''Comics Unleashed'' is a half-hour

comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

produced by the

Entertainment Studios Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and d ...

production company (formerly CF Entertainment) and hosted by

Byron Allen Byron Allen Folks (born April 22, 1961) is the founder of the U.S. entertainment company Entertainment Studios which includes The Weather Channel. He is also a television producer, philanthropist, and comedian in his younger years. Notable sh ...

, with John Cramer as announcer and

DJ Cobra Andrew Bagg (born June 8, 1981), better known by his stage name DJ Cobra, is an open format deejay. Early life and career DJ Cobra's career was launched while attending the University of Arizona. DJ Cobra started cold-calling Record Labels an ...

or sometimes DJ A1 providing music support.

Format

Each episode begins with Allen delivering a short, usually topical monologue, after which he introduces the night's DJ and the panel of four comedians. Allen sets each comedian up with a prescribed, usually generic premise, at which point the comedian delivers a

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

from their stand-up routine. The monologues by different comedians seldom tie into each other, but the structure of the show puts the monologues in the loose framework of a

panel discussion A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows. Panels usually include a ...

. Several episodes of the series featured an all-black cast, in which case the show was branded as ''Comics Unleashed: Hot Chocolate''. This branding was later edited out.

Broadcast history

First-run weekly episodes were originally produced from 2006–07, with repeats still airing in some markets, generally in the very late-night to overnight hours under bulk barter arrangements made for the various series of Entertainment Studios. Repeats of the series continue to air with the copyright notice for the series and the year of production being removed, meaning the only reference that the show was produced a decade earlier is referencing stories and

punch line A punch line (a. k. a. punch-line or punchline) concludes a joke; it is intended to make people laugh. It is the third and final part of the typical joke structure. It follows the introductory framing of the joke and the narrative which sets up ...

s made in each episode. For instance, a reference to a certain brand and model of dishwasher being recalled that year. Back-to-back episodes also aired in

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

before it became a programming service. New episodes were produced and added into the rotation in 2014. Reruns of the series can also be found on Byron's Comedy.TV channel, and its free counterpart on

Local Now Local Now (stylized as "local now") is an American over-the-top internet television service owned by The Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Entertainment Studios. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now primarily provides a cyclic playlist o ...

References

External links

Comics Unleashed official site
* 2000s American comedy television series 2006 American television series debuts 2000s American television talk shows English-language television shows First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television series by Entertainment Studios {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub