Tenacious D’s Short-Lived HBO Show Debuts

He requested us, “Be you angels?’” And we stated, “Nay, we are but men.” Rock!

Lasting a mere three episodes on HBO all through 1997-2000, Tenacious D’s self-titled comedy collection served to introduce the higher world to the self-proclaimed “greatest band in the world.”

Already a staple within the Los Angeles music and comedy scenes, members Kyle Gass (aka KG, Cage, Rage-cage, others), and Jack Black (JB, Jables, others) had caught the eye of David Cross, who forged Black in a number of minor however memorable roles in seminal sketch collection Mr. Show. (Black confirmed off his pipes in a musical sketch graphically illustrating the risks inherent within the outdated farmer-with-three-daughters joke.)

Thanks to their friendship with director Jason Bloom, Tenacious D additionally made their display screen debut singing the track “5 Needs” in 1996’s ill-considered Bio-Dome, which would be the notorious Pauly Shore car’s solely spotlight.

Cross and Mr. Show co-creator Bob Odenkirk’s assisted in getting Gass and Black a shot at a HBO collection, with a purpose to showcase for each their no-joke musical virtuosity (with Gass’ nimble acoustic lead guitar vying with Black’s bombastic and operatic vocals), and their brashly singular comedian voice. Anticipating HBO’s later Flight of the Conchords collection in 2007, Tenacious D premiered on on Nov. 28, 1997 with Black and Gass enjoying slobbish oddballs whose desires of rock superstardom stay unsinkable regardless of the tough realities of life as perpetual open mic-ers – and the duo’s outsized and infrequently ludicrously inflated egos.

Each of the three episodes follows the identical system. First, we see Tenacious D on the single dingy open mic the place they’re grudgingly welcomed as soon as every week by the beleaguered emcee (and fellow Mr. Show participant) Paul F. Tompkins. (Leading off his intro with an unimpressed, “The band asked me to read this,” Tompkins dutifully recites band-penned statements resembling, “Warning, if you want your asses blown out, stay in the room.”)

Then it’s Tenacious D time. The lyrics of their preliminary track, the epically self-important “The History of Tenacious D,” construct to a crescendo, “Tenacious D time, you motherfucker go — Fuck yeah!” Black’s wild-eyed dedication provides the second an anthemic spirit as stirring as it’s foolish.

Technically, you could possibly view every episode as two separate, shorter items. Titles cut up the working time into two tales of aspirational infighting and artistic travails.

In the primary episode, for instance, a section known as “The Search for Inspirado” tackles the author’s block that adopted when Tompkins compelled them to provide you with a brand new track for the subsequent open mic. Crammed into their tiny shared house, Gass and Black naturally drive one another batty. Diva Black’s hair-trigger abusiveness towards his bandmate ultimately causes a breakup, resulting in their triumphant onstage reunion with the slow-build brotherhood banger, “Kyle Quit the Band.”

In the second section, the unlikely however useless critical come-ons from Tenacious D-smitten waitress Laura Kightlinger (“so which one of you assholes is gonna fuck me?”) spurs the boys to romantic rivalry, culminating in an absurd motion set-piece set to the band’s “Karate.” (“With karate, I’ll kick your ass / From here to Tiananmen Square!” growls Black, occurring to musically promise some critical, public hair-related violence for good measure.)

The Tenacious D system is a heady and genuinely rocking mixture of throwback pretension and precise musicianship that pays tribute to the musicians they’re riffing on whereas by no means crossing over into “Weird Al”-style parody. Tenacious D is a real band, having opened for everybody from Weezer and Beck to Tool and Foo Fighters, whose Dave Grohl was an early fan.

Watch Tenacious D’s Video for ‘Tribute’

They’ve additionally launched three full-fledged albums, bought out stadiums and usually blurred the road between what they’re and what they’ve all the time pretended to be. The duo clearly relishes of their decidedly unglamorous rock personas, favoring cargo shorts and belly-stretched T-shirts onstage whereas presenting themselves with the exaggerated confidence of true arduous rock mega-stars.

Tenacious D’s musical comedy presence is a put-on backed up with some excellent musicianship, underscored by their 2014 Grammy award for Best Metal Performance for a canopy of Dio’s “The Last in Line.” The honor is as bewildering in its meta-textual implications because the track is legitimately superior.

Suitably named for sports activities commentators’ description of scrappy protection, Tenacious D’s present conquered each rock-star trope with steamroller abandon. A supposed groupie (frequent D collaborator JR Reed) turns into hilariously stalked as soon as the initially scoffing Black and Gass develop into obsessive about their solely fan. They ultimately invite the terrified fanboy to affix them for the weirdly touching fan tribute “Special Things.”

Speaking of tributes, the second episode comprises what would be the biggest track ever from “the greatest band in the world” – or not less than their tribute to the best track on the planet within the heady and irresistible “Tribute.” Inspired by the complaints of a fussy neighbor (30 Rock’s Scott Adsit), the track particulars the band’s supposed “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”-style music-off with a demon – who’s performed by Adsit within the band’s video fantasy.

They emerged victorious by enjoying a totally improvised track that, sadly, they will now not bear in mind. “Tribute” finally ends up as merely an homage to a long-lost masterpiece, whereas nonetheless providing a potent potion of loony inventiveness and impossibly catchy power-duo one-upmanship turned as much as 11.

HBO was charmed sufficient to supply Black and Gass a full 10-episode order for Tenacious D, however the duo turned them down after studying that the provide was contingent on giving up artistic management. HBO needed Tenacious D to merely contribute songs for future episodes, a change maybe precipitated by their admittedly out-there sophomoric absurdities.

The closing episode concludes with the one so-so section of the abbreviated run, a street journey journey the place the blokes discover themselves on the mercy of a cult whose members save their feces in glass jars. It’s simply the form of conceit that may ship an already-wary cable community looking for a brand new artistic crew.

Still, there’s a distinctly humorous and tuneful vibe to Tenacious D that also works years later. The second-episode section “Death of a Dream,” the place the stark realities of the music business lastly shake Gass and Black’s (over)confidence to the core, takes a brilliantly absurd leap involving John C. Reilly as a drum-pounding Bigfoot. He’s ultimately kicked out of the reinvigorated band with a mild “it’s not you, it’s us” speech.

Reilly’s Sasquatch returns in overcoat-and-fedora disguise, nevertheless, tearfully admiring the band’s subsequent open-mic comeback. He secretively asks Tompkins’ emcee to only let the band know that “a friend” stated they kicked ass, earlier than working off with signature Sasquatch lope. Reilly then rapidly returns to inform Tompkins that he’d higher simply say it was Sasquatch, as a result of in any other case they received’t know which buddy he means.

Tenacious D continued after this temporary TV sojourn, releasing an eponymous debut album that went platinum whereas garnering a good quantity of important acclaim. They then took these tv alter-egos to the large display screen on the Liam Lynch-directed Tenacious D within the Pick of Destiny in 2006. The movie bombed commercially, regardless of the return of Reilly’s Sasquatch and roles for licensed rock royalty Grohl, Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf. The ensuing soundtrack album, nevertheless, ultimately reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200.