Yuri Baranovsky Justin Morrison Daniel George Daniela DiIorio Alexis Boozer Drew Lanning Chad Yarish Skip Emerson Flynn Kelleher
Country of origin
United States
Original language
English
No. of episodes
17
Production
Running time
7–30 minutes
Break a Leg is an American independently-created comedyweb series. The show is filmed in the handheld, one-camera style associated with mockumentaries such as The Office.
Unlike many other internet web series, some episodes of Break a Leg are as long as those of television sitcoms, at around 30 minutes.
Premise and setting
The show is about a writer named David Penn, whose sitcom has been picked up for production. The viewer also learns, through the lead character's narration, that David is going to die at the end of the season. The show follows David through the process of making a show and surviving a fantastical, almost satirical Hollywood. Break a Leg takes place in San Francisco with some scenes in Los Angeles. Hollywood itself is portrayed as a kind of macabre world where unions engage in actual wars and child actors live in the sewers.
In March 2006, FX held a MySpace contest through their hit show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, asking viewers to create their own 5-minute pilot for a TV show that had never been on air. Yuri Baranovsky was already working on a feature-length independent film titled LIFE NOIR, and he, the crew, and the actors decided to enter the competition. The Baranovskys wrote the idea in one sitting and the short "episode" was shot in one day.
The show didn't win but managed to garner a small fanbase, with some individuals contacting FX to tell them they picked the wrong show.[citation needed] This prompted the Break a Leg crew to create more episodes of Break a Leg under their production company name, Late Again Films.
Episodes
Season one consists of 17 episodes.
Episode 1, "The Pilot": David Penn is a Hollywood writer who has just had his sitcom Groomates picked up. Held captive in a closet, with a gun to his head, David begins to recall the events that led to his current predicament.
Episode 2, Bad Press": The new publicist that the producers have hired to promote Groomates plans to leak embarrassing personal information about the cast, who threaten to quit in protest if David does not do something about it.
Episode 3, "High Treason": David discovers that there's a mole within the Groomates production team funneling information about the show to a rival production.
