Amazon Studios list six comedy pilots under production
updated 06:14 am EST, Fri December 21, 2012
Pilots from Onion, Daily Show writers under scrutiny
Amazon Studios has revealed a set of pilot shows that it will produce, in its first efforts to create exclusive video content for its streaming services. The six comedy pilots will be shown on Amazon Instant Video, with the responses of viewers helping company management decide which shows to greenlight for a full series run.
The six shows, for the most part, have been written by experienced comedy writers, such as The Onion's Will Graham and Dan Mirk creating The Onion Presents: The News, a behind-the-scenes mockumentary on the production of news programming. Acadamy Award nominee and Pulitzer-Prize winner Garry Trudeau wrote Alpha House, following senators sharing a rented house in Washington DC, while Daily Show writer David Javerbaum and 30 Rock's Don Scardino are making a musical comedy about new journalists at a news website, called Browsers. One comedy called Those Who Can't, about three juvenile teachers, has been written by three people that were discovered through an online open door process, and is the only entry that isn't created by people with previous experience in televised comedy writing.
Amazon's push for exclusive content on its streaming services has seen the company receive over 12,000 movie scripts and 2,000 series pilot scripts submitted in the last two years, with the newly-announced six pilots joining the existing 14 projects currently optioned for development. Main competitor Netflix is already working on gaining exclusive content for its own service, including House of Cards and new episodes of Arrested Development.
