tek's rating:

LearningTown, on YouTube / Geek & Sundry
G&S Wiki; IMDb; Paul and Storm; TV Tropes; YouTube

This is written and produced by the musical comedy duo Paul and Storm, who also star in the show. I don't think I'd ever heard of them before the show was announced when "Geek & Sundry" started in 2012, though I suppose it's possible I had. Anyway, the show was somewhat delayed, and didn't start until 2013. The characters they play are a musical comedy duo named Paul and Storm, who are presumably a slightly fictionalized version of who they are in real life. Um, I'm afraid I still have trouble remembering which one is Paul and which is Storm; I basically just see two guys who both have Van Dykes and glasses. As far as their personalities on the show are concerned, Storm seems to be more of a man-child, and Paul is more cynical. I think.

Anyway... the premise of the show is that there was this long-running children's TV show called "LearningTown," hosted by a guy called Learning Larry. The pilot begins with Larry dying on the day Paul and Storm were supposed to make a guest appearance on his show. There's a newer, more popular kids' show called "Hikky Burr," made by a couple of hipster guys called Ace and Karen, who are both jerks. It's assumed that their show will get LearningTown's coveted time slot, but a guy from the network (who is modeled after Slugworth from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) offers Storm a chance for him and Paul to take over as hosts of LearningTown, instead. Storm's been a fan of the show since he was a kid, so he convinces Paul to accept the offer. (There's also a weird guy named Teddy who works for Paul and Storm, and joins them on the show as like a puppeteer or whatever. It didn't seem to me like he was very important at first, but by the last few episodes of season one, he was like the funniest character on the show.)

Of course, Ace and Karen are annoyed that they don't get the time slot, so they'll become rivals of Paul and Storm. Also, there's a woman named Cookie Tuesdays who works on Hikky Burr. But Ace and Karen treat her badly, so she quits their show, and becomes the producer of LearningTown. Paul and Storm are much nicer, but they also are totally clueless about how to make a kids' show, so they make a lot of ridiculous mistakes, and Cookie constantly ends up frustrated and annoyed by them. She keeps trying to make the show better, and they basically keep making it worse, despite their best efforts to do a good job.

Um... so, there's at least one song in every episode, which may be performed by any of the main characters or by guest stars. It's a fairly funny and often crazy show (which is definitely not for kids). It started off kinda "meh," but got progressively better throughout the season. There's a bit of a twist at the end of the season, so season two should be a bit different. Or not. I was looking forward to seeing what happens next, but unfortunately it didn't get renewed for a second season.


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