Amazon Renews ‘Alpha House’

OTT service Amazon Prime has stepped up its original programming lineup, renewing its first comedy seriesAlpha House for a sophomore campaign and giving the green light to four new scripted series and two kids-targeted shows produced by Amazon Studios.

Alpha House (pictured), starring John Goodman, Mark Consuelos, Clark Johnson and Matt Malloy as Republican Senators living under one roof, will return for a second season later this year. The show debuted the past November on Amazon Prime.

The OTT service has also greenlit four scripted series offered as part of and two children’s programs, part of its 10 original pilots profiled for Amazon Prime subscribers to preview. Among the new shows are The After, produced by Chris Carter (X-Files) that follows eight strangers forced to work together to survive in a violent world; Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling book series about a relentless LAPD homicide detective; Mozart in the Jungle, a half-hour comedy about sex, drugs and classical music; and Transparent, a dramedy about a Los Angeles family with boundary issues, said company officials.

The two children’s based comedies are Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, a coming of age show about a group of friends and their exploits on a magical street in a surburan neighborhood; and Wishenroof!, a pre-school targeted animated series.

Amazon Prime will make the pilot episodes of The After, Bosch, Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent, Wishenpoof!  and Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street as part of its lineup.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.