Are you an Alpha or a Beta? You can decide this month when the four senators-turned-unlikely-roommates of “Alpha House” and the endearing, young tech industry entrepreneurs of “Betas” come back to Amazon in 11-episode series. “Alpha House” debuts November 15 and “Betas” will follow on November 22.
The first three episodes of each show will be available to all Amazon customers for free via Amazon Instant Video on Kindle Fire, iPad, iPhone, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Wii U, and other connected devices, and online at Amazon.com/AIV. After that, one episode of each show will become available weekly, exclusively on Prime Instant Video. Those who havent already viewed the pilot episodesor those who want to relive them ahead of the series debutscan access them now on any Amazon Instant Video app or at Amazon.com/AIV.
“Based on customers’ enthusiastic response to the pilot episodes we are counting down the days until we can share more of the political and entrepreneurial exploits of our Alpha House and Betas characters. Our goal is to make great TV shows that customers will love and we hope theyre going to love these shows, said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. We will release three episodes upfront for all customers so they can try out the shows and get to know the characters. Then we will release new episodes via Prime Instant Video week by week so that customers can chat about the shows and build up anticipation. Were constantly experimenting and trying new thingsand were eager to hear customers feedback on this model.”
“Alpha House,” which was written by Academy Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau and produced by Trudeau, Elliot Webb and Jonathan Alter, is a comedy about four misfit senators (John Goodman, Clark Johnson, Matt Malloy and Mark Consuelos) who rent a house together in Washington DC. The roomies are joined by Cynthia Nixon, Amy Sedaris, Wanda Sykes, and Julie White, who share in the outrageousand sometimes all-too-realfollies of Washington politics.
“The first season is about the fight for survival among incumbent Republican senators first elected in the pre-Tea Party era. Even though theyre all solidly conservative, three of the four senators living in Alpha House are facing strong primary challenges from the right. The struggle to hold onto their core values drives both the comedy and the drama in our show,” said Garry Trudeau. “We think weve kept the show realistic in its essential details, while taking broad satirical liberties you might expect. We also tried to make a few political points along the way, but mostly, we wanted the show to be as much fun for the audience as we and the cast had making it.”
Set in the land of Silicon Valley start-ups, “Betas,” written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard, follows four friends as they attempt to strike it rich with a new mobile social networking app. Joe Dinicol, Karan Soni, Jon Daly, Charlie Saxton, and Maya Erskine star in the show, with special appearances from Ed Begley Jr. Michael Lehmann directs and produces the show along with Emmy Award winners Alan Freedland and Alan Cohen, and Academy Award nominee Michael London.
“We’re thrilled that Amazon has given us the creative freedom to produce a show like Betas,” said Alan Freedland. “And were excited for audiences to watch it on their TVs, tablets, phones…and devices not yet invented.”
