In our episode today, we are feed swapping with Reading Glasses! Dead Pilots Society producer Ben Blacker chats with Brea Grant and Mallory O'Meara, hosts of MaxFun's Reading Glasses podcast. This is a podcast all about book culture and literary life. No matter how much you read, you can listen to this show! Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara are joined this week by Rider Strong to discuss bad book habits. Is it okay to dog ear a library book? What about writing in a book you know you’re going to gi...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast In this week’s episode, Andrew sits down with with the writers of last week’s pilot Next Door, Steven Cragg & Brian Bradley (MadTV, Happy Endings). In their interview, Steven and Brian talk about how they met on MadTV and what the writing process for that show was like. They tell war stories about past pilots, their experience show running Uncle Buck , and a helpful tip for mining material. Steven and Brian are examples of talented TV writers who’ve made a wonderful living selling and developing...
Apr 22, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Our pilot this month is called Next Door written by Steven Cragg & Brian Bradley (Mad TV, Happy Endings). It’s a multi-generational comedy about three diverse suburban couples, all at crossroads in their lives, who bond while investigating the murder of the worst person in their neighborhood. It was set up at Fox with Sony Pictures TV and Stoller Global Solutions attached to produce. Our table read stars Jackie Tohn as Tommy, Okieriete Onaodowan as Brad, Edi Patterson as Margaret, Toni Trucks as...
Apr 15, 2021•45 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s episode is a special tribute to Jamie Tarses. An irreplaceable force in the television business, Jamie was the producer of shows such as Happy Endings, My Boys, Franklin and Bash, The Wilds, Men at Work, and the upcoming Mysterious Benedict Society. She was a tireless and fearless supporter of writers, and Andrew interviewed 16 writers who worked with her to talk about what Jamie meant to them. We invite you to listen to his edited conversations with Betsy Thomas, Adrian Wenner & Eth...
Apr 08, 2021•2 hr 6 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast After months of tracking Tessa Coates’ pilot Primates, we were so happy to finally get it on the pod last week. If you haven’t listen to it yet, get on it! Andrew caught up with Tessa in this week’s episode to discuss the rollercoaster ride her pilot went on in the development process. She talked about her experience of learning how to write a pilot on the spot. What it was like to work with Greg Daniels (The Office, King of The Hill) and a helpful tip on how to make your characters come alive. ...
Mar 25, 2021•51 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast This month we bring you a pilot that was consumed in the fires of Quibi's epic flame-out! The pilot is Primates by Tessa Coates. Tessa is a British writer, performer, journalist, and comedian. Primates is based on her debut solo show which sold out its entire run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and ran at the Soho Theatre to even more sell-out audiences. After Soho, Tessa performed her show around Los Angeles, and then sold it in a competitive situation to ABC Studios with Greg Daniels (The Off...
Mar 18, 2021•49 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast We hope you enjoyed last week’s table read of Space Bound written by Golden Globe-nominated writer/director of Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell. We caught up with Emerald in this week’s episode to discuss her pilot and her writing process. She talked about the importance of writing redeeming characters in comedies and why she prefers writing on spec versus pitching. A lesson in attaching producers to a project and a highly anticipated dive into the space world of Beta Complex 622. If you'r...
Feb 25, 2021•54 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the first episode in our new format! We are splitting up the table reads and writer interviews into separate episodes. Let us know what you think! We are starting the new format with what we think is one of our all-time best episodes. It’s a pilot from the Golden Globe-nominated writer/director of Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell. Emerald was also the showrunner of Season Two of Killing Eve, and her acting credits include Call the Midwife and The Crown. Her pilot is called Space...
Feb 18, 2021•50 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast Happy New Year to all our listeners! We're taking a break from dead pilots this month to do something fun and different! At the beginning of the pandemic Jenny Jaffe (Big Hero 6: The Series), asked the Twitter-verse to send her the names of fake TV shows that she could write the cold opens for. It was an incredible writing exercise and Jenny ended up writing over 60 cold opens!! We've selected 19 of them to read for you. They’re all tonally different and jump from genre to genre. They’re silly a...
Jan 14, 2021•58 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast This month's pilot is Life After Harley written by Randi Mayem Singer ( Mrs. Doubtfire, Mom, Jack and Jill ). Life After Harley centers around Lucy Turpin, who has been emotionally stuck since the death of her famous baseball player husband over a year ago. The day she finally tries to move on and explore a new romance, her departed Harley comes back as a ghost—and he’s more alive dead than most living men. Will he let her go? Will she let him go? Sometimes “until death do us part” isn’t quite l...
Dec 17, 2020•2 hr 59 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast This month's episode is a delightful dramedy called Arab Spring written by Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project) and Meena Dimian (Zahret Al Khalieg). It was set up at CBS Studios and sold to Showtime with Craig Ferguson attached to produce. The show's main character is the host of a wildly popular Arab talk show in Dubai. After being fired for offending the powers that be, he moves to , New York, where he drives an Uber while working towards his American comeback. In Andrew’s interview, Ed and Meena tal...
Nov 19, 2020•2 hr 39 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast This month's episode is WIDOW written by Leila Cohan-Miccio (Santa Clarita Diet, Awkward). It follows Rachel, a young woman whose husband dies while they’re in the middle of a rough patch. Rachel does not handle it well. In Andrew’s interview with Leila you’ll hear her insane story about development hell and the frustrating double standard executives put on female characters. Leila’s start into comedy writing and a quick dish on pitching shows on zoom. Leila’s a real example of the determination...
Oct 22, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast We have another hilarious episode for you this month! Its Code 5 written by Sandeep Parikh (The Legend of Neil, Community), Ed Brubaker (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Westworld), and Mel Cowan (Brockmire, Parks & Rec). Code 5 sold to FX and it follows two odd-couple cops stuck on a never ending case. It's like a funny version of True Detective where they're out canvassing and doing the tedious dirty work that you rarely see in cop shows. Based on a short-form series Sandeep, Ed, and Mel c...
Sep 24, 2020•2 hr 42 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast This month's episode is Most Likely written by Gloria Calderón-Kellett (Creator of One Day At A Time ). It’s a hilarious, heartfelt and raunchy ensemble comedy about a group of 20-somethings whose quarter-life crises are triggered when letters they wrote in high school to their future selves show up in their mailbox. In Andrew’s interview you’ll get to hear the absolutely incredible story of how she teamed up with comedy legend Norman Lear to create the One Day At A Time remake. She discusses he...
Aug 20, 2020•2 hr 47 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast We know you're all avid TV watchers so this logline probably makes you think of The Good Place . You’re not wrong for thinking that! In Andrew’s interview you’ll hear Corinne and Noelle talk about the coincidental parallels between Elsewhere and The Good Place . How they felt after seeing The Good Place get picked up to series while they were still developing their pilot. They also discuss their origin stories into the business, the double standards executives set for female characters and how m...
Jul 16, 2020•2 hr 49 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast We’re taking a break from dead pilots this month to talk about race and inclusion in the writers room! Andrew sits down with Alyson Fouse (Scary Movie 2, My Wife and Kids) and Matt Claybrooks (Everybody Hates Chris, The Oscars) for an open and honest conversation. They talk about the challenges they were up against while breaking into the business, the progress they’ve witnessed when it comes to inclusion in rooms, the ways in which it still needs to change, and some things all white writers sho...
Jun 18, 2020•2 hr 32 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast In Andrew's interview, Sally talks about how going to hear Jimmy Burrows speak at her college changed the direction of her life, her rise from PA to writer on the original Will & Grace , and why REVIVAL was truly "the one that got away." This is a great interview with lots of golden nuggets about show business! Enjoy REVIVAL stars Will Forte as Elliot, Kelly Marie Tran as Jenny, John C. McGinley as Cal Keating, Larry Wilmore as Sam Fishkin, Mimi Kennedy as Veronica, Anna Camp as Female Host/Alic...
May 14, 2020•2 hr 31 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Apr 16, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast 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 e...
Mar 17, 2020•2 hr 32 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast 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 profession...
Feb 06, 2020•2 hr 43 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jan 09, 2020•59 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Dec 05, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast 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, despe...
Oct 24, 2019•2 hr 36 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Comed...
Sep 26, 2019•2 hr 40 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast 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 n...
Aug 29, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast 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 fi...
Jul 25, 2019•1 hr 26 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Jun 27, 2019•2 hr 54 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Our pilot this month is called Sexy Justice and it’s written by Johanna Stein. Johanna has written on many TV shows including Kung Fu Panda , Jaws of Destiny and so many more! She’s also the author of the novel How Not to Calm a Child on a Plane . Sexy Justice is a 1/2 hour cop show comedy featuring a pair of sizzlingly sexy female undercover cops on the streets of Los Angeles in its prime: the early 80’s. Think “Cagney & Lacey” meets “Charlie’s Angels”, and put through an “Archer” blender on hi...
May 23, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Yogurt World stars Britt Lower as Audrey Mills, Danny Pudi as Chris, Amanda Lund as Lisa Hewitt, Brad Morris as Bucky Simmons, David Walton as Seph, Andy Ridings as Vet/Guy #2/Newscaster/7-11 Employee, Ethan Peck as Guy #1/Chuck/Tough Guy, Keiko Agena as Hot Girl, and Andrew Reich with stage directions. This month's episode is from the great Colleen McGuinness! Colleen has written on 30 Rock , Friends From College , and Forever . Her pilot is called Yogurt World . It centers around a woman who w...
Apr 25, 2019•2 hr 34 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast This month's episode was recorded live at SF Sketchfest 2019 and it’s Andrew's all-time favorite of his own dead pilots. Inspired by his own mother, "Pearl" tells the story of a woman who receives a diagnosis of terminal cancer, and decides to use the time she has remaining to orchestrate the lives of her loved ones to her liking. Our cast for this one was incredible: Julia Duffy as Pearl, Tony Hale as Billy, Alice Wetterlund as Olivia, Craig Cackowski as Kurt, Atsuko Okatsuka as Sara, Lucy Davi...
Mar 18, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast 
