Amplify Pictures and fellow indie studio Stay Tuned have officially greenlit a TV revival of the cult Funny or Die sketch "The Earliest Show," with a full cast now confirmed. Ben Schwartz and Lauren Lapkus return as series regulars alongside newcomers Kevin Carroll and Ryan Gaul, while Henry Winkler and Brandon Scott Jones join in recurring roles. The project reflects a growing trend of independent studios developing and financing series outside the traditional studio system before selling them to buyers, giving creators greater creative control.

The show is based on Schwartz's Funny or Die comedy in which he and Lapkus played hosts of America's earliest live morning programme, broadcasting from 3am in a small upstate New York town; Schwartz will write and direct all episodes of the six-part series. Amplify, whose in-house model has previously backed projects including HBO's 100 Foot Wave, is co-financing with Stay Tuned, alongside Irony Point handling physical production and Funny or Die also attached. No plot details have been released, though Amplify chief executive Joe Lewis praised the project as "wildly original, occasionally unhinged and undeniably hilarious."