Reddit AMA Recap: Heidi Gardner Talks Alien News Desk

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This is the most press you might see all week for this new series.

For some reason when it comes to aliens on basic cable, it can be real hit or miss on success and usually it has more to do with the network than the actual creative. Let’s remove Rick and Morty from the equation because that show’s success is very much the spike on the figurative bell curve that has shown a complete lack of respect for animated aliens in adult animation. Recent examples of canceled series featuring aliens that were really good but given no network support include Jeff & Some Aliens, The Gorburger Show, and now it looks like NBC Universal is giving a similar form of treatment for it’s upcoming series Alien New Desk. We’ve had almost zero promotion, and what little promotion the network has done has more or less not worked. When Will Forte when in to not just Seth Meyers but Jimmy Fallon, most of the talk was about MacGruber and Saturday Night Live.  Compare this push to say Final Space, it’s actually the same, because TBS didn’t do any press for that series either, and as a result, the franchise survived by creator Olan Rogers’ sheer will.

Likewise, Heidi Gardner does a Reddit AMA session to help promote the series that premieres Wednesday Night, and it got very little social push and as a result, the session’s strength was more on talking to Heidi about her fantastic run on SNL. Yea, we got a couple of highlights about Alien News Desk, but it’s very light, and really this is more on the network than it is Heidi. And in case you were asking at home, yes, we sent messages repeatedly to talk to the producers of the series, but 1) I think Scott Gairdner still hates us for our knocks on his prior series that also had Will Forte in it, Moonbeam City, and 2) no press support appeared to be given to this show to succeed, so we can only hope the series is good enough to stand on it’s own two legs.

On with the Reddit highlights with Alien News Desk co-star Heidi Gardner:

On how she got involved with Alien News Desk

Well, working with Forte was a no brainer and it seemed like a fun and funny challenge. Even reading the news as a joke is hard. I really give credit to news anchors. There’s a craft to it. It’s made me more articulate for sure. You gotta do it quick but articulate and that ain’t easy. Yeah, seeing Colin and Che do it week to week is really inspiring. They get in the flow and the seem so at ease. I wanna be like them!!! Confident, cool, collected and have humility.

On working with Will Forte

Working with Will Forte is the best. He’s Macgruber!! I’m in awe of him and he’s really nice and hilarious. So it’s a dream.

What Heidi is looking forward to seeing most in Alien News Desk

Just how weird humans are and if you took an outsiders perspective on human living, you could easily take it the wrong way and be very confused by how we handle our business. Like we’re the aliens! Which we are

You can read more about Heidi’s Reddit AMA here.

ALIEN NEWS DESK is a weekly, half-hour topical animated series set in an extraterrestrial newsroom. Voiced by Emmy® nominated comedian Will Forte (alien news anchor “Drexx Drudlarr”) and “Saturday Night Live’s” Heidi Gardner (alien co-anchor “Tuva Van Void”), the 12-episode series will cover up-to-the-minute news and commentary about the universe’s most baffling species – the inscrutable Humans of Planet Earth.

ALIEN NEWS DESK is produced by Broadway Video and Bento Box Entertainment. “Saturday Night Live” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels serves as executive producer alongside “Saturday Night Live” producer Erik Kenward, also executive producing. “Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update” head writer Dennis McNicholas serves as executive producer and showrunner, with Scott Gairdner (“Moonbeam City”) as co-executive producer. Joel Kuwahara and Scott Greenberg from Bento Box Entertainment serve as executive producers.

Alien News Desk will premiere on February 27th @ 11 pm ET/PT, only on Syfy with 12 episodes to air weekly.

About John Schwarz

John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.