Ain’t It Cool With Harry Knowles Set to Air on KLRU

You could forgive the show’s Kickstarter funders for starting to think it had all been for naught. However, word has arrived today that the money they contributed to finance the taping of a second season of Ain’t It Cool With Harry Knowles has resulted in a deal for the show to be broadcast on KLRU-TV, beginning February 7, 2015.

Ain’t It Cool with Harry Knowles, a seven-episode television series, is a spinoff of host Harry Knowles’ hugely popular film-geek website www.aintitcool.com. Although the press release calls these 2015 episodes Season One, many will recall a Season One of an identically titled podast on Nerdist back in 2012. (Semantics or a bibliographic issue? To some of us who write about this stuff, it can be more confusing than cool.)

After the Nerdist show ended, the Ain’t It Cool gang started a Kickstarter campaign to raise production money to shoot a second season. That campaign ended on September 5, 2013 after raising a total of $128,029, and earning well over its stated $100,000 goal. Included among the campaign’s high-profile supporters are such filmmakers as Guillermo del Toro, JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, Bill Condon, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Peter Jackson, as well as distributor Bob Berney and Chronicle Editor Louis Black. The approximately 650-700 other backers thanked on the show’s website are hopefully opening up their mailboxes to the T-shirts and assorted other goodies they were promised at the close of the campaign 15 months ago – which should go a long way toward quieting the pockets of dissatisfaction that arose among some of the show’s funders. It’s unclear if the advance viewing promised to certain funders upon each episode’s completion will be able to be honored in light of this deal with the PBS affiliate.

According to the press release, the show plans to present “an inventive and visual romp through of some of the favorite films and genres loved, admired, and sometimes even scorned by the iconoclastic film, television and pop culture critic.” The setting is Knowles’ “magical basement” full of rare and unique movie memorabilia. He will once again be joined by “Pops” and his alter ego “Boiler.” This season’s list of guests includes Burt Reynolds, House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, author and film critic Leonard Maltin, filmmakers Wes Craven and Danny Boyle, and many more.

The show will air as part of the local PBS station’s “Q Night at the Movies.” Each week KLRU-Q presents a block of movie programming starting at 7pm. Ain’t It Cool With Harry Knowles will air immediately following the feature film. A highlight reel appears below.

AICwHK Highlight Reel from Sweat Equity Productions on Vimeo.