Wednesday, July 11, 2012

New Comedic Webseries Lovin' Lakin, Starring Step by Step's Christine Lakin, Premieres Monday on Hulu, Watch Her on Melissa & Joey Tonight

We briefly mentioned before that actress Christine Lakin (Step by Step) is launching her own webseries, but now we have the full story for you on how it happened! Comedy/sitcom fans and reality show fans will rejoice! Lovin Lakin, a new online comedy series starring Christine Lakin, premieres on Hulu and YouTube this coming Monday (July 16, 2012). Ten episodes have been produced for your enjoyment. And you don't have to wait every week to watch a new episode! All ten episodes will be available on the premiere date and for people to watch on-demand! Now that's cool! And it even has its own catchy theme song..."she's Lakin!"

If you don't know, Lovin' Lakin is an original webseries "mockumentary" following former child TV star Christine Lakin and her comeback to show business. She will be playing a fictional version of herself, because of course we know she never left show business. She has been a very steady and well respected working actress since the sitcom ended in 1998. This webseries will be a hilarious look at another version of Christine Lakin. The webseries chronicles the former Step by Step actress as she attempts to provide insight into "how to make it" in Hollywood, with episodes featuring some of her cool friends Kristen Bell, Patrick Duffy, Staci Keanan, Kyle Bornheimer, Kristin Chenoweth and Seth MacFarlane. Christine says "they will be playing a 'kind of' version of themselves. Like for example, Patrick Duffy couldn't be a nicer, sweeter, more lovely amazing human being and in his episode, I don't want to give too much away, but the entire focus of his episode is that I think he is really family and I always go to him with my problems and he can't stand me... and everybody on that show couldn't stand me and I was always so annoying, which of course is not the case, I mean he wouldn't come do the show if we didn't have a good relationship! To me, that's what's funny and that's the character I built, and the fact that everyone knows this girl, this Christine Lakin, and everybody hates her (laughs)! It makes me laugh endlessly because there is so many ways to go with it because she is just so oblivious to the fact that nobody really likes her very much!"

We talked to Christine Lakin in detail about her "mockumentary" web series and how she came up with this idea, "I was sitting around with my friend and fellow producer Dave Mahanes, and he does quite serious documentaries, and he looked at me and said, 'I would love to do something just for fun.' So he said if you ever have an idea to film something, he said he would love to work together and do something silly and I've been kind of knocking around this idea in my head that I love The Office and I love that idea of sort of a fake documentary...the device of a documentary I think is really fun and I think it provides a lot of commentary on what's happening for the actors. So I sort of had this idea and I didn't know what it was and I pitched it to him and he liked it and it just kind of blossomed from there. I knew I wanted to do a brand of comedy that was uniquely my own and sort of a storyline that is uniquely my own. So using a page from my real life, people always say that if you're going to write something, write what you know. So I went to the place I knew best, to take my real life and to completely turn it on its head and make myself a caricature and to say, 'what if this girl is someone totally different from me but lived all the same experiences that I lived?' And having left the business and wanting to make a comeback and just having no real knowledge what the business is actually like anymore and having a complete sort of over inflated view of herself. And I think that's what makes Michael Scott, the character on The Office, makes him so funny that he is so likeable but he is such a daft idiot! And I just really enjoy that sort of humor and I love that character and I follow that model a little bit for what I made myself in this webseries. And we were able to make ten episodes in several weeks because they were like five minutes a piece roughly."

She also said "I was really lucky that I have very talented and funny friends who were great improvisers so we sort of used the scripts as a template but really everybody was allowed to go sort of off the page and a lot of the greatest stuff we got was from improv. So I was really lucky in that regard." She added, "if you're going to make a documentary, there has to be a journey. I think as a mockumentary it makes it more pertinent for the character of Christine Lakin to be returning to show business because I think there has to be a sense of discovery for any character. You have to have a goal at the end, you have to have a want, a drive, that's what drives the motivation for any story. So having made it that she left the business and now she is making this grand comeback and she think it is going to go really really well and we all know from the get go that it's probably not. Given the fact that she is not very self-aware at all and times have kind of changed and the fact that she actually thinks after 10 years being out of the business that she still is America's sweetheart is hilarious because as we all know, you could leave for six months and no one would remember you, sadly. I also did this because it's sort of a tongue-and-cheek nod to the fact that I was in real life on a TV show as a child and since then I have done a lot of different things. Making this web series was definitely a chance for me to have more control and more creative autonomy, and that was probably the biggest reason I did it. I did it for me, and if other people like it, man that's the cherry on top because I love to make other people laugh."

There are ideas to bring this to television as well (like a sitcom?), depending on how this goes, but Christine says her goal was always to make people laugh and if there is a second season on television or the web, she doesn't care where as long as she can make people laugh. She says it was fun to film and she loves producing it. Christine also would love to have her Step by Step mother Suzanne Somers on the second season. She does however have some footage from that day she reunited with Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy at a TV dads event that she will use as easter eggs, bonus footage and bloopers for this season. She would also love to have her other co-stars from Step by Step on the show if there is a second season. She tells us there is an annual Step by Step pot-luck reunion in August at one of the producers' house and she will definitely try to recruit some of them to join her if there is a second season. And she has a few episodes already written if there is indeed a second season, such as an episode on a "child actor support group" with stars like Melissa Joan Hart, Kellie Martin, Danielle Fishel, Jaleel White and Shannen Doherty dropping by. Melissa and Kellie for sure would do it. Let's hope we get to see a second season so we can see this! Spread the word and watch the first season starting this Monday!

Lovin' Lakin is created by and produced by Christine Lakin and Dave Mahanes. The series is executive produced by Andy Fickman and Betsy Sullenger of Oops Doughnuts Productions. Christine Lakin wrote the series with additional writing on some episodes by Ross Patterson. We have a video trailer below, so please watch!

And Lovin' Lakin is not all for Christine! She will guest star on TONIGHT'S episode of an all-new Melissa & Joey airing at 8:00pm ET/PT on ABC Family. She made an appearance on the sitcom last season as well, but this time her character returns and wants to have a baby...and wants Joe's (Joey Lawrence) sperm! See the hilarious video promo below. In addition, she is also on another webseries, Internet Icon, which is very popular and generating traffic. Lakin also tells us that she hits the stage this fall in the Los Angeles premiere of Silence! The Musical. And if that's not all, she says she is choreographing on a Disney Channel sitcom pilot Bits & Pieces and working on more shows for Worst Audition Ever, which she created and we absolutely love. Everybody is certainly lovin' Lakin, and she deserves it!

Lovin' Lakin trailer:

Alternate trailer from The Insider.

Melissa & Joey promo:


Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Saturday, September 13

none scheduled

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of September 8)

Friday, September 12

  • Regina King (The Boondocks/Leap of Faith/227) - Watch Regina on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Michael Chiklis (Daddio) - Michael is a guest on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet) - Drew appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
  • Kumail Nanjiani (Bless the Harts/Silicon Valley) - Kumail is a guest on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Domhnall Gleeson (The Paper) - Domhnall appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Emily Osment (Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage/Young Sheldon/Young & Hungry/Hannah Montana), Tien Tran (How I Met Your Father) and Vinny Thomas (Platonic) - Emily, Tien and Vinny are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
  • Ken Jeong (Dr. Ken/Community) - Ken talks about 99 to Beat on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
  • Michael Urie (Shrinking/Krapopolis/Partners) - Michael talks about Broadway's Oh, Mary! and Shrinking on The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
  • Zosia Mamet (Laid/Girls) - Zosia talks about Does This Make Me Funny? on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
  • Emeril Lagasse (Emeril) - Sunny Anderson gets a big surprise from Drew – cooking with the legendary Emeril Lagasse on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Jennifer Aniston (Friends/Muddling Through/Ferris Bueller/Molloy) - Drew is chatting with Jennifer about the new season of The Morning Show, her kids cookbook, Cook with Clydeo, and her haircare line on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Hannah Pilkes (Leanne) - Hannah is a guest on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 9:30am.
  • Charlie Sheen (Anger Management/Two and a Half Men/Spin City) - Real Time with Bill Maher features a one-on-one interview with Charlie Sheen, actor and subject of the new two-part documentary aka Charlie Sheen on Netflix, and author of the new book The Book of Sheen: A Memoir at 10pm on HBO.


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