Benkharakh.com

By Ben Kharakh

"I met with them last year in the middle of a lot of professional insanity for me. I was, for the last couple of years, an independent TV writer and producer. I was in the middle of writing a pilot for Showtime and was in pre-production for a pilot for FOX. They asked me if I was interested in being their LA consultant. Being Turner, they were based in Atlanta, and they needed someone on the ground in LA who knew the comedy people and could start putting stuff into their development pipeline. I really enjoyed the working with them. They were very respectful of new ideas and gave artists they freedom they need to do whatever they want, which the development process on TV is less hospitable to. We got a few months into the relationship of me being the LA consultant and they asked me to come to Atlanta and be the head of content for the whole thing. I was born and raised in Southern California and I thought, "Am I going to pack up and move to Atlanta to do this?" But the bottom line was: it was just so much fun. Long story short: I picked up and moved to Atlanta and have been working for Superdeluxe ever since."

What Adult Swim did for television, Superdeluxe.com is doing for the Internet. It might come as a surprise to learn that they share the same office and have the same parent company, Turner, but when you look at the quality and originality of their programming it makes perfect sense. Superdeluxe.com has a formula for success: build a roster of incredible talent, give them the freedom to make whatever they want, and then expose them to the largest audience in the world. This is how they've managed to scoop such talents as Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show Fame and Dave Foley from Kids in the Hall. The Comedians sat down with Dan Pasternak, head of development for Superdeluxe.com

I started as a development executive for Fred Silverman about a dozen years ago. I was at Grenada TV and then I was the head of Drama for Studios USA/Universal TV around the time that Law and Order SVU and Criminal Intent were coming through that studio. Most recently, my developing and producing have been more squarely focused on my comedy roots. I was at Carsey Warner where I ran an alternative division called basic elements. We did a pilot for Showtime called the Offensive Show with a lot of the people from the alternative scene like Matt Besser, Jerry Minor, Nick Swardson, Patton Oswalt, Frangela, with whom I just did a pilot for FOX. That was the first job for a lot of people who were new to the alternative world like Dan Mintz, Morgan Murphy, and BJ Novak from The Office. Jonah Ray was our writer's assistant when he was 19 or 20 and now he's one of our personalities Superdeluxe. I also executive produced a single camera series for FX called Starved. It was a dramatic comedy or comedic drama. I'm not sure which. That was with writer/film maker/ actor Eric Shaffer. It was about four people in New York with eating disorders. I decided to take on the hilarious subject of eating disorders for FX Comedy. We did a season of that.

My writing and performing history is known among my friends and collogues, but it's sort of my dirty little secret that I started as a writer and comic when I was a teenager. I came up through the ranks of the LA comedy scene in the shadow of guys like Sam Kinison. I think I've been very fortunate that I get to spend my days and nights with the smartest and funniest people in the world. I've found my little corner of the comedy world that I can occupy.

We seek out people from all stratums of the comedy universe. From the known to the semi-known to the not known at all. I spend a ton of time at the UCB theater in LA and I try not to let my personal tastes totally affect what we're buying here because I really want to appeal to a wide range of comedy tastes, but a lot of the people in the alternative space are friends and are also people who I creatively have a tremendous respect for. They're also the people who I feel don't get as much opportunity on television to do what they do and showcase what makes them so funny.

The great thing about the Internet is that it's not governed by the FCC nor do I ever think it will be. We're self policing in terms of standards and practices and we're advertisement supported, but I think the audience can smell anything being stifled in terms of freedom of expression and I'm a big first amendment guy. I think that if there's inherent integrity to what any artist wants to do or say it's our inherent obligation to support that. I think that that's why anyone wants to come work for us and it's something that the audience picks up on as well.

There's always a place within Superdeluxe for user generated material and, in a way, it's a great way for artists to make us aware of them and their work. We're already starting to talk to some of the people that made user generated material to make deals with people. I think that that's something that we want people to know about. Making your own content is a way to get into business with us. You show us what you do and if we like it there are opportunities to get paid to make more.

I think the Internet's a new platform for comedy to live on. The broadcast networks are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what comedy's going to be in their world. If you saw the announcements for the Fall schedule, they ordered less comedies and there's going to be less prime time comedy than there's been in over a decade. I'd like to think it'll live everywhere. I have a broad spectrum of comedy that I enjoy. I think The Office is terrific TV, that 30 Rock is a great new show, that The Simpsons has some of the funniest writing on TV, and The Sarah Silverman Program is essential viewing for me. I think that this new medium means greater opportunity for different types of voices and that we can all exist side by side harmoniously.