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May 26, 2012

Gervais working on an Extras spinoff?

by Joel Keller, posted Jan 4th 2008 11:23AM

ExtrasAccording to the UK entertainment site Digital Spy, Ricky Gervais is talking about doing a spin-off of Extras, which he recently concluded with a holiday special. The spin-off would focus on Shaun Williamson's character Barry (referred to most of the time as "Barry from EastEnders") and co-creator Stephen Merchant's clueless agent Darren Lamb.

Williamson confirmed to a British radio station that he is in talks with Gervais about the spin-off. "We talked half-jokingly about a show with the pair in a camper van, solving crimes," he told the station.

It seems like it might not be a bad idea, since Barry and Darren made for a pretty funny team. It almost seemed like the two of them were a couple, with Barry doing everything for Darren but kissing his shoes, and Darren pushing Barry for every project his other client, Andy Millman (Gervais) was working on. The new show would definitely have more of a light-comedy angle to it than Extras, but you know that Gervais and Merchant will have some biting jokes ready for whatever new show they come up with.

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Phish

as long as keith mcduffee doesnt blog the spinoff, i'll watch it! haha no offense keith

January 09 2008 at 1:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim

I loved Extras, but I can't imagine an entire series built around Barry.

January 04 2008 at 2:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jim's comment
RR

Not built *only* around Barry. The agent Darren Lamb would be in it too.

Ricky has been doing more solo stuff (film parts, cameos, chat show appearances, standup comedy tours, his books etc) so I imagine that Stephen has a fair bit of downtime compared to Ricky. I can imagine Stephen wanting his own side project in addition to the upcoming Ricky/Stephen written show.

January 04 2008 at 7:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Paul

Stephen Merchant is a legend, I'd watch anything with him in - this sounds like a great idea.

January 04 2008 at 12:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RR

"Extras, which he recently concluded with a holiday special."

It was a Christmas Special, not a "holiday special".

January 04 2008 at 12:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to RR's comment
Toby OB

Out of all the characters in 'Extras', the two I'd miss most were Maggie and "Barry". At least Ashley Jensen is on 'Ugly Betty', but it's still not exactly the same thing.

Shaun Williamson playing himself, but forever only known as his old character, really grew on me as a very funny character. But I think this falls into that category of wishful thinking on the part of an actor to get some buzz going for his character to be in a spin-off.

Phil Morris did the same thing re: Jackie Chiles when 'Seinfeld' went off the air and I'm sure there must be others...

January 04 2008 at 12:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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