''The Ricky Gervais Show'' is a comedy animated series produced for and broadcast by HBO and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

. The series is an animated version of the popular British audio

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

s and

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

s of the same name, which feature

Ricky Gervais Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office'' (2001–2003), '' Extras'' (2005–2007), and ''An Idiot Abroad'' ...

Stephen Merchant Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English comedian, actor, director, presenter and writer. Alongside Ricky Gervais, Merchant was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series ''The Office'' (2001–2003), and ...

(creators of ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original ser ...

'' and '' Extras'') along with colleague and friend

Karl Pilkington Karl Pilkington (born 23 September 1972) is an English presenter, comedian, actor, voice-artist, producer and author. After working with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as producer on their XFM radio show, Pilkington became a co-host of ' ...

, talking about various subjects behind the microphone. The TV series consists of past audio recordings of these unscripted "pointless conversations," with animation drawn in a style similar to classic era

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

cartoons,Page 2
presenting jokes and situations in a literal context. The animated ''Ricky Gervais Show'' aired 39 episodes across three seasons starting in 2010. There were some plans for a possible fourth season which would have used newly recorded audio, but this was shelved in June 2012. Series 3 of ''The Ricky Gervais Show'' premiered on 20 April 2012 on HBO, and on 8 May 2012 on E4.

History

After the first series of ''

'' was broadcast in 2001, creators

and

returned to local radio station

XFM London Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2 ...

, where they used to host their own radio show.Page 2
/ref> For this revival of ''

The Ricky Gervais Show ''The Ricky Gervais Show'' is a comedy radio show in the UK starring Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, later adapted into a podcast and a television series. Despite being named after the more famous Gervais, it mostly revol ...

'',

worked as

radio producer A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. The job title covers several different job descriptions: *Content producers or executive producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature. The content producer might organize music choi ...

, and steadily became a more and more important part of the show. After years of the three doing the radio show, in 2005, they started doing a series of free

s, and later paid

s, available to download on the Internet. The ''Show'' consistently ranked as the number one podcast in the world and previously held the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as the most downloaded podcast ever with over 300 million downloads . Discussions about the animated series began in 2008; Gervais first mentioned the project on his blog in November 2008. Earlier collaborations with HBO include the co-production of the Gervais/Merchant series '' Extras'' together with the BBC, as well as Gervais's ''Out of England''

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

special. The first preview clip of the series was shown on ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production ...

'', in November 2009. The episode "Knob at Night" was nominated for the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series. In the following list, the first titles listed in gold are the winners; those not in gold are nominees, which ...

at the

62nd Primetime Emmy Awards The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, were held on Sunday, August 29, 2010, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT (00:00 UTC; August 30). Com ...

Broadcast and distribution

Each season of ''The Ricky Gervais Show'' consists of 13 episodes. The series premiered in the United States on 19 February 2010 on HBO. The second season started on 14 January 2011. and the third on 20 April 2012. In the United Kingdom, the series premiered on 23 April 2010 on

. The first season was shown on

, with the following seasons airing on its counterpart, E4 first. Though a co-production, Channel 4 air HBO's edit rather than making their own with their own name in the credits. The first season was released on

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

2 DVD on 19 July 2010. The region 1 (North American) DVD was released on 4 January 2011. Extras on the region 1 release include a short piece of animation created for the Channel 4 Comedy Gala, and the

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

version of episode 3, "Charity", showing what the animation looks in the middle of production. The region 2 DVD contains all these, along with a number of videos where the three friends chat, as well as original HBO commercials and trailers for the show. The Series 2 DVD had initially been made available only through

Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inten ...

as a "made-to-order" DVD (meaning the disc is only produced once it is ordered). The three-disc set includes as extras storyboard versions of Episodes 8 ("Future") and 13 ("Munchies"), two of the HBO promotional interviews with Ricky Gervais, and a two-question interview of all three stars. The second series was eventually given a wide release on 25 June 2012 in the UK. The Series 3 DVD was released in April 2013. All three seasons can be purchased through

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...

in HD. In June 2012, Ricky Gervais stated on his blog that he was not sure whether there would be a fourth season, because he felt that he had used up all the good material. However, the series had not been ended for certain.

"I think the show has steadily grown in both quality and popularity and I'd love to go out on a high so to speak. My worry is that as we've used up all the best material we'd have to record hours and hours of new stuff and it might ruin the naivety of the whole thing. Never say never though, like ''The Office''. But certainly for now."

– Ricky Gervais. In July 2012, Ricky Gervais stated on Twitter that the third season of ''The Ricky Gervais Show'' would be the last:

"Bad news: Last ''Ricky Gervais Show'' tonight on E4."

References

External links

* *
''The Ricky Gervais Show'' on Gervais' website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ricky Gervais Show (TV series), The 2010s American adult animated television series 2010s American animated comedy television series 2010 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 2010s British adult animated television series 2010s British animated comedy television series 2010 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings American adult animated comedy television series American flash adult animated television series British adult animated comedy television series British flash animated television series English-language television shows HBO original programming Channel 4 comedy E4 comedy Television shows based on podcasts Television series by DHX Media Television series by Home Box Office Television series by Media Rights Capital Television series created by Ricky Gervais Television series created by Stephen Merchant

History

Broadcast and distribution

See also

References

External links