''The Comedians'' is an American comedy television series starring

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

and

Josh Gad Joshua Ilan Gad (born February 23, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for voicing Olaf in the '' Frozen'' franchise, playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical '' The Book of Mormon'', and playing Le Fou in the live-action ada ...

as fictional versions of themselves. A 13-episode first season was ordered by FX, and premiered on April 9, 2015. The series was developed by

Larry Charles Larry Charles (born ) is an American comedian, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom '' Seinfeld'' for its first five seasons. He has also directed the documentary film ''Religulous'' and the mockumen ...

, Billy Crystal,

Matt Nix Matthew E. Nix (born September 4, 1971) is an American writer, producer, and director. He is best known for creating the USA Network television series ''Burn Notice'', the Fox series '' The Good Guys'', and more recently the Fox series '' The G ...

, and Ben Wexler. On July 23, 2015, the series was cancelled after one season. Because of the merge between

Fox Television Studios The second incarnation of Touchstone Television (formerly known as Fox 21 Television Studios) was an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks' Walt Disney Television owned by The Walt Disney Company. It ...

and Fox 21, ''The Comedians'' was the first production by

Fox 21 Television Studios The second incarnation of Touchstone Television (formerly known as Fox 21 Television Studios) was an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks' Walt Disney Television owned by The Walt Disney Company. It ...

. It is an adaptation of the Swedish SVT series ''Ulveson och Herngren''.

Cast

as Billy, a superstar veteran comedian *

as Josh, a younger, edgier comic *

Matt Oberg Matthew French Oberg (born August 12, 1976, in Larchmont, New York) is an American actor and comedian. He is primarily known for his roles in television series such as ''The Real O'Neals'' and '' Ugly Americans'' and ''Hart of Dixie ''Hart ...

as Mitch, the head writer of Billy and Josh's sketch show *

Stephnie Weir Stephnie Carmel Weir (born November 28, 1967) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for being a main cast member and writer on the Fox sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV'' from 2000 to 2005, for which she got two ...

as Kristen, an anxiety-ridden producer *

Megan Ferguson Megan Ferguson is an American actress. In 2011, Ferguson married fellow actor Nico Evers-Swindell Nico Thomas Evers-Swindell is a New Zealand actor who portrayed Prince William in the 2011 Lifetime original film '' William & Kate''. Previous r ...

as Esme, a PA on the show *

Dana Delany Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American actress. After appearing in small roles early in her career, Delany received her breakthrough role as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television drama '' China Beach'' (1988–1991), for whic ...

as Julie, Billy's wife

Guest Stars

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...

as Himself *

Rob Reiner Robert Norman Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitcom ''All in the Family'' (1971–1979), a performan ...

as Himself *

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...

as Himself *

Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professional ...

as Himself *

Robert Lopez Robert Lopez (born February 23, 1975) is an American songwriter for musicals, best known for co-creating ''The Book of Mormon'' and ''Avenue Q'', and for co-writing the songs featured in the Disney computer-animated films '' Frozen'', its seque ...

as Himself *

Kristen Anderson-Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez (born March 21, 1972) is an American songwriter and lyricist known for co-writing the songs for the 2013 computer-animated musical film '' Frozen'' and its 2019 sequel '' Frozen II'' with her husband Robert Lopez. The coup ...

as Herself *

Steven Weber Steven Robert Weber (born March 4, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Brian Hackett on the television series ''Wings'' which aired from April 1990 to May 1997 on NBC, as Sam Blue in '' Once and Again'', and ...

as Jamie Dobbs * Rick Glassman as Clifford

Episodes

Reception

''The Comedians'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has a rating of 58%, based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though ''The Comedians material doesn't break any TV molds, the stars' comic abilities push the show over the median with well-earned laughs." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the series has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Comedians, The 2010s American late-night television series 2010s American sketch comedy television series 2015 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings American mockumentary television series English-language television shows Cultural depictions of comedians Cultural depictions of actors FX Networks original programming Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series about television