MTV scouts were drawn to the city's emerging comedy scene and noticed Laura House, Howard Kremer and Brad "Chip" Pope.

[6] Austin Stories was green-lighted on March 20, 1997, and they often spent 16-hour days working on the show with taping wrapping in November.

[6] USA Today gave the show three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it, "one of the season's coolest, funniest and most genuinely offbeat treats.

"[7] In her review for The New York Times, Caryn James wrote, "With its meandering style, and its sense of wry comic absurdities rather than yuck-it-up one-liners, the series owes almost everything to Richard Linklater's Slacker (including their shared Austin setting).

But instead of seeming derivative, Austin Stories comes across as a first-rate sequel, proof that this laid-back sensibility can thrive on television as well as in films.