Dead Pilots Society – Details, episodes & analysis

This is a very special episode of Dead Pilots Society. It's our interview with Damir and Dario Konjicija, and in it, you'll hear perhaps the most interesting Hollywood origin story we've ever encountered. Damir and Dario discuss their journey from being Bosnian refugees to arriving in America in 1997 and falling in love with American television. They talk about starting school in America as Bosnian immigrants, how they quickly found their artistic passion, and the pact they made to move to Los Angeles and try to make it. They also discuss their humble beginnings in Los Angeles, how they started writing together, and the development of their pilot I Hate Myself. This is a terrific interview that we know you're going to love.

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

Our dead pilots this month is I Hate Myself by Dario & Dami Konjicija (Home Economics, Young Sheldon). This is a fun multi-camera buddy comedy with a time traveling twist. It was developed for CBS Studios and we know you're going to love it.  

The cast for this one includes Vinny Thomas (Platonic), Josh Banday (Upload), Paige Collins (Good Girls), Leah Lewis (Matlock), Nabeel Muscatwalla (Better Days), Punam Patel (Ghosts) and Andrew Reich with stage directions. 

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 is an episode dedicated to unscripted television.  J. Keith van Straaten, Jordan Morris, and John Moe talk about their dead unscripted projects that were sold to networks and streams but never produced. This conversation went to a ton of unexpected places and that's definitely a part of it's charm. Enjoy it!

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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 and outrageous and we recorded them all with a great group of actors including: Kathleen Rose Perkins (Episodes), Maria Blasucci (Drunk History), Langston Kerman (The Boys, Insecure), Ashleigh Hairston (The Neighborhood), Oscar Montoya (Bless The Harts), and Andrew Reich with stage directions. In Andrew’s interview, Jenny goes in depth about her day to day writing process, and what a creatively freeing exercise this was. It’s a great listen if you’re trying to kick off 2021 inspired to create! Enjoy it!

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 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 long enough.

In the interview, Andrew and Randi discuss high concept comedies versus low concept comedies in terms of writing and selling. Randi talks about how the UCLA Extension Program gave her her big break and what it’s like to be a sought out feature film script doctor. She also shares some great backstory about her hit film Mrs. Doubtfire and the challenges that come with hitting it big early on in your career. Lots of great writing wisdom and tv/film history in this one. Enjoy it! 

Life After Harley stars Terrence Terrell as Harley, Sunita Mani as as Lucy, Adhir Kalyan as Mick, Ellen Wong as Zoe, Andy Ridings as Ted, Viraj Juneja as Derek Hedges, Marcus Bishop-Wright as Therapist/Joe, Shulie Cowen as Woman, and Andrew Reich with stage directions.

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 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 talk about their budding bromance. How they became friends and why they started writing together. Meena talks about his experience hosting a government funded Arab talk show and the limitations it presented in terms of comedy. Ed offers interesting insight on writing partnerships and how he juggles between them. A nice discussion about the romanticism of making it in Hollywood and the importance of true organic collaboration. Enjoy it!
 

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 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 and perseverance needed to succeed in Hollywood. This is a good one! Enjoy it!

WIDOW stars D'Arcy Carden as Rachel, Cory Michael Smith as Jake, Punam Patel as Daisy, Arturo del Puerto as Emmett, Julia Duffy as Wendy, Kathreen Khavari as Hannah, Eric Edelstein as Miles/Officer #1, Sandeep Parikh as Levi/Officer #2/ Uber Driver, Noah Findling as George, and Andrew Reich with Stage Directions.

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 another hilarious episode for you this month! ItsCode 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 created for the EffinFunny YouTube channel. In Andrew’s interview with Sandeep and Mel you’ll hear about their non-traditional way into comedy, their backgrounds in improv, and why they attribute all of their success making things with friends. They also discuss the future of cop shows and whether or not those stories can be told anymore. It was a great philosophical discussion about storytelling and comedy. Enjoy!

Code 5 Stars Asif Ali (Wrecked) as Sam, Phil Lamarr (Family Guy, Futurama) as Triggs, Milana Vayntrub (Love, This Is Us) as Rita/Jessica/Faye, John Ross Bowie (Big Bang Theory, Speechless) as Terrence, Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra, You’re The Worst) as Dr. Krakowski, Mel Cowan (Brockmire, Key & Peele) as Old Woman Customer/Coyle/Clerk/Security Guard, and Sandeep Parikh with stage directions.

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 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 her experience at her first job in Hollywood taking packages for Cameron Crowe; things she wished she knew when she was a staff writer; and some tips she's learned from Norman Lear. Enjoy!

MOST LIKELY stars Ana Villafañe as Stella Cortez, Taran Killam as Tucker Zayne, Victor Rasuk as Matteo Greyson, Emily Chang as Arlo Lam, Tyler Ritter as Atticus Anders, Caitlin McGee as Nora Asher, Todd Grinnell as Mr. Frost,Gloria Calderón Kellett as Woman (Creator/Showrunner, One Day At A Time), and Andrew Reich with stage directions.

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 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 much they hated pitching Elsewhere, despite selling it. Enjoy! 

ELSEWHERE stars Kate Walsh as Grey Chapman, Nichole Bloom as Kimmy, Tig Notaro as Gabe, Ego Nwodim as Liu, Asif Ali as Steve/Doctor #1/Larry/Football Player/, Martin Starr as Ziggy, Humphrey Kerr as James, Carla Cackowski as Claire/Mother/Female Voice, Craig Cackowski as Hector/Gerstein/Doctor #2/Doctor,  Ayden Mayeri as Lady/Cool Girl/Ellen Nubuck/Female Voice, and Andrew Reich with stage directions.

Like we said, Max Fun Drive is here! The drive will be over 4 weeks this year! The purpose of the drive is to give our audience the chance to support our show. We know this is a hard time so there is no pressure to donate at all. Your dedicated support week after week is enough for us! If you would like to support the show by becoming a Max Fun member know that you’re donation gets you a ton of cool gifts and giveaways! There are all different pay levels of support but we recommend the $5 level because its gets you our exclusive bonus content along with bonus content for all your favorite Max Fun shows.

Our bonus content is pretty neat too! It includes an exclusive reading of a pilot called IN IT by Brent Morin (Undateable) and Bill Lawrence (Scrubs)  along with never before seen footage of Brig Muñoz-Liebwotiz pilot TRAINING ROOM and Joe Port & Joe WIseman’s pilot ETERNALLY YOURS. They were all recorded live at The Hollywood Improv. Our cast for these pilots were incredible! Hilarious actors like Nicole Sullivan, Arturo Del Puerto, Natalie Morales, Hemky Madera, Drew Tarver, Melissa Fumero, Tony Cavalero, Matt Walsh, Ed Weeks, Briga Heelan, Vella Lovell, Asif Ali, and more!!

If you’re interested in supporting our show by becoming a Max Fun member you can do so by using this link: https://maximumfun.org/join/

Also…

WE’RE DOING A VIRTUAL DEAD PILOTS SHOW THIS Friday 7/17 @ 5 PM PST! If you haven’t been able to come to a show, now is your chance.

We’re reading a pilot called CODE 5 written by Sandeep Parikh (In The Dark), Mel Cowan (Brockmire) and Ed Brubaker (Captain America).

The cast includes: Sandeep Parikh (New Girl, The Legend of Neil), Asif Ali (Wrecked), Phil Lamarr (Family Guy), Milana Vayntrub (Love), John Ross BOwie (Speechless), Janet Varney (You’re The Worst), and Mel Cowan (Brockmire).

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE: https://houseseats.live/2020/07/17/dps717/

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