0 - COPILOTS An Introduction

Sean and Andy discuss what this show is, and why they're doing it. 

Chapters

• 2:30 The Wire Bit

Transcript

Sean: 0:00

Uh, do you want to intro the show?

Andy: 0:01

What? Is that what we do? I don't even, I guess we don't have a thing yet. No. Ooh, welcome to the Gold Pilots. It's our energy. Yeah. I'm Andrew

Sean: 0:13

Segunda. My name is Sean Conroy.

Andy: 0:15

My guest today is Sean Conroy. Thank you.

Sean: 0:18

folks we're here to talk about TV pilots, and there's a reason we started doing this and it's because Andy and I both love tv. We've worked in TV for a long time. We enjoy watching tv. We both own TVs.

Andy: 0:32

I have more love hate relationship with tv, than Sean does. But uh, yes, we definitely love to discuss it for sure.

Sean: 0:39

I love watching pilots. Pilots specifically.

Andy: 0:43

Pilots specifically. Right. Well then that's convenient based on the, the way we premise of the show. The show. Yeah.

Sean: 0:48

Do you enjoy watching pilots? I, I

Andy: 0:53

I think it's tough because generally speaking, pilots, are often the worst episode of a series, or at least the most challenging episode of a series because there's so much you have to establish. There's so many hands on it in terms of, you know, uh, producers and studio and network influence, sometimes actors. Mm-hmm. it's such an uphill battle to make it a good episode of the show.

Sean: 1:17

There's so much to accomplish. You you're introducing people for the first time and you're hoping that people fall in love with these people enough to keep watching them on a regular

Andy: 1:23

basis and a world. so, I don't know that I would say I like watching pilots. Mm-hmm. But I do like. Thinking about pilots, right? Because it's, it's almost like, uh, this is gonna be a weird metaphor. uh, in Man Max, beyond Thunderdome, uh, Max is dropped into this dome uhhuh, and he is like, I don't know what it is. And people are throwing weapons at him and whatever, and all this stuff. And you, they have to figure it out. And that is what I enjoy in a pilot, is sort of seeing them figure it out as they're going uhhuh, and analyzing when it's working and when it's not working, and when it feels like it has legs and when it doesn't, when they make crazy decisions or when crazy decisions are foisted upon them. And that is what interests me. But I would say generally speaking, And it's true of many of, and even ones that you've recommended to me, quintessential ones being Deadwood in the Wire. Mm-hmm. Which and I, we think we've disagreed with about this already on the, on the

Sean: 2:16

podcast. There's so many things we disagree about, but go ahead.

Andy: 2:18

Yes. but, uh, in the Wire, uh, I would say it's episode four, right? That's like where the engine starts running, which we completely

Sean: 2:26

disagree about because I feel hooked after the first scene in the pilot of the

Andy: 2:29

Wire. Right. Whereas I'm like, I'm turning this off. This is written by a moron.

Sean: 2:34

Andy, you gotta try it again. Keep watching.

Andy: 2:37

What do you mean this is barely literate? This wasn't written by an ex-journalist.

Sean: 2:42

This was written by, I'm telling you to give it a

Andy: 2:43

crack.

Sean: 2:44

I feel like what you're saying, if I'm, if I'm hearing you correctly, is. You enjoy the process more than the product. And a pilot isn't necessarily something you enjoy watching so much as you enjoy picking it apart.

Andy: 2:58

I mean, that's, I can't make that global statement cuz some of them are, are just fantastically entertaining. Sure.

Sean: 3:04

I have a different take on it. Okay. Which is, I love watching pilots because it's so filled with infinite possibility like, They might not get it right this time. They might get it right next time. It's like watching a child being born, you know? Yeah. Most of'em are gonna end up being pieces of shit, but in that first moment of birth, it's just the wonder of life of something coming to life. And you're like, holy shit, this is something. And well then you start to go, but they didn't do this. They didn't tell us this. I'm not that interested in it. You know, whatever. which is how I feel about children as well. I

Andy: 3:44

mean every direction I'm, I'm thinking of going again to follow that metaphor is gonna be one that's going to be bad news.

Sean: 3:51

turn into, I love throwing a baby into a thunder dome.

Andy: 3:55

I mean, imagine a baby trying to figure out thunder dome, uh, this metaphor compare, you know, it doesn't work, Anyway, yeah, you're saying the, the promise. I get it. Uh, and I, and I just, I just, it fills

Sean: 4:05

me with hope every time I see a pilot, even though I know I'm watching it long after it failed miserably or was just terrible or, you know, or, or did very well. But I just love seeing that moment and thinking about it from the point of view of the person who put the pilot together.

Andy: 4:23

You know? I mean, that's, I think we're on the same page there. So it's lucky, uh, that we decided on this podcast where every episode we will retack it again, I like the thing you said a few weeks ago of like, we should point out that we're television writers who've been slightly successful, but still have plenty of time to make a podcast about television. Yes. And one of the things is we're not touting ourselves as experts either on the form or on, each individual pilot. This is not gonna be a studied history of each show. We may make factual mistakes. there's just so many things that could go wrong here, I'm very big on pronunciation and getting facts wrong, so we'll probably have an email at some point that you can kind of write in and say, Hey, you got this wrong. And you know, speaking for myself, I welcome it. I'd love to be educated, not me. You can't tell me anything It's just a thick wall. welcome to co-Pilots. I didn't even know we had a theme song. That's the theme song. Oh, I like it.