Paul Rust To Star In TV Comedy Series About Working At Wal-Mart
By Russ Fischer/Oct. 21, 2009 10:12 am EST
How does this show not exist yet? Oh, sure, there are workplace comedies. But America’s big-box and discount chain stores, of which Wal-mart is the rarely-disputed and ready to be deposed king, haven’t played home to a sitcom that targets what it’s like to actually work for one of the stores day in and day out. Actor Paul Rust (Semi-Pro, I Love You Beth Cooper, and glimpsed in Inglourious Basterds) worked for Wal-mart after college, and now he’s sold NBC on a half-hour sitcom based on the experience.
The show, which Variety says is as yet untitled, won’t take place at an actual Wal-mart, which is unfortunate. Allowing that to happen might show that the company has a sense of humor. Instead it will be set in a ‘fictional big-box’ store, and hopefully at the end of one of the show’s seasons we’ll get to see it burn. “This is the beginning of a long-running career in which I base things on industries that could cripple me legally,” says Rust. Rust says he worked at Wal-mart in LeMars, Iowa, and found that some of his co-workers at the time were oddly familiar, like his former high school principal. There’s a lot of comedy ready to be mined from seeing both the working conditions and clash of personalities at a store like that, but also in seeing how economic shifts push people to do things they wouldn’t expect. It’s the sitcom Roget & Me! (Or, if really well cast and written it could be the workplace companion to Roseanne.)
The only catch here is that there’s already a high bar set for comedy set at Wal-Mart. If this show isn’t at least as funny as People of Wal-Mart, it will be a total failure. At least Rust doesn’t have to develop a show bible; all he’s got to do is point his production and costume designers to that site and it’s ready to go.
Paul Rust To Star In TV Comedy Series About Working At Wal-Mart
By Russ Fischer/Oct. 21, 2009 10:12 am EST
How does this show not exist yet? Oh, sure, there are workplace comedies. But America’s big-box and discount chain stores, of which Wal-mart is the rarely-disputed and ready to be deposed king, haven’t played home to a sitcom that targets what it’s like to actually work for one of the stores day in and day out. Actor Paul Rust (Semi-Pro, I Love You Beth Cooper, and glimpsed in Inglourious Basterds) worked for Wal-mart after college, and now he’s sold NBC on a half-hour sitcom based on the experience.
The show, which Variety says is as yet untitled, won’t take place at an actual Wal-mart, which is unfortunate. Allowing that to happen might show that the company has a sense of humor. Instead it will be set in a ‘fictional big-box’ store, and hopefully at the end of one of the show’s seasons we’ll get to see it burn. “This is the beginning of a long-running career in which I base things on industries that could cripple me legally,” says Rust. Rust says he worked at Wal-mart in LeMars, Iowa, and found that some of his co-workers at the time were oddly familiar, like his former high school principal. There’s a lot of comedy ready to be mined from seeing both the working conditions and clash of personalities at a store like that, but also in seeing how economic shifts push people to do things they wouldn’t expect. It’s the sitcom Roget & Me! (Or, if really well cast and written it could be the workplace companion to Roseanne.)
The only catch here is that there’s already a high bar set for comedy set at Wal-Mart. If this show isn’t at least as funny as People of Wal-Mart, it will be a total failure. At least Rust doesn’t have to develop a show bible; all he’s got to do is point his production and costume designers to that site and it’s ready to go.
The show, which Variety says is as yet untitled, won’t take place at an actual Wal-mart, which is unfortunate. Allowing that to happen might show that the company has a sense of humor. Instead it will be set in a ‘fictional big-box’ store, and hopefully at the end of one of the show’s seasons we’ll get to see it burn. “This is the beginning of a long-running career in which I base things on industries that could cripple me legally,” says Rust.
Rust says he worked at Wal-mart in LeMars, Iowa, and found that some of his co-workers at the time were oddly familiar, like his former high school principal. There’s a lot of comedy ready to be mined from seeing both the working conditions and clash of personalities at a store like that, but also in seeing how economic shifts push people to do things they wouldn’t expect. It’s the sitcom Roget & Me! (Or, if really well cast and written it could be the workplace companion to Roseanne.)
The only catch here is that there’s already a high bar set for comedy set at Wal-Mart. If this show isn’t at least as funny as People of Wal-Mart, it will be a total failure. At least Rust doesn’t have to develop a show bible; all he’s got to do is point his production and costume designers to that site and it’s ready to go.
