Amazon Adds Five New Original Series: Alpha House, Betas, Creative Galaxy & More
Amazon announced Wednesday that it will produce five new original series' to air later this year and in early 2014, Reuters reported.
The company selected their five pilots using viewer feedback to determine its choices, out of 14 that the company filmed; the pilots were streamed for viewers during the month of April.
The pilots chosen were political comedy Alpha House, the Silicon Valley-set start-up comedy Betas, and three children's shows: animated adventure program Creative Galaxy, Annebots, and Tumbleleaf, which features a small blue fox named Fig.
The online retailer enters the TV fray as new competition with online TV streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. The shows will be available through Amazon's Instant Video Service. It is one of the services available through the Amazon.com Prime, the company's $79-per-year premium service.
Alpha House is so far the only pilot with a scheduled air date; it will begin streaming in November after Amazon films 12 more episodes to complete its first season. The comedy has few well-known names attached to it: its creator and head writer is the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist of Doonesbury Garry Trudeau, and the show stars sitcom veteran John Goodman.
"We're thrilled to have emerged safely from this harrowing exercise in online democracy," Trudeau said of his program's selection.
Perhaps the most prominent show that didn't make the cut was Zombieland, which would have been based on the popular 2009 movie of the same name. The film's writer/producer blamed fan backlash for not getting through the vote.
"I'll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans. You guys successfully hated it out of existence," tweeted Reese on May 16.
Other shows that also didn't pass include Browsers, a Bebe Neuwirth musical comedy; Those Who Can't, a comedy about a set of misfit teachers; and newsroom satire Onion News Empire. The latter show, whose pilot written even before HBO premiered The Newsroom, was developed by the humor newspaperand the cast was to be led by Arrested Development actor Jeffrey Tambor.
Check out all of Amazon's proposed pilots and selected trailers here.
