The Eric Andre Show
The Eric Andre Show is an American sketch comedy television series created and hosted by comedian Eric André. A parody of late night talk shows, it premiered on Cartoon Network's night-time programming block Adult Swim on May 20, 2012. The series was co-hosted by fellow comedian Hannibal Buress for the first 42 episodes, then by Blannibal for five episodes after Buress' departure. All episodes of the show have been directed by Kitao Sakurai and Andrew Barchilon. Gary Anthony Williams served as the announcer in the first season, being replaced by Tom Kane in the second season and Robert Smith from seasons 3 to 6.
A total of 60 episodes have aired over the course of six seasons. On December 31, 2012, The Eric Andre Show aired a 45-minute live New Year's special, titled The Eric Andre New Year's Eve Spooktacular. A second special, named Eric Andre Does Paris, aired on February 18, 2018.
The fifth season premiered on October 25, 2020. On May 18, 2022, Adult Swim announced the show had been renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on June 4, 2023.
Premise
Each episode opens on the show's main set: a standard talk-show set-up with a desk, a chair, and some decor. The show's announcer declares "Ladies and gentlemen, it's The Eric Andre Show!" and the opening song begins to play. During this time, André runs onto set and destroys the backdrop, desk, and various furnishings around him. Once the song is completed, stagehands swiftly remove the broken furniture and replace it with identical pieces. The co-host usually walks in at this time, often to weak applause from the audience. André may then perform a monologue, incorporating black comedy and surrealism. While he struggles to perform, his monologue usually turns defensive and aggressive. The show will then typically be a mix of surreal celebrity interviews and short sketches, candid camera footage, and non sequiturs, usually focused on André's absurd behavior in regular settings.At the end, a performer of some type plays over the ending credits. Ending performances are usually parodies of amateur acts common to public-access television, while other times they are real musicians playing their own songs with heavy twists, such as punk band Trash Talk playing while wearing volume-sensitive shock collars or a female opera singer performing while rapper Killer Mike serves as her hype man. Killer Mike also appeared in a later episode, performing a rap battle against rapper Action Bronson while the two were on treadmills. Mac DeMarco once played while André initiated a segment styled after Japanese game shows titled "Attack DeMarco!", in which numerous samurai began tormenting DeMarco. In one episode, comedian Rory Scovel had a cooking segment in which he increasingly got upset and destroyed his work station while rapper T-Pain sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and fired a gun in the air.
André has expressed that each season of the show is shot with a unique style in mind, intended to be thematically cohesive while remaining distinct from other seasons. Season 1 stylistically follows the series pilot which was shot without studio backing on a limited budget, using vintage Ikegami cameras and a darkly lit set built in an abandoned bodega. For all subsequent seasons the show were filmed in high-definition and featured more modern late-night comedy talk show elements, including André's appearance in a formal gray suit. For season 3, André grew out and straightened his hair in imitation of the distinctive hairstyle of comedian Katt Williams and decorated the set with tropical plants, intending to give the season an upbeat feeling to audiences. In stark contrast, season 4 took place in a darkly lit setting reminiscent of the first season, where André wore a tuxedo and professed to have avoided bathing or grooming, and lost weight during production, dubbing this season the "dystopian Eraserhead" season. This season also featured a new house band. Countering season 4, André's season 5 set included a revamping of the set with more vibrant decorations and a green screen behind the curtain where guests come out. André himself shaved all of his body hair except for his eyebrows, wore inexpensive cologne, tanned his skin and gained weight throughout. For season 6, André had his hair slicked back and tied into a ponytail.
Guest stars appear throughout the show, with a number of them being faked with impersonators or random people, including Jerry Seinfeld, Russell Brand, George Clooney, The Hulk, Beyonce, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jay-Z. From seasons 2 to 6, more actual celebrities appeared, including musicians, actors, or 1980s/1990s television stars, although other guests have appeared, including television personality Lauren Conrad, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, animation veteran John Kricfalusi, and adult film actresses Asa Akira and Mia Khalifa. The season 5 episode "Blannibal Quits" marked the final television appearance of the late actress Naya Rivera, who was pronounced dead from accidental drowning at the age of 33 on July 8, 2020.
Development
Early development
The show was partly influenced by Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a series that aired on Cartoon Network and later Adult Swim. André had said that prior to shooting the first season, he rewatched several episodes of it to "absorb as much Space Ghost as could". André also asked many questions of Adult Swim executive Mike Lazzo, the show's creator, who, according to André, had no interest in the old show. Other influences include Chris Farley's talk show host character from Saturday Night Live, "The Merv Griffin Show" episode of Seinfeld, Jiminy Glick, Tom Green, Da Ali G Show and Conan O'Brien.The look of the show, according to co-director Andrew Barchilon was intended to mimic "this iconic feeling that drove back to Letterman and back to Carson." Regarding the tone of the show, co-director Kitao Sakurai eschewed labelling the show as a spoof, saying in 2012: "I think implies that we're 100% dependent on the material that other, legitimate talk shows supply, that we're just living off of that. I think it's more of a deconstruction, an alternate reality talk show rather than a spoof. I think that the interviews that we have with real people and celebrities have their own value that goes beyond spoof".
Pilot (2009)
André described himself as being "flat broke" and "scraping by doing commercials and random stand-up," including performing as a caveman for Geico, when he produced the pilot for The Eric Andre Show, known originally as Duh Air Ache On Dre Shoe.The pilot was co-hosted with Hannibal Buress and was directed by Andrew Barchilon and Kitao Sakurai. It was filmed "over a few days" in an abandoned bodega in Brooklyn in 2009.
After filming some man on the street segments, André ran out of money and couldn't afford an editor. Knowing that it would be too difficult to explain how to edit the "slop pile of footage", André took on the task himself, spending a year learning Final Cut. The pilot was then sent to "a bunch of networks" where it was rejected on at least one occasion for "look a little cheap and public access-y". Keith Crofford of Adult Swim said in 2013 that, on seeing the pilot, making the show "was pretty much a no-brainer from there". Parts of the pilot were also shown at San Diego Comic Con 2013.
Cast
Both host Eric André and co-host Hannibal Buress play exaggerated caricatures of themselves, with André being consistently eccentric, dysfunctional, violent and psychotic, while Buress serves as a relative straight man to André's antics despite usually acting as bizarrely as he does. André consistently overacts during interviews, acts aggressively towards his crew members, diverts from the script, continuously exposes himself to everyone around him, and overall sets out to make his guests feel as uncomfortable as possible. Although just as outlandish, Buress is less of an oddity than André, and usually ends up correcting André's mistakes, shaming him on stage. Since there are only two chairs on the set, Buress ends up giving away his seat when a guest appears, awkwardly standing next to them and attempting to unnerve them from the host's behavior. The announcer has been voiced by three actors: Gary Anthony Williams during season 1, Tom Kane during season 2, and Robert Smith from seasons 3 to 6. Other than the introduction, they typically announce only during one-off game segments on the show.In season 5, the show's status quo changes significantly, with Hannibal quitting half-way into the second episode and being replaced with a mutant clone named "Blannibal" made from Hannibal's nose-hair. Blannibal himself also quits in the middle of the season, leaving Eric without a recurring co-host.
The house band is also notable for regular participation in the show. The initial house band was on the show from season 1 to season 3, and consisted of Tom Ato as the guitarist, Early McCalister as the saxophonist, Pfelton Sutton as the drummer, Jerry Wheeler as the trombonist, and Adora Dei as the keyboardist. The bassist changed frequently, being portrayed by Karen Elaine in season 1, JV Smith in season 2, and RJ Farrington in season 3. This entire band was replaced at the start of season 4 with a group of elderly men, including Don Peake as the guitarist, Emilio Palame as the keyboardist, Harold Cannon as the singer, Oscar Rospide as the bassist, and Tony Katsaras as the drummer. Semere-Ab Etmet Yohannes has also portrayed Russell Brand in several episodes. John Bueno, Jermaine Fowler, Roy Subida, Pat Regan, Vanessa Burns, Byron Bowers, and Buddy Daniels Friedman have all made recurring appearances as crew members throughout various seasons. In season 5, the band is replaced with an all-Japanese crew with the members being Sumiyo Iwasawa as the maraca and recorder player, Masatoshi Nishimura as a guitarist and vocalist, Jiro Okabe as the bassist, Ryo Okumoto as the keyboardist, Takashi "Chi" Saito as the drummer, and Rayko as the vocalist.