Strangers with Candy | |
---|---|
Genre |
Dark comedy Surreal comedy Satire |
Created by |
Stephen Colbert Paul Dinello Amy Sedaris Mitch Rouse |
Starring | Amy Sedaris Stephen Colbert Paul Dinello Greg Hollimon |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 30 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | Comedy Central |
Original release | April 7, 1999 – October 2, 2000 |
External links | |
Website |
Strangers with Candy is a television series produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on April 7, 1999, and concluded its third and final season on October 2, 2000. Its timeslot was Sundays at 10:00 p.m. (ET). In 2007, Strangers with Candy was ranked #30 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever. A prequel film of the same name was released in 2005.
The series' main character, Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank (played by Amy Sedaris), was a "junkie whore"/runaway returning to high school as a freshman at age 46 at the fictional Flatpoint High School (home of the Concrete Donkeys) in the town of Flatpoint.
Created and written by Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert, and Mitch Rouse, the show was a spoof of the after school specials of the 1970s and 1980s and was also inspired, at least in part, by a 1970 public service film, The Trip Back, that featured a reformed drug addict named Florrie Fisher (see "Origin" below). Sedaris, Colbert, Dinello, and Rouse were cast members of the short-lived Comedy Central series Exit 57; they, along with Greg Hollimon and many other stars of the series, were also alumni of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe.
According to the show's animated introduction, Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she, in her words, "stole the TV."