This month’s pilot is brought to you by the clutches of the pandemic! It’s called Valley Trash written by Niki Schwartz-Wright (The Grinder, Speechless, The Office). Valley Trash was days away from going into production when the network shut it down at the start of the Covid lockdowns in March 2020. The pilot centers on The Harmans, a scrappy, blue collar family living in the deep Valley who suddenly experience a major culture clash when their fourteen-year-old daughter, Abby, gets accepted to a prestigious LA private high school filled with students and parents who want nothing to do with her, her family or their 818 area code. Valley Trash was set up at ABC with Universal TV, Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off The Boat creator), and 20th Century Fox TV attached to produce. Jason Lee was also attached to star before the project was shut down. Luckily, Valley Trash has finally found a home here on Dead Pilots Society.

We had a great cast for this one including Chris Tallman (The Thundermans) as Cal, Sophie Grace (Babysitters Club) as Abby, Jake Nordwind (SNL) as Benji, Jamie Denbo (F Is For Family) as Jules, Joy Osmanski (Stargirl) as Kay, Marcus Bishop-Wright (Out of Order!) as Armed Guard, Nola Bowie as Sydney Maybach, Moujan Zolfaghari (Last Week Tonight) as Suzanne Maybach, and Andrew Reich with stage directions.

If you want to watch the video recording of this pilot, you can do so for as little as $5 by becoming a Maximum Fun member at maximfun.org/donate

Tune in next week for our interview with Niki Schwartz-Wright. Thanks for supporting our show! Enjoy!

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Episode 104: Valley Trash written by Niki Schwartz-Wright (The Grinder, Speechless, The Office)