The number of amazing pilots that made it onto Channel 101’s programming is simply too large to give every show the appreciation it deserves. Big name comedians like Bob Odenkirk, Drew Carrey, and Aziz Ansari have all appeared in videos, among countless other celebrities and creators. Just about every great LA based comedian of the 2000’s at one point tried something weird, uncomfortable, and amazing in a Channel 101 video — the festival was a cultural hub, free from naysayers and gatekeepers like the ignorant Fox executives who dared to cancel Heat Vision and Jack with only an audience to appease.
In 2007, Harmon and Schrab briefly adapted their guerilla TV network into a short-lived VH1 show called Acceptable.TV, which ran in a similar format to the live show and featured some of their favorite festival submissions.
Channel 101 came about right at the beginning of the internet content boom, just before the emergence of YouTube, and it was the perfect platform for those proto-viral videos to find a real-life audience and for artists to use the festival as a stepping stone on the path to mainstream success. It was, and is, a pure creative space for comedic filmmakers to make mistakes, to fail, and to find their voice. Long before monetization was even a possibility for this style of low budget, short-runtime comedy, Channel 101 stood as a non-profit bastion of comedic freedom and experimentation.
The festival continues to this day, albeit with less involvement from Harmon and Schrab. Anyone interested in living out their fantasy of being a Roman Emperor at a gladiator fight is welcome to attend one of their free monthly showings at The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles and decide which pilots will live or die.
Top Image: Vanity Card Productions
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