The League
The League is an American sitcom that premiered on FX on October 29, 2009. The series, set in Chicago, is a semi-improvised comedy about a fantasy football league, its members, and their everyday lives.[1]
Synopsis
The series revolves around six friends who participate in a fantasy football league. The show follows the friends, who will do anything to win, while also dealing with a variety of situations that occur in their everyday lives.
Cast
Main Characters
- Mark Duplass as Pete Eckhart: Three-time league champion who separates from his wife (played by Leslie Bibb) in the pilot episode. Several episodes revolve around his interaction with women. Pete is known for tricking his gullible friends (Taco/Andre) into making poor fantasy football trades. He works out of a cubicle, though avoids doing actual work as much as possible. He is responsible for the creation of the “Sacko” award, a trophy created during the episode “The Reunion” and is given to the worst team in the league.
- Stephen Rannazzisi as Kevin MacArthur: An assistant district attorney, Kevin is also the league commissioner as well as Pete’s best friend. Because he has difficulty competing in the league on his own, he often takes football knowledge from his wife, Jenny, thus convincing the other guys that she runs his team. Jenny eventually joins the league herself after Ruxin‘s brother-in-law, Rafi, leaves to join a larger 12-man league formed by Kevin‘s old friend who is also a recovering sex addict. He has never won the Shiva, the award given to the league winners (named after Shivakamini Somakandarkram: a high school classmate to whom Kevin lost his virginity). Kevin wins in the finale of Season 3, however it is declared null by Ruxin due to collusion and lies. Kevin has been highnotized (hypnotized through the use of marijuana) by his brother Taco. His best friend Pete and his wife Jenny have also similarly programmed him. Kevin has a young daughter named Elle, (age 8) whose foul mouth comes from her parents. In the pilot we discover that the pregnancy was unplanned via Taco’s (Jon Lajoie) song “Happy Birthday”, which coincidentally is a very popular youtube video.
- Nick Kroll as Rodney Ruxin: A Jewish product-liability attorney, he is just as ruthless in the league as he is in the courtroom. He “out kicked his coverage” with his wife, and therefore goes to great lengths to please her. He is constantly torn between needing to please his wife and his desire to crush his opponents in the league. In many episodes, and all of Season 3, Ruxin is extremely paranoid, often thinking that his opponents are "trying to get into his head," or that other members of the league are "in collusion" to cheat him, but his paranoid hunches have been correct on at least two occasions in ("Expert Witness") and ("The Lockout"). In the episode "The Bounce Test," the character himself describes his physical appearance as follows: "I look like a Nazi propaganda cartoon of a Jew." He and Sofia currently have one child named Geoffrey (A.K.A. "Baby Geoffrey") and own a dog named Cale (the name Kevin told Ruxin in confidence that he and Jenny wanted to name their next child if it was a a boy). Despite it being his first name, he hates being referred to as "Rodney" and prefers it when people call him Ruxin. He won the League championship at the end of season 2. When he was in high school he had a reputation for dating ‘fat cows’, giving him the nickname "The Herdsman". He inherited his sarcastic nature from his father, Rupert (Jeff Goldblum), who also prefers his friends call him Ruxin. After catching Kevin in his “clown car of lies”, he declares Season 3 to be null and void and claims himself as winner via default, after miraculously healing from the after-effects of a stress-induced stroke from discovering the collusion (due to the appearance of Shiva).
- Paul Scheer as Dr. Andre Nowzick: A bald, rich plastic surgeon whose naïveté makes him the brunt of many jokes. He wears what he believes to be trendy clothing, for which he is mercilessly mocked by his friends. He tries to be cool by imitating NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco by using his catch phrase of “Child Please,” but is rebuked by Ochocinco in the episode Vegas Draft. Andre wins ‘The Shiva’ at the end of Season 1 after entering a committed relationship with Shivakamini Somakandarkram (The person whose name graces the league trophy). He's hosted the last three drafts; at his house, then in Las Vegas, and then in the third season was locked out of his house during the draft as a part of the Sacko punishment, leaving time for Dirty Randy to create a poor-budgeted porno based loosely on Andre‘s life. In the first episode of the second season he renamed the trophy "The Dre" which was then renamed by the rest of the crew as "The SheDre" (A hybrid of "Shiva" and "Dre"). The worship of a false god results in bad luck, which is nicknamed “DrAIDS”. His DrAIDS resulted in the worst record in the league and ultimately recipient of “The Sacko”. Andre’s sister, (played by Sarah Silverman), has had sex with everyone in the league except Andre, Jenny and Ruxin.
- Jon Lajoie as Taco MacArthur: Kevin's younger brother, a perpetually stoned and unemployed musician. He doesn't care or know much about football, evident by his attempts to draft Canadian football players during the draft. He has won the League Championship at least once in 2006, evident by his handwritten name on the trophy. He hooks up with women easily, and lives via handouts from his brother Kevin and "Eskimo family tree" (people who have slept with women he has slept with), making his own food (thousand year old eggs) and personal hygiene products, such as deodorant. He also makes ringtones (Horse Orgasm). For one episode, Taco takes martial arts owning a naginata (a long pole with a blade at the end) and studies of naginatajutsu. He usually means well but his acts of kindness usually have disastrous results. He is perhaps the most emotional of the League, prone to crying when his feelings are hurt. In the unrated version of season 1, Ruxin claimed that the reason Taco is such a "frittata" is because they made him smoke marijuana when he was 8. Between seasons 2 and 3, Taco travels around the world and becomes a soap opera star in a Middle Eastern country where he plays a ‘stupid American’. Taco enjoys keeping 'guest bongs' in all of his friends houses for him to use.
- Katie Aselton as Jenny MacArthur: Kevin's wife, who helps him run his team and has as much enthusiasm for the League as the actual members do during season 1. When Kevin loses a bet to Pete in Season 1, Jenny is forced to streak since she is clearly the manager for Kevin’s team. For season 2, Jenny wanted her own team for the league, but the members voted to give the vacant spot to Ruxin's brother-in-law, Rafi. This makes Jenny angry at her husband and seeks revenge by helping Ruxin draft instead of her husband. She is introduced into the league during that same season to replace Rafi (Ruxin’s brother-in-law) and would eventually lose to Ruxin’s team in the Shiva Bowl. Her foul mouth equals that of husband Kevin’s and is evident in their daughter Ellie’s swearing. At the end of season 3, she reveals to Kevin that despite having not won the Shiva, Kevin's bet with her about having a second kid if he won still rang true, as she is pregnant.
Recurring Characters
- Nadine Velazquez as Sofia Ruxin, Rodney's latin wife. She spends lots of time with Taco.
- Jason Mantzoukas[2] as Rafi, Sofia's homicidal brother. Violent and hostile towards Ruxin, he often attempts to get the rest of the league to go along with his various get rich quick schemes such as making pornographic films in Andre's apartment while he is out of town. In season 3, it is revealed that he is a convicted felon twice over.
- Alina Foley as Ellie MacArthur, Jenny and Kevin's young daughter. She has inherited her parent's profane language.
- Janina Gavankar as Shivakamini Somakandarkram, a doctor who was the valedictorian of most of the league members' graduating high school class. She is a urologist, specializing in genital reconstruction. Usually appears on the penultimate or season finales of the season, given that she is the "patron deity" of their league's trophy. They each present an item to the trophy, which contains a high school photo of her. The only odd-episode-out is "The High-School Reunion" where she was present with the league, revealing that Pete's mother's windshield wasn't busted by a high school friend, but rather by Kevin when he lost his virginity to Shiva.
Notable NFL players and analysts as guest stars
- NFL on Fox analyst and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw in Season 1 Episode 3 "Sunday at Ruxin's"
- San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates in Season 1 Episode 4 "Mr. McGibblets"
- New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco in Season 2 Episode 1 "Vegas Draft"
- Cleveland Browns kick return specialist Josh Cribbs and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs in Season 2 Episode 3 "The White Knuckler"
- Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew, Atlanta Falcons cornerback Brent Grimes and Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Sidney Rice in Season 3 Episode 1 "The Lockout"
- ESPN fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry in Season 3 Episode 3 "The Au Pair"
- Chicago Bears running back Matt Forté in Season 3 Episode 13 "The Funeral"
The League's League
- The stars of The League actually play in a real fantasy football league on Fox Fantasy with the show's creators.
Production
The League was given a pilot order on July 15, 2009, with the pilot written by Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer and Jeff Schaffer also directing. The series is executive produced by Jeff Schaffer, Jackie Marcus Schaffer and the production company, FX Productions.
When the series was given a pilot order several roles were cast, with Mark Duplass playing Pete Eckhart, Stephen Rannazzisi playing Kevin MacArthur, Nick Kroll playing Rodney Ruxin, Paul Scheer playing Andre Nowzick, Jon Lajoie playing Taco MacArthur and Katie Aselton playing Jenny MacArthur.[3]
The League was given a series order on August 20, 2009 with six episodes.[4] A second 13 episode season of The League premiered on September 16, 2010 on FX.[5] On January 15, 2011, it was announced that the series had been picked up for a third season,[6] which premiered on October 6, 2011.[7]
On December 13, 2011, The League was renewed for a fourth season of 13 episodes set to air in the fall of 2012.[8]
DVD release
Fox Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD and Blu-ray on September 14, 2010. On August 3, 2011, Fox Home Entertainment announced that the second season would be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 4, 2011.
| DVD Name | Region 1 Release Date | Region 2 Release Date | Region 4 Release Date | Ep # | Discs | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | September 14, 2010[9] | TBA | TBA | 6 | 2 | Extended Episodes, Deleted Scenes, Blooper Reel, "Andre: Dress with Style, Win with Style", "Legalize Kevin's Pubic Smoke", "Alt Nation", "Mr. McGibblets Fun House and Dojo", "Three Penis Wine Infomerical", "Vaginal Hubris Extended", "Birthday Song" and the pilot of Archer. |
| Season Two | October 4, 2011[10] | TBA | TBA | 13 | 2 | Extended Episodes, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, "Taco Tones Productions Presents: Vinegar Strokes", "Taco Tones Productions Presents: I'm Inside Me, Notarize!", "El Notario", "Andre's Extended Fads" and "Ruxin's Wedding Video". |
References
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1480684/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1727621
- ^ "Breaking News – Development Update: Wednesday, July 15". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
- ^ "Breaking News – FX Ups Ante in Comedy – Places Series Orders for "The League" and "Louie"". TheFutonCritic.com. 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
- ^ Gorman, Bill. "FX Premiere Dates: 'Sons Of Anarchy' Returns Sept. 7, 'It's Always Sunny' Sept. 16 – Ratings". TVbytheNumbers. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ http://twitter.com/#!/paulscheer/status/26373759061467137
- ^ Matt Webb Mitovich (2011-08-06). "The League Tackles Season 3 with Seth Rogen, Will Forte and Talk of NFL Lockout Scare". TVLine. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
- ^ http://www.aoltv.com/2011/12/13/fx-renews-the-league-for-season-4/
- ^ "The League DVD news: Press Release for The League – The Complete 1st Season". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- ^ "The League – Fox Announces that 'Season 2' is Huddling Up for DVD and Blu-ray Release". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
External links
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