We got a press release from Comedy Central crowing about the launch of two “broadband series,” exclusive to ComedyCentral.com. They’re launching Baxter & McGuire (a series about talking testicles!) and Good God.

The second one caught our attention. It’s called Good God and it’s described as “a live action comedy, a la ‘The Office,’ revolving around God’s workplace environment.” (Check out a short clip here.) The creators, writers and directors are listed as Jeffrey Sikaitis, Jeff Stamp and Jake Wheeler. And they’re also listed as executive producers.

It sounded familiar… very familiar. So, we went back and checked out our Just For Laughs coverage from 2003, specifically our comments on Pitching It, and recalled that a similar project was pitched called Genesis, Inc., a clever show pitched by Canadian actors/writers/comics Russell Hamilton and John Kenower. (See a clip of that online series here.) At the time, we said that their pitch was one of only two (out of eight pitches total) that got anyone on the panel of TV execs enthused, noting that it “was immediately coveted by CBC’s (George) Anthony.” And an article in Playback.com, dated August 4, 2003, said that the series “could be taped in Toronto as early as next spring.”

We’re not that savvy when it comes to the inner workings of giant television conglomerates (Oh, sure, we like to toss around words like “interstitial” but that’s all just swagger!), but we wonder how huge was the sack of cash that Comedy Central pushed across the table to these Canadian dudes to get them to walk away from this project? To the point where their names are nowhere near Good God?

The press release is packed with quotes from Lou Wallach, “senior vice president, original programming and development, COMEDY CENTRAL,” who says that the two new internet-only shows “…are examples of the talent community reaching out to us to create innovative, irreverent short-form programming for the digital consumer. It is truly a compliment to the strength of the COMEDY CENTRAL brand on all platforms.”

Here’s something that’s never made sense to us concerning this wacky television producing game (complicated even further by multiplatform this and broadband that): Wallach watched, along with 200 other folks, those boys from Canada pitch that show at Just For Laughs three years ago and saw the enthusiastic response of all present– their pitch killed! (The CBC guy practically tackled them and had them sign the papers right there!) And the video they showed was elaborately produced– heck, it looked like something that was already on the air! Isn’t it unnecessarily complicated (and unnecessarily expensive!) to buy off the original guys, then find new guys to execute basically the same project/idea when the perfectly good original pilot (short though it may have been) was already made, practically fully-formed!?

Television! It makes our head spin.