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The latest offering is Team Coco To Go, Conan's companion series, which includes options for tablets, smartphones and mobile web. How does it compare to, say, the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon app?

First of all, it's interesting to note that the Late Night app launched on November 8 2010, which was the very same night Conan premiered on TBS. So while Fallon admittedly had a head start, good on them for being tech-savvy while Conan was still an itty-bitty newborn infant of a show.

Both phone apps are free and feature clips from recent episodes, their respective host's Twitter accounts and the show's blogs, including the schedule of upcoming guests. While Team Coco also offers up slideshows, Fallon gets more creative with goofy mini-apps like "Axl Rose Relaxation" (in tune with his separate and more recent Wake Up Call app, which costs 99 cents).

Though Fallon had a jump on them chronologically, the Team Coco app has the advantage of coming out to a world with another newly widespread form of mobile technology, the tablet. In addition to the phone app features, the tablet app allows you to watch full episodes, and even sync your viewing with "app-exclusive content and conversation in real-time." While Fallon's phone app looks more fun than Conan's, the ability to watch full episodes on a tablet is a major advantage for Team Coco – at least until Jimmy develops a tablet app of his own.

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BRADFORD: The Marc and Tom Show

When Marc Maron and Tom Scharpling appeared on each other’s shows for the first time last year, the two fell into a natural and funny back-and-forth that led to discussions of doing a podcast together. Being that these are two of my favorite comedians and podcasters going, I grew very excited about the prospect of hearing them talk to each other on a more frequent basis. When I interviewed Marc Maron for Splitsider last year, however, I was disappointed to hear him say that doing a podcast with Tom Scharpling was “a whimsical idea that didn’t have legs.” Much to my surprise this week, I noticed Maron and Scharpling had gone through with recording a show together, and it was every bit as entertaining as I’d expected. From Scharpling’s funny and surprising defense of Christian Bale’s on-set blowup to Maron’s bleak predictions about the future of his career, The Marc and Tom Show is a thoroughly entertaining conversation between two of the biggest names in podcasting. Maron refers to this as a “one-time show” on his blog, but here’s hoping these two sit down to record another chat soon.

JESSE: Ronna & Beverly #20 – Jeff Garlin

I got absolutely giddy when I saw Jeff Garlin was going I be on Ronna & Beverly. Not because he's very funny, which he is, but because I knew exactly how Ronna and Beverly would react. Jeff Garlin is like Justin Bieber to 50 something Jewish divorcees, which Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin perform as with eery accuracy. Not surprisingly, the proceedings were particularly charged, leading to Mr. Garlin laying out exactly how he wanted to sex Ronna (her ass would definitely be in the air and so on). The pair don’t break character or wink to the audience because they are the best. Ronna & Beverly is new to the Earwolf network and I'm excited for them to get access to all those earholes because they are so absurdly good at what they do.

JOEL: The Todd Glass Show #32 – Jen Kirkman, Daniel Kinno (Part 1)

This week’s Todd Glass Show is an exercise in killing time. As they wait for their late arriving guest (Jen Kirkman), Glass, Kinno and the rest of the studio crowd spend this episode screwing around with reckless abandon. There’s some healthy pivoting between the silly and sincere. At this point, the show’s foundation of exposing the riffing process and good-natured fun among Glass and his crew provide more than enough comedic fodder. The episode is filled with lots of fake anger. There’s more fun with music, including a Johnny Cash sing-off. Kinno steps up in the guest void with some stellar needling of Glass. Listeners are treated to another “Todd as fake cop” story – basically a reoccurring (and semi-alarming) segment at this point. Glass offers up the not-quite-classic-yet improv game of “yes and meaner.” It’s all full-steam ahead riffing. The show is in full tangent-in-bloom mode. Already looking forward to the next time Glass and the gang have some time to kill.

MARC: The Nerdist #170 – Seth Myers

The legitimacy of podcasts overall seems to be ever on the rise, judging by the caliber of guests that appear week in and week out on various shows. Nerdist is one that has been consistently scoring and Ep. #170 is no exception, with SNL’s Seth Meyers the big catch this week for host Chris Hardwick. Meyers doesn’t have to go far, as the chat takes place in the late night show’s green room (with Hardwick’s usual compatriots Jonah Ray and Matt Mira absent), which creates a challenge: The musical guest the week this interview was taped was Sleigh Bells, who are sound-checking next door most of the time, and it’s more than a little distracting. But Meyers busts through and manages to be charming, funny and forthcoming about his life during and before he broke on SNL a decade ago. He talks about the challenges of moving from the midwest to do improv theater in Amsterdam, where the humor almost but not quite always translated. He feels he was saved from possible Not Ready For Primetime obscurity when Lorne Michaels plopped him into the anchor chair for the vaunted Weekend Update segment. (And he relates a simple camera move he got from WU alumnus Dennis Miller that he said made all the difference in the world.) Hardwick tries to dig into the long history of behind-the-scenes in-fighting on the show, asking “Isn’t it super-Darwinian?” Meyers relates that, in actuality, “It’s never ‘back-bitey’ but it’s also not ‘back-patty’.” And although Meyers has come into performing stand-up relatively late in his improv and sketch heavy career, he relates how it really stood him in good stead when he performed in front of President Obama at the most recent Washington Press Correspondents Dinner where, he said, once he saw he’d made the Commander-in-Chief laugh, he knew everything else that night was going to go all right.

ROGER: Best Show on WFMU – Julie Klausner, Ted Leo

For two weeks every February, WFMU, the long time freeform radio station that accepts no money from sponsors, launches into all out fundraising mode to finance their station for the following twelve months. Considering that the likes of Patton Oswalt, Aimee Mann, Paul F. Tompkins, John Hodgman and Ben Gibbard have appeared on previous "marathon" shows, it's no surprise that this week's podcast review superstar Tom Scharpling and his The Best Show On WFMU generates the most buzz and cash for the station. The first money begging show of 2012 is worthy of a listen for Julie Klausner and Ted Leo's earnest interpretations of "Kiss From A Rose" and "Different Drum" alone, but Gary The Squirrel's incessant hazing of associate producer Mike and Vance The Puppet's conversational detours into his beloved prog rock (both of the creatures of felt are voiced by Scharpling) making their fundraising debuts almost took the spotlight away from the podcast celebrities. Frankly, the fact that Scharpling is portraying two puppets should be lame and maybe even a cry for help, but it fits right in with the show's sincerity with teeth dynamic. Jon Wurster's Philly Boy Roy phone call was the only disappointment, if only for the fact that when Wurster has been live in the studio during these shows the energy was a lot higher. That being said, P.B.R. outing real life human being, veteran Best Show fundraising co-host and WFMU DJ Therese as his secret lover, which Therese admitted to, can lead to a lot of fun stories in the future. To help keep the show and the station stay on the air, make a pledge at wfmu.org

HONORABLE MENTION:

Comedy Bang Bang #145 – David Wain, James Adomian, David Wain’s son, David Wain’s dad

Here to Help #20 – Matt Mayer, Matt Cutler

The Rough House #5 “Excellence in Management”, Part 2 of 3

Sklarboro Country #82 – Chris Fairbanks, James Adomian

The Dana Gould Hour #2 – Ed Crasnick

WTF with Marc Maron #254 – Bill Maher

Bradford Evans is a writer living in Los Angeles.

Joel Mandelkorn is the co-Founder of The Plop List, Producer at CleftClips, Producer of The Super Serious Show.

Marc Hershon is host of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast and author of I Hate People!

Roger Cormier has been retweeted by Dan Harmon on two separate occasions. In his spare time he asks Rupert Murdoch questions

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Sure, it’s not essential to get everything. Comedy is about maximizing the ridiculous, and it’s not like The Office needed to really be about a paper company to be good. But from the scene at the beginning of Battleground where an volunteer has to beg his way onto the campaign, and every single campaign scene in the surprisingly clueless Parks, I figured that Hollywood Funnypeople could use a guide as to What Campaigns Are and What They Are Not.

Volunteers Are Meat for the Grinder

In dealing with volunteers, your Campaign Official is like a stripper, and the volunteer is the slightly drunk middle manager. You need to make them feel like this experience is for them, and if they could just do one more thing for you, then that would make it even better. This can be mailing envelopes, entering data, phone banking, or that Champagne Room of volunteer activities, knocking on doors (in their own neighborhood!). You need them as a way to boost your stats, although you really don’t need any one volunteer individually. So, Battleground, this means that you do not mock your volunteer, and more importantly, you do not have him sit in on high level strategy meetings! But, at least Battleground acknowledges that people do the heavy lifting on political campaigns, for free! And yes, that jab is directed at you, Parks and Rec. I know Ann Perkins was designated Knope 2012’s Volunteer Coordinator, but even for her this is an abysmal outreach job into Pawnee. Surely Leslie has one devoted Superfan out there, willing to call every number in the phone book twice over and register convicted felons who just got put back on Indiana’s voting rolls.

More Important Than Volunteers Is Money, Money, Money

Let’s do a quick, partial tally of Knope 2012’s spending, shall we? We’ve got an opening event at the ice hockey rink, multiple television ads, focus groups, rented bowling alleys, free food, studio time at Double Time Recording, and so on, yet we haven’t seen a single fundraiser to pay for any of these things. This is where that realism thing comes in: I mean, it could be funny to stick Leslie in a small, closed room with nothing but a list of phone numbers to call potential big time donors for hours once, but to do it every day, like an actual candidate has to, would be a drag.

Battleground, for all it’s weaknesses, addressed money issues right away, and hopefully it’ll show the never-ending compromises and half-promises politicians at that level (in Battleground, the candidate is running for U.S Senate) have to make to get the endless levels of money you need to compete. But even in a small place like Pawnee, these things cost money and add up. I'm not saying it has to consume your world, just like I’m sure dealing with vendors for the Harvest Festival would be a bigger IRL hassle then it was in the Parks-verse. Just please, have someone donate something to Leslie, even if it’s only Entertainment 720 SwaggerCash.

Campaigns Are About Issues

If you’re a fellow hardened campaign veteran, maybe you’re chuckling at that header. Campaigns are about advertisements, the issues have been settled way beforehand, etc. Well, sitcoms are about why people choose to do the things they do. And for these shows, campaigns are ways for them to show what they aspire to be...which is never really made clear. Leslie’s long list of things she is pro- has been a great joke, but how about maybe discussing one of them? In Season One/Two she wanted to build a park, in Season Three run a successful festival, and now she’s running for office to do what, exactly? I mean, everyone on Parks and Rec is talented enough that it could just get away with saying “Pawnee is wonderful” a thousand times over, but why not let there be an actual issue in Pawnee that Leslie has to have an opinion about? That’s what happens in real life.

And Battleground’s problem here is something that other shows, like Showtime’s terror-drama Homeland, struggle with, for reasons I’m never quite sure. Are you familiar with the terms ‘Democrat’ and ‘Republican’? Because these shows, which deal with politicians, sure aren’t! It’s shocking to me that writers actually think they can create anything approaching a politics recognizable to Americans without at least addressing the fact that 99.9% of all political candidates for all political offices are of one of these two parties. Not that it has to be a central issue, but going back to The Office, imagine eight seasons in that we didn’t know these people sold paper, that they were just generic business-people. Besides allowing for highly marketable tie-in products, specificity makes things real, and more importantly, funny. Maybe the writers think that it will only expand their audience if they keep things as vague as possible, but I mean, The West Wing lasted seven season with Ds and Rs, so I don’t think it’ll be a dealbreaker.

Again, these are comedies, and comedies don’t necessarily have to reflect the complexity of buying ads in multiple Neilsen point regions or the drudgery of entering endless reams of data at the end of the every single Godforsaken day. But those are just details, even on the big picture things, these shows are getting it wrong. The Candidate got it right. The 1972 film starred Robert Redford as a no-shot Democratic Senate hopeful, getting the nomination because of his family name and trying to reconcile his political beliefs with actually winning. It captures the sense of ego and self-grandeur that comes naturally with running for office, like when Redford and his campaign manager force their way into a TV station:

People desperately needing to pretend that they know what they’re doing, that’s what campaigns are all about. They convince themselves that what they’re going to do is going to help everyone around them, even if it’s clearly only going to help themselves. Battleground isn’t a very good show, but it could improve by remembering that. Parks and Rec is a very good show, and one that’s not entirely bound by this arc. The campaign will end, Leslie will win or lose, and life in Pawnee will go on. But while it’s passing through, it’d be nice if got things right.

David Meir Grossman lives in Brooklyn, writes about music for Tablet, tweets about whatever here and rarely Tumbls here.

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Community — “Modern Warfare,” May 6, 2010

In what would come to define Community’s style, the original “paintball episode” is jam-packed with references to action movies, from Rambo to Predator to The Terminator (“Come with me if you don’t want paint on your clothes”). But the original story itself — and the development of Britta and Jeff’s relationship — is enhanced, not bogged down, by these cinematic allusions. It’s topped off with appearances from the reviled Glee Club as well as secondary character favorites Leonard, the Dean and Chang. The episode is funny, but it’s also nostalgic and suspenseful and just plain fun, all the while exploding the boundaries of what a sitcom can do. — Hallie Cantor

Arrested Development — “Pier Pressure,” January 11, 2004

It's next to impossible to have a favorite Arrested Development episode when they all intertwine and play off each other so well, but "Pier Pressure" is certainly a good place to start. It has so many things that make AD great – George Michael vowing “I was going to smoke the marijuana like a cigarette,” Lucille 2's vertigo problems, the 60s hit single "The Big Yellow Joint," the Hot Cops, and George Sr.’s final lesson to his son using his one-armed friend J. Walter Weatherman. Wrap that up with a one-upmanship double pot bust and you get the tight but ridiculously layered goodness that makes watching this show from start to finish more rewarding each time. And remember: Always leave a note. — Megh Wright

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David Wain spent the early part of his career jumping from cult hit to cult hit as a writer, director, and actor on The State, Stella, and Wet Hot American Summer. Wain's comedies never achieved much mainstream success until he signed on to replace the original director of Role Models and rewrote the movie's script with his friends and frequent collaborators Ken Marino and Paul Rudd. Role Models became David Wain's biggest commercial hit yet, effectively fusing his offbeat style with a more conventional narrative without losing any of the laughs. Tomorrow sees the release of Wain's fourth film, Wanderlust, starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. The movie was produced by Judd Apatow, another guy who made his fair share of little-seen cult hits before transitioning to being one of the movie industry's preeminent comedy guys.

Let's take a look at the various movie and TV projects David Wain has been involved with over the years that have yet to make it to the screen, including the parody of romantic comedies he wrote with Michael Showalter, the Comedy Central series that could have done for teachers what Reno 911! did for cops, and the long-in-gestation movie projects he has with The State and Stella.

The State on CBS (1995)
Writer/Director/Star
The State was offered the chance to renew their contract at MTV, where their sketch show was a big hit, in 1995, but instead, the group accepted an offer from CBS. The deal with CBS stipulated that The State would create a series of specials, and if the ratings to said specials were high enough, they would be given a weekly late night sketch show. CBS aired their first — and only — special, a Halloween show, in 1995 with very little promotion. CBS announced the special so late that it didn't make it into TV Guide's Halloween preview, and this was back in the pre-DVR days when TV Guide mattered. The State's first special did about as poorly in the ratings as you'd expect, and CBS canceled the show a few days later. Instead of moving to another network, The State disbanded but continued to work together in a smaller groups.

For more info on The State's rocky transition to network TV and subsequent breakup, check out this great 1996 piece from Details.

Cap’n Ricky… Also Featuring Karl (in development 2001)
Director
David Wain was hired to direct this comedy from writer Mark Perez (Accepted) that followed “the zany adventures of Ricardo Brubaker aka Cap'n Ricky, who pilots the jungle boat ride at a run-down Florida amusement park.” It sounds like a project that’s equally commercial and weird, and it could have been a nice way for David Wain to move his sensibilities toward the mainstream. The project fell apart before production began. Wain referred to Cap ’n Ricky as a “great script,” but this one just wasn’t meant to be.

They Came Together (in development 2003)
Writer/Director
After Wet Hot American Summer, David Wain and Michael Showalter wrote another screenplay with each other. They Came Together is a parody of 80s/90s rom-coms set in New York, but it was never produced. Wain and Showalter held a well-received reading of the script last month at San Francisco Sketchfest, with an impressive comedy nerd dream team that included Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Phil LaMarr, Erinn Hayes, Rachael Harris, and Michael Ian Black.

Publish or Perish (unsold HBO pilot, 2003)
Creator/Producer
David Wain and Michael Showalter created a show called Publish or Perish as a vehicle for Janeane Garofalo in 2003, but the pilot never made it into production. Garofalo worked well with these guys in Wet Hot and the episode of Stella she guest starred in, and it would have been neat to see them collaborate again. Little is known about the plot to this one, but based on the title, I'd guess that Garofalo was playing either a college professor or a publisher. The phrase "publish or perish" was memorably spoken by Garofalo in Wet Hot American Summer.

Wain also worked on two other pilots around this time: Middle Class Poverty, a 2004 show for NBC that starred Anna Tessler and Lauren Engel, and an untitled NBC show for Bobby Cannavale in 2005.

Teacher’s Lounge (unsold Comedy Central pilot, 2005)
Writer/Director/Producer
David Wain was set to write and produce this prospective show from creators Matt Ballard and Chris Crockett. Teacher’s Lounge has nothing to do with the memorable The State sketch of the same name besides sharing the same subject matter: a dysfunctional group of teachers. A 7-minute mini-pilot for the show was produced independently and can be viewed below. Wain regulars Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Ian Black, and Mather Zickel starred, along with Andrea Rosen and Bobby Tisdale. It's a shame Comedy Central didn't go for this one, as it could have skewered education in much the same way that the other half of The State skewered policing for Comedy Central in Reno 911!

Seniors (in development 2007)
Director
Jon Zack (Puss in Boots, Out Cold) wrote this comedy that David Wain signed on to direct in 2007. Not much is known about the plot, but Lily Tomlin was attached to star. Wain ended up leaving the project to rewrite and direct Role Models, which became his biggest hit to date, so I’m guessing he doesn’t regret abandoning Seniors.

The Station (unsold 2009 Fox pilot)
Director
David Wain was hired to direct this pilot for Ben Stiller’s production company Red Hour. The Station starred Justin Bartha, John Goodman, Carla Gallo, Rob Huebel, and Jordan Peele and followed a group of CIA operatives at a secret outpost in South America. Fox passed on the show, prompting Ben Stiller to tweet, “I like to produce a failed pilot for Fox about once every ten years. Latest was the Station. Written directed and acted by a great group.”

Too Cool to be Forgotten (2010)
Director
David Wain was “circling” this adaptation of Alex Robinson’s graphic novel about a 42 year old man with kids who is accidentally transported back in time to his high school days. Wain made Wanderlust instead. Two years later, Too Cool to be Forgotten is still in development, but David Wain doesn't seem to be involved.

Cartoon Show (unsold IFC pilot, 2011)
Writer/Developer/Producer
David Wain and Ken Marino signed on to write and develop this animated show that was created by Aaron Augenblick and Chris Burns. Cartoon Show was about a group of iconic cartoon characters who each week put on a variety show together. The set-up sounds pretty similar to Comedy Central’s Drawn Together, just swapping out the reality show for a variety show. IFC elected to not pick up the series.

A Stella movie (development ongoing)
Writer/Director/Star
Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain, the three members of Stella, have long wanted to make a Stella movie. In the summer of 2009, Showalter and Black said they were working on a script, but no news has come in since then. Maybe someday we’ll get to see a Stella movie, but it doesn’t look like it’s close to happening right now, with a Wet Hot American Summer follow-up seeming like what’s next for these guys.

The State Movie
Writer/Director/Star
Since disbanding in the mid-90s, the eleven members of The State have continued to work with each other in various combinations, but they haven’t all starred in and created a movie/TV project since the original MTV show. When asked about a State film in 2009, David Wain had this to say:

“There's always internal development of various State-related projects because we've always stayed friends and always kept working together. The logistical and scheduling hurdles of a large-scale project like that are tough, but I would never say never. We did do an hour of brand new material on stage in San Francisco this past January.”

It would be pretty great to see The State reunite for a full-length film, but given the busy schedules of everyone in the group and that the group is split between LA and NY, I wouldn’t count on it happening any time soon.

Bradford Evans is a writer living in Los Angeles.

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