Tim & Eric

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are an American comedy duo and creators of the Adult Swim television series Tom Goes to the Mayor; Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!; Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule; and Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories.

Wareheim and Heidecker met in 1994 at Temple University in Philadelphia, becoming instant friends. They began producing a number of short low-budget films and cartoons for their website. Their short entitled Tom Goes to the Mayor was selected by the Philadelphia Institute of World Cinema as a short film and was included in The University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Contemporary Art.

In 2001, the two compiled a tape of many of their shorts and submitted it to various comedic heroes, including Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk, who reacted to their work with enthusiasm and agreed to collaborate with them on a pilot of Tom Goes to the Mayor, which was submitted to and greenlit by Adult Swim and adapted as a series. It appeared on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and ran for two seasons. They then created another Adult Swim program, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, which ran for five seasons and established a cult following for the duo. They have also released a CD with music from Awesome Show entitled Tim and Eric Awesome Record, Great Songs! and in 2012 they released a feature film, Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie.

The duo's work is known for its distinctive and often grotesque nature, typically featuring "bad fashions, worse hair, intentionally stilted line readings, takes that linger two seconds too long, and an intense attention to the tchotchkes and hobbies everyday people substitute for personalities."^[1] Their projects often feature amateur performers and intentionally crude or tacky production values inspired by low-budget television advertising, public access television, and video art.

Early years and internet shorts

Heidecker was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He attended Allentown Central Catholic High School and Temple University. Wareheim was born in Philadelphia; he graduated from Methacton High School in Norristown, Pennsylvania and then later attended Temple University, where he met his comedy partner Tim Heidecker and produced his first film about dads, shot on the Jersey shore. They soon created TimAndEric.com in 2002, a website designed to display their comedic talents.^[2]

Career

Tom Goes to the Mayor

Wareheim and Heidecker became the creators, writers, and stars of Tom Goes to the Mayor, a limited animation series that was on the Adult Swim programming block on Cartoon Network. Wareheim and Heidecker had mailed copies of an early version of the show to comedian Bob Odenkirk, who agreed to take on the project as the executive producer of the series and sold it to Cartoon Network. Wareheim played "The Mayor," an official who always managed to destroy Tom's well-intentioned plans often along with the entire town as well.

Awesome Show and breakthrough success

In 2006, Adult Swim greenlit Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and before the end of the year episodes were produced. It was created by and starred Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, and premiered February 11, 2007 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim comedy block and ran until May 2010. The program features surrealistic and often satirical humor (at points anti-humor), public-access television-style performances, bizarre faux-commercials, and kitsch editing and special effects.

Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule

Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule is a spin-off of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! starring John C. Reilly as Dr. Steve Brule. Heidecker described the show to Entertainment Weekly as "a show that genuinely feels like this guy made it himself. It's as if it's 4:30 in the morning he had snuck into the studio to make this show without getting permission. It's bare bones. Lots of technical problems. Just a mess. The whole thing is a big mess. A big beautiful mess."^[3]

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (shorthand B$M) is a 2012 comedy film starring, and written and directed by Heidecker and Wareheim. Supporting actors include Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, Jeff Goldblum, John C. Reilly, Erica Durance, and Will Forte, many of whom guest-starred on Awesome Show. It was released in theaters on March 2, 2012, and was released to iTunes and on-demand January 27, 2013.^[4]

Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories

Adult Swim picked up Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories after the pilot episode aired as a Halloween special on October 31, 2013, with a seven-episode season debuting on September 18, 2014.^[5] The series, which aired an additional two episodes in 2015, is an anthology loosely based on The Twilight Zone and other horror series.

Other projects

In 2009, Tim and Eric tried to work with Tommy Wiseau in developing his TV pilot The Neighbors for Adult Swim, but later backed out of the project due to creative differences with Wiseau.^[6]

Tim and Eric, along with LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy and comedian Gregg Turkington, starred in the 2012 dramedy The Comedy.

Tim & Eric collaborated with Michael Cera, Sarah Silverman and Reggie Watts in the creation of the web-based comedy YouTube channel Jash.^[7][8] They released a series of six shorts on the channel, titled Tim & Eric's Go Pro Show, in which they attach cameras to their heads and film a reality show.

Tim and Eric's first book, Tim and Eric's Zone Theory: 7 Easy Steps to Achieve a Perfect Life, was published in July 2015.

Abso Lutely Productions

Abso Lutely Productions is a film and television production company owned by actor and producers Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and producer Dave Kneebone. It is known for producing the long-running series Tom Goes to the Mayor, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule.

References

External links

• Abso Lutely Productions Website
• Official Tim & Eric's channel on YouTube
• Tim Heidecker's channel on YouTube
• Eric Wareheim's channel on YouTube
• Interview on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn