Portlandia
Portlandia is an American sketch comedy television series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, set in and around Portland, Oregon, and spoofing the city's reputation as a haven for eccentric hipsters.[1] The show was produced by Broadway Video Television and IFC Original Productions. It was created by Armisen and Brownstein, along with Jonathan Krisel, who directs it. It debuted on IFC on January 21, 2011.[2]
This article is about the American TV series. For other uses, see Portlandia (disambiguation).Portlandia
ThunderAnt by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein
- Fred Armisen
- Carrie Brownstein
- Jonathan Krisel
- Allison Silverman (season 1)
- Karey Dornetto (seasons 2, 4–6 & 8)
- Bill Oakley (seasons 2–3)
- Graham Wagner (seasons 4–8)
- Karen Kilgariff (season 7)
- Megan Neuringer (season 8)
- Phoebe Robinson (season 8)
- Jonathan Krisel (seasons 1–7)
- Various (seasons 5–8)
- Fred Armisen
- Carrie Brownstein
"Feel It All Around" by Washed Out
United States
English
8
77 (list of episodes)
- Lorne Michaels
- Jonathan Krisel
- Fred Armisen
- Carrie Brownstein
- Andrew Singer
- Broadway Video
- IFC Original Productions
January 21, 2011 –
March 22, 2018
The show shared its title with the sculpture of the same name that sits above the entrance of the Portland Building on Fifth Avenue in downtown Portland,[3] which appears in the show's title sequence. The show has won a Peabody Award.
In January 2017, the series was renewed for an eighth and final season, which concluded on March 22, 2018.[4]
Production[edit]
Conception and development[edit]
Brownstein and Armisen first met in 2003 and began collaborating on a series of comedy sketches for the Internet in 2005 titled ThunderAnt. The sketches became increasingly Portland-centric, with premises ranging from irate diners at a popular Hawthorne District restaurant registering ridiculous complaints on the review website Yelp! to a character's disastrous one-man performance at the city's Hollywood Theatre.[5]
In July 2009, the duo pitched their idea for a full-fledged sketch comedy show to IFC and Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video production company, and the project was quickly approved.[5]
Some of the content on the show first appeared in the Internet series. For example, the "Women & Women First" feminist bookstore sketch and its characters, Toni and Candace, originated there.[6]
Filming and production[edit]
The series is set and filmed on location in Portland, Oregon. Production for the first season, consisting of six episodes, began in August 2010 and was completed in September 2010.[7] The budget for the first season was set at less than $1 million (US).[5] Along with Allison Silverman, a former head writer and executive producer for The Colbert Report, and Portlandia director Jonathan Krisel, Armisen and Brownstein wrote the sketches that appear in the first six episodes. Lorne Michaels served as executive producer.[8]
The series stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein in various roles. Guest stars include: Tim Heidecker; Kirsten Dunst; Olivia Wilde; Selma Blair; Chloë Sevigny; Roseanne Barr; Steve Buscemi; Claire Danes; Kristen Wiig; Rose Byrne; Andy Samberg; Rachel Bloom; Ed Begley Jr.; Aimee Mann; Johnny Marr; Sarah McLachlan; KD Lang; Jello Biafra; Kurt Vile; Heather Graham; Parker Posey; Michael Nesmith; Glenn Danzig; Aubrey Plaza; Rashida Jones; Anna Gunn; Jane Lynch; Kumail Nanjiani; Jason Sudeikis; Ehren McGhehey; Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam; Greta Gerwig; Edward James Olmos; Brigitte Nielsen; J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.; Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Fred Schneider of The B-52's; Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age;[9] Gus Van Sant; Tim Robbins; Martina Navratilova; Jeff Goldblum; Joanna Newsom; Annie Clark of St. Vincent; Jack White; Paul Simon; Henry Rollins; Krist Novoselic; Portland Trail Blazers players LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Robin Lopez as themselves; and Kyle MacLachlan as a fictional mayor of Portland. Actual Portland mayor Sam Adams is also featured as an assistant to the mayor.[2][10] Another episode, including a fictionalized music festival similar to Portland's actual MusicfestNW, featured a rock band played by Colin Meloy and Jenny Conlee of The Decemberists; James Mercer of The Shins; Brownstein's Sleater-Kinney bandmates Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss; and Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.[11]
On February 14, 2011, IFC ordered a ten-episode second season, which began airing in January 2012.[12] On March 21, 2012, IFC announced its renewal of the show for a third season.[13] On June 12, 2013, the network announced its renewal of Portlandia for fourth and fifth seasons, of ten episodes each, that aired in early 2014 and early 2015.[14] On February 10, 2015, it was announced that IFC had picked up Portlandia for sixth and seventh seasons.[15]
In January 2017, the series was renewed for an eighth and final season to debut in 2018.[4] Filming for the final season began in Portland in June 2017.[16]
Home media and international release[edit]
Portlandia: Season One was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray on December 6, 2011, and Region 4 on August 1, 2012. The one disc set consists of all six episodes of its first season. Special features include; Extended Scenes, Bloopers, An IFC Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, "Thunder Ant" Sketches, and Audio Commentary by Armisen and Brownstein.[36][37]
Portlandia: Season Two was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray on September 25, 2012, and Region 4 on August 7, 2013. The two disc set consists of all ten episodes of season two. Special features include; "Portlandia: the Tour: Seattle" Featurette, "Inside Portlandia" Featurette, "Feminist Bookstore" Deleted Scene, "Brunch Village: the Director's Cut", Excerpt from the Portlandia book and Audio Commentary by Armisen, Brownstein and Krisel.[38]
There is also a combination set of both seasons available.[39] Portlandia was also distributed in some countries on the iTunes store, Netflix and Amazon Video.[40] In Australia it is screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's station ABC2 and on its iView video streaming service.[41] The series was premiered in Latin America on March 27, 2012, on the channel I.Sat.
