Episode 41 - Sterling written by Dan Sterling (The Sarah Silverman Program, Long Shot)
Release Date: 09/26/2019
Dead Pilots Society
We have more laughs for you this month! Our dead pilot is Eight from Alison Bennett (You're The Worst, Single Parents). After a whirlwind romance that resulted in a baby and a wedding (in that order), children of divorce Jillian and Trevor attempt to carve out their own family’s identity, with eight grandparents there to offer eight million different opinions. In Andrew's interview, Alison talks about her humble beginnings at UCB New York and how she got her first job on one of Amazon's first shows. She talks about her experience writing on You're the Worst and what...
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You probably need some laughs more than ever, and we can definitely provide them with this month's episode. Our dead pilot is Eternally Yours from Joe Port & Joe Wiseman (The Office, New Girl), about a family of normal looking but emotionally closed off, stuck-together-for-eternity vampires. If you think there's no fresh spins left in the vampire genre, you need to listen to this one. In Andrew's interview, you’ll hear about Joe & Joe's first show business gigs, including the insane, no-longer existent job of Night PA, delivering scripts in the wee hours. They talk...
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Our episode this month is Training Room from Brig Muñoz-Liebowitz (People of Earth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Jamie (played by Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Melissa Fumero), the female physiotherapist for a men's pro soccer team, has always been a guys' girl. But when the team acquires a new star player who challenges Jamie's place on the team, Jamie is forced to seek support from a group of coworkers she's always avoided: the other women. Training Room was produced with Greg Berlanti and former professional soccer player, Robbie Rogers. In Andrew's interview with Brig,...
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We’re kicking off 2020 with another true insider look at how television gets made! Andrew sat down with seasoned television executive, Samie Falvey. Samie spent many years as Head of Comedy at ABC, where she played a huge role in developing shows like Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat and The Goldbergs. She is now on the selling side as Chairman at Imagine Television. In this interview, you’ll hear her speak openly about running a network comedy department… what it was like to hear David Caspe pitch Happy Endings… what made...
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This month’s pilot is a mock rockumentary, or, as we like to say, a mrockumentary. It's called "Whatever Happened to... Gigi’s Pants" and it's written by Jennifer Crittenden & Gabrielle Allan (Veep, Divorce). After twenty years of bad blood, a super cool girl band from the nineties, Gigi’s Pants, tries to reunite despite the fact that they are no longer girls and no longer cool. Andrew sat down with Jen and Gaby to discuss how seeing the drummer of The Go-Go's wearing sweatpants at a reunion concert inspired this show. They also share some war stories from the comedy...
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This month’s dead pilot is over ten years in the making. It’s called The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud and was written by Jeff Greenstein (Will & Grace, Parenthood, Desperate Housewives). The story centers around Penelope Cloud, a woman who who has been struggling for 15 years to deliver the follow-up to her celebrated first novel. In that time, she's become dependent on a cocktail of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications to get through the day. The story begins when Penelope, desperate to unblock herself, decides to go off all her meds at once and...
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We're back to business as usual in this month's Dead Pilots Society episode. Our dead pilot is Sterling, written by Dan Sterling (The Sarah Silverman Program, The Office, Girls, South Park, The Interview, Long Shot). Sterling is about a TV news producer whose life is turned upside down when he is paired up with a beautiful, loose-cannon reporter. Andrew sat down with Dan to talk about his impressive career: Getting the job running The Daily Show after hitting it off with Jon Stewart at a Comedy Central Emmy Party, despite never having worked in late night...The decade...
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No dead pilot this month, but we have something special instead! On this episode we get to hear a network executive's side of the story. Andrew sat down with television comedy executive, Jamila Hunter. Jamila was the Senior Vice President of ABC Comedy before leaving to head up Kenya Barris's production company at Netflix. In this interview, you'll hear her speak openly about running a network comedy department... What it's like to hear 10 to 12 comedy pitches every single day for months...The number one thing she looks for in a pitch... Embarrassing mistakes writers make and how to avoid...
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Our pilot this time is Small Town Love by Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern (Trophy Wife, Booksmart). Small Town Love is about a sparring mother and daughter in rural Michigan who are forced to lean on each other when they become pregnant at the same time. Listen to Andrew’s interview with Sarah and Emily to hear about how the first script they wrote together, Booksmart, took eleven years to reach the screen; what Emily learned from working with David Mamet; why they made the transition from film to TV; and how you can tell when an idea will actually make a good TV...
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This week’s episode is called Lenny’s Doing Great and His Family’s Terrific written by Alex Cuthbertson & Matt Fusfeld (New Girl, Community). The log-line for this one one goes something like: a young man who’s been helicopter-parented within an inch of his life reconnects with his selfish, absentee grandfather—in the process bringing an estranged family back together in ways no one wanted, but everyone needed. Listen to Andrew’s interview with Alex and Matt for a fun conversation about their real grandfathers whom inspired this pilot, how they got their first gig on...
info_outlineWe're back to business as usual in this month's Dead Pilots Society episode. Our dead pilot is Sterling, written by Dan Sterling (The Sarah Silverman Program, The Office, Girls, South Park, The Interview, Long Shot). Sterling is about a TV news producer whose life is turned upside down when he is paired up with a beautiful, loose-cannon reporter. Andrew sat down with Dan to talk about his impressive career: Getting the job running The Daily Show after hitting it off with Jon Stewart at a Comedy Central Emmy Party, despite never having worked in late night...The decade long journey from his script Flarsky to Long Shot... Writing The Interview and getting caught in the middle of an international diplomatic firestorm, and why the writer is the only one who doesn't get a bodyguard... How Sterling was partly inspired by his working relationship with Sarah Silverman... and much more!
Sterling stars Nat Faxon as Philip Sterling, Hannah Simone as Scarlett Lacy, Malcolm Barrett as Jack Winthrop, Jon Cryer as Lloyd Foote/Grebs/Harting, Felicia Day as Faye/Norah O’Donnell, Nichole Bloom as Shelby/Fox News Anchor, Daniel David Stewart as Mitch/Bartender, and Andrew Reich with stage directions.
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