As Barstool Sports gets ready for its closeup this college football season with Fox Sports, the company is also making moves in the scripted space.
The bro-centric sports and entertainment company is debuting its first scripted series on Tuesday. Les Mascots will premiere on their Out of Order YouTube channel every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. ET, with seven episodes slated for the first season.
The show follows a Los Angeles-based film major (Harry Settel) who moves to New York City to make a documentary about his uncle (John Feitelberg) and quirky roommate (Tommy Smokes), both of them are struggling actors who earn a living as Elmo and Cookie Monster street performers in Times Square.
The show originated as an idea from co-creator Owen Roeder, a member of Barstool’s Out of Order sketch comedy show.
“Owen came up with the idea of doing a more scripted series where it was centered around these two characters, delusional actor types whose day job is that they are the Times Square Cookie Monster and Elmo,” Smokes told Deadline. “Started writing it for a little bit, took some time off, and started recasting it a little bit and reshuffling, and just came to the conclusion of making it a full-blown Out of Order production. They had always talked about doing a feature film and had a script for a movie, and decided that might be difficult.”
Smokes told Deadline that the hope would be that Netflix might eventually be interested in picking up the show. Still, they’re happy to promote the show via the Out of Order channel for now, where it reaches Barstool’s loyal audience.
According to Justin Kroll at Deadline, “the finished product is as seamless as anything you would see on a network that is constantly pumping out these shows on a weekly basis from the laugh out loud script to the high-quality cinematography, one would think this is exactly something a network would want to add to an upcoming slate.” A look at the trailer for the show doesn’t quite live up to that hype, but art is, of course, subjective.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.