IFC: Documentary Now!

You are probably accustomed to seeing Fred Armisen in a dress in one of the skits on IFC's Portlandia.  Well get ready, because Fred is back with friends Bill Hader and Seth Meyers to take on more skits in Documentary Now! Tonight's pilot ia a skit from Grey Gardens (see below).  

Given their busy careers, I am glad the three of them found time to have some fun together with this series.  I was also somewhat surprised they could get Helen Mirren to serve as the host of the show, providing it with a bit of gravitas before everything falls apart.   

When you see the show you may think the three comedians have successfully channeled a craziness similar to Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Seth Meyers cited the British comedy team as an inspiration in an NPR interview:

Those are the guys that, I think, pretty much inspired the idea of playing around with documentaries...And that form — they just sort of showed everybody, oh, you can do stories about characters, you can still have jokes, but it also sort of moves at a nicer pace. It doesn't feel as dependent on having a joke every 15 seconds.

IFC has already approved a second season, so the team must have done something right.  The pilot as well as the second episode is available on the website if you want to see for yourself.