A reason to want to be around: HBO orders new Tim Robinson pilot
Robinson's new show will be a half-hour scripted comedy, which means from now on the money might be his money
It looks like Tim Robinson is about to get his streaming doubles, and thank god for that. (We’ll be the first ones to tune in when he inevitably hits triples.) Netflix must have started a pay-it-forward chain with I Think You Should Leave, which just aired its third season, because HBO is now also racing to get in on the wonky Tim Robinson action.
According to Deadline, the network has greenlit a new, half-hour pilot from the former SNL writer and sketch comedy auteur. The show is titled The Chair Company. (Tragically, not the Table Company… we guess it’s best for some things to remain a mystery.) Starring Robinson and written by himself and his longtime creative partner, Zach Kanin, the pilot will tell the story of a man, who after an embarrassing incident at work, finds himself investigating a far-reaching conspiracy. Adam McKay and Todd Schulman are also on board to executive produce.
While it’s easy and genuinely thrilling to imagine The Chair Company as merely a longer version of an I Think You Should Leave sketch (the logline alone could describe like half of them already), this very well might not be the case. Nathan Fielder was just a goofy guy (albeit with a slightly nefarious bent) on Nathan For You until his HBO show, The Rehearsal, gave him the space and budget to go full Synecdoche, New York. And that was before the finale of The Curse gave us one of the most spine-chilling television moments of the year. Ditto for Bill Hader, who slowly morphed Barry from a laugh-out-loud comedy into a real and genuine tragedy.
Tim Robinson definitely has those same dark inclinations, whether he’s confronting an existential crisis brought on by a presumed monster crawling to eat him through his doggy door (“What have they done to us??”) or hogging all the time on the zip line. It will be fascinating to see just where his bizarre brain and wonderfully rubber face take us this time.