Who's the Caboose?

The precursor to 2004 mini-series Pilot Season, Who's the Caboose? is a mockumentary on that period of time when aspiring actors move to L.A. to audition for all the new shows entering development for the fall schedule, referred to as "pilot season." Ostensibly, Caboose is about a documentary team that get a grant to do a piece on a rare disease afflicting the homeless population, only they find the subject too depressing and decide to follow a young comedian as she runs a gauntlet of auditions in the network television game instead. The comedian, Susan Underman, is portrayed by co-producer Sarah Silverman, with supporting turns from comic oddities Andy Dick (News Radio), as her manager, Jason Reemer, David Cross (Arrested Development), as a disillusioned, struggling actor, and Kathy Griffin (My Life on the D-List), playing another version of herself. You'd think the laugh count would be higher with this cast, but aside from the fun of Dick being a twitchy, sleazy good time, only David Cross aims for gut laughs. Director Sam Seder also plays Susan's boyfriend (underground, wannabe iconoclast Max Rabin) and the movie morphs into a story about him more than Susan. It's interesting to see an approach that mixes the awkward humour and documentary style of The Office with the Hollywood insider lampooning curtain pull of Entourage, but it never coheres into something particularly funny or insightful. Entertainment lawyer Ken Fold (H. Jon Benjamin, Human Giant) is no Ari Gold, though the intended sentiment is the same: know the right person, or the right thing about the right person, and the industry is your bitch, however temporarily. To be fair, I'm sure the concept would've felt much fresher when it originally aired in 1997, well before Entourage covered similar ground, albeit with less bite and far more flash. The cast may tempt you, but there's not much comedy fuelling Caboose.