Dead Pilots Society

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...

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 aroun...

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 pro...

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 K...

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...

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 mo...

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 h...

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 co...

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 ted...

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 ho...

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...

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 i...

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...

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 ta...

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'...

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'...

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 he...

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 d...

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...

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 impr...

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 com...

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...

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, bu...

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...

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 , F...