Amazon announces premieres for Alpha House and Betas; rest of Greek alphabet presumably to follow

By Mike Vago  |  November 5, 2013 | 6:50pm
Aux Features TV

After months of preliminaries and a bunch of pilots, Amazon is finally ready to launch its first forays into original programming, with its first two comedy series, Alpha House and Betas. Premiering on November 15, Alpha House follows the lives of four U.S. Senators, led by John Goodman, who share a house in Washington D.C. The show comes from Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, who has put his long-running comic strip on hold to write the series. The show also starts Cynthia Nixon, Amy Sedaris, and Wanda Sykes.

Appropriately second, Betas, premiers November 22. It's also about four friends navigating a center of power—this time in Silicon Valley, where they try to create a new social networking app, and presumably laughs follow. Unlike competitor Netflix, which has released entire seasons of its original shows at once, Amazon will release three episodes of each show on its premiere date, followed by one per week for the remainder of the season.

Amazon has even more original series in the works beyond these, no doubt eventually planning to fill out its slate of Greek letter-themed shows with 10 Things I Hate About Nu, Rho Better Blues, and Lamda Lamda Lamda, a gritty reimagining of Revenge Of The Nerds.

 
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