Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

Premiere	February 11, 2007
Finale	May 2, 2010
Seasons	5
Episodes	50

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is a live action show created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim that premiered February 11, 2007 on Adult Swim, and ran until May 2010. The program features surrealistic and often satirical humor (at points anti-humor and cringe comedy), public-access television–style musical acts, bizarre faux-commercials with a unique editing and special effects style by Doug Lussenhop to make the show appear camp.

The program featured a wide range of actors, such as Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Jeff Goldblum, Zach Galifianakis, Will Forte, Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Fred Willard, Rainn Wilson, Fred Armisen, Paul Rudd and Ben Stiller to alternative comedians like Neil Hamburger, to former television stars like Alan Thicke, porn stars, celebrity look-alikes, impressionists and amateur actors found through Craigslist. The creators of the show have described it as "the nightmare version of television. On August 27, 2017, Adult Swim broadcast a ten-year anniversary special, known as Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Awesome 10 Year Anniversary Version, Great Job?, including new sketches as well as a best-of from older broadcasts.

Overview

The show, which expands the genre of the live-action material featured in Heidecker and Wareheim's previous show, Tom Goes to the Mayor, consists of sketches, songs, and commercials. It features several characters and segments seen in Tom Goes to the Mayor, such as Gibbons, the "Channel 5 Married News Team," and the Cinco Corporation with its variety of inefficient and tasteless products. New recurring characters and sketches include "Uncle Muscles Hour," a public-access television variety program hosted by a gravelly-voiced "Weird Al" Yankovic and Channel 5 News Correspondent Dr. Steve Brule, played by John C. Reilly.

The show featured a variety of celebrity cameos from actors, comedians, and musicians including Tucker Albrizzi, Fred Armisen, Robert Axelrod, Maria Bamford, Ed Begley, Jr., Corbin Bernsen, The Bird and the Bee, Karen Black, Michael Ian Black, Abbey Brooks, LeVar Burton, Michael Cera, Peter Cetera, Stephanie Courtney, David Cross, Elisha Cuthbert, Ted Danson, DJ Drez, Patrick Duffy, Richard Dunn, John Ennis, Tami Erin, Will Ferrell, Flight of the Conchords, Will Forte, Black Francis, Zach Galifianakis, Jeff Goldblum, Josh Groban, Michael Gross, Bill Hader, Neil Hamburger/Gregg Turkington, David Liebe Hart, Jonah Hill, Karen O, Sergio Kato, Tom Kenny, Tom Leykis, The Lonely Island, Doug Lussenhop, Ron Lynch, Aimee Mann, Marilyn Manson, Richard Marx, John Mayer, Jack McBrayer, A.D. Miles, Larry Miller, Cathy Mitchell, Matthew Moy, Dave Navarro, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, Harout Pamboukjian, Steve Pemberton, Jerry Penacoli, Wendell Pierce, Brian Posehn, Sam Proof, Puscifer, Marion Ramsey, John C. Reilly, Paul Reubens, Daphne Rosen, Paul Rudd, William Sanderson, Steve Schirripa, Michael Q. Schmidt, Palmer Scott, Tony Siragusa, Tom Skerritt, Paul St. Peter, Frank Stallone, Sydnee Steele, Ben Stiller, Peter Stormare, Fred Tatasciore, Alan Thicke, Scott Thompson, Danny Trejo, David Wain, Derek Waters, Fred Willard, Rainn Wilson, Ray Wise, Tommy Wiseau, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

The series' theme music was composed by Davin Wood, who had also composed the theme music for the earlier Tom Goes to the Mayor, and for related series Derek & Simon, American Misfits, Stupidface, and Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule.

Halfway through the broadcasting of the first season, Adult Swim picked up Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! for another season ordering as many as 30 new episodes. The second season began airing on November 18, 2007. Season one was released on DVD in April, 2008. The third season began on July 27, 2008 and ended on September 28, 2008. Eric posted a MySpace bulletin Oct 1, 2008, announcing that as a "holiday surprise" season four would be airing in January 2009. The show was later renewed for a fifth season.

One of Tim and Eric's first live performances incorporating characters from Awesome Show was Muscles for Bones, a spoof telethon seeking bones for Richard Dunn. This was performed at Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood, California. Major portions of this live performance were incorporated into season three, episode 8 "Muscles for Bones". An extended version of this show can be found as an extra on the Season 3 DVD. The extended version features performances not seen on the original TV episode, from performers such as Pierre and Michael Q. Schmidt. Prior to the beginning of seasons two and three, Tim and Eric combined "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" Live in Vegas (2007). The second of these, listed as season 3 episode 0, shared their 2008 cross-country tour.

Speaking with Vanity Fair in July 2009, Wareheim said that season five (or "Season Cinco") would represent "a very dark side of the Awesome Show series. I think people are going to be very scared and very disturbed by it. He also noted that the pair draw equal humor from the awkwardness of The Office as they do from the awkwardness of David Lynch's films. The duo went on to state that they had begun an unconscious tradition by starting the first episode of seasons two, three, and four each with fecal-related fake commercials; they plan to "outdo" themselves on season five with a "diarrhea disease"-based commercial. The fifth season premiered on February 28, 2010. The series finale aired on May 2, 2010. On May 16, 2010 the spin-off Check it Out! premiered.

Tim and Eric acquired funding to shoot and air a one-hour special that aired on December 5, 2010, called The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job Chrimbus Special. Simultaneous to this announcement, the duo also released a list of dates and cities for their upcoming 2010 tour. Tim and Eric also announced plans for a movie, entitled Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie; in the film, released online and on pay-per-view on January 27, 2012, the pair try to revitalize a run–down mall in order to pay a billion-dollar debt. Following the release of the movie, they may make additional seasons of Awesome Show.

The duo's Abso Lutely Productions signoff bumper features a video clip of Heidecker's father during a family vacation in 1991; when asked to sum the trip up in two words, he responded "Abso-lutely." The full clip can be found on their website, DVD, and also on YouTube.

Reception

Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! has had a wide range of reviews with many differing in opinion. Columnist for The New York Times Dave Itzkoff writes, “‘Awesome Show’ revels in an aesthetic of awkwardness.” And also adds, “To populate their twisted universe they frequently cast average-looking actors (and nonactors) recruited from Web sites like Craigslist, who bring an additional layer of deliberate amateurishness to their skits.

James Norton from Flak Magazine says, “If Adult Swim is the bleeding edge of TV comedy, Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! (sic) is the bleeding edge of the bleeding edge.”

He adds, “The program has been much hated-upon by the Adult Swim fan base.... But the program also represents a foray into one of the most dangerous and exciting realms of the comedy world: sheer individualistic creativity.

Awesome Record, Great Songs!

On May 6, 2008, Williams Street Records released Awesome Record, Great Songs!, a compilation of songs from the first two seasons. Williams Street also released Uncle Muscles Presents Casey And His Brother in July of that year, an EP featuring 11 songs sung by Heidecker in character as Casey Tatum.

Spin-offs

While doing press for the first season of the program, Heidecker and Wareheim told an interviewer that they had aspirations to create a spinoff featuring Awesome Show regular Richard Dunn; "It's just him interviewing people like The Charlie Rose Show. We would love to produce that. No one would ever watch it.

Using characters and skits from Awesome Show, Heidecker and Wareheim (via their Absolutely production company) created an online-only show called Tim and Eric Nite Live!, originally broadcast in 2007 on the website SuperDeluxe.

In July 2008, the New York Times reported that an Awesome Show spin-off, Check It Out!, with Steve Brule, would air on Adult Swim beginning sometime in 2009. The show parodies local newscasts, and as Heidecker briefly described it: "It's like his half-hour to go around town and interview the local beer-maker or whatever." The show will have an episode run time of approximately 11 minutes, and it will feature John C. Reilly reprising his role as Dr. Steve Brule. According to Heidecker, Reilly had the original idea of giving the Dr. Steve character an entire show. reported that the program would begin airing on August 23, 2009;< however, the program did not air on that date, and LA Weekly reported in September 2009 that Check It Out! was "forthcoming. The first episode aired May 16, 2010 and the last on June 20, 2010, with a total of six episodes. The show returned with six more episodes, the first airing March 18, 2012, and the last on April 12, 2012. The show has managed 2 more seasons also consisting of 6 episodes, which aired in 2014 and 2016.

In the same July 2008 New York Times article, it was reported that the duo was in the process of developing a surreal game show series starring Neil Hamburger, titled The New Big Ball with Neil Hamburger. Wareheim described it as a mix between "bizarre Japanese game shows and The Price Is Right. In late July 2009, Neil Hamburger posted a blog on Myspace stating that a pilot had been filmed, but that Adult Swim was not satisfied and had "pulled the plug on the project.

Home releases

All five seasons and the Chrimbus Special have been released on DVD in Region 1 and 4 with distribution for the latter being handled by Madman Entertainment. The Chrimbus Special is included as a special feature on the Season 5 DVD for both regions, but the standalone DVD is only available in Region 1. Only the first and second seasons have been released on DVD in Region 2.

See also

• Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule
• Awesome Record, Great Songs!
• Uncle Muscles Presents Casey And His Brother