Flight of the Conchords (TV series)

*Flight of the Conchords*
Flight of the Conchords
Genre	Musical; Comedy
Created by	James Bobin; Jemaine Clement; Bret McKenzie
Starring	Jemaine Clement; Bret McKenzie; Rhys Darby; Kristen Schaal; Arj Barker
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	22 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	James Bobin; Stu Smiley; Troy Miller
Producer	Anna Dokoza
Production location	New York City
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	26 minutes
Original release
Network	HBO
Release	June 17, 2007 –; March 22, 2009

Flight of the Conchords is an American television comedy series that follows the adventures of Flight of the Conchords, a two-man band from New Zealand, as its members seek fame and success in New York City. The show stars the real-life duo, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who play fictionalized versions of themselves.

On December 11, 2009, the duo announced that they would not return for a third season.^[1]

Plot

The series centers on the day-to-day lives and loves of two shepherds-turned-musicians, Jemaine and Bret (Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, playing fictionalized versions of themselves), who have uprooted themselves from their native New Zealand to try to make it big as a novelty folk duo in New York City. The two have frequent appointments with their band manager, Murray Hewitt (Rhys Darby), a Deputy Cultural Attaché at the New Zealand consulate, who is overly officious and ineffectual. Jemaine and Bret constantly fend off the amorous attentions of Mel (Kristen Schaal), a married woman who is their sole fan and stalker. Their friend Dave Mohumbhai (Arj Barker) works at a pawn shop and gives them advice on dealing with American women and culture. Other recurring characters include their landlord, Eugene (played by Eugene Mirman), Bret's short-term girlfriend Coco (Sutton Foster), Jemaine and Bret's ex-girlfriend Sally (Rachel Blanchard) and Murray's put-upon assistant Greg (Frank Wood).

Most episodes center on the five main cast members. The antagonists outside of this small group are usually either their girlfriends or Australians (see "Bret Gives Up the Dream", "Sally Returns").

Jemaine or Bret break into song periodically throughout each episode. The songs are built into the narrative structure of the show in several different ways. Some songs form part of the plot of the show. In these instances, Bret or Jemaine sing to another character. Other songs serve as the internal monologue of one of the two. Typically, at least once per show, a song is shot in the form of a music video. Some songs use a combination of the styles. For example, in the first episode, "Sally", the song "Most Beautiful Girl in the Room" is a mix of Jemaine's inner thoughts, which are inaudible to those around him, and his spoken invitations to Sally to get a kebab and to go back to his place, while the music video for "Business Time" (from "Sally Returns") depicts a daydream that Jemaine is having. As the series has evolved, other main characters have also had their own musical interludes that are depicted in a similar manner to Jemaine and Bret's own songs.

The enthusiastic manner in which the characters express themselves through song is in stark contrast to the very low-key, monotone manner in which the characters express themselves throughout the rest of the show. Thus, when the characters cannot verbalize their feelings, the songs serve as inner monologues and explain the thoughts and feelings they are unable to communicate to others.^[2]

==History==The show's first incarnation was as a radio comedy series for the BBC on Radio 4 in the UK. It was created by Clement, McKenzie and James Bobin. Bobin serves as the show's main writer and director. The first episode of the TV series aired on HBO on June 17, 2007. The series received 100,000 views for the first season premiere scored on MySpace.^[3]

On August 17, 2007, HBO announced a second season for Flight of the Conchords, originally set to premiere in 2008,^[4] but which was postponed to January 2009. Prior to the announcement, Jemaine Clement stated in an interview with The New Zealand Herald, "[HBO] is interested in doing another series but we have to think about it. It's not a definite offer but they have talked about us starting writing but we've got other things we want to do as well".^[5] McKenzie stated that the second season took longer to produce because the band had used most of their material in the first season. In an interview with The Star Ledger, he said "We'd need some time to develop new material. It's like the second album syndrome. It might take a lot longer".^[6] Shortly after the renewal announcement, Clement stated in an interview that the second season would likely consist of fewer than twelve episodes "so they could concentrate on 'quality not quantity'".

McKenzie and Clement returned to their home town of Wellington to write for the second season,^[7] although the writing process was delayed by the 2007–2008 Writers Strike. Filming for the 10 episode second series began in September 2008. That same month, McKenzie and Clement were quoted in a Q interview that the second season would most likely be the last.^[8]

The second season of the show premiered on January 18, 2009 on HBO. It gathered 250,000 streams in its first 10 days on FunnyOrDie.com. Unlike the first season, the second season was filmed and broadcast in High Definition. The first episode of the season has been made available for streaming at http://www.hbo.com/conchords.

In Australia, the second season of the show first aired on June 8, 2009 on SBS. SBS also made the episodes available for streaming (from within Australia only).^[9] The DVD of the second season was released in Australia on July 29, 2009.^[10]

On December 11, 2009, McKenzie and Clement announced that the show would not return for a third season. Clement had previously stated that writing the show took up a great deal of time.^[1]

Cast

Main cast

Name	Played by	Description
Jemaine Clemaine^[11]	Jemaine Clement	Band member; plays bass among other things. Bret's roommate. He rarely smiles or laughs and typically overthinks even the most mundane situations.
Bret McClegnie^[11]	Bret McKenzie	Band member; plays guitar and piano. Jemaine's roommate, always wearing "animal" has-been t-shirt.
Murray Hewitt	Rhys Darby	Murray is the band's manager. His day job is Deputy Cultural Attaché at the New Zealand consulate. He has few friends and an on-and-off relationship with his never-seen wife, Shelley. While he is passionate about the band and aspires to be a successful manager, he is largely incompetent in his well-meaning attempts at promoting the Conchords.
Mel	Kristen Schaal	Mel is the Conchords' lone fan and stalks them obsessively in pursuit of a romantic liaison despite the fact that she is married to Doug, her former college professor. In the episode "Bowie" she claims that she is a Junior Professor of Psychology. In "New Fans" it is implied that she has been through legal trouble for stalking.
Devjeet "Dave" Mohumbhai^[12]	Arj Barker	A friend of Bret and Jemaine who works at his family's pawn shop "Mohumbhai & Son" and dispenses off-kilter advice about women and life in America. He still lives with his parents, though tries to cover it up by pretending they are his crazy roommates who just think they are his parents. Bret and Jemaine overestimate Dave's pseudo-womanizing personality and often go to him for relationship advice.

Recurring characters

A number of characters have appeared in more than one episode.

Name	Played by	Description	Episodes
Greg	Frank Wood	Murray's assistant at the consulate. In the episode "The Actor", it was suggested that he is Murray's only friend besides Bret and Jemaine, though Murray has stated otherwise.	101, 102, 105, 106, 107, 111, 112, 201, 203, 207, 209, 210
Eugene	Eugene Mirman	Bret and Jemaine's landlord, who often interjects into conversations in which he is not welcome. He has appeared in several musical sequences, and appears to be proficient in several instruments including saxophone & steel drums. He is often seen involved in fixing the plumbing in the building and in Bret and Jemaine's apartment.	101, 102, 103, 105, 108, 111, 112, 202, 206, 209, 210
Doug	David Costabile	Mel's husband. When Doug appears in an episode it is usually because he is driving Mel to a band gig or stalking mission. In the episode "Bowie" it is revealed that he was previously the Senior Professor of Psychology at the university which Mel attended, but was fired and is now unemployed. It's implied in the episode "New Fans" that he and his family had a restraining order against Mel at one point before he married her, and he also had a problem with addiction at some point in the past. It is also implied in the same episode that Doug lost his job for starting a relationship with Mel, who at the time was one of his students.	101, 102, 106, 109, 110, 201, 203, 207, 209, 210
Coco	Sutton Foster	Bret's girlfriend for several episodes. Bret and Coco meet while working as part-time sign holders. They break up in the "Sally Returns" episode because it's clear that Bret still has feelings for Sally.	102, 104, 105
Sally	Rachel Blanchard	Bret's former girlfriend. She dates Jemaine briefly on two separate occasions, but eventually accepts a marriage proposal from a rich Australian in the episode "Sally Returns".	101, 105
John	Lenny Venito	A mugger who once mugged Bret and Jemaine but befriends Jemaine while they share a jail cell. It was later revealed that he once killed a monkey. He returned in the episode "Wingmen" when he and Jemaine mugged Bret in an attempt to make Bret look cool in front of a girl.	103, 209
Bryan	Brian Sergent^[13]	The laid back, uncouth Prime Minister of New Zealand. He is disengaged with the affairs of his country and prefers to occupy his time with pointless capers in the United States. He is fond of drinking and appears to be intellectually challenged. He is easily influenced by recently watched films, such as Cars or the Matrix.	207, 208

Other guest stars

Name	Played by	Description	Episode
David Armstrong	John Hodgman	Manager of a greeting card company with which the Conchords sign a recording contract.	106
Sinjay	Aziz Ansari	A fruit vendor who discriminates against Bret and Jemaine because he mistakes them for Australians.	107
Ben	Will Forte	A semi-professional actor the band hires to speak with Murray about a record deal rejection.	111
Todd	Todd Barry	A bongo player who joins Bret and Jemaine as "The Third Conchord". Later he forms The Crazy Dogggz with Demetri.	112
Demetri	Demetri Martin	A keytar player who forms a new band with Bret. Later he forms The Crazy Dogggz with Todd.	112
Martin Clark	Greg Proops	President/CEO of an agency which hires Bret and Jemaine to write a jingle for a new, "women-only" toothpaste.	201
Jim	Jim Gaffigan	Murray's best friend.	204
Keitha	Sarah Wynter	An Australian with whom Jemaine falls in love and plans to elope, but tricks him and robs their apartment while he's waiting for her.	205
Brahbrah	Kristen Wiig	A woman with whom Jemaine and Bret both fall in love, she has a lazy eye and a missing epileptic dog called Charlie.	206
Karen	Mary Lynn Rajskub	An Art Garfunkel fanatic, she has a brief affair with Jemaine.	207
Elton John impersonator	Patton Oswalt	An Elton John impersonator who Bret and Jemaine meet while impersonating Simon & Garfunkel.	207
Paula	Lucy Lawless	A New Zealand tourism official and old friend of Bryan, the Prime Minister.	208

Cameo appearances

Fleeting cameo appearances by famous people, especially singers and musicians, have been a feature of the show.

Name	Played by	Description	Episode
Pawn Shop Patron	Judah Friedlander	A man that tries to pawn a cake to Dave.	101
Fruit Stand Patron	Kevin Allison	A man who is serviced before Jemaine and Bret, although he was behind them in line, at a fruit stand run by an anti-Australian man who mistakes the duo for Aussies.	107
Club Owner	Kate Pierson	A club owner that turns the band away from a scheduled gig due to their reputation for causing damage.	109
Club MC	Daryl Hall	The MC of the Tuesday World Music Jam at which the Conchords play. He introduces them as "Flute of the Commodores" and ushers them quickly off stage several bars into "Rock the Party".	110
Himself	John Turturro	In a scene that runs during the closing credits, Turturro plays himself playing a cop in a fictional Martin Scorsese movie, entitled “The Drycleaner”.	111
Australian Ambassador	Alan Dale	The Australian ambassador who makes fun of Murray and Jemaine.	203
Bouncer	Randy Jones	A nightclub bouncer who leads an all-male conga line.	205
Himself	Art Garfunkel	Saves Jemaine from a woman (Mary Lynn Rajskub) who makes him dress up like Art Garfunkel and have sex with her (aka "Garfunkeling" by Jemaine).	207

Awards

In the 2007 Satellite Awards the show was nominated for "Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical".

The pair were awarded with the status of "2007 Wellingtonians of the Year" in their home town after their international success blossomed that year.

The show received four Emmy Award nominations in 2008. "Sally Returns" was nominated for "Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series", "Yoko" was nominated for "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" and two songs, "Most Beautiful Girl in the Room" and "Inner City Pressure", were nominated for "Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics".

Also in 2008, the Writers Guild of America nominated the show for three awards: "Comedy Series", "Episodic Comedy" (for "Sally Returns") and for "New Series". The Television Critics Association nominated them for "Outstanding Achievement in Comedy" and "Outstanding New Program of the Year".

In 2009, the show was nominated for six Emmy Awards. It was nominated in the categories of Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (for the episode 'The Tough Brets'), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jemaine Clement), Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics (for the song 'Carol Brown'), Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half Hour) and Animation, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (for the episode 'Prime Minister').

Critical reaction

The show has received a generally positive reaction from critics. Season 1 has a 68/100 rating based on 15 reviews on metacritic.com,^[14] while season 2 has an 80/100 rating, based on 10 reviews.^[15] The best reviews were from the Detroit Free Press, whose critic described it as "TV's most original and irresistible new comic concoction"^[16] and the San Francisco Chronicle, whose reviewer stated that it "may well be the funniest thing you've seen in ages."^[17] At the opposite end, the Miami Herald reviewer wrote that it "feels less like a sitcom than a Saturday Night Live sketch stretched out to about six times its shelf-life."^[18] On IMDb Flight of the Conchords receives a rating of 9.0/10.

Filming locations

Filming for the series took place at a variety of locations and landmarks around New York City. Flight of the Conchords has, however, been consistent with its geography with respect to their neighbourhood. Some of the primary locations are listed below. Information on locations specific to particular episodes may be found on the page for that episode. Transition shots and out-of-studio location shoots have been in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Most street scenes were filmed in Lower Manhattan or the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn.

Name	Location
Bret and Jemaine's apartment	28 Henry Street, Chinatown
New Zealand consulate	232 East Broadway
Dave's pawn shop	Around the corner from the 'Consulate'. 10 Montgomery Street
Steiner Studios^[19]	15 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn. Indoor stages for season one filming.
Broadway Stages	Indoor stages for season two filming.

Recurring jokes

New Zealand: Many of the jokes in the series poke fun at New Zealand and suggest that its culture is naive, backward, unsophisticated and technologically deficient in comparison with the rest of the world. American characters are commonly confused about Bret and Jemaine's nationality, and at times fail to comprehend them due to their accents. Often the characters employ self-deprecatory humour towards their nation, seemingly without their own awareness. The fact that The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand is often mentioned.

Competition with Australia: Australians on the program are generally depicted as being more popular with Americans than New Zealanders and as a result often consider themselves superior. Australian characters are portrayed negatively as confident, rude and bullying, often at the expense of the more insecure New Zealanders. In the episode Unnatural Love the main antagonist, Keitha, is both Jermaine's girlfriend and an Australian. In Unnatural Love Australian women are depicted as crude, sloppy, domineering and mannish as well as sexually voracious.

Murray's incompetence and quirks: Many of the show's jokes are based on Murray's ignorance or misconceptions about the world generally, or the music business specifically. He is depicted as being naive and incompetent regarding matters of finance and business. His ambitions as a band manager result in his being inattentive to his duties at the consulate. Murray's somewhat secretive and on-off relationship with his unseen wife Shelley is a feature of several episodes, as well as his attempts to deceive her regarding the time and money he spends on the band's activities.

Obsessed fan: Mel is depicted as the only fan of the band and a stalker with a romantic obsession for the two band members. She is commonly found loitering outside the band's apartment when they leave the building. She is present at virtually every band performance no matter how insignificant, save for two occasions: in episode 13 ("A Good Opportunity") where Jemaine pointed out her first absence and in episode 20 ("New Zealand Town"). In interviews Clement and McKenzie have said that many of Mel's most memorable lines are taken from real incidents.^[20]

Bret quitting: Several episodes feature incidents in which Bret quits or is dismissed from the band, only to rejoin later.

Do You Miss Him/Me?: Murray often asks Jemaine if he misses Bret whenever Bret has quit the group. When Murray quits the band and in another episode when he's fired, he asks both the Conchords if they missed him.

Lack of success and financial difficulties: The band continually fails in its attempts to remedy its poor financial situation.

Lack of success with women: Bret and Jemaine are depicted as being awkward and inexperienced with women. Bret is naive and innocent, whereas Jemaine is eager, bordering on sleazy. Jemaine in particular is easily taken advantage of. Of the two, Bret is shown as being more physically attractive to women but is severely crippled in his attempts by his immense shyness and insecurity.

Bret's clothing: Bret's wardrobe consists of a variety of t-shirts and sweatshirts with unusual designs, most of which feature animals. A number of the shirts and sweaters make regular appearances including Bret McKenzie's "famous" red and black striped top that he has worn many times in "real life" performances. Much of his wardrobe appears to be home-made or modified. His striped socks also make regular appearances and it seems he only has a green and a blue pair.

Dave says the wrong country: Dave frequently forgets Bret and Jermaine's country of origin and says they come from Europe, particularly England. The two usually try to correct him.

Recurring props: There are also number of props that are mentioned or seen in several episodes. Among these are Jemaine's camera-phone (Jermaine's cheap point-and-shoot film camera which Bret glued to the back of Jermaine's cell phone as a birthday gift thus possibly ruining both items), a flag of New Zealand in the band's apartment, a painting of a dog that Bret takes with him when they are evicted, a small novelty guitar and a red Schoenhut toy piano used in several songs, Bret's "helmet hair" project, and their bicycles.

"Rock the Party": Whenever the band is seen playing at a gig, they are usually performing the song "Rock the Party". Contrary to the other musical interludes in the show, the song's lyrics are very simplistic and consist almost entirely of the repeated exchange "Who likes to rock the party? / We like to rock the party." It never merits its own musical interlude or music video sequence but is only seen performed very clumsily.

Broadcasters

Flight of the Conchords is aired on the following stations around the world:

Country	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere
Australia	Network Ten (series one), SBS One (series two) & Channel [V]	May 11, 2008
Belgium	Canal+, Acht
Brazil	HBO
Canada	MC/TMN/ The Comedy Network (series one) & HBO Canada (series two)	June 17, 2007
Chile	HBO
China	China Central Television-HBO	May 10, 2009
Colombia	HBO
Denmark	TV2 Zulu	2008
Finland	Canal+, YLE	2007
France	TPS Star	March 22, 2008
Hungary	HBO	March 1, 2008
Iceland	Stöð 2	2008
Israel	HOT3 (only series 1 broadcast)	2009
Malaysia	HBO
Mexico	HBO	September 3, 2008
New Zealand	Prime, The BOX	September 17, 2007^[21]
Norway	Canal+, NRK3	2007
Philippines	HBO	September 3, 2008
Poland	HBO	August, 2008
Portugal	FX	2007
Saudi Arabia	America Plus (Middle East and North Africa)	2009
Spain	TNT	November 19, 2008
Sweden	SVT	June 20, 2008
Thailand	HBO
Turkey	FX	April 2008
United Kingdom	BBC Four	September 25, 2007^[22]
United States	HBO	June 17, 2007