Posted in: Movies | Tagged: entertainment, film, fx, Katie Aselton, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Steven Rannazzisi, television, The League

NYCC: Talking About The League And Giving Away Footballs

Rich Epstein writes for Bleeding Cool:

Today, I was at the NYCC panel for "The League."  Despite being one of the first panels of the day, the room was packed with fans who were treated to a rough cut of an upcoming episode.  The episode will air in two weeks, and series co-creator Jeff Schaffer came out to tell the audience what happens between now and then.  First and foremost, Andre finally has a female companion! Unfortunately for him, it comes in the form of his rescue cat, M'lady.  Also, during the next episode, Kevin will end up with poo on his face, leading to a running joke in the episode we watched.

The episode started with the guys in the bar, and we see that Pete has renamed his team "The ****heads".  Kevin is offended, and we are instantly into a Redskins-style debate that will become more prominent later in the episode.  Meanwhile, Andre and Russ begin making fun of the fact that the bartender doesn't know anything about wine, and end up getting kicked out.  The two decide to open a wine bar in the episodes B plot.  We learn that Kevin's father in law will be in town for one day before he goes to his hunting camp named "Manland". He picks on Kevin until Kevin insists that he is a man.  Of course, the father in law ends up asking Kevin to go to the hunting camp to prove it.  Kevin agrees, but insists that Pete, Ruxin and Taco come with him.

The five go to the camp, where they are joined by Raffi who has been tracking them.  They then go to a nearby bar full of Native Americans.  Pete and Kevin continue arguing about the name with Pete saying that there is no difference between the ****heads and the Redskins.  The conversation is overheard, and they end up running out of the bar and getting lost in the woods.  The morning finds our obligatory bear in the woods, and Kevin saves the day, but not before Raffi tells everyone just how turned on he is by the bear.

Despite being a rough cut, the episode was as good as usual, earning a bunch of big laughs from the audience.

With the show over, it was time to bring out the panel:  Co-creators Jeff and Jackie Schaffer, Katie Aselton (Jenny), Steven Rannazzisi (Kevin), Nick Kroll (Ruxin), Paul Scheer (Andre), Mark Duplass (Pete), Jonathan Lajoie (Taco) and Jason Mantzoukas (Raffi).

The first question was about working with the bear on the stage.  The cast was apparently separated from the bear by a very thin fence, and did not gain a whole lot of confidence from the eight and a half fingered trainer.  The panel quickly devolved into an improv comedy session with lots of talk about bestiality.  The talk stopped when the cast realized that there was a 12 year old in the front row, but not for long.

They then gave their rundown of their favorite episodes….for Jeff, it was Kregel the Elf, for Jackie it was 12.12.12 with Seth Rogen, for Katie it was The Bounce Test, for Steve it was The Expert Witness, for Nick it was the last episode of Season 1, for Paul it was the Tailgating episode, for Jonathan it was Dirty Randy and for Jason the first episode of Season 2, when he made his appearance in a Speedo.

Katie and Jackie said that we will see a much darker side to Jenny this year. She is now fully a part of the league and free to be as horrible as the rest of them.   We also learned that there is a Ray Rice themed episode upcoming and that Bobby Lee would be reprising his role of Chu from Season 1.  The crowd was asked if there was anyone else they wanted to see come back to the show, and when they said Shiva, the Goddess appeared before us!  It seems as though we can count on Janina Gavankar reprising her role once again this year.

The League is always a fun show and the panel is no different.  Whether you are into football or not, this is a group of insanely talented people, and the show is always funny.  The panel today was no different and was a treat for us all.  Plus, Free Footballs!

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