Here’s the first episode of Michael Ian Black’s new Adult Swim show You’re Whole, a phony 11-minute self-improvement infomercial he stars in as ponytailed sleazebag Randall Tyree Mandersohn. Black wrote the series with Stella/State buddy Michael Showalter directing. Adult Swim produced three episodes, which will be airing at 4am over the next three weeks. The first episode (above) will be playing on Adult Swim at 4am M-F this week, with the second episode airing at that time every day next week, and the third the week after.
Adult Swim is no stranger to airing fake infomercials created by comedians early in the morning. Three years ago, David Cross and Jon Benjamin created a similar show called Paid Programming (a.k.a. “Icelandic Ultra Blue”) but the network didn’t make more than one episode after Cross and Benjamin couldn’t get them to agree to air the show at 4:30am, sandwiched between other infomercials with no promotion and only the generic title “Paid Programming” appearing on DVR guides. At least Michael Ian Black is recognizable as a comedic actor, whereas neither Cross nor Benjamin appeared in Paid Programming, preferring to use unknown actors instead, and Black is allowing Adult Swim to promote the show and You’re Whole seems to be a more mainstream version of Paid Programming, from another pair of super funny guys, Black and Showalter, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Adult Swim orders more episodes or lets this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass them by.