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TV Media Weekly | Oct. 29 - Nov. 4, 2016 By Jacqueline Spendlove TV Media A ny designated driver who's been trapped in a rambling, disjointed con- versation with a com- pletely inebriated passenger might be surprised to hear of a TV series that's found great success in ram- bling, disjointed retellings of his- torical events from a completely inebriated narrator. That, however, is precisely what "Drunk History" has managed to do. The show that began as a series of Funny or Die online shorts born of an actual drunken discussion has become a half-hour Comedy Central mainstay, now in its fourth season. Catch a new episode of "Drunk History" when it airs Tues- day, Nov. 1, on Comedy Central. According to "Drunk History" lore, the idea for the show came to co-creator Derek Waters ("Hall Pass," 2011) during a boozy night spent with friend and "New Girl" star Jake Johnson. The two were discussing the death of singer Otis Redding and, according to Waters, he envisioned Redding telling the story in Johnson's words, moving his lips to what was being drunk- enly spouted off. The image, as it turned out, translated to the screen to great effect. Each episode of "Drunk His- tory" recounts events from Ameri- can history as narrated by a thor- oughly soused comedian. The cast acts out what's being said, while lip-syncing the narration — com- plete with anachronisms, stam- mering, hiccups, curses and mis- takes. The more poorly the story is told, the funnier the reenactment comes across, from one narrator mistakenly referring to Richard Dreyfuss ("Jaws," 1975) while re- counting a story about abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to another for- getting the names of pretty much all the reindeer in his recitation of "'Twas the Night Before Christ- mas" (unless I'm the one in the wrong and Santa does, in fact, have reindeer named Shouter and Blinsen). Still another narrator needed to pause the story — not once, but twice — to, shall we say, void his system of eight vodka cranberries. Part of the draw of the show is the big names involved. Since the early web series days, the ever- changing cast has included count- less celebrities and Hollywood A- listers. The episode detailing the friendship between Abraham Lin- coln and Frederick Douglass fea- tures Will Ferrell ("Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," 2004) — who also co-produces the Comedy Central series — Don Cheadle ("Hotel Rwanda," 2004) and Zooey Deschanel ("New Girl"), and went on to win the award for Best American Short at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Since moving to Comedy Cen- tral, the series has enjoyed the an- tics of Jack Black ("School of Rock," 2003), Winona Ryder ("Girl, Interrupted," 1999), Bill Hader ("Saturday Night Live"), Bob Odenkirk ("Better Call Saul"), Owen ("Wedding Crashers," 2005) and Luke Wilson ("Old School," 2003), John Lithgow ("3rd Rock From the Sun"), Greg Kinnear ("As Good as It Gets," 1997) ... the list goes on and on and on. For the most part, each episode has focused on a city and related a number of historical events and figures associated with it. The show has looked at the Lincoln as- sassination and the Watergate scandal in Washington, D.C., the kidnapping of Patty Hearst in San Francisco, the story of Benedict Ar- nold in Philadelphia, and the activ- ities of Bugsy Siegel in Las Vegas. While major people and events are certainly portrayed, the show's re- search team digs deep for lesser- known stories as well, so there's more than just the pieces of history everyone is taught in school. "I think a lot of these stories have vanished, and they're about an injustice that has happened," said Duncan Trussell, one of this season's sloshed narrators, at an Awardsline Emmy screening back in June. "I think that underneath the intoxication and slurring, we've summoned up a soul that's getting a little bit of vengeance in the form of having their story re- announced to the world where it's mostly been dormant." More recently, the show has branched into broader themes, and that's where things have land- ed for the current season. Season 4 kicked off with "Great Escapes," which looked at Timothy Leary's (Thomas Lennon, "The Odd Cou- ple") flight from prison, the Devil's Island penal colony, and Titanic survivor Charles Joughin (Chris Parnell, "21 Jump Street," 2012). "It's not just Abraham Lincoln stories," said Waters at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. "It's more like, 'Oh, this is a great story that more people need to know about,' like the Stonewall riots ... good sto- ries that aren't necessarily going to be in history books, but people should know about." The upcoming episode, titled "Siblings," sees Katherine Wright help her brothers build an airplane, the Kopp sisters fight to protect their home, and the Fox sisters' role in the creation and spread of Spiritualism. Elizabeth Olsen ("Godzilla," 2014), Jason Ritter ("Another Period"), Rachel Bilson ("Hart of Dixie"), Sarah Ramos ("Parenthood"), Sugar Lyn Beard ("50/50," 2011) and Jenna Fischer ("The Office") all lend their talents to the episode. Seriously, never has earnest drunken blathering been so enter- taining. Check out the newest epi- sode of "Drunk History" when it airs Tuesday, Nov. 1, on Comedy Central. Will Ferrell guest stars in "Drunk History" Pour me another A new episode of 'Drunk History' welcomes more celebrities 2 | Cover story Harvey Hinklemeyers Martino's 3 x 5" A/Grindstone Charlie's B/Norris Insurance 1 x 4" 455-2700 3833 S. LaFountain • Kokomo, IN 46902 www.norrisinsurance.com • Home • Auto • Business • Life Call for a FREE Quote! Serving You For Over 50 Years Bill Neher

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