 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Owner | Jon Stewart |
Busboy Productions is a production company that was launched by Jon Stewart in the mid-1990s when he was known for hosting The Jon Stewart Show on MTV. In addition to Stewart, executive Chris McShane is in charge of development and production. [1]
The name of the company is a reference to how Stewart worked as a busboy in a Mexican restaurant as a young man. The company's vanity card features the sound of a glass being knocked over followed by Jon Stewart whispering "Oops. Sorry."
Shortly after The Jon Stewart Show was canceled, Stewart signed a production deal with Miramax to star in at least two films per year and develop his own projects. However, Stewart starred in only three films for Miramax and no projects were ever produced.
After Stewart's success as host and producer of The Daily Show , Busboy Productions was revived. In 2002, Stewart approached NBC to create a show in which Stephen Colbert would star. That show never got off the ground. [2]
In 2005, Busboy Productions reached an agreement with Comedy Central to finance the production company. Comedy Central has a first-look agreement of any project. If Comedy Central passes on a project, Busboy is free to shop them to other networks. [1] [3] More recently, Busboy and Apple received a first look deal. [4]
Busboy's first television production was The Colbert Report, produced by Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Ben Karlin, and subject to a distribution agreement between Busboy Productions and Comedy Central, which made certain that "the Report" would run through 2007. The Colbert Report was produced in association with Stephen Colbert's Spartina Productions.
Jon Stewart joked in an interview with E!, when asked if he would appear on the Report, that he "doesn't do start-ups" and would wait until the show set into a deeper footing. He has since made several appearances.
Colbert's response was that "His shadow is dark enough. I don't want to ask the source of darkness for help. I'm not interested in that same liberal claptrap. That meow, meow, meow, ironic detachment. We're going to deal with truth on my show." [5]
While The Colbert Report is Busboy Production's first successful television show, the notice "Copyright (c) 2004 by Busboy Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved" appeared at the bottom of the "Shadow Government" poster included in The Daily Show's America (The Book) .
Busboy Productions also launched Important Things with Demetri Martin , a comedy show starring Demetri Martin, in which he "alternates between taped sketches and stand-up performances in front of a studio audience". Jon Stewart took an active role in "shepherding" the pilot. Reuters reports:
Lauren Corrao, executive vp original programming and development at Comedy Central, noted that Martin's style of humor is nothing like the sketch shows the network has previously tried. The pilot puts Martin's sly, thoughtful manner to use by having all the segments riff on "the important things" about ... chairs. Future episodes will give the same treatment to everything from apples to "what happens after we die," she said. [6]
The Naturalized is a documentary film about immigrants from different countries seeking citizenship. It aired on History December 14, 2010.[ citation needed ]
Official title: "O'Reilly v Stewart 2012: The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium."
On October 6, 2012, Stewart and Bill O'Reilly met at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University for a debate that was not broadcast on television but live-streamed. The promotion tagline was "It's why Al Gore invented the Internet." [7] The show was marked by technical difficulties—many people were unable to access the live-stream—but was touted for being substantive. [8] [9] The event was a joint venture between Busboy and O'Reilly's Straight Talk. [10] Web services were provided by Nox Solutions.
Sportsfan is a documentary film which follows a group of Minnesota Vikings fans throughout the football season. It aired on SpikeTV in 2006.
Three Strikes was the first scripted comedy pilot under Comedy Central's first look deal with Busboy. [11] While a pilot episode was filmed, the series was not picked up by Comedy Central.
The project was a character-based comedy set in the world of minor league baseball. It was written by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, whose credits include King of the Hill , Frasier , The Larry Sanders Show and the Late Show with David Letterman .
Rosewater is an American drama film written and directed by Stewart, based on the memoir Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy.
On May 9, 2014, it was announced that Larry Wilmore from The Daily Show was selected to host a late-night talk show on Comedy Central, to replace The Colbert Report following Stephen Colbert's departure from the network to host Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. [12] [13] The show is titled The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and is produced by Busboy Productions. [14] It premiered on January 19, 2015, and ran Mondays through Thursdays at 11:30 PM (EST) following The Daily Show until its cancellation on August 18, 2016.
The Problem with Jon Stewart is a late night-style current affairs streaming television series hosted by Stewart on Apple TV+. Each episode is accompanied by a companion podcast (also produced by Busboy Productions) which includes further discussion on the episode's topic, featuring Stewart, his staff, and guests from the episode.
The Daily Show (TDS) is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+ of extended episodes. The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories as well as political figures, media organizations, and often uses self-referential humor.
Comedy Central is an American adult-oriented basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel carries comedy programming in the form of both original, licensed, and syndicated series, stand-up comedy specials, and feature films. It is available to approximately 86.73 million households in the United States as of September 2018.
Jon Stewart is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host. He hosted The Daily Show, a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and hosted The Problem with Jon Stewart (2021–2023) on Apple TV+. His numerous accolades include 22 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2022.
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since September 2015.
The Colbert Report is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focused on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits. Furthermore, the show satirized conservative personality-driven political talk programs, particularly Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor. The Colbert Report is a spin-off of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, where Colbert was a correspondent from 1997 to 2005.
Ben Karlin is an American television producer and writer. He has won eight Emmy awards, and is best known for his work in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. He is one of three co-creators of The Colbert Report along with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Karlin left Comedy Central in December 2006. He has also been a writer for TV show Modern Family.
Elister Larry Wilmore is an American comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He served as the "Senior Black Correspondent" on The Daily Show from 2006 to 2014, and hosted The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in 2015 and 2016. He is also the creator of the sitcom The Bernie Mac Show. He served as an executive producer for the ABC television series Black-ish, and is the co-creator, with Issa Rae, of the HBO television series Insecure. Since May 2017, he has hosted a podcast, Black on the Air, where he discusses current events and interviews guests. He is the host of the talk show Wilmore.
Jordan Carlos is an American stand-up comedian who played a recurring character on The Colbert Report and is a co-host on the Nickelodeon kids' show Me TV. He also appeared as a panelist and reporter on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
The Reverend Sir Dr. Stephen T. Mos Def Colbert D.F.A., Heavyweight Champion of the World, or Stephen Colbert, is the fictionalized persona of political satirist Stephen Colbert, as portrayed on the Comedy Central series The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and occasionally on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. Described as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot" and a "self-important right-wing commentator", the character incorporates aspects of the real Colbert's life and interests but is primarily a parody of cable news pundits, particularly former Fox News prime time host Bill O'Reilly.
The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was a gathering that took place on October 30, 2010, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The rally was led by Jon Stewart, host of the satirical news program The Daily Show, and Stephen Colbert, in-character as a conservative political pundit, as on his program The Colbert Report, both then seen on Comedy Central. About 215,000 people attended the rally, according to aerial photography analysis by AirPhotosLive.com for CBS News.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night news and political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second iteration of CBS' Late Show franchise. The program is taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, the same studio as its predecessor Late Show with David Letterman. It airs live to tape in most U.S. markets weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT, as with its competitors Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore is an American late-night panel talk show hosted by Larry Wilmore that aired on Comedy Central from January 19, 2015, to August 18, 2016. The show was a spin-off of The Daily Show, which featured Wilmore as a recurring contributor. It aired Monday through Thursday at 11:30 PM (ET) following The Daily Show. It served as a replacement for The Colbert Report, which aired in the same time-slot from October 2005 to December 2014.
"Same to You, Pal" is the final episode of American late-night comedy television series The Colbert Report is the 1,447th episode of the series overall and is part of the eleventh season. The final episode of The Colbert Report originally aired in the United States on December 18, 2014, on Comedy Central. In the episode Stephen becomes immortal after accidentally killing "Grimmy" during the opening of the segment of "Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.". This leads to Stephen singing "We'll Meet Again" in its entirety along with a large crowd of several recognizable figures, before meeting with Santa Claus, Abraham Lincoln, and Alex Trebek on the roof of the studio.
Night of Too Many Stars is a fundraising telethon for autism. It has been held every two or three years since 2003. The event was founded by Robert Smigel after learning that his son was diagnosed with autism. Comedian Jon Stewart often hosts the show.
Lights Out with David Spade is an American late-night talk show that was hosted by David Spade. Premiering on Comedy Central on July 29, 2019, the series features discussions on popular culture topics between Spade and a rotating panel of guest comedians, as well as other filmed segments.
The Problem with Jon Stewart is an American current affairs television series hosted by Jon Stewart on Apple TV+. Each episode focuses on a single issue. The series premiered on September 30, 2021. The second season premiered on October 7, 2022. The series was canceled in October 2023 after two seasons.