Alyson Hannigan’s New Sitcom : AMERICANA !!

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Alyson Hannigan's New Sitcom : AMERICANA !!


Moonshine Looks At Alyson Hannigan's New Sitcom, AMERICANA!!

I am - Hercules!!

Alyson Hannigan, the girl who made Harry Knowles fall in love with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," recently signed a series deal with NBC, which quickly paired her up with a couple of "Sports Night" writers for a sitcom. Sounds like it might be okay, yes? (Well, except for the "NBC" part, of course.)

Coaxial spy "Moonshine" attended the pilot taping:

Hiya Herc,

I'm sure the talk-backers are going to scream "Get over it!" and "Move on!" to this one, but in my house (as I'm sure it is in yours) it's a time of great mourning. The Buffyverse, it seems, is sputtering out. Buffy's long gone. Barring a miracle, Angel's taking his bow too. And though it's only connected in a guilty by association (or, in my mind, kindred in spirit) way, Wonderfalls is toast now too. Which just sucks. And, I'm sorry Eliza, but Tru Calling just doesn't cut it.

So, what's a Buffy fan in misery to do? Well, Alyson Hannigan's got a new sitcom in the pipeline, and as far as I'm concerned, Aly rules. I'd love to see her on my TV screen doing just about anything. So when I found out I could score a slot in the audience for the filming of her new pilot, I jumped at the chance. And, believe me, that's not a small task, Herc. For those who don't know, sitcom tapings are torture. Imagine spending anywhere from 3 to 6 hours watching them do the same jokes over and over (including the time standing in line beforehand, this one ran to the 6 hour mark). If you're me, you'll invariably be stuck next to the most obnoxious audience member available. Someone who weighs about 350 pounds and will scream and bounce in her seat for the entire six hours as if she's a Price Is Right audience member desperate for her moment in the spotlight when the camera pans the audience before commercials.

Well, I endured this torture, and although it was exhausting, it wasn't entirely awful. I don't watch many sitcoms because so few of them offer any surprises. On the downside, Aly's show, which had been previously dubbed "Untitled Tarses Wrubel Pilot" up until the day of shooting and suddenly grew a new title of "Americana" on taping day, pretty much lived up to that standard sitcom model. If this show makes it onto NBC's fall schedule, don't expect anything remotely groundbreaking or new. The show was written by Bill Wrubel and Matt Tarses, who were both involved with Sports Night, so that's a plus. And the show wasn't really all that bad. I hesitate to critique the episode I saw taped because it's a pilot, one that hasn't been audience researched to death or even picked up yet. Who knows if it'll ever make it to the air, even if it is picked up? But here's the basic set-up. Alyson plays Andy, a lonely workaholic, who works at Americana Home and Hardware (think Restoration Hardware), a company that sells old-looking crap to people who want their homes to look like a Martha Stewart wet dream (pre-conviction, that is...I imagine Martha's dreams are pretty dry these days). Andy's recently had sex with her hunky boss, played by Coupling's Colin Ferguson, and has confused that with love. Colin, of course, plays the token horny cad, who will invariably let our heroine down. Most of the action takes place at the Americana store that Andy works at, so we have a supporting cast of co-workers. We've got Andy's assistant, a high strung nerdy chick who blurts out inappropriate confessions whenever she's stressed, which is just about always; an equally geeky shipping and receiving dude, who thinks Andy's business acumen rules, and who's completely oblivious to the fact that Andy's nerdy assistant is head over heels in love with him; and Americana's founder, a J. Peterman-esque billionaire "adventurer" who jets off to Canada to hunt caribou, but ends up drinking fine wines instead.

But the meat of the story isn't really Americana or the supporting cast of co-workers. The primary co-star of this series is Michael Landes, who plays Andy's estranged brother, a ne'er do well who runs up gambling debts and only shows up on Andy's doorstep when he needs something. Since this is a sitcom in which this character needs to stick around, he's not the total prick his character set-up would generally lead you to expect. In the end, he'll come around, help Andy save the day, and they'll end up buddies.

Oh, and there's a dog. And a snarky, "husky" teen neighbor boy who's in love with Andy. I liked the dog, and the kid got some of the best punchlines in the pilot. But both are devices that could obviously wear thin very quickly. And for the trivia-minded, I'll mention the fact that David Schwimmer directed the pilot.

All in all, I guess I'm hoping that NBC will give this a shot. I think Aly should be a ridiculously famous star, so it'd be cool if they gave her the post-Joey slot on Thursdays. Give this girl a chance to shine. I'll never sit in the audience for one of her show tapings again (masochism isn't my thing), but I€™d probably tune in once a week to see her. And that's what NBC wants, isn't it?

Hell, if NBC doesn't want her, I say bring on Joss Whedon and the Willow spin-off. Yeah, I know, let's all say it together..."get over it!"


Source
 
Willow spinoff would be better.

Anyway, sounds run of the mill. I wish they would make this brother a recurring thus being able to make real friction, as insults are funnier then working together and being happy and smily.

Think I still have change to play the ?husky teen neighbor boy", I mean you never know what could happen to the current actor 😉


(I'm just kidding and you know)
 
Sure I'd love to see Willow spinoff but can't wait to see 'Americana'.AH is great in everything and if it's what she wants then I support her decision🙂
 
I'd rather have a Willow spinoff. But I'll watch her new show anyway 🙂
 
I agree, I think that they should have a will. spin off. But I'll follow her any were she may go. Wait! How can I say that... I haven't even seen american pie 1, 2, or wedding!!! Tsk Tsk. I should coware in a corner in the fetal possesion.
 
Alyson Gets New Brother in NBC Pilot


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - With the bulk of pilots for next year having finished casting, a few projects will now get to the business of re-casting -- or, as it's known in showbiz, "going in another direction." NBC's comedy pilot starring "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" Alyson Hannigan is one such project. The show, known in pilot-season parlance as the Untitled Tarses/Wrubel Project, has dropped Eric Christian Olsen ("Dumb and Dumberer") as the male lead in favor of Michael Landes ("Special Unit 2"), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The show revolves around Andrea (Hannigan), an ex-nerd with a carefully, if rather artificially, constructed life that revolves around her job at a Restoration Hardware-type retailer. Her brother, Ben (Landes), disrupts that life when he brings his anti-authority worldview to his new job at the same company.

Landes starred in the supernatural cop show "Special Unit 2," which aired on UPN in 2001-02. He played Jimmy Olsen in the first season of "Lois & Clark" and starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom "Union Square." Another NBC comedy, "D.O.T.S.," has also undergone some recasting. Khary Payton ("Teen Titans") has replaced Chester Gregory in the pilot, which is about parking-enforcement cops. (The acronym stands for Department of Transportation Services.)


Source:Zap2It

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Michael Landes
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Source:No Angel
 
Alyson Hannigan's New Sitcom : "Americana" - Review

From Atnzone.com:

On Friday, April 2, 2004, I went to see the taping of a new NBC sitcom called "Americana," starring Alyson Hannigan ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "American Pie,") and Michael Landes ("Lois and Clark," "Special Unit Two.") The episode was directed by David Schwimmer ("Friends") and was filmed at CBS in Studio City.

The show is set in Boston. Andrea (Alyson Hannigan) is a vice president in a company that sells high end hardware and reproductions of Americana. The standing set has Andrea's apartment on the left, and the office of Americana Home and Hardware on the right, with an outdoor set in the middle. It's a gorgeous set, with lots of funky antiques; it was designed by the same guy who did the "Friends" set. The items they sell in the Americana catalog were a standing joke throughout the pilot, and one item was a major prop for the biggest scene.

The core of the story is Andrea's relationship with her brother, Ben (Michael Landes). Supporting characters are her boss, David (Colin Fergusson); the wacky billionaire who owns Americana Home and Hardware (Scott Cullen); Maggie and Greg, who work in the office; and a teenager named Kevin who has a crush on Andrea and walks her big, funky looking dog.

The basic plot went as follows:

1. Andrea tells Maggie that she and her boss David got drunk and slept together the night before. We're introduced to David, and we can tell immediately that it meant more to Andrea than it did to him.

2. That evening, in Andrea's apartment, her estranged brother Ben shows up with a fake fiance and tries to scam Andrea out of their grandmother's engagement ring.

3. The next day, Andrea finds Ben sacked out in her office and they argue, mostly outside while on a seesaw together.

4. Ben does a flip analysis of a penknife for the Americana catalog and manages to scam a job offer out of David.

5. That evening, Andrea and Ben argue about the job offer. It is revealed that Ben is addicted to gambling and owes someone a lot of money, but Ben, something of a free spirit, instead accuses Andrea of "selling out."

6. The wacky billionaire who owns the company shows up at the office for a big presentation, and Andrea discovers that David has just become engaged to the billionaire's daughter. Andrea loses her temper and almost blows the presentation. Ben comforts and inspires her, and she impresses billionaire boss instead of losing her job.

7. The estranged siblings make up, and Ben decides to stick around.

What I liked the most were Andrea's monologues. The show began with Andrea talking to an empty chair; she had gotten drunk and slept with her boss David the night before, and she was rehearsing what she was going to say to him. She does these monologues throughout, and they're very cute. Alyson Hannigan is a professional; she did each take with exactly the same emphasis, hitting all of her lines perfectly -- she only blew them once.

THE "LIVE AUDIENCE"

This episode was directed by an informal-looking David Schwimmer, which was a thrill for me because "Friends" is the only sitcom I watch on a regular basis. There were about a hundred people milling around on the set, and it was hard to tell what any of them were actually doing. We were told they would run through each scene twice, but in fact they did most of them three times. There were fairly long breaks and discussion in between, and a lot of "huddles" where the director, the actors, and others were talking about stuff that we couldn't hear. The scenes were shot in order so that the audience could follow the plot.

The CBS web site says to arrive at least ninety minutes early, but most of the audience was already there by that time, and I almost didn't get a seat. As luck would have it, I was in line with another Buffy fan that I'd seen at the Wolfram & Hart party -- Heather the vampire. (Hi, Heather!)

The taping lasted over four hours. This was on top of the two hours we spent in line waiting, and being herded through the CBS lot by pages. Going to a taping is like being stuck in a plane on a runway while the tower keeps telling you that it won't be much longer. The studio was freezing cold (take your parka and your mittens), and by the time they got to the curtain call, my knees were locked in position.

The audience babysitter was a guy named Jim, who entertained us between takes, answered our questions, and tried valiantly to keep us enthused. A disc jockey in the back played loud music and sound effects to back Jim up. As time dragged on, the audience got bored and restless, and Jim actually threw us candy and tee shirts. I don't know what they pay these guys, but whatever it is, it isn't enough.

One thing that surprised me was that during second or third take, the actors would do a different, and often much funnier, line. It certainly makes sense, because the new line always got a bigger laugh from the increasingly numb studio audience.

WRAP-UP

This pilot hasn't been sold yet; it will be shown to the brass. It's uncertain whether or not it will be on NBC's fall schedule.

I'm not much of a sitcom person, but I thought "Americana" was pretty much par for the course. It was funny and fairly well written, with the standard laughs and double-entendres, but it wasn't innovative or surprising. What it does have is Alyson Hannigan. She is an outstanding actress, with an extremely expressive face and winning manner. If the show catches on, it will be because of Hannigan; she's the star. I was also very impressed by Michael Landes as well; he and Hannigan have good acting chemistry. It's almost too bad they're playing brother and sister.
 
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