Watch the first episode of Comedy Central’s Big Time In Hollywood, FL before it hits TV

Comedy Central’s newest series Big Time In Hollywood, FL, executive produced by Ben Stiller, premieres next Wednesday on Comedy Central. But Comedy Central is making the whole debut episode available on The A.V. Club today. It’s right there at the top of this page! You can’t miss it.

The opening half hour, “Severance,” introduces us to the two aspiring (and delusional) auteurs at the center of the show. Ben and Jack are just a couple of kids with a dream. All they want is to continue turning out hits like Bad Cop Worse Cop 2 and Blind For Life while they live rent-free at their parents home. But with the boys entering their thirties, the filmmakers’ parents have decided it’s time for them to move out. The brothers respond as any mature artists would: by inventing an elaborate ruse to trick their parents into giving them $20,000 of seed money to properly launch their directorial careers. “You gotta spend money to make money,” Ben observes later in the episode. And Jack agrees. “We gotta spend their money to make money!”

The scheme begins in a seedy diner. Ben and Jack convince themselves that the surefire way to get Mom and Dad to drop 20 large is to pretend that Ben is a hopeless drug addict who’s in hock to the local narcotics dealers. Once they have the cash in hand, they’ll be ready to become the new Steven Spielberg—or, hell, Ben thinks they’ll be the new Steve Jobs. Aim high.

Executive producer Ben Stiller appears in the episode as Jimmy Stats, an ex-junkie who jumps at the opportunity to apply his thespian talents to the brothers’ plans. Jimmy is “cast” in the role of the local drug kingpin, and he channels his best Tony Montana (which is not a very good Tony Montana) as he demands his cash. Despite Jimmy’s scenery-chewing performance, the scheme doesn’t quite go off as hoped.

If you like to watch your comedy shows on TV rather than on the web, you’ll be happy to learn that Big Time In Hollywood, FL premieres next Wednesday at 10:30/9:30c on Comedy Central.

If you like to watch your comedy shows on TV rather than on the web, you’ll be happy to learn that Big Time In Hollywood, FL premieres Next Wednesday at 10:30/9:30c on Comedy Central.