"Nobody's Watching": The Show That *Everyone* Is Watching

For those of you that are soooo last May right now, the big news in TV's off-season is the emergence of a quirky little sitcom pilot that has turned up on YouTube after two networks passed on it. "Nobody's Watching" is the brainchild of Bill Lawrence, the principal writer for Scrubs, plus two other writers from Scrubs and Family Guy. Here's a news article with more background details from Ohio.com, and another version of the story at Engadget. (EDIT: An even better article can be found at the NY Times.)

You can watch the show in three parts by clicking below. If these embedded videos do not work, links are found below the videos.

Nobody's Watching pilot, Part 1


Nobody's Watching pilot, Part 2


Nobody's Watching pilot, Part 3


Direct Links:
Nobody's Watching pilot, Part 1
Nobody's Watching pilot, Part 2
Nobody's Watching pilot, Part 3

Some initial thoughts... I think this is a great concept for a show, with pretty good writing and very good acting. I wouldn't have thought that a scripted show about two guys being pulled into an unscripted reality show about creating a new scripted sitcom would work -- but it does.

It's flaws are minor -- after Derrick delivers Chandler's signature "Could this *BE* any cooler?" line on the fake Friends set, it's completely unnecessary for him to point to himself and say, "Chandler". We all got it, and those that didn't get it right away won't know who Chandler is anyway.

It will be interesting to see if the show now gets picked up, and more interestingly, what other failed pilots find a second life on YouTube...