HODG-MAN
April 10, 2011 Leave a comment
A while back, my brother Eric and I pulled together a pitch for an animated weekly series – to be based
on true-life anecdotes and totally-made-up crap involving noted writer, raconteur and “Daily Show”
correspondent John Hodgman.
It didn’t pan out. But it was fun.
Each week (as we envisioned it), Hodgman’s character would embark on a fresh new intellectual journey
into the unknown.
Hodgman would be joined on his various quests by an impressive array of his very own friends, colleagues and musical collaborators – including the two Johns from They Might Be Giants:
In the plum role of Hodgman’s arch-rival, B-movie icon Bruce Campbell:
Hodgman’s faithful sidekick and personal troubadour, of course, would be none other than Jonathan Coulton:
Would there be big-name guest stars, you ask? Why, yes. To quote from our pictch, “… in a fond tribute to
(and blatant ripoff of) Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Hodgman might be joined by author and assassination buff
Sarah Vowell, with whom he would time-travel to the Garfield administration only to discover that, if they do not act to ensure that President Garfield is indeed felled by the bullets of a disappointed office seeker, the fabric of time will be ruptured and the very future of civilization endangered. There will also be hoboes.”
And, serving as Hodgman’s spiritual advisor in times of crisis – his “Obi-Wan Kenobi” – The Ghost of
George Plimpton: