Season one arrives on DVD and Blu-ray today and the show has already been picked up for a second season which will air on FEARnet. The guys talk with us about the success of the shows first season, whats in store for season two and the fan reaction to the show.
Holliston is the story of two down and out aspiring filmmakers struggling with life, their careers, and the opposite sex as they attempt to make it out of the small New England town they are trapped in and into the big time.
Shock Till You Drop: Adam, what made you want to do a television series?
Adam Green: It started when I made my first movie, Coffee and Donuts. The idea behind this whole world and these characters lent itself so well to an ongoing series. I watch shows like All in the Family, Seinfeld, and Family Guy but most sitcoms dont really work for me. They feel very homogenized. They work for most people, but I just dont seem to be the right audience for them. I always wished that there was something made in that multi camera format with a studio audience with characters that I could really relate to who had a sense of humor that I thought was funny. I especially liked the idea of two guys working in the horror genre who want to be horror filmmakers. We have random acts of violence on the show that are very cartoonish and funny. Id never seen anything like Holliston and I always wanted to. Walking in to ABC and pitching a show, as soon as you get to the imaginary alien that lives in the closet, the pitch meeting is over. I did set the show up in 2003 at a major network. I was very excited. It was my first real job. I was so thrilled. Through the development process, they completely ruined the show. They made it like Everybody Loves Raymond. There was nothing left of the original idea. Then, the network wound up merging with another major network, which was a blessing in disguise. In the process, the show was lost. They held the rights for five years. During that time, I made Hatchet, and Spiral, and Grace, and Frozen. I was able to make a name for myself in the horror genre, so when the rights came back to me I was in a position to make the show the way that I wanted to make it and with the people I wanted to make it with. Most of my early career was TV writing. To my immediate fan base, it seemed very weird when it was announced that I was doing a sitcom but I had actually been doing TV all along. When you do a movie like Spiral youre not doing it for the money. The only way you can afford to do that is by taking those TV jobs that actually pay really well. This has been the thing that I came out here to do. Its what Ive always wanted to do. Its been my most passionate of passion projects. The timing was perfect. FEARnet suddenly got its legs and was becoming a viable network and wanted to make their first show. There was also the fact that Peter Block who was a producer on Frozen was named the president of FEARnet. It all just came together and it all worked. It was great.
Shock: Was FEARnet always the shows intended home after you regained the rights and decided to give it another go?
Green: We didnt really know where the intended home was. It just sort of happened. There was another network that was trying to work with us to develop it, but it started becoming something that I didnt want it do be. When I sold it the first time, I had no money. I needed every dime I could get. This time around, when the other network started developing it, I hadnt signed a contract, I never accepted the money. I didnt need it at that time. It was the smartest thing I could have done because, once again there was a merger. Thankfully, I held on to all of the rights. When Peter Block became the president of FEARnet, we sat down and talked. He didnt want to do the typical show that everyone was expecting. I asked him what he thought about a sitcom, which I thought would be the end of the meeting, but he instantly went for it. He was excited to do something risky that people wouldnt expect. Once we were done making it, we had to sit back and hold our breath. We had no idea how people were going to react. In the first ten to fifteen minutes of the pilot, people are typically confused. They cannot get over how much of a sitcom it really is. Eventually though, they get it. People have really responded positively. The fact that we got a second season pickup the morning after the second episode aired was so unexpected. I think that horror fans have been appreciative of the fact that their voices are heard so loud and clear by the people who make the show.
Joe, whats it like getting to go to work and hang out with good friends all day?
Joe Lynch: Ive been fortunate enough to have worked with friends and people I really enjoy on most of the projects Ive done. Life is too short to work on something that you dont really care about. There is nothing worse than not liking your job. To be able to do this with Adam is great. If you tell me that I get to make anything with my best friend its great news. To be able to work with him and Corri and Laura and Dee is great. Adam and I have both had a long relationship with Dee. Dee and my dad used to ride bikes together. Both Adam and I are huge Gwar fans, so being able to hang out with Oderus and trade latex secrets is so exciting. Every day on set is exciting. Coming in every Saturday and sitting down with Adam and talking about the script has been fantastic. Having all of those people there supporting us takes the pressure off immensely. You have to deal with the fact that you are running 450 pages of dialogue without a lot of extra time; it really helps to be surrounded by your family and friends. This is by far one of the most amazing creative experiences Ive had. I wouldnt trade it for the world.
Shock: Adam, the show is loosely based on your life. How much of Holliston is based on your real life experiences versus scripted for television?
Lynch: You were like Wait until season three. Whats funny about the tone is that I just watched Poltergeist, again. Its one of my favorite movies of all time. One of the things that people forget about that movie is that it has so much heart and so much comedy because they are dealing with the things that normal people deal with in a family. So, you have all of these weird scenes in the beginning because you are expecting it to be a straight up ghost story, but if you dont have those moments of levity, you dont care about those people when shit hits the fan. I think that its the same thing with Holliston. We do outrageous stuff but if you dont have the emotional component of people that you can relate to, then the show is just a bunch of gags. I think that we are both really proud that the show has equal amounts of blood and guts and heart that makes you care about the characters.
Green: The biggest joy has been all of the fan mail. When you do a movie you get fan mail saying that people enjoyed the movie, which is great. But, with Holliston, you get all of these people telling us how they can personally relate to the characters or their on screen relationships and how much the show means to them. Ive never experienced something like that. Every now and then, I will come in with a stack of fan mail for everyone in the cast to read. That fuels us and gives us the confidence to keep going.
Green: Thankfully, the show was such a success that FEARnet has doubled the order for season two. Season two is ten episodes, plus an hour long Christmas special that will come out in December.
Lynch: The Christmas special is kind of the branching episode.
Green: Yeah. Its an episode with a lot of flashbacks that shows how we all met and gives the history of the characters. There are a lot of things that go down that alter the course of the relationships for certain people. The episodes will be more traditional with a 22-24 minute length. It will be basically like 12 episodes, since the hour long Christmas special is like two episodes.
Stay up to date with the latest horror news by “liking” Shock Till You Drop’s Facebook page and following us on Twitter!
