Glorious Failures

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By Newsweek Editors

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You come home and flip through the 200 channels on your TV and think, so many shows and nothing worth watching. The last thing you'd want to do is get off the sofa, go out and pay money to see some of the shows that never even made it on the air. Right? Not if you like comic absurdity. The Un-Cabaret, a California-based comedy group, has been airing failed pilots at L.A. nightclubs under the moniker "The Other Network." Last weekend it paired with Modern Humorist to bring three nights of shows to Manhattan; a tour is in the works. Some of the best failures are so funny the pitches themselves are better than a lot of the slop that makes it on TV. Take "Heat Vision and Jack," a hilarious spoof starring Jack Black as a superintelligent ex-astronaut, Owen Wilson as the voice of his Knight Rider-esque talking motorcycle (and ex-roommate) and Ron Silver as Ron Silver, villainous actor/NASA enforcer. Or the Conan O'Brien-created "Lookwell!"--a farce with Adam West, the star of the 1960s-era "Batman" show--as a has-been star who's convinced he's a detective. And to think "Good Morning, Miami" made it on the air.

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