Get your bags of popcorn ready, Tim Heidecker’s On Cinema returns this October

In a surprise announcement, Tim Heidecker, the President and CEO of the HEI Network, host of On Cinema At The Cinema, and famed alt comedian best known as one-half of Tim and Eric, told the world that the next season of On Cinema will premiere on October 6. He also introduced HEI points, “a brand new and easy way to build value and show your loyalty to the HEI Network. Speaking of HEI Network, On Cinema will air exclusively on Heidecker’s website, HEI Network, and not Adult Swim, which aired On Cinema’s first 11 seasons and Heidecker and frequent guest Gregg Turkington’s spin-off show, Decker. More importantly, HEI points are poised to become the dominant form of currency by 2022, so you’re going to want to get in on the ground floor. These things trickle down and trickle up, and that’s the point.

Based on how much time Heidecker spends pitching HEI Points in the promo, one should assume that the crypto market will play a prominent role in this new season. To On Cinema fans, this should come as no surprise. Since season one, “Tim Heidecker,” a kayfabe alter-ego of the comedian, has used his rinky-dink movie review show as a platform for numerous business ventures. In past years, he’s hocked alternative medicine, his rock band Dekkar, “a nutrional vape system,” and a music festival that left 20 dead. The latter was the basis for a near 5-hour special event known as “The Trial Of Tim Heidecker.” There’s a condensed version of that one, but if you’re wondering, yup, it really is just five hours of trial footage played straight and dry. In 2019, Heidecker leveraged his modest celebrity from the show to run for District Attorney of San Bernardino County. His campaign was the subject of the film Mister America. So yeah, On Cinema has a rich history, and we haven’t even gotten into what’s going on with regular guest Gregg Turkington, the owner of the Victorville film archive and a copy of My Giant on VHS.

But if all that is a little intimidating, keep in mind that each episode is like 10 minutes long, and there’s also a handy (albeit slightly out of date) “Beginner’s Guide.”

The new season of On Cinema At The Cinema begins on October 6 on Heidecker and Turkington’s website HEINetwork.tv. You must purchase a subscription to watch the series, but with that comes the entire On Cinema archive, including “The Trial” and the Oscar specials.

As for why this season isn’t on Adult Swim, in 2020, Heidecker told Vulture that basically, the network shuttered their digital wing, which left On Cinema out in the cold. “After the [2020] Oscar Special, since that rolled right into the pandemic, there wasn’t really a way to make any more. Adult Swim shut their streaming services down,” Heidecker said. “To be fair, I think we were really a total outlier there, because their usual streaming shows were a green screen and a couple of video-game microphones, and that was their model, and we had a full-fledged show with editing involved and multiple cast members.”