The Chris Gethard Show Gets an Upgrade From Public Access to Network and They’ve Got Big Plans

The Chris Gethard show has been an unexplainable phenomenon for five years. You could call it a talk show or maybe a sketch show, and the word variety show might even fit– but the show doesn’t exactly fit into any of those categories.  If you added the word punk in front of talk show or sketch show or variety show, you might get close.  Up until two weeks ago The Chris Gethard Show broadcast off of MNN, a Manhattan public access channel, attracting the attention of outliers, misfits, and those who proclaim themselves as uncool, but it is also beloved by the likes of Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Poehler, and Conan O’Brien and plenty of others in between. The show isn’t exactly what you would normally call “network friendly” in fact several networks have looked into picking up the show over the years- and turned it down.  But just last week,  Gethard made the announcement that Episode 3 of Season 3 would be their last on MNN, because the show is moving to the Fusion Network.  We couldn’t wait to talk with Chris and find out their plans for the move.

The IBang: Congratulations on the move to the Fusion Network.

Chris Gethard: I’m Really psyched. All of the emotions. Psyched and nervous and all of them, just everything good.

The IBang: After all you’ve been through, being turned down by several networks, how does it feel?

Chris Gethard:  I feel like, there were a lot of networks that were kind of interested but maybe didn’t have the infrastructure,; some who were interested who knew that.  But the network we found, they are so open to the internet and us experimenting with what we do on tv. They’ve actually made it really clear to me- ‘we want to make sure you know we’re not trying to reign in what you do, we’re trying to support it’. That was a thing I never expected to hear from a network. Everyone else I ever talked to over the last 5 years was like how can we change it, how can we calm it down; and these guys were like ‘how can we throw fuel on the fire.’ So that was such a change of pace and such a refreshing thing, its actually gotten me so excited. They were presenting it as almost like a challenge they were like ‘how big can you go?’  With our gang, I think that’s a pretty ballsy gauntlet to throw down and we’re pretty excited to get out there and do it.

The IBang:  Are you looking to go further than you’ve gone so far?

Chris Gethard: Man we’ve managed to pull off some cool stuff, but imagine if we actually had a budget, and a set, and an office. Now we have all those things, and some of the stuff we’ve done, I’m like well now we can have a whole week to set up and prepare. Physically speaking, thats a huge change of pace. We usually set up our whole show in 45 minutes, running from the trunk of my car where we store our whole set to set it up before we actually go live– it’s not ideal.  Now we have a chance to actually strategize, and think about how to execute these things.  I think we absolutely plan on going bigger. Personally, I would be surprised if I’m not injured at some point during the ten weeks of taping. Because of what we’ve already tried physically when we don’t have time to plan and when we don’t have a budget. Now I think we can actually go big enough that I might actually break a bone or something, which is an exciting thought.

The IBang:  How does everyone else been reacting to the news? Has anyone expressed concern that having budget and a network is a bad thing?

Chris Gethard:  Not the cast and crew. I think we all know from being in the room- in the studio every Wednesday- I mean it’s great. Public access is a beautiful thing but I think we all also feel that there’s a lot of stress. And having put this much time into it over the last half decade of our lives, I think we’re all ready to move on from that.

I have heard some grumblings of that from our internet fan base with some people being like ‘oh its going to get messed up.’ We put a thing up on our tumbLr and some guys just wrote us and were like ‘or you can just stay on public access and keep making the show we love.’  And it’s like, I get that, but at the same time, how supportive of us are you really if you’re wishing a lack of success to us, and also I think people forget that the reason the show is the way it is isn’t because of the facility, it’s because of the people and because of the mentality of how we approach it and there’s just no way we’re going to get all glossy and get all cool.  We’ve always felt like outsiders and I don’t think that changes at all just because we’re going to have a little bit of a budget. So it actually kind of hurts my feelings to read some fans be like ‘oh this shows gonna get so messed up now.’ I don’t know that, that has to be true. The presence of a budget doesn’t really necessitate that.  If all of a sudden we got to big for our britches I’d understand, but we all have the attitude of ‘now we get to go inside real cable and burn it down from the inside.’ That’s our attitude.

The IBang:  Your last episode on public access had it all.  It was funny, it was touching, and you also mentioned that you can’t believe how much public access television let you get away with.  What were some of the things you can’t believe you got away with?  

Chris Gethard:  Just in recent memory– we had a professional dominatrix light me on fire. That was like three weeks ago, so that right there is a big one. There was one I’ll never forget, where a guy named Fred From Honolulu, great guy, used to call the show.  He actually moved to New York cause he wanted to try comedy and he started working on our show and there was one episode, 18th Century American Gladiators, where he threw about 5 lbs of baby powder all over the studio. I was pretty sure we were going to get banned after that. We once had an episode where a guy called up and talked about how he once kissed a toddler on the mouth.  Accidental full on frontal nudity. There were a number of times I’d thought they’d step in. I think that actually speaks really well to public access that they actually let us get away with stuff like that. Their dedication to free speech I’d say is downright madness at times.

The IBang:  So your new network has said that there is nothing they are uncomfortable with? 

Chris Gethard:  Not yet. the actual quote said to me was ‘we have lawyers so get yourself in trouble and put them to work. Right now they’re talking a great game.

The IBang:  What are your goals for the ten weeks?  

Chris Gethard:  The main goal is, in a very sort of spiritual way, to be able to walk away knowing we did the show we wanted to do. We fought so hard to get this chance and its been many years of people telling us ‘oh its going to happen’ and now it’s finally happening. The real fear I have is that we’ll overthink it or we’ll walk away doing a show that wasn’t the show we wanted to do.

There are also some secondary goals that are a little more idiotic that relate to doing things correctly, that in public access we didn’t have the budget or the time to do. For me, my great white whale of the show is I’ve always had this idea of the human crane where i would be hung upside down by my feet and then people could call in and use the show like an arcade claw game where i would be lowered down at their whim, you know, like winning prizes if I pick them up with my mouth. We tried that twice on public access and both times I was almost seriously injured because of how shoddy and thrown together it was. So now that we have a budget I’d really like to see if we can’t build an actual human crane and conquer that one. It’s a real thorn in my side- a real unaccomplished mission and it doesn’t sit well with me.

The IBang:  So you’re staying in New York City.  Do you know where you’re going to be taping the show?

Chris Gethard:  It looks like we’re taping it at a studio on Second Avenue. That’s the goal.  Everything’s being nailed down as we speak. But yeah it looks like it will be at this place not too far from Grand Central Station, so pretty easy to get to and I hope everybody comes out to the tapings.  If you’re in the tri-state area, it’s right there.  And then, I dont even know if I should say this but– I won’t say who it is, but it looks like, just looking at the studio– we got sent a floorplan, and it said that it was some office space reserved for other people– and I can’t say who it is, because its not definately verified. But it looks like we might be sharing a space with one of the most infamous conservative political mouthpieces in American culture, which is just about the worst possible match I can imagine. In my mind present an Animal House situation where we’re the dirtbags, and they’re the preps. And if we really do share a space with this person its going to be a real tense disaster for everybody and I’m quite looking forward to it. If we are sharing a floor with a political talk program that leans conservative, they’re just not going to be thrilled when we show up and we’re throwing cake batter at each other and a guy in a banana suit is running around in the middle screaming, making videos. It’s not going to be cool for them.

The IBang:  Are you worried about bad rip-offs of your show?

Chris Gethard:  Well, I’ll tell you, I’m not trying to cause too much trouble but I’m really glad we got this deal when we did because we’ve been noticing people ripping us off in the past year and its pretty maddening. To do this thing that really feels like its off on an island- we really feel isolated; can’t break through to mainstream. We’ve seen some mainstream people doing some ideas that are pretty clearly related to stuff that we put out there already, and I think now that we’re on basic cable, I think if I’m going to have a shots fired moment in this interview I’ll say, people are going to have to start coming up with their own ideas again, because we’re now in the conversation more than we were.  You mentioned that you can’t wait to see the rip off, i kind of feel like we’ve already seen a few ourselves. now at least we get to get in there and show them how its done.

The IBang:  Do you have a start date yet?

Chris Gethard:  It actually just came down.  Thursday April 23rd is what we’re hearing. It’s not going to be live on the network but we are going to make sure the tapings are streamed live. I’ve got this idea in my head that there’s no reason someone shouldn’t get to attend at taping just because they don’t live in New York, we live in modern times. So we’re going to find a way to make sure the tapings are something you can attend virtually and I think that will be a really cool thing. The first taping will probably be a week or two out from that.  And yeah, I think it’s going to be– we’ve got to put our money where our mouth is but, it could be something really special.

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Watch The Chris Gethard Show on April 23, 2015 on the Fusion Network.  Go to fusion.net for more information and to find out where to get Fusion.  Follow Chris Gethard on Twitter @chrisgethard and at ChrisGeth.com

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