Amazon Studios Picks Up “Alpha House” Comedy Series Starring John Goodman, Gives “Zombieland” The Axe

In the wake of releasing eight comedy series pilots into the wild last month, Amazon is starting to make decisions concerning which pilots will be purchased for development and which will get the axe.

According to Reuters, the company has chosen to build out Alpha House, a show featuring John Goodman about four Senators in DC who live in a house together, along with Betas. Betas tells the story of startups trying to make it in the world and stars Ed Begley Jr. Amazon picked up this series back in March.

On the other end of the spectrum, Zombieland was cut from consideration, along with Browsers, a musical comedy following four young kids who work at an online newspaper.

I’ve watched all eight of Amazon’s new comedy series pilots, and have to say that Zombieland’s death disappoints me. Betas was funny enough, and obviously catches our particular attention considering it covers the lives of four “computer geeks” who are building a startup and trying to get funding in Silicon Valley.

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Zombieland, on the other hand, is a bit of an upset. Based on the 2009 hit movie Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone, the show ranked as one of my favorites having not seen the movie. But die-hard Zombieland fans felt the series failed the same quick-wit and devastating charm only Woody Harrelson can provide.

Writer and producer Rhett Reese broke the news on Twitter:

Reuters reported that Zombieland received an average of 3.5 stars in 5,500 reviews, whereas Alpha House received 2,600 reviews with an average of four stars and Betas received more than 1,500 reviews averaging 4.5 stars.

The company has not been entirely clear about its feedback methodology for deciding which shows to purchase, but has explained that this is a first try at something new. There are no hard and fast rules for choosing how to move forward, and the company has said it will develop up to seven of the series, or none at all.

Obviously, we’re already locked and loaded with two of the pilots, and we’ll wait to hear back on the remaining four.

[via The Verge]