It’s been a while since we’ve talked with Thomas Lennon, best known for his work in front of the camera on Reno 911! and The State, and his work as a screenwriter with long-time writing partner Robert Ben Garant. In honor of his newest film, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, The A.V. Club sat down with the actor for…

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Previously in our oral history of Comedy Central: Comedy kingdoms united, South Park rose, and The Daily Show spoke truth to power. In this installment: Dave Chappelle conquers the world (then abdicates his throne), a visit from the Reno Sheriff’s Department, Stephen Colbert introduces the world to “truthiness,” the …

Comedic actor Thomas Lennon, best known for his work on TV shows like Reno 911!, The State, and The Odd Couple, had never actually seen a Terrence Malick film when he was asked by his agent to appear in one. In an article by Jason Guerrasio in Business Insider, Lennon shares his brief but memorable experience of…

Of all the projects involving graduates of MTV’s rowdy sketch show The State, ranging from Wet Hot American Summer to Reno 911!, perhaps none is odder than Stella, a Dadaist sitcom/sketch hybrid that ran for two wild and crazy months on Comedy Central back in the summer of 2005. Created by and starring the formidable…

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

As he recently discussed on the Nerdist podcast, Thomas Lennon and fellow The State alumni Robert Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney-Silver made a lot of failed TV pilots in the period between Viva Variety and the success of Reno 911! Now Lennon has made some of those pilots available to watch online through Nerdist,…

2014 has been a tumultuous year full of Ebola scares, random shootings, and rampant racism, sexism, and classism. And seeing as how, Santa be damned, all that might keep on happening right through this holiday season, The A.V. Club has decided to embrace our fear instead of cower behind it. Thus, our two-part 2014…

With so many new series popping up on streaming services and DVD every day, it gets harder and harder to keep up with new shows, much less the all-time classics. With TV Club 10, we point you toward the 10 episodes that best represent a TV series, classic or modern. If you watch these 10, you’ll have a better idea of…

Marc Maron has a whole series of bits in his act right now about visiting Hawaii with his girlfriend, Jessica. At one point, they take a catamaran ride with a group of people, which Maron describes as a terrifying ordeal. On catamarans, it’s not like passengers are sitting on a deck comfortably; they’re basically…

At one point during NBC’s much-publicized nadir in February, nothing on the network beat The Talking Dead—Chris Hardwick’s chat-show recap of The Walking Dead (which itself trounced shows on every network)—another humiliation for a network that’s grown accustomed to them. Lost among the eulogies for the Peacock (as TV…

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Modern Family only barely managed to get premièred before the presidential debate knocked it off the air last week, so here we are doubling up to get back on track. The first of these two episodes was so strong that I felt certain the second would be a letdown. Yet back-to-back, these two half-hours make a strong case…

As Troy McClure once said: “Spinoff! Is there any word more thrilling to the human soul?” The idea of taking a popular character from a successful show is a tried and true one in television history, either as a method to keep parts of the old show going post-cancellation or to take a breakout character and channel…

2012 has been a good year for comedy podcasts. It seemed like there were more of them than ever, and IFC optioned two of the most popular ones for television: WTF With Marc Maron and Comedy Bang Bang. Whereas WTF will be a sitcom based on Maron’s life (as a guy who records podcasts in his garage), Comedy Bang Bang is…

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, March 25. All times are Eastern.

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Jim Rash has a way with funny degenerates: As recurring Reno 911! character “Andrew, The Whore House Guy,” Rash turned up in a number of compromising positions around The Biggest Little City in the World; he can currently be seen as Community’s Dean Craig Pelton, a community-college administrator who, over the course…

There are bad movies and then there are shitty miracles. In bad movies, something goes awry: The script is convoluted or the third act is a mess or Anthony Hopkins is playing a black man for some reason. In a shitty miracle, everything goes awry. It’s not a matter of one sorry element dragging the rest down; it’s…

While much of the attention following Bridesmaids’ unexpected, massive success centered on writer-star Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy’s breakout performance, and pointless debate about the viability of female comedies, the film also provided a welcome profile boost for co-star Wendi McLendon-Covey, who played a bored…