Congratulations are in order again for “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau, Universal Press Syndicate Managing Editor Sue Roush announced in an e-mail to newspaper editors recently.

Trudeau’s “Alpha House,” a streaming video program (like a TV show except not on TV but available through the online Amazon Prime streaming service) was picked by viewers from 14 series pilots for development into a full series. The show, starring John Goodman as one of four Republican congressmen sharing a house in Washington, D.C., is expected to be out in November.

That means Trudeau will need to devote his summer to the show, Roush said. And that means no new “Doonesbury” strips in the News Tribune — or anywhere else — until at least about Labor Day...

Amazon.com Inc decided not to turn pilot project "Zombieland" into a full TV series, but is going ahead with "Alpha House," as the world's largest online retailer enters the next stage of its foray into original video creation...

The pilot episode of GBT's political sitcom ALPHA HOUSE has been posted online by Amazon Originals. It stars John Goodman, and features guest appearances by Bill Murray and Stephen Colbert.

To watch it click here.

If you like it and want to encourage Amazon to produce another dozen episodes, please let 'em know!

...Today, we take a look at "Alpha House," one we particularly like.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Created by "Doonesbury's" Garry Trudeau, this is a satire about a group of congressmen who are bunking together in Washington. They are Gil John Biggs (John Goodman), Andy Guzman (Mark Consuelos), Robert Bettencourt (Clark Johnson) and Louis Laffer (Matt Malloy). In the pilot, a senator, Vernon Smits (Bill Murray), is awakened by Gil, who reminds him that he was supposed to turn himself into the Department of Justice on this day. Vernon is not happy.

MY SAY Of all the pilots, this one seems guaranteed to get a green light...

As potential YouTube bait, it might be one of Bill Murray’s best on-screen moments in several years — a GIF that keeps on giving.

In “Alpha House,” a show pilot that debuted online over the weekend, Murray plays a senator who has slept through his appointment to report to the DOJ. As a flurry of agents takes positions outside his D.C. residence, a roomie (played by John Goodman) says wryly: That’s just “p--- poor staff work.”

All while Murray lets loose with inspired abandon.

Murray’s cameo performance was “beyond anything I imagined,” the show’s writer and creator, cartoonist Garry Trudeau, tells Comic Riffs. “I wrote some initial dialogue, but with my encouragement, he turned it into a profane aria.

“Bill’s special in so many ways, and we’re praying he’ll come back. We call him the unicorn.”...

The pilot episode of GBT's political sitcom ALPHA HOUSE has just been posted online by Amazon Originals. It stars John Goodman, and features guest appearances by Bill Murray and Stephen Colbert.

To watch it click here.

If you like it and want to encourage Amazon to produce another dozen episodes, please let 'em know!

The author of Nixon Agonistes, John Wayne's America, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Reagan's America, and, most recently, Why Priests? considers Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury "the best political writing of our time."...

John Goodman is set to star in Alpha House, one of Amazon Studios’ first six original comedy pilots. Written by Oscar nominee and Pulitzer-Prize winner Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Alpha House follows four senators who live together in a rented house in Washington DC. Goodman will play North Carolina Senator Gil John Biggs, a large man with large appetites..

Saturday’s Doonesbury attempted at humor at the current state of newspapers by asking “what happens to comics if newspapers go away?” The strip left the 2nd and 3rd panel blank with the characters stating, “stick with print, folks. This doesn’t have to happen” in the last panel. You can read reader reaction on Doonesbury’s site.

Many webcartoonists took on the question of what happens to comics if newspapers go away by posting the Doonesbury strip with inserted images from their own web comics. Most were well done, but Scott Kurtz depicted one of his characters farting in the blank space of the strip...