I still haven’t really delved into the whole webisode game, so this idea seems a bit hinky to me, but ESPN is coming out with a series of online videos featuring Kenny Mayne doing the goofy things that Kenny Mayne does. According to TV Week, Mayne will even be acting out more scenes with the likes of Soprano’s stars Tony “Paulie Walnuts” Sirico, Steven “Bobby Bacala” Schirripa and Dominic “Junior Soprano”….
Fans of ESPN’s Kenny Mayne know he’s got a dry wit and a deadpan delivery that trusts them to get the joke, whether it’s on him, his confreres at the sports network or the audience.
He stoically exercises his familiar funny bone in “Mayne Street,” which is opening new online territory on Oct. 2 as ESPN.com’s first scripted series.
Mr. Mayne plays his lanky, laid-back, authority-baiting self in the 15-Webisode series—produced on a budget that might cover the average prime-time pilot at a broadcast network—that aspires to hit a comedy sweet (and sour) spot somewhere between “Arrested Development” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
In one installment, he’ll fail to get to Beijing to do an Olympics feature and try to fake his report in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
Also in the cast: Alison Becker as the producer constantly trying to save Mr. Mayne from himself; Jordan Carlos as a young p.a.; Ben Schwartz as the wunderkind new executive nobody at ESPN would admit to recognizing; and Aubrey Plaza as the executive’s assistant. And carrying the flag for ESPN are personalities ranging from Scott Van Pelt to Neil Everett.
It’s witty/snarky Kenny Mayne, acting as witty/snarky Kenny Mayne, but in longer versions of pieces which he’s already done before! I don’t even know what to say. The stories and videos he does for Sports Center are cute and occasionally funny, but to expand on those in this format has failure written all over it.
ESPN’s ‘Mayne’ Thing (TV Week)
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