Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus: Season 1

June 7, 2024 10:50 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

(from the Wikipedia entry) Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus is an American animated docuseries television series created by Mike Judge, Richard Mullins and Dub Cornett that premiered on September 22, 2017 on Cinemax.[1] It is Cinemax's only animated series.

(cont. from Wikipedia) The series is presented as a biographical oral history of musicians with each season focusing on a specific genre. It is narrated by Mike Judge and presents anecdotes of star performers as told by their families, bandmates, and close associates. Interview subjects are presented in rotoscope and their anecdotes in a contrasting cel animation style, interspersed with performance footage and news footage.

So far I've burned through the first 3 episodes: Johnny Paycheck, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones and Tammy Wynette (two parter!). Loving every minute of it. Note: Judge covers more than country, but the first season is all country (okay, Jerry Lee Lewis is a foot-in-both-worlds)

Trailer

posted by elkevelvet (7 comments total)

Weird that this is on the Roku Channel and not Max, but then streaming in 2024 is bonkers.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:54 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Thanks for noting that, DOT

I'm finding the series via my (Canadian) Crave sub

I just cancelled the sub, I did not like their model much.
posted by elkevelvet at 12:02 PM on June 7

This series is great and downright respectful.
posted by Catblack at 5:07 PM on June 7 [3 favorites]

Oh, I hope this show does Buddy Rich.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:39 AM on June 8

Season 1 is eminently watchable.. I once worked with a guy who played a ton of George Jones in the back of the shop, and seeing the George/Tammy 2-parter really took me back. The 2-parter on Waylon Jennings is excellent also. If you enjoy Mike Judge's writing and his animation, and you like a docuseries that features interview footage prominently, then I can't see you going wrong with this. I'm guessing Judge is a dog person from the prominence of the dogs in the interviews, it's a nice little touch.

Season 2 is all about the funk and I'm about to get into Rick James.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:14 AM on June 10 [2 favorites]

Season 2 is all about the funk and I'm about to get into Rick James.

You will not be disappointed.
posted by whuppy at 2:23 PM on June 11 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Season 1 is very, very good but Season 2 is transcendent.

Both season have someone who casts a shadow over them; someone who never gets an episode but who gets mentioned in other people's episodes left and right. For Season 1 that person is Johnny Cash; for Season 2 it's Prince.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:52 PM on June 11 [3 favorites]