The State DVD

[meatwad]

According to their website, they are working with MTV to put out DVD's of all thier episodes, with commentaries and tons of features. Fuck Yeah!

[Ravi]

Weren't Kerry Kenney and a few other Reno 911! cast members in this show?

[meatwad]

yes. Tom Lennon, Kerri Kenney and Ben Garant were all on The State, and they are now on Reno 911. Kerri Kenney and Tom Lennon were also on Viva Variety, which had a short run on comedy central.

[Sleuth]

Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain went to form the hilarious comedy group Stella

www.stellacomedy.com

[meatwad]

tremolosloth knows what's up

[Rudie Obias]

According to their website, they are working with MTV to put out DVD's of all thier episodes, with commentaries and tons of features. Fuck Yeah!

fuck yeah is right!!!  micheal ian black is my personal lord and savior!!!  this summer my friends and i are having a WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER bbq.  with hot house corn cuz what are you supposed to do at the bbq if you're vegan.

[Sleuth]

by the way, news is that most of the "red tape" has been settled, and some DVDs will shortly be on the way

[meatwad]

Stella is on a small little tour. They played the Knitting Factory LA recently, and here is a link to some photos from the show.



http://www.livejournal.com/community/stellacomedy/41083.html#cutid1

at least we know there is no bad blood between all the members

[Sleuth]

I saw those before, is that you?

[meatwad]

I saw those before, is that you?

nope. god i wish though. I could not even get tickets to the New York Show. A year ago i got tickets the day of the show at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, now they are the biggest thing in New York. They sell out shows here in a matter of minutes.

[sciphex]

I loves me some commentary...  

[Rudie Obias]

where can i find a copy of the stella shorts dvd?

[Sleuth]

where can i find a copy of the stella shorts dvd?

www.sketchartists.net

which is linked from www.stellacomedy.com which I linked up there when Meatwad and I had a nice chat.  The DVD doesn't have all the sketches that are on the site, it's missing about 4 or 5, but at least you'll get it in fullscreen with commentary.  It's definitely worth the 20 or 25 that I got it for (I say this because teenangst.com used to sell it for 40)

[meatwad]

'Reno 911!' Flick Reunites Kooky Comedy Troupe The State


(from mtv.com)

MARINA DEL REY, California — Maybe you're a fan of the long-running cop comedy "Reno 911!," or maybe you have fond memories of quirky television shows "Stella" and "Viva Variety." Perhaps you've laughed at indie flicks like "Wet Hot American Summer" or "The Baxter" or faintly recognized a scene-stealing actor in blockbusters like "Herbie: Fully Loaded," "Hitch" or "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." Even if you've only heard vague mentions of an influential "Saturday Night Live"-type sketch show that aired more than a decade ago, you may still want to dip into this groundbreaking news: The State comedy troupe has reunited.

"For the kids who haven't seen it, we were a very early show on MTV called 'The State' that ran from 1993 to 1995," Thomas Lennon, wearing the trademark short shorts of Lieutenant Dangle, said this week on the set of the upcoming feature film "Reno 911!: Miami." "We were between 'Aeon Flux' and 'Beavis and Butt-Head' "

"There have been petitions, and we get stopped daily, with people asking, 'Why isn't "The State" released and why can't I get "The State"?' " added Kerri Kenney, now better known as backward-thinking Reno Deputy Trudy Weigel.

Standing with fellow troupe veteran Ben Garant (a.k.a. Deputy Junior), the comedians revealed that they recently filmed a scene for the "Reno" movie that reunited all 11 State members for the first time since their show went off the air. "They're all in the movie," beamed Garant, serving triple duty as "Miami" star, co-writer and director. "They all came, and all 11 of us were together."

"It was incredible," co-writer Kenney chimed in. "It's gonna be fun for sketch fans, I think, to see all the State members again."

The scene, which takes place in a tattoo parlor where "Reno" Deputy Clementine is immortalizing another of her patented one-night stands, was filmed earlier this month. "The scale is pretty big," co-writer Lennon said of that and other scenes. "The plot is simple, however — your dog at home can follow it. We carefully crafted the plot so that humans and/or dogs and birds will understand what's happening. It ain't real complicated."

What was complicated was reuniting the in-demand members of the troupe, which also includes "Crank Yankers" voice Michael Ian Black and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" director Michael Patrick Jann. After capturing the attention of the pop-culture world (while most were still in their 20s) with kooky sketch characters including sexually ambiguous swingers Barry and Levon, and Louie — the affable fellow who insists on dipping actual balls into things he's excited about — the group members went their separate ways. According to Lennon, the 11 members hadn't been in the same room (either on- or off-camera) since the show went off the air.

The three "Reno" stars said members of the State are well aware, and appreciative, of petitions by the show's long-suffering fans to finally have the episodes released on DVD. Offering them some hope, Lennon said, "There is a rumor that MTV will be releasing 'The State' on iTunes, and maybe if I mention that now, it'll help move it along.

" 'The State' always exists," Lennon continued, dropping a bombshell. "There'll probably be, at some point, some other version of the State doing some kind of live show."

With Kenney and Garant nodding their heads in agreement, Lennon said a reunion would involve some sort of a tour. "The Kids in the Hall are together and about to go on tour," he said, invoking the name of a groundbreaking comedy troupe with which his is often compared.

"It's more about schedule than anything, whether we can get everybody together," Kenney added.

"They're all really, really funny guys," Garant said. "And the more we work with other people, the more we appreciate how funny they are."

Asked about other upcoming plans, Kenney deadpanned, "I'm probably going to take a bath." Looking her longtime and possibly future collaborators up and down, she added: "Separately."

[MacGuffin]

The State to be Released Soon on DVD?
Source: Superhero Hype!

At their San Diego Comic-Con panel and in an interview with ComingSoon.net for their upcoming Rogue Pictures comedy Balls of Fury, actors/writers Thomas Lennon and Ben Garrant, best known for their Comedy Central show "Reno 911," revealed that the long-awaited DVD collection of their sketch comedy show "The State" would finally be released in some form later this year. "The State," which starred Lennon and Garrant's previous comedy troupe of the same name, aired on MTV from 1993 to 1995, but never has been re-released in any form.

"'The State' at long last actually is coming out either on DVD or iTunes," Lennon told us.

"They just rescored and we're all doing ADR," Garrant continued.

"The thing that was preventing it was the music clearances," Lennon explained, "because at the time, MTV had a deal that anything with a video you could just use. No longer the deal."

"All our sketches that were built around a Breeders or a Lenny Kravitz song, which was a lot of them," said Garrant, "so we had to rescore everything, but finally, MTV put up the money to rescore it, and I guess it's coming out."

"It's coming out sometime this year, I bet," Lennon concluded.