1999-2010

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Idol return puts spotlight on Dunkleman


The debut of the ninth season of American Idol and Simon Cowell's coinciding announcement that he'll bolt when it's through has brought Tabloid Baby pal Brian Dunkleman back to the entertainment spotlight, putting his decision to leave American Idol after its first season in a new, perhaps prescient, light. Dunkleman, who has spent the past seven seasons honing his comedic chops, has developed into a top standup comic and comedy performer, as demonstrated in the proposed series American Dunkleman, produced by our pals at Frozen Pictures, and for some reason in a zucked-up TV world looking for a smart hit, has as yet not gone to pilot.


Dunkleman is showcased in an interview on AOL's Television webpage. Some highlights follow:

Everybody wants to know: What are you up to these days?
What am I up to? Right now I'm on the golf course, so that about sums it up. Doing that and doing standup. Making America laugh is what I'm doing.


What about more recently?

I actually just shot a comedy special for Showtime that should be airing in a few months. I don't have an official air date yet, but that's what I've been working towards for the last few months...


That first season looked fun. Did it seem fun at the time to you?

It was fun sometimes, and sometimes it wasn't so fun. I think that's the same with every job. Some days are good, some days are bad.


That's the reason that you left, right?

It was more than one reason. I mean really, I wanted to have a career as an actor. That's what I had done. This was actually the first time I'd done any kind of hosting. And all my experience was as a standup and as an actor. I hadn't done a ton of stuff, but I'd probably gotten like 12, 15 little guest-star appearances and co-star stuff. [So it was] mainly that reason, and I didn't think ... Here's my poor judgment. I didn't think the whole reality television thing was going to last. And neither did a lot of people, actually...

I saw somewhere that you're pitching a series called 'American Dunkleman.' What is that?
Do you remember a show called 'The Hudson Brothers' many years ago? A guy named Brett Hudson, he's a producer, he was on the show. And he was kind of a teen idol; he and his brothers got very famous, very quickly. So they got approached by McDonald's, who were like, we want you guys to be the McDonald's brothers -- you'd have a big M on your sweaters. And he's like, I'm not gonna sell out, are you crazy? There's no way we're doing that. And obviously they'd be billionaires right now. So he looked me up and had an idea for a show, just kind of like about the situation of my life, kind of a 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'-type, 'Extras'-type show, revolving around me. So we shot a little demo a while ago, and we're in the process of developing it and trying to pitch it.

So why hasn't this gone to pilot? TV genius pals, get in touch with the Frozen boys.

...and a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Michael Karp for pointing us to the story...

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