''The TV Wheel'' is a 1995

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

created by and starring

Joel Hodgson Joel Hodgson (born February 20, 1960) is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007, ''MST3K'' was liste ...

, of ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

'' fame. The pilot was funded by cable network

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, but they ultimately passed on picking up the show. The pilot episode eventually aired once on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

as a special presentation following the last new episode of ''MST3K'' to be broadcast on that network. The program is a sketch comedy show. A single stationary camera was mounted inside the center of a large rotating platform. As the platform rotated around the camera, a scene would come into view of the camera. The wheel would stop and a sketch would play out in the scene, which was often framed by some piece of appropriate artwork or prop (for the purposes of

forced perspective Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation ...

). At the end of the scene, the wheel would rotate, carrying one scene out of the camera's view and bringing another in, and a new sketch would begin in the new scene. Some scenes were self-contained on the platform, while others were open to the studio beyond the platform (and additional action would take place in the background). In early designs, the project was known as the "X-Box" (unrelated to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

's later gaming system), and was designed as an X-shaped enclosure that would rotate around the camera. Hodgson made an early test version of the program, called ''The X-Box is Turning'', which a less polished show which featured different content than ''The TV Wheel''. The test program, along with a brief documentary on the making of the Xbox, was offered for sale on VHS during Comedy Central's only broadcast of ''The TV Wheel''. A number of comedians and writers appeared on both ''The TV Wheel'' and ''The X-Box is Turning'', including

Morwenna Banks Tamsin Morwenna Banks (born 20 September 1961) is a British comedy actress, writer and producer. She appeared in the Channel 4 comedy sketch show '' Absolutely'', and wrote, produced, and appeared in the British ensemble film ''The Announcemen ...

Steve Bannos Steve Bannos (born August 5, 1960) is an American television and film actor, writer and photo dealer. As an actor, he often had cameos in Judd Apatow and Paul Feig films, and is also known for his portrayal of Frank Kowchevski on the short-lived ...

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series ''Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix sitcom ...

Paul Feig Paul Samuel Feig (; born September 17, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known for directing films starring frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy, including ''Bridesmaids'' (2011), '' The Heat'' (2013), ''Spy'' (2015) ...

Doug Benson Douglas Steven Benson (born July 2, 1962) is an American comedian, marijuana rights advocate, television host and actor, best known for hosting the podcasts and TV series ''Doug Loves Movies'' (2006-present), ''The Benson Interruption'' (2010-20 ...

, Melissa Samuels and

Fred Stoller Fred Stoller (born March 19, 1958) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and author. He is best known for portraying Gerard on ''Everybody Loves Raymond''. He is also the voice of Stanley in the ''Open Season'' series, Fred the Squirrel in ' ...

. In addition,

Brian Posehn Brian Edmund Posehn (; born July 6, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, musician, and writer. After numerous appearances as a television guest star, Posehn acquired his first major recurring role in HBO's ''Mr. Show with ...

appeared in ''X-Box'' and

Andy Kindler Andy Kindler (born October 16, 1956) is an American comedian and actor from Queens, New York. He played the character "Andy", a fellow sportswriter and friend of sportswriter "Ray Barone" (Ray Romano) on the TV show ''Everybody Loves Raymond'', w ...

appeared in ''TV Wheel''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:TV Wheel, The 1990s American television specials Television pilots not picked up as a series