Comedy Central Spinning Atom's '5-On' into 'Ugly Americans' Pilot

Production has begun on the pilot of Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans, the spin-off of the popular 5-On animated web series from creator Devin Clark that struck a chord last year on Atom. The series, about the adventures of a social worker from the Department of Immigration trying to help various human and nonhumans adjust to New York’s bustling lifestyle, is being animated out of New York by Brooklyn-based Augenblick Studios. David M. Stern (Monk, The Simpsons) is executive producing the pilot with creator Clark producing in New York.

In its web form, the 8-episode 5-On (above) debuted back in June of 2007 where in the show an intrepid reporter, Alan Whiter, interviews “five of anything about everything,” which can be anything from five aliens and their thoughts on the Sopranos

ending, or five robots on the immigration debate. Comedic writers Nick Kroll (Cavemen) and John Mulaney wrote and voiced the series along with Clark.

This is another example of the fluid pipeline Comedy Central has in place through its Atom site, often using it as a proving ground for development of TV projects. “We came to know the creators behind ‘Ugly Americans’ from their work on the Web and feel their creative ideas can carry over to our on-air channel,” said Lauren Corrao, Comedy Central’s president of original programming and development. A number of web show creators have signed development deals with Atom, like Legend of Neil creator Sandeep Parikh and Stickman Exodus creators, Waverly Films.