Anticipation

Good news from the realm of television. FX makes my day, perhaps even my week. Even more so than the quote from Megan Fox about how she thinks it would be awesome for her to do a whole movie in the nude.

The channel has given a 13 episode order to a new comedy which will follow “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” a few weeks after its premiere on September 18 (and speaking of “Sunny,” on top of the 13 episodes currently in production, FX has ordered 39 more - awesome!). The name alone gets your attention — “Testees” — but the show itself sounds pretty solid too: it’s about two friends/roommates who work as test subjects, with each episode focusing on them testing a new product, medication or medical treatment, including the usually negative side effects. It will premiere on October 9, and it comes from Kenny Hotz, the creator/star of “Kenny vs. Spenny”. Peep the press release:

The Toronto-shot Canadian co-production, stars Steve Markle and Jeff Kassel as a couple of slacker roommates who work for an unorthodox product-testing facility, subjecting themselves to the inevitably unfortunate side effects of an assortment of gadgets, devices, medications and treatments.

The inspiration, says producer Hotz, taking a rare break from the feverish, down-to-the-wire scriptwriting of the series' first 13 episodes, was Woody Allen's character Fielding Mellish in Bananas, who was similarly employed as a product tester.

"One of the greatest comedy scenes ever shot is Fielding Mellish testing out the exercise machine," Hotz enthuses. "And we take it from there. We've got these guys testing stuff from the military, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), the CIA, French tanning cream ... it's unlimited."

But then, who would have imagined that Hotz and his long-time friend and comedy partner, Spencer Rice, would have been able to come up with enough ludicrous challenges to fuel 62 episodes of Kenny Vs. Spenny (the last season of which was co-produced by KVS fans Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who also hired Hotz as a South Park scribe).

In that sense, it is the end of an era. "Don't get me wrong," qualifies Hotz. "I love Kenny and Spenny ... well, I love Kenny."

Mock contentious to the end, he adamantly insists he is well rid of Rice, who has his own solo project in the works. "Look, I just got tired of carrying him," Hotz deadpans. "He was kind of like the Scott Thorson to my Liberace....

"Wait, let me retract that. I don't want to get sued."

Bottom line, Hotz is finally doing what he always dreamed of doing – creating his own kind of television. "The good news is, Canada now has its own Chuck Barris," he says in reference to the famously brash, neurotic, prolific producer of '70s TV schlock.

"And to all the girlfriends who have broken up with me because they thought I watched too much TV ... f--- you! That was research. And now I'm buying an apartment in New York.'"

Testees (a "working" title, though it is hard to imagine a better one) is to be a companion piece to the successful FX comedy It's Always Sunny. The creators of that show are branching out too, prepping a sci-fi parody called Boldly Going Nowhere for Fox.

With season 7 of The Shield and more Nip / Tuck too, FX pwns!