Television Pilots/Series
In 2013 Blitz directed the Pilot of Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous. The series was created by and starred Bo Burnham in his first television series roll and was picked up by MTV for one season.
From 2014 to 2017, Blitz was executive producer/director/writer of the Comedy Central series Review, which he co-adapted and was co-showrunner with Andy Daly whom he has known since high school in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Blitz directed the pilot and the entire three season run of the show. It was adapted from the Australian series Review with Myles Barlow.
Review was met with widespread critical acclaim. The New Yorker described it as an “agitating, legitimately funny, and surprisingly profound sitcom” while GQ called it “The funniest, bleakest, truest show you're not watching”.
Ahead of the DVD release of Review in 2020, Polygon declared “Review may just be one of the best TV shows ever made”. The Atlantic said “In an era of peak television that's expanded storytelling horizons beyond the formulaic, flooding the medium with characters that aren't traditionally likable, Andy Daly’s Review stands out”.
The series was listed in Indiewire’s The Best TV Shows of the Decade and The A.V. Club’s Best TV shows of 2017.
The episode Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes featured Forest MacNeil (Andy Daly) eat 15 pancakes, get divorced, and then eat 30 pancakes. It was listed in multiple publications Top 10 episodes of the year for 2014, including The Atlantic, Indiewire and The Chicago Reader.
Review maintains cult status among fans as “one of the darkest comedies ever seen on television”.
Blitz directed the pilot and two subsequent episodes of comedy series Playing House which was created by Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair who also star in the series. Running for three seasons from 2014 - 2017, Playing House achieved critical acclaim. Vulture declared it one of the best new shows of 2014 and included it in multiple best of lists while NY Times critic Margaret Lyons cited it in her list of Best Shows That Ended in 2017.
The series was described as “One of TV's Bravest Comedies” “Bingeworthy” and as the “Best TV Show About Female Friendships That You're Not Watching”. On Rotten Tomatoes Playing House has an approval rating of 90%.
Across 2017 & 2018 Blitz produced and directed the pilot for the NBC sitcom Trial & Error starring John Lithgow in its first season and Kristin Chenoweth in its second. In addition to working as executive producer, Blitz directed a dozen episodes of the series across its two-season run. Trial & Error was also hailed as a cult favorite and likened to fan favourite Parks & Rec.
Vanity Fair said “Trial & Error derives its comedy from a magnetic combination of extreme silliness and highbrow allusion”. Variety called it “a lighthearted, zany spoof of shows like “The Jinx” and “Making a Murderer,” those true-crime documentary series that take a viewer into the real-time investigation of a convoluted cas. Indiewire described the series as “Unhinged at times, oddly thoughtful at others, Trial & Error is more than parody; it's a welcome wave of silliness”.
Blitz directed and executive produced the pilot for American Auto in 2020, which was then picked up for series by NBC. The show stars Ana Gasteyer. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 100% rating. Blitz went on to executive produce the first season and directed three more episodes including the season finale.
