Talk:The State (American TV series)

History

I wrote the history of The State. They spoke recently at a retrospective for The State in San Francisco. I don't have time to add links so if someone could go through a take care of that I would appreciate it. --DjArcadian (talk) 20:33, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

twenty-something

Anyone else find the use of "twenty-something" distracting? It doesn't feel like an encyclopedic phrase 198.6.46.11 15:36, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Stella

Stella is available on iTunes, could hint towards the release of The State on iTunes. We can all wish, can't we.208.252.49.130 20:03, 10 August 2006 (UTC)badfishstan

Edits

I pulled the following text from the article on Thomas Lennon, since it was describing details that only pertained to the show, not to the actor. However, it appears that some of those details are not mentioned in this article, so perhaps they should be integrated with it. (Here, the phrase "after graduation" refers to Lennon's graduation from New York University.)

The group changed their name after graduation while working on a development deal for MTV. The 11-member group has always insisted that the name had no symbolic meaning.

MTV picked up The State as a series in 1993. Initially, the show was only signed for 6 episodes. While the reviews were negative, the ratings were extremely high, so MTV pursued the show as a series. In 1995, CBS was looking for a show to compete with NBC's Saturday Night Live. The State decided to make the jump to network television. In July 1995, Variety magazine made the announcement that The State was making the jump to CBS. After the low ratings of their Halloween special, their only show on CBS, the series was cancelled and the group disbanded.

Note that the last sentence is inaccurate, according to this article, which claims the show was never cancelled.

Vocaro 10:57, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I think the problem is this: the State, as a series, never aired on CBS. The Halloween show, although kind of like a pilot, was billed as a special. So the show was dropped by CBS, but it couldn't have been canceled, as it never even saw the light of day. Of course, this is just my logic, and I'm not sure how the Halloween show was billed or what sort of formal relationship it had to the proposed show, and I also don't know what terminology networks use (i.e., dropping a show vs. canceling it), so this is all just speculation.

Of course, the important rumor to dispel is that MTV canceled "the State on MTV." In my experience, this is (or used to be) widely believed. But, as stated in this article, the State the group decided to leave MTV for CBS. And, as this article is about "the State on MTV" the TV series, it's true that the show was never canceled.

A thought--should this article be changed to refer to the State (comedy group)? Although mainly about the TV show on MTV, the article contains quite a bit about the State in general. The State (TV show) could be redirected here, too. It would make more sense to put a TV show featuring a comedy group as a subsection of the entry on that comedy group than to put a comedy group as a subsection of the entry on the TV show for which it is best known.

72.68.33.194 13:48, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

memorable one-off sketches

My sister and I (who once sent cupcakes to MTV spelling "we love the state") particulaly remember the episodes 1) with Joey Cracker where the family ended by eating butter and 2) the Christmas Tree dance. Anybody have details on those? Efwoz1 (talk) 23:50, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Comedy Central Airings

I slightly changed the last sentence to the CBS paragraph where it said that it hasn't aired since the CBS special, and added a paragraph about the airings on Comedy Central this month. I don't have a refrence about it, but it did air. I was about 1 when it was on, so the only way I've been able to become a fan of the show is from watching the late night airings on Comedy Central. I saw it, I liked it, and I'll buy the DVD because of it. --Lsnicket (talk) 21:40, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Doug

Played by Michael Ian Black. A nonsense-spewing motivational speaker, a parody of similar anti-drug or alcohol abuse spots aired on MTV at the time). "And remember, bbbbring, bbbring... Hello, cheese? NO! Cheese can't dial a phone." Doug (see above) made his first appearances in the Capt. Monterey Jack sketches.

Appearances: 102: "Captain Monterey Jack: Lights", 103: "Captain Monterey Jack: Shoes", 106: "Captain Monterey Jack: Cheese"

Actually Doug appeared earlier in the episode. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.76.65.246 (talk) 18:55, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Veronica Mars

Could someone remove Veronica Mars from the collaborations section? Only one person from The State was on that. If we're going to list everything that at least one member of The State was on, we should probably list Ed, Aerosmith's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Memento, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Superbad. I'd fix it myself but I mucked up the code every time I tried. 71.232.25.76 (talk) 22:43, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

No? Nobody? 173.166.109.49 (talk) 20:40, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Unsourced material

Below information was tagged for needing sources long-term. Feel free to reinsert with appropriate references. DonIago (talk) 21:39, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

History

==History== The State was founded as "The New Group" by Todd Holoubek at NYU in the late 1980s when he grew dissatisfied with the structure of other local comedy groups. Holoubek attracted film and acting talent by advertising this group as one where every member had "their own window". It was a free form idea wherein the group lacked central leadership and encouraged to act as a collective. Applicants came largely from the drama and film departments on campus. As they honed their talents, members were added and dropped until they eventually ended up with the cast that is familiar today. The State began performing locally and on campus where they garnered their reputation, followed by an off-broadway run of "Molt", produced by Jonathan K. Bendis and Steven Starr. MTV offered the group a collaboration with Jon Stewart on a show called You Wrote It, You Watch It, which was followed by a six-episode commitment to The State show. After three seasons with MTV, The State began talks with ABC to air opposite Saturday Night Live, but the deal was eventually dropped. CBS then offered a series of specials with the promise that, should they be successful, the show would be picked up as a regular series. CBS initially wanted to develop the show in hopes that they would target a late-night younger audience, but controversy arose when Details magazine reported that The State's network executive allegedly made racist remarks about the late-night African American television audience; the executive was subsequently fired. The show was a ratings disaster due to an unsupportive network and lack of advertising. The CBS special marked the final new episode of The State to be aired. Members of The State remained close and went on to contribute to other projects including Viva Variety, Reno 911!, Stella, the films Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten and the podcast RISK! About half the members went on to direct films and the entire cast remains active in the entertainment industry. The entire cast regrouped for the first time in 14 years for two performances at SF Sketchfest, The San Francisco Comedy Festival, on January 24, 2009, followed with a Q&A at The Clay Theater where they screened Wet Hot American Summer. The following day they had a retrospective at Herbst Theater in San Francisco where they answered fans' questions and discussed the history of The State. Nine members of the group (minus Allison and Holoubek) reunited on the January 28, 2014 broadcast of the Comedy Central game show @midnight, which is produced by Lennon and Garant. Showalter, Kenny-Silver, and Black were contestants. Allison would later appear as a contestant in the November 16, 2015 broadcast.

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In What Year Did This Show First Air?

Every source I can find (including the Paramount+ source cited in the first footnote) indicates that the first airing of the show was in January 1994. Shouldn't this article be changed to reflect that? Is there some other, more definitive, source I might have missed that indicates a starting year of 1993? DynamoBlue (talk) 21:47, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

When I opened the source cited in the lead it showed 1993, so...I'm not sure what you're talking about? DonIago (talk) 23:34, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

I think that the first season was picked up and produced in 1993, but not aired until 1994. The Paramount+ page indicates that the first episode aired in January 1994. This agrees with David Wain's history of the State. I think the State's IMDb page reflects this as well—an unaired pilot was made in 1993, but episodes did not start airing until January 1994. I'm not sure how to best reflect this in the article, but it does seem inaccurate to say, as the article currently does, "originally broadcast on MTV from 1993 to 1995." Indeed, I think the name of the article itself should be changed (moved?) to reflect that this was a 1994 show. DynamoBlue (talk) 16:25, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Based on what I've seen in my somewhat cursory research, I wouldn't object to updating it to say 1994, since it does appear to be our convention that we go by when the series was released, not when it was produced. If there's a sourced statement to indicate that the series was being produced in 1993 then we can certainly say something to that effect while updating the statement about when the show was broadcast. Hope this helps! DonIago (talk) 20:04, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Only did a cursory search myself, but this 1995 NY Times article does mention that "Group members say that while they were writing their first batch of six episodes in the fall of 1993, MTV, which reviews every script, automatically rejected sketches that took place in offices because the youthful audience wouldn't relate and vetoed a joke about 'The Catcher in the Rye' as too esoteric." Still new here, so happy for guidance on whether this is sufficient to support changes. DynamoBlue (talk) 22:15, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Sorry for the second reply. Using the Times Machine, I was able to locate reference to the premiere in the New York Times. January 21, 1994, Section D, Page 18, in the Television Highlights section: ""THE STATE." 10 P.M. (MTV) The premiere of a half-hour series featuring a New York-based comedy troupe that satirizes popular culture, from game shows and TV commercials to dating. 280976" Unfortunately, not saved as an article to the NY Times Archive, so I can't provide a link! DynamoBlue (talk) 23:04, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

I don't think anyone's going to raise a stink if you update it to 1994. I'd recommend giving it another couple of days to see whether anyone raises a concern (you could also ask for additional opinions at WT:TV if you'd like), but if you don't hear anything, I'd say go ahead and make the change. DonIago (talk) 16:23, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Actually, pinging Tree Critter (talk · contribs), as I see they did raise a concern in an edit to the article. DonIago (talk) 16:32, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for pinging me :D! I do have an issue with making the date of this series 1994. The medium that houses the media refers to it as a 1993 show... So it's a 1993 show. Certainly it should be noted in the prose that the first tv broadcast was in 1994, but it is, for all intents and purposes, a 1993 show.😁 Tree Critter (talk) 20:41, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

I'm not saying this should settle the matter, but WP:NCTVUS seems to indicate that, at least for the purposes of article naming, the year the show debuted should be used. DonIago (talk) 12:43, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Interesting dilemma. I would guess that Paramount+ refers to it as a 1993 series because it is piggy-backing on a third-party database, perhaps even IMDb or the original TV.com reference. But if those sources are wrong, why perpetuate the inaccuracy? I was looking at how mid-seasons replacements have been handled, figuring that is a reasonable approximation of the situation here. Best example I could find was Empire (2015 TV series), which refers to the first year it aired. However, @Doniago's cite is interesting. What about referring to it as The State (American TV Series) to distinguish it from The State (British TV Series)? Kind of side-steps the issue. DynamoBlue (talk) 17:27, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Works for me. Otherwise the ambiguity can be addressed in prose. DonIago (talk) 19:09, 27 July 2022 (UTC)