Genre Comedy
Parody | Directed by Jeff Buchanan | |
Also known as Paid Programming: Icelandic Ultrablue
Icelandic UltraBlue Created by H. Jon Benjamin
David Cross Written by H. Jon Benjamin
David Cross Starring Christopher Cusumano
Justine D'Amour
Michael Harrah
Ray Higgs | ||
Paid Programming (also known as Paid Programming: Icelandic Ultrablue or Icelandic UltraBlue) is a television pilot for Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim. The pilot episode of Paid Programming premiered, unannounced, in the United States on November 3, 2009, and was then re-aired every Tuesday-Friday until December 4, 2009.
Contents
Paid Programming is a parody of infomercials and was created and written by H. Jon Benjamin and David Cross, and features amateur actors from Central Casting. Although the pilot was never picked up for a full series, it received a positive reception in London when screened at monthly comedy event called "Popcorn Comedy night". Adult Swim continues to periodically rebroadcast the pilot episode.
Production
Paid Programming was created by H. Jon Benjamin and David Cross, who wrote and directed the pilot episode. Paid Programming was first announced at Dragon*Con 2009 in September 2009, where it was described as an "infomercial within an infomercial"; no other information was revealed at that time. Although Benjamin and Cross make voice cameos in the pilot, the cast of Paid Programming consists mainly of "non-recognizable" amateur actors from Central Casting. The pilot does not feature any credits or production cards, and ended with a cliffhanger. In a 2010 interview David Cross mentioned it was their intent to make Paid Programming as similar to a real infomercial as possible, in order to trick unsuspecting viewers into thinking it's a real infomercial; and was upset that the project was announced at Dragon*Con. According to Benjamin and Cross, Adult Swim was only "semi-committed" to the project, and was worried that it would do poorly ratings wise. Paid Programming was not picked up as a full series, as revealed when Benjamin referred to it as an "abject failure".
Despite the pilot failing, the network greenlit more fake infomercials in 2012.
Broadcast history
Similar to the broadcast history of The Rising Son, another program on Adult Swim, the pilot episode of Paid Programming was aired in the United States on November 3, 2009 at 4:30 am (ET), unannounced and unadvertised, and was listed as "SPECIAL" on the Adult Swim schedule. After the original debut of Paid Programing, Adult Swim then re-aired the pilot every Tuesday-Friday until December 4, 2009. Adult Swim periodically re-airs the pilot episode; and posted it to their official site in 2015.
Characters
Reception
During November 2009, when the pilot was aired every morning, Adult Swim received negative feedback from viewers upset that re-runs of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, were replaced with the pilot Paid Programming. During November 2009, the Adult Swim Message boards were filled with posts from users, who were confused and unsure of what it was.
Cross showed the pilot episode to a group of about 600-700 people in London, during a monthly comedy event called "Popcorn Comedy night". To Cross's surprise, the majority of the audience laughed so hard they missed some jokes; stating "Quite often they didn’t even get the references, but they got the context, I guess".