Music videos, political spoofs and a bar full of UCB/SNL sidekicks get the “Above Average” treatment

Lorne Michaels has several TV productions in addition to his mainstay, his bread and butter, his original creation, Saturday Night Live30 Rock. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Up All Night. Portlandia. What’s left?

The Web.

Broadway Video, Michaels’ production company, debuted its Above Average channel on YouTube this summer. The first wave of series featured talent directly from SNL such as Bill Hader, as well as those who sometimes spend more time behind the scenes such as John Lutz (“The Front Desk”). Other webseries have included “Cool Kids’ Table,” “Belle and Bernice” (Sue Galloway and Neil Casey), “I Wanna Have Your Baby” (Christine Nangle), “Pauliu Mixtape,” “The Assistant” (Abby Elliott), “Puppet High” and “7 Minutes in Heaven” (Mike O’Brien).

Above Average’s next wave expands upon that — starting this week — not only with more original webseries starring talent from SNL and the UCB, but also growing to include music videos, election spoofs, animation and more.

 “The Sidecar,” a six-episode weekly series that debuts today, stars Bobby Moynihan as Brick the bartender for a bar full of sidekicks, with Chris Gethard (Blue Jay) and Neil Casey (Fracture) among regular sidekicks who frequent the bar. It’s like Cheers, but for people with superpowers who aren’t the superhero. John Gabrus shows up as Sloppy Hero in the first episode.

Here’s the premiere. Roll it!

Starting next Tuesday to coincide with the second presidential debate is “The Realest Candidate,” an election-based series starring Michael Che, who’ll be running a fictional campaign for president.

Upcoming is “Waco Valley,” an animated series from Landline.TV which features a dinosaur as a TV news anchor. Among other things.

And then there are music videos. Above Average’s music videos will be one-off productions featuring some of the Internet’s and comedy’s favorite musical comedians. The first music video debuted on Tuesday, with Stuckey & Murray performing A Song For The Walking Dead, featuring Lil Duval. It’s timed, obviously, to this weekend’s third-season premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC. What would Stuckey give up to watch his TV zombies? Only you can find out if you roll the clip!

Above Average bills itself as “Broadway Video’s newest venture for featuring original short form comedy, including talent and writers from favorites such as Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, The Lonely Island and the best of YouTube.”

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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