Thomas Lennon, whose comedy knows no bounds in the no-shits-given mockumentary series Reno 911!, reveals that he was giving a shit (literally) when Quibi — the home of the show’s revival — shut down.
Quibi had a short-lived but adventurous run. The streaming platform was composed of bite-sized programs that were roughly 10-minutes in length. It saw the talent of Darren Criss, Don Cheadle, Chrissy Teigen and the cast of Reno 911!, as the show was revived on the platform following its Comedy Central cancellation after six seasons.
The comedy series returned for its seventh season on Quibi in May 2020 and was renewed for an eighth season in September. And unfortunately, the cast and crew were hard at work when the platform shut down the next month. Lennon, who co-created the series and starred in it, told The A.V. Club that they were filming an explicit scene when the news broke loose.
The actor was filming a bit called “Dangle’s Retirement Plan” which involved him playing an “amazing ballroom dancer” opposite Wanru Tseng’s “Cindy the Sex Slave,” who was an intern at the police station.
Lennon told A.V. Club they were “being horrible” to him in the scene, explaining, “So I was pretending, I had my pants completely down, and I was pretending to poop in a bucket in the scene, in this giant, like, empty soundstage.”
And, unfortunately, at that moment, Lennon got a rude awakening. He said, “I’m pants-less on a bucket over here, and I see everybody kinda huddles up by the monitors, and they’re like, talking in hushed tones. And I’m just kinda looking, and I’m like, ‘Should I be worried about something?’ And then when we finally cut, everybody’s like, ‘Hey, Quibi’s… it doesn’t exist anymore.'”
He recalled his immediate reaction, “I was like, ‘Oh! That was weird.’ ’Cause… the pooping on the bucket, that was definitely, this was for Quibi, so…”
Shortly after the platform’s shutdown, Roku acquired the rights to its programming, which allowed for the eighth season of Reno 911! to move onto The Roku Channel, meaning Lennon’s performance thankfully did not go without recognition.
