Austin's 'Call Center' Series Joins Office Comedy Fray

It’s been a long day. 8 hours with a headset strapped to your face, pissed off people on the line, and one sexually suggestive caller doesn’t help matters much. As if things couldn’t get worse, someone stopped the countdown clock on the microwave mid-way through your oh-so-delicious penne pasta leftover from last night.

Telemarketers, “tracking specialists,” “sales associates,” whatever you call them, they’re people too, with long days and tough bosses just like the rest of us. That’s the basis of a new comedy web series released by RWP Productions from Austin, Texas titled Call Center, a mockumentary about an overnight shipping company. The series, created by Reagan Peterson, Galen Carter-Jeffrey, and Barbara Clark, tries to give us a hilarious look at who sits on the other end of the phone.

According to information sent by Clark to us, the series will run 13 episodes. Each episode runs a modest 3-4 minutes and stars a plethora of clever, though mostly unknown actors. Per the usual mockumentary style, Call Center focuses on a wide-range of archetypal characters that works well. Like another comedy Austin-shot, Mike Judge’s Office Space, and even The Office, the show’s 29-year-old boss-archetype (John Handem) sits high, screws off, and shrugs complaints made by employees.

Truthfully, Call Center shows a lot of promise and takes the production value of web-series mockumentaries genre up a level. There is a good mix of high-brow and low-brow humor which means there are laughs to be had for everyone, though not every joke will hit the mark. Three episodes have been released. The show clearly has a story arc. However, the odd release schedule of the show makes that arc a little difficult to pin down. At the moment, viewers can watch episodes one, two, and…five? According to the show’s blog, the series is still in post-production so it’s possible the show still isn’t ready for a full-blown release. The series debut on YouTube July 17 and the next episode is scheduled to run August 22.

Photos by Loren A. Melchor.