Amazon Renews 'Alpha House,' Cancels 'Betas,' Confirms 6 Series Orders

Just one year into Amazon's tenure as an original content creator, the online retail giant/streaming video provider has renewed its first ever comedy series, while canceling its second. It's also picked up two children's pilots to series, and publicly confirmed the previously revealed pick-ups of two dramas and two comedies.

From the mind of 'Doonesbury' creator Gary Trudeau, 'Alpha House' spotlights four U.S. senators living together in the same Washington, D.C. residence. The series stars John Goodman, Clark Johnson, Matt Malloy, and Mark Consuelos, and will be returning for a 10-episode second season. Conversely, 'Betas,' a comedy about a group of dating app developers working in Silicon Valley, has not been renewed.

In addition to those announcements, Amazon has picked up two children's series for 13-episode first seasons. The first, 'Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street,' is a live-action coming-of-age story centering on the titular character and his friends, and is targeted at 6-11 year-olds. The second, 'Wishenpoof,' is an animated series targeted at preschoolers. Most of our readership may be tempted to scoff at these pick-ups, but one need only ask Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel how profitable kids programming can be.

Finally, Amazon once again confirmed the first season orders of drama pilots 'The After' and 'Bosch,' and comedy pilots 'Mozart in the Jungle' and 'Transparent.' A new bit of info in today's announcement clarifies the exact episode orders for these series, with 'Bosch,' 'Mozart,' and 'Transparent getting 10-episodes, and the Chris Carter created 'After' only getting eight. Hopefully that means that the writers won't feel the need to drag things out, as so often happens to serialized sci-fi dramas.