Dead Pilots Society

Episode 202: Here, After by Joel Kim Booster

This month, Dead Pilots Society welcomes back writer, actor, and comedian Joel Kim Booster, whose pilot Birthright was previously featured on Episode 34. Joel wrote and starred in the hit Hulu movie Fire Island. He was a writer on The Other Two and Big Mouth, and as an actor, you've seen him on Shrill and Search Party.

Joel's pilot Here, After, never actually sold, despite being developed with the companies of Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, and Aidy Bryant. But when Andrew read it, he knew it...

Episode 201: Christian Duguay Interview
 

This is the After Show for Valley Heat, featuring Andrew’s interview with creator Christian Duguay.

A longtime admirer of Valley Heat, Andrew finally gets the chance to sit down with Christian for a conversation about the unusual path that led to the creation of the podcast. Unlike many guests on the show, Christian didn’t come up through traditional TV comedy writing. Rather than climbing through sitcom writers’ rooms, his background includes music, improv at The Groundlings, and years working in reality television before eventually creating the suburban...

Episode 200: Valley Heat by Christian Duguay

This month marks the 200th episode of Dead Pilots Society, which feels like a real milestone for a show that requires considerably more coordination than a couple of people just turning on microphones and talking. Every pilot episode means finding a pilot, assembling a cast, and putting together a live reading, so reaching 200 episodes feels genuinely significant.

While this is the show’s 200th episode, it’s also the 118th dead pilot the podcast has brought to life so far. For the occasion, we wanted...

Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 1

As a special bonus for MaxFunDrive 2026, we bring you the top five funniest openings in Dead Pilots Society history, as voted by the DPS staff. It was a challenge to narrow it down to just five, but that just means you’re getting the best of the best.
 

The show is supported by MaxFun members contributing $5 a month or more, and this is the time of year to say thanks and invite new listeners to join. Throughout the drive, there will...

Episode 199: Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Interview Part Two

This is the After Show for Gimme Five, featuring part two of Andrew’s conversation with Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, creators of How I Met Your Mother.

The discussion digs into the real-life inspiration behind Gimme Five, a project shaped as much by nostalgia as it is by firsthand experience. Carter and Craig reflect on the writers’ rooms that shaped the pilot, and the kind of shared comedy culture that gets handed down over time, something that now feels increas...

Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 2

As a special bonus for MaxFunDrive 2026, we bring you the top five funniest openings in Dead Pilots Society history, as voted by the DPS staff. It was a challenge to narrow it down to just five, but that just means you’re getting the best of the best.
 

The show is supported by MaxFun members contributing $5 a month or more, and this is the time of year to say thanks and invite new listeners to join. Throughout the drive, there will...

Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 3

As a special bonus for MaxFunDrive 2026, we bring you the top five funniest openings in Dead Pilots Society history, as voted by the DPS staff. It was a challenge to narrow it down to just five, but that just means you’re getting the best of the best.

The show is supported by MaxFun members contributing $5 a month or more, and this is the time of year to say thanks and invite new listeners to join. Throughout the drive, ther...

Episode 198: Gimme Five by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas

This month’s second dead pilot from Carter Bays and Craig Thomas is Gimme Five.

Best known as the co-creators and longtime showrunners of How I Met Your Mother, Carter and Craig previously wrote for The Late Show with David Letterman and produced American Dad. They co-wrote this pilot with legendary writer Peter Tolan, whose credits include The Larry Sanders Show, Rescue Me, Analyze This, Analyze That, and many more.

Here's the log line. It's 1985, and Gimme Five is the...

Episode 197: Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Interview

This is the After Show for New York Mythological, featuring Andrew’s conversation with Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, creators of How I Met Your Mother.
 

As part of this MaxFunDrive run, Dead Pilots Society is featuring two pilots from Carter and Craig. In a few days, the second one, Gimme Five, will be released, followed by part two of Andrew’s interview with them.
 

The conversation gets into the real origins of How I Met Your Mother, the experiences, influences, and unexpe...

Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 4

As a special bonus for MaxFunDrive 2026, we bring you the top five funniest openings in Dead Pilots Society history, as voted by the DPS staff. It was a challenge to narrow it down to just five, but that just means you’re getting the best of the best.

The show is supported by MaxFun members contributing $5 a month or more, and this is the time of year to say thanks and invite new listeners to join. Throughout the drive, there wil...

Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 5

As a special bonus for MaxFunDrive 2026, we bring you the top five funniest openings in Dead Pilots Society history, as voted by the DPS staff. It was a challenge to narrow it down to just five, but that just means you’re getting the best of the best.

The show is supported by MaxFun members contributing $5 a month or more, and this is the time of year to say thanks and invite new listeners to join. Throughout the drive, ther...

It's MaxFunDrive. And here, for the first time, we give you an exclusive look (well, listen) at the craft of podcasting: presenting Casters on Casters.

In this episode, Ben Blacker (Dead Pilots Society), Hal Lublin (Tights and Fights & We Got This with Mark and Hal) and Alonso Duralde (Maximum Film!) take listeners behind the scenes and swap stories about the ups and downs of podcasting. Plus, why does every TV reboot have a character that's a podcaster? And how did COVID change the podcasting game? Listen to find out!

If this glamorous, in-depth journey into...

Episode 196: New York Mythological by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas

This month’s dead pilot, kicking off the 2026 MaxFunDrive, is New York Mythological, written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.

Best known as the co-creators and showrunners of How I Met Your Mother, Carter and Craig previously wrote for The Late Show with David Letterman and produced American Dad. Carter is the author of the novel The Mutual Friend, Craig wrote the novel That’s Not How It Happened, and together they’re also members of the band The Solids. Craig also recentl...

Episode 195: Georgia Pritchett Interview

This After Show features Andrew’s interview with Emmy and WGA Award–winning writer Georgia Pritchett, the writer of this month’s dead pilot, Bump.

Georgia is best known for her work on Veep and Succession, and has also written for The Thick of It and Avenue 5. She created and showran The Shrink Next Door and is the author of the memoir My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety.

In the conversation, Georgia talks about building a career in British televisi...

Episode 194: Bump by Georgia Pritchett

This month’s dead pilot is Bump, written by Emmy and WGA Award–winning writer Georgia Pritchett. Georgia is widely known for her work on Veep and Succession, and has also written for The Thick of It and Avenue 5. She served as creator and showrunner on The Shrink Next Door and is the author of the memoir My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety.

Bump follows a British couple coming to America to meet their surrogate, since surrogacy is illegal in the UK, on...

Episode 193: Ginger Gonzaga Interview

This is the After Show for Yellow, featuring Andrew’s conversation with writer and actor Ginger Gonzaga.

Many listeners know Ginger from her roles in Marvel’s She-Hulk, CBS’s True Lies, Showtime’s Kidding, I’m Dying Up Here, HBO’s Togetherness, and Room 104. But in this episode, the spotlight shifts to her as a creator as well as a performer.

Andrew and Ginger talk about coming up in the heavily male improv scene of the early 2000s, the delicate (and sometimes not-so-delicate) politics of improvising...

Episode 192: Yellow Written by Ginger Gonzaga

This month’s live episode features Yellow, a pilot written by Ginger Gonzaga. Most people know Ginger from her work in front of the camera—she’s appeared in Marvel’s She-Hulk, CBS’s True Lies, Showtime’s Kidding, I’m Dying Up Here, HBO’s Togetherness, and Room 104. Yellow showcases her voice as a writer.

After being arrested, following a very public hypomanic episode Pepper, A witty visual artist is court ordered to live in a halfway house with an ensemble of lovable misfits that she deems cra...

Episode 191: Text Thread Dead Pilot Summit

This special episode of Dead Pilots Society brings together the writers behind the last two pilots for a sort of Text Thread Dead Pilot Summit. The conversation features Aaron Brownstein and Simon Ganz, writers of Guy Text, alongside Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller, writers of The Thread.

Andrew brings all four writers together for a deeper, side-by-side look at their creative processes.What makes the conversation especially unique is the generosity on display. Rather than competing, the writers openly praise what they admired in each other’s p...

Episode 190:  Andrew Waller and Mike Gagerman Interview

This week’s After Show features Andrew’s conversation with Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller, writers of the film Search Party (not the TV show), creators of the viral Twitter thread Shh… Don’t Tell Steve, and currently writing the pilot for Last Chance Lawyer on NBC, with Henry Winkler set to star.

Mike and Andrew walk through how they became a writing team, from high school collaborators to professional comedy writers. Along the way, they dig into creative partnership, long-term friendship, and the kind of strange, s...

Episode 189: The Thread Written By Andrew Waller and Mike Gagerman

This month’s episode features The Thread, written by Andrew Waller and Mike Gagerman, the second of two dead pilots built around a shared group text that’s been running for years.
 

Here is the log line for this show, A modern ensemble comedy about a group of longtime friends leading diverse chaotic lives who stay connected through a long running daily text thread.

Waller and Gagerman previously wrote the cult favorite film Search Party and were behind one of...

Episode 188: Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz Interview

In this After Show Andrew talks with writing partners Aaron Brownstein and Simon Ganz about their long road to Guy Text.

They share what they learned working under Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, About a Boy) and Victor Fresco (Santa Clarita Diet), including lessons about character, tone, and why even a waiter with two lines should feel like a real person.
 

Aaron and Simon dig into the personal inspiration behind Guy Text, a modern sitcom about male friendship built around a con...

Episode 187: Guy Text
Written by Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz

This month’s dead pilot is Guy Text, written by Aaron Brownstein and Simon Ganz, whose credits include Santa Clarita Diet, Beavis and ButtHead, and About a Boy.  Four geriatric millennial friends struggle with what it means to be sensitive, thoughtful, emotionally available modern men. It’s a fast paced and funny pilot that you’ll really enjoy.

This episode launches a special two-month experiment on Dead Pilots Society. Two pilots built around the same premise—male group text threads—landed on Andrew’s rada...

Episode 186: Lisa Muse Bryant Interview

This month’s After Show features Andrew’s conversation with Lisa Muse Bryant, the powerhouse behind our latest dead pilot Dream. Lisa traces her remarkable journey from Camden, New Jersey, to writing on standout series like Black-ish, The Four Seasons, Man on the Inside, and Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She dives into the real-life inspiration behind the pilot and the serendipity of her collaboration with Amber Riley. We also get to hear her wonderful insights about carving out a career and making the most of every opportunity that came her wa...

Episode 185: Dream Written by Lisa Muse Bryant

This month’s Dead Pilots Society features Dream, a musical comedy pilot from Lisa Muse Bryant, whose work includes Black-ish, The Four Seasons, Man on the Inside, and Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The show centers on Dream Morgan, a former teen mom who finally goes after her long-delayed ambition of becoming a singer once her son finishes college. This is a musical, single camera comedy about one fierce and funny woman who uses her voice to find her voice. 

From the very first pages, the scrip...

Episode 184: Jim Brandon & Brian Singleton Interview

Welcome to this month’s after-show interview with Brian Singleton and Jim Brandon.
You heard their hilarious pilot Humans of the Americas last week on Dead Pilots Society. You may know Brian and Jim from their work on Mixed-ish (ABC), Black Monday (Showtime), Arrested Development (Netflix), or their current show Animal Control (FOX), now on it’s fourth season.

Their viral web series Dorm Life, which they wrote, cast, and produced while in college in 2011, caught Andrew’s eye and earned them their first paid show business job. In thi...

Episode 183: Humans of the Americas Written by Jim Brandon & Brian Singleton

This month’s dead pilot is Humans of the Americas by Jim Brandon and Brian Singleton, whose credits include Animal Control (FOX), Mixed-ish (ABC), Black Monday (Showtime), and Arrested Development (Netflix).

Here’s the logline: A single camera comedy set in a small town neighborhood, that is actually a human exhibit. At a zoo. Run by robots.

It’s high concept, but not self-limiting—funny, heartfelt, and full of inventive world-building and great character work.

Humans of...

Episode 182: David S. Rosenthal Interview

In this after show for The Cheap Seats, Andrew sits down with writer David S. Rosenthal, whose career spans some of television’s most iconic series.

Andrew and "Rosie" go way back to their days at summer camp, and their longtime friendship adds a personal dimension to this conversation. Rosenthal’s career took off quickly—soon after his first writing job, he became the creator and showrunner of Ellen, kicking off a career that would include Spin City, Gilmore Girls, The Middle, and Jane the Virgin. With an equally deft h...

Episode 181: The Cheap Seats Written by David S. Rosenthal

This month on Dead Pilots Society we have The Cheap Seats by David S. Rosenthal, a veteran television writer whose credits include Spin City, Gilmore Girls, The Middle, and Jane the Virgin. The script centers on a close-knit group of emotionally and intellectually stunted friends whose world is shaken when one of them begins dating a brainy and sophisticated medical student.

Rosenthal delivers a classic multi-camera hangout comedy, showcasing his knack for crafting characters with interesting, fun dynamics, and well-paced story beats.

Episode 180: Gracie Glassmeyer Interview

This after-show episode dives deeper into Here She Lies with its creator, Gracie Glassmeyer. If you heard the table read of this dark, twisty pilot, you probably have questions—like why Seth can’t leave his house, or why Talia has been spying on Amber’s stepmom. Gracie shares the answers, along with her unique path into comedy writing.

She’s part of that rare breed of “jock comedy writers”—a group that proves you don’t have to be bad at sports to be good at jokes. This conversation expl...

Episode 179: Here She Lies Written by Gracie Glassmeyer

Welcome to Dead Pilots Society, the podcast that takes comedy pilots from A-list writers that were sold and developed at networks and streamers but never produced, and gives them the table reads they never got to have.

This episode features a pilot from Gracie Glassmeyer. Gracie has written for Ghosts and The Neighborhood, with previous credits including Jane the Virgin, Happy Together, and Impastor. Her pilot defies easy categorization—too smart and compelling to be just a comedy, too funny to be labeled strictly drama.

Episode 178:  Chris Marcil & Sam Johnson Interview (Blessed and Highly Favored, NewsRadio, Beavis and Butt-Head)

In this after-show interview, Andrew sits down with longtime writing partners Chris Marcil and Sam Johnson. Friends and collaborators, Marcil and Johnson share some incredible stories from their decades in the business.

They talk about how they got their start writing for Beavis and Butt-Head at MTV, the wild ride that was the NewsRadio writers’ room—complete with its nocturnal schedule—and the drastic shift to the buttoned-up, rarefied world of Frasier.

Chris and Sam have been through...

Episode 177: Blessed and Highly Favored by Chris Marcil & Sam Johnson - Live from the Elysian Theater

We have such a great dead pilot for you this month. It's called Blessed and Highly Favored. It’s a hilarious comedy about a rookie pastor struggling to keep her progressive Baptist church afloat while dealing with megachurch competition, financial strain, and the looming presence of her father—the church’s legendary former pastor.

The pilot comes from seasoned writers Chris Marcil and Sam Johnson, whose combined credits include Frasier, NewsRadio, What We Do in the Shadows, Beavis and Butt-H...

Episode 176: Ilana Peña (Diary of a Future President) and Anne Sundell (writer and comedian) Interview

In this month’s after-show interview, Andrew chats with Ilana Peña (Diary of a Future President) and Anne Sundell (writer and comedian) about their pilot How to Get Over Bryan Byers. The pair share the real-life inspiration behind the show — yes, the actual Bryan Byers who unknowingly brought them together as friends and collaborators.

Ilana and Anne reveal the incredible, improbable career breaks that launched them into TV writing, and offer candid, insightful advice about what makes a grea...

Episode 175: How To Get Over Bryan Byers Written by Ilana Peña & Anne Sundell (Recorded Live at the Elysian Theater)

This month on Dead Pilots Society, we’re bringing you How To Get Over Bryan Byers, a hilarious comedy pilot from Ilana Peña (Diary of a Future President) and Anne Sundell (writer and comedian).

The show follows two former enemies, Anna and Izzy, who become best friends after realizing they’ve both dated—and been dumped by—the same guy. Together, they tackle the ups and downs of their twenties: work, dating, and moving on. In the...

Episode 174: Austen Earl Interview (Letters to Beyoncé, Up All Night, The Millers, Happy Together)

In this after-show interview, Andrew talks with writer/producer Austen Earl about his pilot Letters to Beyoncé, inspired by his own mom. Austen shares how he went from a tiny town in Vermont to a Hollywood writing career—with a surprising assist from his athletic background.

They discuss the ups and downs of working in TV, including cancelled shows, and the influence of White Lotus creator Mike White on Austen’s path. A funny, honest look at what it takes to make i...

Episode 173: Letters to Beyoncé written by Austin Earl (Up All Night, The Millers, Happy Together)

In this episode of Dead Pilots Society, we bring you a heartfelt and hilarious pilot from Austen Earl (Up All Night, The Millers, Happy Together, About My Father). The script, Letters to Beyoncé, tells the story of a middle-aged schoolteacher in rural New England who decides to reclaim her life—with a little inspiration from an unlikely source: Beyoncé. Inspired by Earl’s own mother (who was in attendance for the table read on Zoom!), the pilot balances sweetness with big...

In this after-show episode of Dead Pilot Society, we're joined by writer Lauren Herstik, who brought us Camp Friends — a pilot that's had more lives (and deaths) than most scripts could dream of. This one has everything: clown camp trauma, projectile vomit over a salad bar, surrealist puberty freakouts, and a long, winding journey through the chaotic world of TV development.

Lauren sits down with host Andrew Reich to talk about the evolution of her coming-of-age summer camp comedy, from its original, raunchy YA vision at HBO Max, to a beachy reinvention, to its current cryogenic stasis so...

This month, we have a fantastic dead pilot, Camp Friends, written by Lauren Herstik. You may know Lauren as a writer on American Vandal and Pearson. Camp Friends is about best friends who spend every summer at Camp Wigeon. This is their CIT (counselor-in-training) year, the last before becoming counselors, and the last chance to have the best summer ever. So when a new, hot, mystery girl shows up at camp and threatens to derail those plans it’s a big problem.

Our cast this month features Zosia Mamet (Girls), Sasheer Zamata (Agatha All Along), Aparna Na...

This is the After Show episode for Buffalo Tens featuring Andrew’s interview with Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero (Another Period). It’s also our last episode of MaxFunDrive 2025. If you haven’t joined, boosted or upgraded yet, what are you waiting for?! You’re reading the show notes! You’re obviously a fan! Go to maximum fun.org/join right now! And then you can enjoy the insane story of how malaria brought Riki and Natasha together, how Another Period came to be, and the many times Buffalo Tens almost made it to a screen big or small. But first go t...

MaxFunDrive 2025 continues with a second episode of Buffalo Tens from Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero (Another Period). Fox liked this show about two Matchmakers from Hell in Buffalo, New York enough to order a second episode from Riki and Natasha. And then they passed, but we have revived it and are bringing it to you here! Remember, this is the time of year where we celebrate MaxFun members and remind you that this show exists because listeners like you support it. We recorded this live at the Elysian Theater with a cast that included Riki as Sherri, Natasha as Cami...