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Ricky Gervais, the witty Brit to whom we’re eternally in debt for giving us the gift of The Office, is going animated. On Feb. 19, HBO will premiere the first of 13 half-hour episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show, a radio-show-turned-podcast-turned-cartoon.
The Ricky Gervais Show’s first incarnation began across the pond in 2001 as an XFM radio show, featuring Gervais and creative partner Stephen Merchant. In 2005, the show entered the podcast realm and really took off, also acquiring its third member, Karl Pilkington. Featuring back and forth banter between the trio, the show gained such numbers (more than 8 million downloads) that it got a nod from the 2006 Guiness Book of World Records for being the most popular podcast on the Internet.
Now the show plans to conquer yet another medium with its TV debut this year. Essentially, the show consists of audio from the lauded podcasts coupled with animated characters (namely of the three hosts) appearing in different settings or acting out situations.
“Karl [Pilkington] is a bottomless well of stupidity, so unlike my other shows, The Office and Extras, which I stopped prematurely through fear of going stale and running out of ideas, I want this to run and run like The Simpsons,” Gervais told The Guardian. “The world has a new Homer, but this one is real.”
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To clarify, the Ricky Gervais Radio Show in 2001 featured Karl as the producer and he very quickly became the focus of the show.
the article reads like they picked up karl closer to 2005 specifically for the podcasts.
this is not the case. the whole thing was a glorious accident and if you listen to the original radio broadcasts they win little, to no awards and are not taken seriously by the station and can't believe they get away with a 'shoddy' show. Now it has progressed from Radio Show to Podcast to TV show.
A long satisfying journey for those that have followed from close to the beggining
You know I kind of liked this idea better a few years ago when it started on Spill.com.
http://www.spill.com/
Sounds very familiar to something that has already been created. They been doing this for year over at Spill. Thats Spill.com by the way whom been doing this type of animation for years.
Sam is correct re. Karl Pilkington. If reporters would just do a minimum of research, please! In this example Ricky and Stephen did not just 'acquire' Karl in 2005 for the podcasts and everything else spewing forth since. The Xfm shows are a worldwide cult classic featuring Karl more and more as each successive series evolved. RG and Smerch realized they had a treasure trove in Karl so they wound him up and let him go...and we're all the better for it.
I can't wait. The sad thing is only a few people will know that Karl is real. They'll think the material was written for the show if they've not listened to the podcasts. I hope we get a little Rockbusters...., eh, Ricky?