Bad Pilots

What do you get when you take one of the most iconic slasher movie franchises of all time, strip it of personality, inject it with generic YA tropes that perpetuate rather than subvert, while also adding as many cold cut sandwiches as possible for no discernible reason? This. You get this. Horror movie junkie Michelle Shelderup joins us to critique Netflix's 2015 TV adaptation of the popular Scream franchise. We forgot to mention this, but they also totally ruined Ghostface's mask.

SpooOOOoooky szn is upon us! For the entire month of October, we'll be looking at spooky bad pilots, kicking things off with A&E's attempt to capitalize on the success of their flagship paranormal series, Ghost Hunters, with a similar yet far worse imitation: Paranormal Cops. Post production supervisor and horror buff Mark Ellis joins us to discuss a show that answers the question: what if extras from The Sopranos had their own ghost hunting show?

We're 1 year old! To celebrate our dumb lil pandemic hobby, we decided to host a livestream. Unfortunately, we didn't factor in that most people would be busy on a Saturday night. No worries, we rambled on anyway. Tangents include: shows we want to feature on the pod, Sopranos memes, the new Matrix movie, and of course, Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend's balls. We'll be back every Saturday in October with spooky new episodes!

William Shatner is 90 years old! Wild, right?? That means he was 80-ish when he made 2010's forgettable Twitter-inspired sitcom, Shit my Dad Says (or $#*! My Dad Says, since CBS is squeaky clean). Fittingly, our special guest this week is none other than Dan's father & longtime television critic, Bill Brioux. We discuss the role that professional critics have in the cultural conversation, how Bill inspired Dan and Aidan to start Bad Pilots, and William Shatner's incredible cover of Pulp's classic Britpop hit, Common People.

Sigmund Freud is shaking. Back in 2004, MTV created one of the most disturbing shows of all time: a reality dating series in which people go on dates with moms who are trying to set them up with their children. The rumor that this abomination is in fact scripted makes it all that much more disturbing. Luckily, we have special guest Laura Holtebrink to help keep us sane.

Neo Yokio is a Netflix anime and also quite possibly the most unlikely intersection of top-notch Hollywood talent to ever collaborate on a project. It was created Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and features the voices of Jaden Smith, Jude Law, Susan Sarandon, Desus & Mero, Jason Schwartzman, and Richard Ayoade. It's also pretty boring. Or is it? Special guest Terry Obeng takes the stand to defend Neo Yokio's honor.

By its ninth and final season, Scrubs was basically on life support. But why? Why do sitcoms like The Office, That 70s Show, Two and a Half Men, Community, and so many others continue to run even after members of their core cast have departed for (usually) bigger and better projects? Video editor Sam Blake joins us as we go under the knife to figure out where Scrubs went wrong. Also discussed: Dan & Aidan share some gross medical stories. You can just skip those parts.

When VH1 launched their "Celebreality" programming block in 2005, they kicked off what we here at Bad Pilots would consider to be worst era of television history — a period saturated with exploitative reality series starring D-list celebrities trading in the last of their cultural currency for a few bucks. But hey, we also got some pretty sweet gifs out of it. Filmmaker and trash TV lover Jamie Hurcomb joins us for Rock of Love, a Bachelor-style dating show starring former Poison frontman, Bret Michaels.

This one needs no explanation. Not because it's super famous—but because the title of the show is also quite literally  the premise. "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People" is very much a product of its time (2003), a post American Idol primetime landscape in which networks were scrambling to find the next reality hit, however base it may be. Special guest and known hottie, Eddie Majnemer, helps us digest this nauseating shit-show.

No show has been recommended with the caveat "but you should skip the first two seasons" more than Parks and Recreation. While we may remember it now as one of the most beloved and enduring sitcoms of the 2010s—with one of the most impressive ensemble casts ever assembled—it certainly didn't start out that way. Special guests Ally Cabrera-Aragon and Mark Foster join us as we take a sobering look at the NBC classic's awkward start.