song is built around samples of The Nation of Ulysses songs "The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken By Storm" ("Boys and girls!") and "The Hickey Underworld" ("Action! Action!"). Recurring characters The cast (notably David Wain) have said that they were not interested in creating recurring characters, but were repeatedly pressured by the network to emulate Saturday Night Live in this manner. In turn, some of the recurring characters were made as satires of recurring characters (notably, "Louie" was made to satisfy network pressures for both a recurring character and catch-phrases, according to the casts' DVD commentary track). Home media The first season of The State'', digitally re-mastered along with a new musical score, was made available on Apple’s iTunes Store on September 26, 2006. Several episodes were also made available on Amazon Unbox as well as the Xbox Live Marketplace. A DVD box set was released July 2009. The series is also available on the Paramount+ streaming service. References External links Official site run by David Wain UGO interview with Thomas Lennon by Daniel Robert Epstein 1990s American sketch comedy television series 1994 American television series debuts 1995 American television series endings MTV original programming CBS original programming English-language television shows Cross-dressing in television