Dead Pilots Society

This is the after show interview with Niki Schwartz-Wright (The Office, Speechless). Niki was the writer of Valley Trash which we released last week. In this interview, Niki lets us in on how autobiographical and personal this pilot was. She dishes on some advice her father gave her on how to handle bullies. Niki walks us through her journey to becoming a TV writer: starting as an assistant at a talent agency and transitioning to being a script coordinator on a show she would later get staffed on. She shares a story about joining The Office staff in the show’s last season and how she had to watch 180 episodes of it in 7 days before starting. This is a good one! Enjoy it and thanks for listening. If you want to watch the video recording of Niki's pilot Valley Trash, you can do so for as little as $5 by becoming a Maximum Fun member at maximumfun.org/donate For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

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/donateTune in next week for our interview with Niki Schwartz-Wright. Thanks for supporting our show! Enjoy!For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

Welcome to the after show interview! This week we sat down with the writer of Peak Eve, Lon Zimmet. Andrew and Lon worked together on Lon’s first show, Worst Week. Since then Lon has gone on to write for Happy Endings, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Superstore, and he created the sitcom LA to Vegas on Fox.  In this interview, Andrew and Lon talked about Lon’s transition from working in a writing team to going out on his own. He credits his solo success to writing as much as he possibly could. Lon talks about his handy story document that he always refers to when he starts to work on something new. He let us in on his experience developing with FX, his process of writing cold opens, lessons he’s learned as a show runner, and the difference between writing shows for the market and writing for yourself. This is a good one! Enjoy it and thanks for listening!If you want to watch the video recording of Peak Eve, you can do so for as little as $5 per month by becoming a Maximum Fun member at maximfun.org/donateFor more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

We have an edgy FX pilot for you this month!  It’s called Peak Eve and it comes to us from Lon Zimmet (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Superstore, creator of LA to Vegas). It centers on a misanthropic, twenty-something narcissist who resigns herself to becoming a better person… and then is annoyed to discover what a huge pain in the ass that’s going to be. This one is really good and super funny! You won't want to miss it!We had a stellar cast for this one including Dylan Gelula (Loot) as Eve, Biniam Bizuneh (Dave) as Josh, Aparna Brielle (AP Bio) as Allie, Tre Hale (the upcoming Platonic series on Apple TV) as Marcus, Craig Cackowski (Drunk History) as Alan, Jaime Moyer (AP Bio) as Debra, Charley Koontz as War Beard (Community), Savannah Rodin (Miracle Workers) as Laurel, 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/donateTune in next week for our interview with Lon Zimmet. Thanks for supporting our show! Enjoy! For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

Please listen to the table read of Electric Youth written by David Iserson if you haven’t yet. This is the after show with David, who has a ton of amazing credits including SNL, New Girl, and Mad Men. We get into a lot of them in this interview! David let us in on some great advice he got from Matthew Weiner  when he was on Mad Men and how that show was more of a comedy than people realize. He gives us his trusted metaphor for how to know whether an idea is a keeper. He also shares an absolutely insane note that he got from the network when he was developing Electric Youth. It’s one for the crazy note hall of fame for sure. This is a good one! Enjoy it and thanks for listening! If you want to watch the video recording of Electric Youth, you can do so for as little as $5 per month by becoming a Maximum Fun member at maximfun.org/donateFor more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

This month’s pilot is going to make you want to go back in time and start this summer all over again. That’s right it’s our very first time travel pilot. It’s called Electric Youth and it comes from the prolific screenwriter David Iverson (The Spy Who Dumped Me, Mad Men, New Girl, SNL). It centers around Britt, a woman in her 30s who gets a knock on her door one night and finds her high school boyfriend, only he’s still sixteen and just successfully traveled in time. This comedy explores our relationship to the past and how it can move us forward.  It's  a hilarious and sweet pilot that we know you're going to love! We had a stellar cast for this one featuring Lindsey Kraft (Grace & Frankie) as Britt, Devon Bostick (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) as Charley, Demi Adejuyigbe (The Good Place) as Doug, Emily Robinson (Eighth Grade) as Harper/Albany, Dylan Gelula (Loot, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as Kimberly, Kaitlyn Tanimoto (Camping) as Clara/Fleur, David Iserson as Teen ‘Stache/Customer, 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 https://maximumfun.org/join/ Tune in next week for our interview with David Iserson. Thanks for supporting our show! Enjoy! For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

We have a unique and enlightening interview for you for this month! This is the after show for Mostly Dead Things written by Brian C. Brown (Lucy In The Sky, About A Boy, Bad Monkey) and Jessica Lee Williamson (I’m Dying Up Here, F Is For Family) based on the book by Kristen Arnett. In this interview we discussed Brian and Jessica’s experience as veteran storytellers from The Moth. The Moth is clearly an underused potential path to television writing. A path with no barrier to entry too! Jessica told us about a brilliant piece of conceptual art in Los Angeles that she was behind. We discussed the great state of Florida, adapting books into television shows, and so much more. Enjoy this one and thanks for listening! We'll see you next month!For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast! Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

We have a wild and weird and very Florida pilot for you this month! It’s called Mostly Dead Things written by Brian C. Brown (Lucy In The Sky, About A Boy, Bad Monkey) & Jessica Lee Williamson (I’m Dying Up Here, F Is For Family). After the death of their patriarch, a dysfunctional family of Florida taxidermists spirals out of control, coping with their loss through redneck love triangles, interspecies porn dioramas, and a bunch of cute squirrels stuffed full of narcotics. Briana and Jessica are both award-winning Moth storytellers. The pilot is based on Kristen Arnett’s best-selling novel and it was sadly passed on by FX. Our cast for this one was special! We have Allison Tolman (Good Girls, Why Women Kill) as Jessa, Ritesh Rajan as Milo (Russian Doll), Cyrina Fiallo (Life In Pieces, Brooklyn 99) as Brynn Morton, Nicole Travolta (Anger Management) as Kendall, Marcus Bishop-Wright (Out Of Order!) as Whit, Lizzy Peet (How To Get Away With Murder) as Libby, Corey Ryan Forrester (Well Red Comedy) as Big Kid, Uly Schlesinger (Divorce) as Bastien and Andrew Reich with stage directions. Tune in next week for our interview with Brian and Jessica. Thanks for supporting our show! Enjoy! For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

If you haven’t listened to the table read of Lenny written by Lucas Hazlett (American Princess, Wrecked) & Alex Herschlag (Will & Grace), you should do it now. This is our after show interview with Lucas & Alex. It’s a fun interview where we got into very specific details of Lucas Hazlett’s background and origins. His transition from studying philosophy to studying improv! We also dive into Alex’s career origins, writing for Rob Schneider and Ellen Degeneres before moving on to some of the best sitcoms of all time. How Lucas and Alex’s mined their own dynamic to write the characters of Lenny and Al. Lucas shared with us his ideas for where the show would’ve gone and so much more. It’s an interesting and vulnerable interview. Enjoy it and thanks for listening! We'll see you next month!For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com

We’re kicking off summer 2022 with a wonderful pilot! It’s called Lenny written by Lucas Hazlett (Wrecked, American Princess) & Alex Herschlag (Will & Grace, Modern Family). Lenny centers around a gay half black half white man child who moves in with his white mother and her new white fiancé on the condition that he becomes the nanny to the fiancé’s children. It was written for CBS and it’s just a ton of fun. Our cast for this pilot includes Lucas Hazlitt as Lenny, Suzanne Cryer (Silicon Valley) as Elizabeth Harris, Amy Hill (magnum PI) as Dr. Chang, Ru Kazi (The Good Place) as Al Clark, Jiavani (Between Two Ferns) as Crystal, Emma Shannon (Better Things) as Madeline, Jay Pichardo (NCIS: Los Angeles) as Jason, Antonio Corbo (Brooklyn 99) as Tristan, and Andrew Reich with stage directions. Tune in next week for our interview with Lucas and Alex. Thanks for supporting our show! Enjoy!For more Dead Pilots Society episodes and information about our live shows, please subscribe to the podcast!Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website at deadpilotssociety.com