So that was really how the show started coming about. FEARnet was like, we want to figure out what our first show is, but we’d love to do something with you and Joe in it. And at first I thought they were talking about, you know, hosting stuff, which I really don’t want to do, and then they said, “No we’re open to anything.” And I said, “What about a sitcom?” And the fact that they responded so positively was insane. Because you’d think with FEARnet they’re going to want something like a horror anthology like Tales From the Crypt, or it’s going to be an X-Files, but they did something that nobody would have expected them to do. And that’s part of the fun of this, is that it’s coming from the most unlikely of places. It’s a brand new network that doesn’t have a huge identity yet. I mean a lot of people don’t even know that they exist, they’re just getting started, so we had a blank canvas. Even down to the fact that we could make the episodes as long as we wanted. We didn’t have to make them exactly 22 minutes. Some of them are 35, some of them are 40. So we might only have six episodes this season, but we have enough content for, like, 12. But in a good way.
IN THE SHOW YOU’RE WORKING AT A BOSTON CABLE ACCESS TV STATION, LIVING IN YOUR HOMETOWN, STRUGGLING TO MAKE YOUR FIRST HORROR FILM. ART IMITATING LIFE?
Yeah, everything about it is real. When I got out of college I got a job working for Time Warner Cable in Malden, and I was making exactly the type of commercials you’ll see in the series. I took the job because I could borrow their equipment at night behind their backs and make my own stuff, because I didn’t have any money. That was how I started making short films. And, eventually, my first feature film, which was called Coffee and Donuts. The pilot of Holliston is actually Coffee and Donuts condensed into 40 minutes. When we made Coffee and Donuts it was about two guys trying to make it in radio, but the love story about waiting for the girl to come back and everything, that was the same. A lot of the jokes were the same, and when we made Coffee and Donuts I wrote, directed, and played myself as well. So it’s very much art imitating life.
YOU HAVE A PRETTY STRONG CAST OF PEOPLE COMING IN WITH HORROR BACKGROUNDS, BUT THEN YOU ALSO DECIDED TO CAST A COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER AS YOUR LOVE INTEREST.
Yeah, yeah, and a lot of the guest stars are not necessarily horror people. Like, in Episode 3 we have Brian Posehn from the Sarah Silverman Show, and people have seen him probably on Letterman and Conan a lot, doing stand-up. And then we got a cameo from John Landis in the sixth episode, which is fantastic. We have a huge one in the fifth episode, but we’re not allowed to talk about it until the episode airs, unfortunately. But it’s a really, really big comedian, which is great. So, yeah, Corri [English] is a country singer in real life, but she’s also done, probably, the most TV acting of any of us. She was on a show called Bedford Diaries for a few years. And she just did an episode of House. She’s actually been TV since she was like six.
