American comedy miniseries
The Spoils of Babylon
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Genre
| Comedy
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Created by
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Written by
| - Matt Piedmont
- Harper Steele
[a]
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Directed by
| Matt Piedmont
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Starring
| |
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Music by
| - Andrew Feltenstein
- John Nau
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Country of origin
| United States
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Original language
| English
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No.
of episodes
| 6
(
list of episodes
)
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Executive producers
|
- Will Ferrell
- Adam McKay
- Matt Piedmont
- Harper Steele
[a]
- Nate Young
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Producers
| - Tobey Maguire
- Kristen Wiig
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Cinematography
| Giles Dunning
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Editor
| David Trachtenberg
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Running time
| 23 minutes
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Production company
| Funny or Die
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Network
| IFC
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Release
| January 9
(
2014-01-09
)
?
February 6, 2014
(
2014-02-06
)
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The Spoils Before Dying
|
The Spoils of Babylon
is an American
comedy
miniseries
written by
Matt Piedmont
and Harper Steele,
[a]
directed by Piedmont, and starring
Tobey Maguire
,
Kristen Wiig
,
Tim Robbins
,
Jessica Alba
,
Val Kilmer
,
Haley Joel Osment
,
Michael Sheen
, and
Will Ferrell
.
[2]
It is a spoof of the epic-scale "TV event" miniseries adapted from bestselling novels (such as
Shogun
,
The Thorn Birds
and
Rich Man, Poor Man
) prevalent on American network television in the 1970s and 1980s.
The miniseries premiered on
IFC
on January 9, 2014.
[2]
The series received generally positive reviews from critics. For her performance as Cynthia Morehouse, Wiig was nominated for a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
.
Plot
[
edit
]
Patriarch Jonas Morehouse shepherds his daughter Cynthia and adopted son Devon from meager beginnings in the
oil fields
of
Texas
to powerful boardrooms in
New York City
. Cynthia and Devon, entwined in undeniable love, stumble through war-torn battlefields, blazing mansions, filthy drug dens and velvet-sheeted bedrooms on their quest for power and influence. Despite Jonas' best efforts to intervene, Cynthia and Devon's merciless love sets into motion a wave of destruction that crashes down on Devon's graceful wife Lady Anne, his daughter Marianne, his colleague and lover Dixie, Cynthia's hen-pecked husband Chet, her evil son Winston, the scheming Generals and far beyond.
The entire miniseries is presented as if it had been a real miniseries, with a fictional backstory of how it took three years to film and was originally 22 hours long. Each episode is framed with its author/director Eric Jonrosh sitting in a restaurant discussing it; the setting and Jonrosh's erratic speech and behaviour therein are in imitation of out-takes from Orson Welles' advertisements for
wine
and
frozen peas
.
Cast
[
edit
]
- Will Ferrell
as Eric Jonrosh, "Author, Producer, Actor, Writer, Director, Raconteur, Bon Vivant, Legend, Fabulist" of the series.
[3]
Ferrell as Jonrosh also plays
Reza
the
Shah of Iran
in the final episode.
[3]
- Tobey Maguire
as Dirk Snowfield as Devon Morehouse, Jonas's adopted son
[3]
- Kristen Wiig
as Lauoreighiya Samcake (Jonrosh's ex-wife) as Cynthia Morehouse, Jonas's daughter and Devon's adopted sister.
[3]
- Tim Robbins
as Sir Richard Driftwood as Jonas Morehouse, an entrepreneur in the oil industry
[3]
- Val Kilmer
as Bobcat Maccaullie as General Cauliffe, a
United States Army
general
[3]
- Michael Sheen
as Christopher Smith as Chet Halner, Cynthia's husband
[3]
- Jessica Alba
as Dixie Melonworth, a
marine biologist
and Devon's new love interest.
[3]
- Haley Joel Osment
as Marty Comanche as Winston Morehouse, Cynthia's evil son
[3]
- David Spade
as Joseph Sol as Talc Munson
- Steve Tom
as Rex Muftee as General Maddoxton
[3]
- Jellybean Howie as Gumdrop Howard as Marianne Morehouse
- Molly Shannon
as Odessa Dobson as Meredith Sennheiser
- Phillip Wampler as Devon Morehouse (Young)
- Isabella Acres
as Cynthia Morehouse (Young)
- Ethan Flower
as British Civilian
- Cal Bartlett as Cyrus Mego
- Brian Chapman as News Reporter
- Robert Pike Daniel as Board Member #1
- Carey Mulligan
(voice) as Lady Anne York, Devon Morehouse's
mannequin
wife
[4]
- Marc Evan Jackson
as Bank Man
[3]
- Tony Mirrcandani as Amed
- Al Rossi as Congressman Wilkes
Production
[
edit
]
The miniseries began
principal photography
on June 2, 2013 in Los Angeles.
[2]
Episodes
[
edit
]
Reception
[
edit
]
On
review aggregator
website
Rotten Tomatoes
, the series holds an approval rating of 81% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 7.12/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell and a cast of other famous characters make
The Spoils of Babylon
a worthy watch for comedy fans, satirizing the classic television melodrama miniseries with hilarious visuals and clever content."
[10]
On
Metacritic
, the series has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
[11]
Companion series
[
edit
]
The series was enough of a success for the network to prompt a second
Spoils
miniseries,
The Spoils Before Dying
, which debuted on July 8, 2015.
[12]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Credited as Andrew Steele; Steele came out as transgender and changed her name in 2022.
[1]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Sharf, Zack; Donnelly, Matt (21 January 2024).
"Will Ferrell Had 'Zero Knowledge' About the Trans Community. Then His Best Friend of 30 Years Came Out: 'This Was All New Territory for Me'
"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
20 March
2024
.
- ^
a
b
c
Locker, Melissa (June 3, 2013).
"IFC's "The Spoils of Babylon" to feature Jessica Alba, Will Ferrell, Toby Maguire, Kristen Wiig, Tim Robbins and more"
.
IFC
. Retrieved
June 3,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Kondolojy, Amanda (June 3, 2013). "Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Tobey Maguire, Haley Joel Osment, Michael Sheen, Tim Robbins and Kristen Wiig to Join Will Ferrell in 'The Spoils of Babylon'
".
TV by the Numbers
.
- ^
Getlen, Larry (December 28, 2013). "Maguire, Wiig lead all-star spoof of bloated '70s miniseries".
New York Post
.
- ^
a
b
"Thursday's Cable Ratings & Broadcast Finals: "Big Bang Theory," "Millers" Top Charts"
. The Futon Critic. January 10, 2014
. Retrieved
July 7,
2014
.
- ^
"Ratings ? Thursday's Cable Ratings & Broadcast Finals: Night Two of "American Idol" Dominates Viewers, Demos"
. TheFutonCritic.com. 2014-01-16
. Retrieved
2014-02-24
.
- ^
"Ratings ? Thursday's Cable Ratings & Broadcast Finals: "American Idol" Continues Its Reign for FOX"
. TheFutonCritic.com. 2014-01-23
. Retrieved
2014-02-24
.
- ^
"Ratings ? Thursday's Cable Ratings & Broadcast Finals: "Big Bang Theory" Triumphs Over "American Idol"
"
. TheFutonCritic.com. 2014-01-30
. Retrieved
2014-02-24
.
- ^
"Ratings ? Thursday's Cable Ratings & Broadcast Finals: Winter Games Hold Off "Big Bang," "Idol"
"
. TheFutonCritic.com. 2014-02-06
. Retrieved
2014-02-24
.
- ^
"The Spoils of Babylon: Season 1 (2014)"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved
June 16,
2020
.
- ^
"The Spoils of Babylon: Season 1 reviews"
.
Metacritic
. Retrieved
June 16,
2020
.
- ^
Berman, Marc (July 9, 2014).
IFC Orders Second Season of "Spoils" Franchise
.
TV Media Insights
. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
External links
[
edit
]
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Former
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2000s debuts
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2010s debuts
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