Back in 2005 we decided to take advantage of the School of Visual Arts studio room, a set that had rotating walls, real furniture, a door, a kitchen — we felt just like Cheers and it was marvelous. For the ultimate throwback Thursday today, we present to you “Nosotros”, a terrible sitcom about 4 aimless college pricks who encounter all sorts of mystical problems and situations in their daily mundane lives.
Nosotros focuses on four characters Shakiel (Casey Jost), RL (Joe Imburgio), Dana (Marc Maffei), and Clay (Patrick Given) who together are real friends from Shoalin, and we’ve done many projects with them in the past. This was the first real collaboration with our old comedy collective Paxen Films and their comedy troupe Trophy Laugh Gang. This was a very special creation that is still buzzed about amongst the inner depths of the killa hillz, like “where can I find those episodes?”, “can I have the raw dailies?”, “can you make me a DVD to show my mom?” — well the answer is nah dude, we’re putting it all here for the world to enjoy!
Episode 1 – The boys are plagued with an insipid ghost like entity properly named “the unmentionable”, which already killed off their odd neighbor Gundaar. Gundaar, an ambiguous raced man, just wants to party with his friends but could never party. Things get increasingly more horrible when he shows up.
Our guys are also plagued and get thoroughly emotional by their landlord Cropsey (Brian Bonz), a full fledged Bensonhurst Italian native with impeccable slicked back hair, who can’t stop reminiscing about his times at the Venice canals in Italy. Cropsey tries to keep these college twirps in line, but the ongoing mystery and looming death of “the unmentionable” finds himself along for the ride.
Episode 2 – Pretty whacked out. The guys get this great idea to try some acid for the first time. They learn about an inexplicable man named Dr. Acid, not ironic at all — first name Doctor and last name Acid. Acid, 35, descends from Germany and knows limited English. Dana leads the gang to the greatest drug-selling parks in all of the state, Washington Square Park! They find Acid and from this point forward things get really horrible.
Episode 3 – Ever want to teleport or time travel to a tropical place to be led by a strange mystery man with your best friends? Well in Episode 3, both of those things happen! The boys learn fast by the mystery park man their value in life seeking for food and big life questions such as “what creates thunder and lighting?” or “how can I run faster then the cheetah?” Learn the best survival tactics based on true friendship and using your brainpower to escape for Italian ices back home.
Episode 4 – This is a probably one of the most longest, pivotal, and dramatic episodes of the series. In fact, the studio kept an additional 30 min from airing because they were afraid of peoples reactions on this story line. You might want to heat up a bowl of food and pour yourself a drink because this episode is so heavy, you will want to rethink who your best friend is.
Overall, Nosotros teaches us how to bond and live together as teens. How we can prevent from picking on each other, fighting ghosts, doing acid bought from strangers in parks, and avoiding land lords who say mean things. Nosotros is a reminder that life gets better over time and adventures never fade. Since then the show aired on FOX, the Nosotros cast have all moved to Miami and run a psychical therapy center for senior citizens.
Check out all the episodes below and try not to let the studio audience persuade you!