Premiering on July 10, the second season of the historical comedy series will cover the greatest FBI heist story you’ve never heard before
Listen to the Trailer HERE
NEW YORK – June 26, 2024 – iHeartMedia, the No. 1 podcast publisher according to Podtrac, FilmNation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Co., today released the trailer for the second season of the award-winning original iHeartPodcasts series SNAFU with Ed Helms, executive produced and hosted by actor, writer and comedian Ed Helms. The new season continues the narrative docu-format from season one, dissecting one of history’s greatest screw-ups over the course of eight episodes. Premiering on July 10, “SNAFU: MEDBURG” will tell the story of a daring heist that exposed a colossal FBI SNAFU. Fans can listen to the trailer now, HERE.
On the show’s second season, Helms said, “History proves again and again that humans are really great at screwing things up. But occasionally, a plucky few emerge to fix things. Betty Medsger’s book The Burglary blew me away with its true account of a daring heist in 1971 that brought accountability and transparency to a dangerously corrupt FBI. I’m honored that Betty and these courageous individuals trusted the SNAFU team to bring their story to life in a fun new way. Even fifty years later, its potent themes of government overreach and citizen activism are as urgent as ever.”
Throughout the season, Helms will tell the story of how a courageous group of activists, who called themselves The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, burglarized an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania in 1971 in order to get documentary evidence that longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was suppressing dissent. The FBI labeled their intensive hunt for the anonymous burglars, “MEDBURG,'' a portmanteau for “media burglary.” The Citizens’ Commission sent the stolen, confidential files to several Congressmen and journalists, who immediately turned them over to the FBI. But not Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger, who published their shocking contents, which would forever upend everything America knew about the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country. A year later, NBC journalist Carl Stern also sued the FBI to discover the meaning of COINTELPRO: New Left, a term in one of the stolen files. Ultimately, this process revealed J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI’s covert, illegal program to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt political groups with opposing political views, such as the Black Panthers. Public reaction to these revelations led to the first congressional investigations of the FBI and other intelligence agencies – the Church Committee Hearings – and established the first congressional oversight of these agencies. In addition to archival audio from Medsger’s original interviews with the burglars, Helms and the production team also speak with all of the living burglars. Plus, for the first time, one of the burglars who had only previously been interviewed under a pseudonym, will reveal her real name publicly. Writer/director Steven Soderbergh is also featured throughout as Helms consults him about the heist genre and what makes a great heist story.
“We are excited to continue our partnership with FilmNation and Ed Helms for the launch of another unique and compelling season of SNAFU," said Will Pearson, President of iHeartPodcasts. "Ed brings his signature charm and enthusiasm to educate a new generation of history buffs on the FBI's MEDBURG investigation, while also offering new details for listeners who watched the results of the burglary unfold in the news but may not know the full story. We are honored to have Betty Medsger's incredible reporting and personal insights as a resource for this season."
Decades after the 1971 heist, Betty Medsger published THE BURGLARY: THE DISCOVERY OF J. EDGAR HOOVER’S SECRET FBI. “SNAFU: MEDBURG'' is based on Medsger’s book and her original reporting.
Medsger adds, “It has been a pleasure to work with Ed Helms and the crew of SNAFU as they breathed new life into the story of this historic act of nonviolent resistance. The eight people who broke into the Media FBI office risked decades in prison to find documentary evidence of the truth about J. Edgar Hoover’s secret illegal FBI and distribute that evidence to the public. I am thrilled that now, for the first time, it will be possible for people to hear the voices of all of the people who carried out this burglary that profoundly changed the public’s perception of the FBI – and that changed the FBI forever.”
“SNAFU” is a production of iHeartPodcasts, FilmNation Entertainment, and Pacific Electric Picture Co., in association with Gilded Audio. Executive producers are Ed Helms and Mike Falbo for Pacific Electric Picture Co., Dylan Fagan for iHeartPodcasts, Milan Popelka for FilmNation Entertainment, Andy Chugg and Whitney Donaldson for Gilded Audio, and Betty Medsger, author of The Burglary. Produced by Alyssa Martino and Tory Smith for FilmNation, and produced and written by Sara Joyner, Stephen Wood, and Albert Chen for Gilded Audio.
“SNAFU with Ed Helms” is distributed by iHeartPodcasts. Season two will be available on iHeartRadio and everywhere podcasts are heard beginning Wednesday, July 10.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Podcast art is available for download HERE.
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About Ed Helms
As an actor, writer, and comedian, Ed Helms has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most beloved performers with scene-stealing roles on both film and television. Most recently, he starred in Netflix’s body-swap comedy film FAMILY SWITCH opposite Jennifer Garner from director McG. Prior, he reprised his starring role in the second season of Peacock’s critically acclaimed comedy series RUTHERFORD FALLS, which he also co-wrote and co-executive produced with Mike Schur and Sierra Teller Ornelas. Helms also previously served as co-host and executive producer on Peacock’s hybrid television comedy series TRUE STORY alongside Randall Park, lent his voice to the titular character of DreamWorks Animation's CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, and appeared in Nicole Beckwith’s comedy film, TOGETHER TOGETHER, opposite Patti Harrison and Tig Notaro. In 2012, Helms and Mike Falbo co-founded the production company Pacific Electric Picture Co., which currently has several TV and film projects in the works at various networks and studios around town. Under his production banner, Helms produced the Comedy Central special, THE FAKE NEWS WITH TED NELMS, which was honored with the Writers Guild of America Award for the Best Comedy/Variety Special, as well as Netflix’s COFFEE AND KAREEM and Screen Media’s CORPORATE ANIMALS. Among his diverse list of credits, Helms may be best known for his tenure on NBC’s award-winning comedy series, THE OFFICE, the box office smash hit film trilogy, THE HANGOVER, and for his early work as a correspondent on THE DAILY SHOW WITH JOHN STEWART.
About FilmNation
FilmNation Entertainment is a leading independent entertainment company that produces, finances and distributes award-winning films, television series, podcasts and theater productions that combine strong creative voices and global appeal. FilmNation is also the home of Infrared, a new film production label focused on films with franchise potential.
FilmNation’s award-winning film productions include Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival starring Amy Adams; Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon’s The Big Sick; Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan; Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner Anora starring Mikey Madison; Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne; and John Carney’s Flora and Son, starring Eve Hewson. Consistently ranked as one of the highest-grossing independent international film distributors, FilmNation has internationally distributed four-time Academy Award winner The King's Speech starring Colin Firth; Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike starring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey; Pedro Almodóvar’s Dolor y Gloria starring Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz; The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch; Channing Tatum’s DOG; and Lenny Abrahamson’s Room for which Brie Larson garnered the Academy Award for Best Actress.
FilmNation’s podcasting division is the home of non-fiction storytelling for the company, featuring character-driven storytelling and original voices uniquely suited to the medium. Popular podcasts include SNAFU with Ed Helms for iHeartMedia, which recently won the Signal Award for Best Writing - Limited Series and Specials and History - Limited Series and Specials and received a 2023 nomination for Best History Podcast for the Ambie Awards; the true crime podcast Murder on the Towpath for Luminary with host Soledad O’Brien; Signal-Award winning Torched for Stitcher with host Molly Bloom; and Hyper-thetical hosted by Kerry Bishé a Luminary original which was recently relaunched with Realm.
About Pacific Electric Picture Co.
Founded by Ed Helms and Mike Falbo in 2012, Pacific Electric Picture Co. is a production company with a first look deal at Universal Television. On the television side, Pacific Electric produced two seasons of the hit show RUTHERFORD FALLS, created by Helms, Sierra Teller Ornelas, and Mike Schur for Peacock & UTV. Also for Peacock, they previously released TRUE STORY WITH ED & RANDALL, co-hosted by Helms and Randall Park, to rave reviews. Before that, they produced the critically acclaimed sketch show AUNTY DONNA’S BIG OL’ HOUSE OF FUN for Netflix in 2020. In 2018, Pacific Electric won a WGA Award for their Comedy Central special THE FAKE NEWS WITH TED NELMS, a subversive, a-political news show satire, hosted by a guy who kind of looks like Ed Helms. They currently have shows in development at Showtime, FX, Disney+, Peacock, and AMC, among others, and have films in development at Netflix, FilmNation, and Warner Bros, among others.
On the feature side, they produced COFFEE AND KAREEM for Netflix in 2020, directed by Michael Dowse and starring Ed Helms, Taraji P Henson, Betty Gilpin, and David Alan Grier, and CORPORATE ANIMALS written by Sam Bain and directed by Patrick Brice starring Demi Moore, Jessica Williams, and Karan Soni, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2019. Besides SNAFU, they recently released the podcast BROOMGATE, about the biggest scandal to hit the sport of curling, to wide acclaim.
