Stephen Merchant is probably best known as the comedy partner of Ricky Gervais. The two have been incredibly successful together, co-creating the original version of The Office, as well as Extras and Life’s Too Short, and working together with the delightfully strange Karl Pilkington on a successful podcast. To date, Merchant has been the far less visible half of the team (although I’m sure he’s doing A-OK financially as versions of The Office spread around the world like germs), but that all may be changing in the near future, as Merchant is set to create and star in his own upcoming show for HBO.
HBO has picked up to pilot Hello Ladies, a comedy co-written, directed by and starring Stephen Merchant. The project, which The Office co-creator co-wrote with former Office writer-producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, stars the 6ft 7in Merchant as a gawky Englishman searching for the woman of his dreams in Los Angeles. Half as charming as he thinks he is — and twice as desperate — he’s obsessed with infiltrating the glamorous world of beautiful people. [Deadline]
This all sounds good to me. I actually liked Merchant quite a bit more than Gervais when they did the podcast — which was later cartoonified for TV as The Ricky Gervais Show — so I’m more than willing to give this show a shot if it makes it onto HBO’s schedule.
Anyway, if you were sitting there wondering if a show titled Hello Ladies being picked up to pilot is enough of an excuse for me to post the music video for “Hey Ladies” by the Beastie Boys, the answer is a resounding yes.
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