'Old Friends' Lands Exclusive Babelgum Deal, Preps Season 2

Babelgum announced today it has secured exclusive rights to distribute season 1 of Old Friends, which is now up in its entirety, and that production is wrapping up on season 2 which will be released on the site in January 11. We’ve been following the work of New York comedy standouts Nick Ross

and Tim Curcio for a while now, even before their popular comedy series hit the web earlier this year.  Ross had starred in 2008’s Park Bench series, which stood out for its sharp witted simplicity—”two lusty yet oblivious dudes whiling away the summer on a Central Park bench,” according to our reviewer.

The 7-episode first season of Old Friends, tells the story of Tim and Nick, two 28 year-olds who are reunited after not seeing each other since high school. There’s a classic comedic tension setup, with a little love tangle going on. Tim is now married to his high school sweetheart, Andrea (Amy Flanagan), who happened to lose her virginity to Nick back in high school. And now Nick is, as luck would have it, dating Andrea’s best friend, Katie (Natalie Knepp). You know, child’s play.

We asked the pair about how much art imitates life, so to speak. “While Tim is married in real life and Nick is single, neither one of us are quite like our characters. Nick has shorter hair now, and Tim is not a total whine-o,” they said.

Despite developing a solid following on YouTube and College Humor, the show has been taken down as part of the deal. Babelgum has licensed popular web series before, though not always getting exclusive rights to what amounts to second-run syndication of the debut season. The Guild’s first season, for example, can be found on Babelgum, though it still remains up on YouTube and MSN. Other series like The Crew and Hurtling Through Space At An Alarming Rate were exclusive to the site.

Crossroad Films produces Old Friends along with Ross and Curcio’s Metropolitan Bait and Tackle production company that includes the show’s director Matt Cady. The concept sprouted from a scene in one of Ross and Curcio’s live sketch comedy shows at UCB Theater in New York. “[The pilot] was the first scene and only scene that we filmed from that show,” said Ross. “It was so much fun making, that we decided to write and film 6 more.”