Kevin Carroll is joining the cast of The Earliest Show, the officially greenlit six-part television revival of Ben Schwartz’s cult Funny or Die comedy.
The series is based on the original Funny or Die comedy in which Schwartz and Lapkus played the hosts of America’s earliest live morning show, broadcasting at 3 a.m. sharp from a tiny upstate New York town. The revival follows the same basic setup, with Schwartz writing and directing all six episodes.
Carroll will star as a series regular alongside Schwartz, Lauren Lapkus and Ryan Gaul, with Henry Winkler and Brandon Scott Jones taking recurring roles.
The greenlight comes from Amplify Pictures and indie studio Stay Tuned, who are co-financing and jointly taking the project to market. Irony Point and Funny or Die are also attached.
“Exactly the kind of bold, inventive series that indie TV was made for, wildly original, occasionally unhinged and undeniably hilarious,” said Amplify CEO Joe Lewis.
Executive producers include Amplify’s Joe Lewis, Rachel Eggebeen, Colin King Miller and Luke Esselen, Kenny Neibart, Douglas Banker and Barry Kotler from Stay Tuned, Daniel Powell and Alex Bach from Irony Point, Schwartz and Funny or Die’s Ricardo Martinez, Ben Gigli and Jessica Renick.