# Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus

Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus is an American animated docuseries television series created by Mike Judge, Richard Mullins and Dub Cornett that premiered on September 22, 2017 on Cinemax. It is Cinemax's only animated series.

## Premise

The series is presented as a biographical oral history of musicians with each season focusing on a specific genre. It is narrated by Mike Judge and presents anecdotes of star performers as told by their families, bandmates, and close associates. Interview subjects are presented in rotoscope and their anecdotes in a contrasting cel animation style, interspersed with performance footage and news footage.

## Production

On January 12, 2017, it was announced that Cinemax had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of eight episodes. The show was created by Mike Judge, Richard Mullins, and Dub Cornett. Judge and Cornett executive produce, Bob Engelman co-executive produces, and Mullins produces.
On May 16, 2018, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season moving the genre focus from country to the likes of James Brown and P-Funk. Joining the series creative team are Mark Monroe as a co-executive producer and Nelson George as a consulting producer. On October 4, 2018, it was reported that the second season would premiere on November 2, 2018.

## Release

On September 14, 2017, Cinemax released the first official trailer for the series.

## Episodes
### Series overview

| Season | Episodes | Episodes | Originally released | Originally released |
| Season | Episodes | Episodes | First released | Last released |
| 1 | 8 | 8 | September 22, 2017 (2017-09-22) | November 10, 2017 (2017-11-10) |
| 2 | 8 | 8 | November 2, 2018 (2018-11-02) | December 21, 2018 (2018-12-21) |

### Season 1 (2017)

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | US viewers (millions) |
| 1 | 1 | "Johnny Paycheck" | Mike Judge | Julien Nitzberg, Jeff Feuerzeig, Richard Mullins, Dub Cornett, & Mike Judge | September 22, 2017 (2017-09-22) | N/A |
| 2 | 2 | "Jerry Lee Lewis" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | September 29, 2017 (2017-09-29) | 0.069 |
| 3 | 3 | "George Jones and Tammy Wynette (Part One)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe, Jeff Feuerzeig, Julien Nitzberg, & Mike Judge | October 6, 2017 (2017-10-06) | 0.050 |
| 4 | 4 | "George Jones and Tammy Wynette (Part Two)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe, Jeff Feuerzeig, Julien Nitzberg, & Mike Judge | October 13, 2017 (2017-10-13) | N/A |
| 5 | 5 | "Billy Joe Shaver" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | October 20, 2017 (2017-10-20) | 0.061 |
| 6 | 6 | "Waylon Jennings (Part One)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | October 27, 2017 (2017-10-27) | 0.125 |
| 7 | 7 | "Waylon Jennings (Part Two)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 3, 2017 (2017-11-03) | 0.105 |
| 8 | 8 | "Blaze Foley" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 10, 2017 (2017-11-10) | 0.045 |

### Season 2 (2018)

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | US viewers (millions) |
| 9 | 1 | "George Clinton" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 2, 2018 (2018-11-02) | N/A |
| 10 | 2 | "Rick James (Part One)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 9, 2018 (2018-11-09) | N/A |
| 11 | 3 | "Rick James (Part Two)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 16, 2018 (2018-11-16) | N/A |
| 12 | 4 | "Bootsy Collins" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 23, 2018 (2018-11-23) | N/A |
| 13 | 5 | "James Brown (Part One)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | November 30, 2018 (2018-11-30) | 0.094 |
| 14 | 6 | "James Brown (Part Two)" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | December 7, 2018 (2018-12-07) | 0.040 |
| 15 | 7 | "Morris Day and The Time" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | December 14, 2018 (2018-12-14) | 0.055 |
| 16 | 8 | "Betty Davis" | Mike Judge | Mark Monroe & Mike Judge | December 21, 2018 (2018-12-21) | N/A |

## Reception

The first season has been met with a positive response from critics. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10, based on 8 reviews. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 83 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".