Like a Chinese Democracy for sketch-comedy fans, the long-rumored DVD collection of MTV's The State has attracted its own considerable mythology, with announcements that its release was nigh repeatedly followed by long stretches of uncomfortable silence. Doing my duty both as a journalist and a slobbering State fan, I asked alum Michael Showalter about it back in January, who assured me that it was finished, but had little to add (other than a few uncomfortable silences of his own, of course). As it turns out, I was asking the wrong guy: CHUD's Jeremy Smith recently cornered cast member Jo Lo Truglio and got a fairly concrete answer that seems to indicate we'll finally see a State DVD sometime this fall. Here's the complete transcript of Smith's report. Feel free to dip your balls in it.
Q: We keep hearing about The State DVD coming up.
Joe: Oh, yes. Here's the thing about The State DVD: it was supposed to be out last year. It's finished, it's completely packaged, we've got commentary and unreleased sketches; it's a really cool package. But they wanted to wait until we do a special, which right now is slated to happen sometime in the fall for Comedy Central. They wanted to do some kind of cross-promotion when the special comes out. The whole group can't wait for it to come out.
Q: Is everyone going to be back for it?
Joe: Everyone's going to be back for the special. We're very excited for it.
Q: It's going to be a live show?
Joe: It'll be a live and remote show. It'll be similar to the MTV show, but a little bit longer. About an hour-and-a-half. We're very thrilled. We had a reunion show a month ago that went really well, and some of those sketches will be in there.
This is the most detailed plan we've heard yet, which makes us feel kind of optimistic and lightheaded—or maybe that's just the salmonella. Guess we'll just have to wait for the fall to see whether it's true. Until then, let's go the zoo and watch the monkeys do it!