Wet Hot American Summer Teaser Trailer Is Nostalgic Greatness

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One of the greatest comedies that’s ever existed – and if you’ve got a problem with that, you can suck on a talking can of vegetables – Wet Hot American Summer is coming back to audiences as a Netflix prequel series. And while we won’t get to see the actual show until later this year, we have our first sun-covered taste with the teaser below.

Set to the “get your ass up and dance” jams of the film’s song “Higher and Higher,” the teaser for Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp does little more than take audiences back to those oh-so-familiar cabins of Camp Firewood, in the oh-so-familiar time of 1981. But I’d be lying if I said that long tracking shot up to the wall-carved words wasn’t enough to launch my excitement into the stratosphere.

If the return to this iconic location wasn’t enough, how about that stacked list of cast members returning for this limited series? Those listed include Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Jo Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Christopher Meloni, Marguerite Moreau, Zak Orth, Amy Poehler, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Rudd, Molly Shannon, and Michael Showalter. And what’s more, A.D. Miles, Kevin Sussman, and H. Jon Benjamin will also be back to reprise their characters. I’m trying to think of a way that this could be terrible, and all I’m coming up with is “we find out this is all one big government-sanctioned prank on good people everywhere.”

Almost as amazing as the show’s existence is how it will be handling the storytelling. Instead of catching up with these characters 30+ years down the road, First Day of Camp will actually take place on the dawn of the 1981 camp season, putting these actors (who were already older than the counselors they were playing) as days younger than they were in the first film, even though they’ll actually be 14 or 15 years older. (And light years more famous, many of them.) That’s called comedy, people.

I’m picking up on some psychic energies that everyone wants to watch the amazing montage from the film, in which “Higher and Higher” is used perfectly, and Chris Meloni is a sage mentor. “Show me the fevahhh!”

Joining Netflix’s growing comedy slate that includes Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Flaked, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp will premiere all eight episodes on the streaming service this summer. Get your bug juice and dick cream ready.

Nick Venable
Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.