower yesterday.  While we all knew there would be no shortage of weed in the film, I’m very happy to hear this isn’t going to be a soft R.  For a lot more info on Harold and Kumar, hit the jump:

NBC Calls 911, Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant Answer

by Charles Mihelich    Posted: October 12th, 2009 at 9:31 pm

“Reno 911!” was a great show that never should have lasted as long as it did.  After one of the funniest first seasons in TV history, the show struggled to maintain an identity and stretched the talents of its very talented improv performers to their absolute limits.  Head writers Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, and Kerri Kenney-Silver were consistently the funniest and most enjoyable to watch, and now Lennon and Garant have teamed up to pen and star in a multi-camera comedy for NBC.  More after the jump.

RENO 911!: The Complete Sixth Season DVD Review

by Aaron Roxby    Posted: August 9th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Reno 911! is comedy TV’s old reliable. While it has never really captured the zeitgeist in the way that something like South Park or, hell, even Mind of Mencia did, for the last six years it has been chugging along, quietly producing one of the funniest and raunchiest shows on the air.

Created by former State-ers (is that the term? I prefer ‘Statesmen’) Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney and Robert Ben Garant, Reno is a completely improvised faux TV-documentary series. Sort of a cross between Cops and a Christopher Guest film, minus the former’s bleakness and the later’s earnestness.  Basically, they take a bunch of locations, add some incredibly talented comedians, film them for a few hours and then splice the footage, vignette style, over the course of the season.

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