Dinner with Friends with Brett Gelman and Friends
A dinner party descends into horror and blackmail.
Dinner with Friends with Brett Gelman and Friends is a 2014 American television special created and written by Brett Gelman and Jason Woliner for Adult Swim. It features Gelman as a demented version of himself alongside several guests playing fictionalized versions of themselves. The special was positively received by critics upon its broadcast on April 24, 2014.
Quick Facts
- Creator
- Brett Gelman; Jason Woliner
- Director
- Jason Woliner
- Starring
- Brett Gelman
- Composer
- Cyrus Ghahremäni, Heather Christian (only in Brett Gelman's Dinner in America)
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Network
- Adult Swim
- Executive producers
- Brett Gelman
- Jason Woliner
- Tim Heidecker
- Eric Wareheim
- Dave Kneebone
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Brett Gelman invites Dale Dickey, Gilbert Gottfried, Alex Karpovsky, Fred Melamed, Alison Pill, and Lance Reddick to a dinner party. As the evening unfolds, Gelman behaves increasingly sinisterly. Once the guests grow fed up, he insists it was all a joke. Karpovsky departs, but Joey Fillipiano, played by Anthony Atamanuik, warns that nobody can leave. To foster connection after his bad behavior, Gelman has the five remaining guests privately share their deepest secrets with each other. After the main course arrives, Gelman announces a play he has written for them. He blackmails them using a recording of their secrets, threatening to restrain them like Karpovsky if they refuse. The five perform the play, but Gelman stops it, unimpressed. When police sirens are heard, he orders the guests to ambush the officers with handguns. The officers turn out to be a chimpanzee in a police uniform, which brings relief until a henchman notes one gun is missing. Gottfried has it and threatens to shoot Gelman. Gelman talks him into handing it over, then uses it to kill Gottfried. Gelman forces Melamed to bury the body outside with a shovel. Melamed turns the shovel on Gelman, and the others join the attack. Gelman then wakes up, claiming he must have suffered a psychotic break. He expresses regret over Gottfried’s death before revealing the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. He lets the guests go, but says he will be watching them for the rest of their lives.
Production
Dinner with Friends was a half-hour special written by Brett Gelman and Jason Woliner, with Woliner directing. The pair had worked together often after meeting at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Woliner came up with the concept while on the set of Eagleheart, where Gelman stars and Woliner writes and directs; the initial plan had Gelman performing stand-up comedy for six people at a table. Adult Swim, however, asked them to remove that element. Filming took two days. Gelman and his guests appear as exaggerated fictional versions of themselves. Gelman, who developed his character on his Gelmania podcast and in UCB shows, said it was overblown but still very close to his real self. The creators were influenced by Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke, the series Dinner for Five, The Shining, and Saw. Gelman described the special as a comedy horror and a play, making clear it was fully scripted. He picked the guests for their diverse abilities, noting that Gilbert Gottfried, though a comedian, could deliver a heartbreaking dramatic performance.
Broadcast and reception
Dinner with Friends debuted on Adult Swim on April 24, 2014. The episode reached 1.3 million viewers and earned a 0.6 Nielsen rating among adults 18 to 49, ranking seventeenth in that demographic out of the top 100 cable shows. Jen Ortiz of GQ described it as surreal and hilarious. Sydney Bucksbaum of Zap2it urged viewers to set aside expectations, noting that the show is unlike anything else and likely won't be repeated. Bradford Evans of Splitsider highlighted its standout pacing and exceptional mix of horror and comedy, calling parts genuinely suspenseful and frightening. Liz Ohanesian of LA Weekly compared its pacing to Eagleheart, leading to plot twists more bizarre than audiences can foresee.
Sequels
Plans for a sequel were discussed before the first special aired. A sequel, Dinner with Family with Brett Gelman and Brett Gelman's Family, aired February 13, 2015. It features Gelman hosting a dinner party with his parents (Barry Primus and Barbara Gruen) for their anniversary. He reenacts scenes from his childhood on-stage with actors playing his parents (Tony Roberts and Patti LuPone), and the dinner turns terrifying as suicide, incest, and drug addiction are revealed. Gelman found the dinner format made for a more traumatic environment once horror was introduced. The producers contacted Roberts and LuPone's agents; both actors enjoyed the script, though Roberts was initially repulsed. Gelman wrote in a cover letter that they would avoid shock humor, aiming for a hyperbolic dialogue about dysfunctional families. He chose family as a major theme and wanted a darker direction than the first special. Continuity was limited except for Atamanuik's character, and Gelman called it a companion piece. The debut broadcast of Dinner with Family drew 1.1 million viewers and a 0.5 Nielsen rating in the 18–49 demographic, becoming the twenty-sixth most viewed of the top 100 cable shows in that group. Garrett Martin of Paste called both the sequel and the original hilarious and incredibly hard to watch. A second sequel, Dinner in America with Brett Gelman, premiered on July 1, 2016, with guests Loretta Devine, Shareeka Epps, Joe Morton, and Mack Wilds.
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