Dead Pilots Society
by Ben Blacker and Andrew Reich
In Dead Pilots Society, scripts that were developed by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve. Starring actors you know and love from television and film, a live audience, and a good time in which no one gets notes, no one is fired, and everyone laughs. Presented by Andrew Reich (Friends; Worst Week) Ben Blacker (The Writers Panel podcast; co-creator, Thrilling Adventure Hour), and Noah Findling (The New York Times, Comedy Central).
Episodes
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Episode 211: Alex Herschlag Interview
Episode 211: Alex Herschlag Interview This month’s after show features Andrew in conversation with Alex Herschlag, the writer behind our latest pilot Life of the Party. With credits including Will & Grace, Modern Family, Arrested Development, and Mike & Molly, Alex has spent years honing his…
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Episode 210: Life of the Party by Alex Herschlag
Episode 210: Life of the Party by Alex Herschlag Dead Pilots Society is back this month with Life of the Party, a multi-camera workplace comedy from writer Alex Herschlag (Will & Grace, Modern Family, Arrested Development). Multi-camera sitcoms have become a rare breed, which makes this one a...
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Episode 209: Michael Colton and John Aboud Interview
Episode 209: Michael Colton and John Aboud Interview As we continue to celebrate ten years of Dead Pilots Society, we bring you this month’s after show with Michael Colton and John Aboud, writers of Weekly World News, which was featured on last week’s episode. The two longtime collaborators take…
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Episode 208: Weekly World News by Michael Colton and John Aboud
Episode 208: Weekly World News by Michael Colton and John Aboud Dead Pilots Society celebrates 10 years with Weekly World News, a comedy pilot from Michael Colton and John Aboud based on the popular newspaper tabloid, Weekly World News is about the reporters who bring us the amazing but true...
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Episode 207: Claudia Lonow Interview
Episode 207: Claudia Lonow Interview Here is the after show for Fan Girl, featuring Andrew's interview with Claudia Lonow. Claudia has created four television shows: Rude Awakening, Good Girls Don't, Accidentally on Purpose, and How to Live With Your Parents (For The Rest of Your Life). She's…
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Episode 206: Fan Girl by Claudia Lonow
Episode 206: Fan Girl by Claudia Lonow This month, Dead Pilots Society presents Fan Girl by Claudia Lonow, a returning guest who previously appeared on the podcast with her pilot Assisted Loving, featured in Episode 13. Claudia has had a long and impressive career as a writer and producer. She…
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Episode 205: Kathryn Borel Jr Interview
Episode 205: Kathryn Borel Jr Interview This month's aftershow features a conversation with writer Kathryn Borel Jr., whose ambitious adaptation of On the Road was featured in last week's episode. Kathryn has written for Rush, American Dad!, Anne with an E, and Kung Fu, and is currently working…
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Episode 204: On The Road by Kathryn Borel Jr
Episode 204: On The Road by Kathryn Borel Jr This month's dead pilot is On the Road, Kathryn Borel Jr.'s daring reimagining of Jack Kerouac's iconic novel. Instead of trying to recreate a literary classic beat for beat, Kathryn takes its spirit and builds something entirely her own. It's exactly...
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Episode 203: Joel Kim Booster Interview
Episode 203: Joel Kim Booster Interview This is the aftershow for Here, After, featuring a conversation with writer, actor, and comedian Joel Kim Booster. Joel is known for writing and starring in Fire Island and for his work on The Other Two and Big Mouth. As an actor, he's appeared in Loot,...
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Episode 202: Here, After by Joel Kim Booster
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...
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Episode 201: Christian Duguay Interview
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…
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Episode 200: Valley Heat by Christian Duguay
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...
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Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 1
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...
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Episode 199: Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Interview Part Two
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...
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Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 2
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...
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Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 3
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...
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Episode 198: Gimme Five by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas
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...
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Episode 197: Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Interview
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...
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Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 4
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...
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Bonus: Top Five Funniest Openings in Dead Pilots Society History - Number 5
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...
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Casters on Casters: Ben Blacker, Alonso Duralde, and Hal Lublin
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...
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Episode 196: New York Mythological by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas
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…
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Episode 195: Georgia Pritchett Interview
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…
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Episode 194: Bump by Georgia Pritchett
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...
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Episode 193: Ginger Gonzaga Interview
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....
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Episode 192: Yellow Written by Ginger Gonzaga
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,...
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Episode 191: Text Thread Dead Pilot Summit
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...
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Episode 190: Andrew Waller and Mike Gagerman Interview
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…
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Episode 189: The Thread Written By Andrew Waller and Mike Gagerman
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...
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Episode 188: Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz Interview
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...
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Episode 187: Guy Text Written by Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz
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...
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Episode 186: Lisa Muse Bryant Interview
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…
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Episode 185: Dream Written by Lisa Muse Bryant
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...
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Episode 184: Jim Brandon & Brian Singleton Interview
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...
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Episode 183: Humans of the Americas Written by Jim Brandon & Brian Singleton
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...
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Episode 182: David S. Rosenthal Interview
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...
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Episode 181: The Cheap Seats Written by David S. Rosenthal
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...
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Episode 180: Gracie Glassmeyer Interview
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...
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Episode 179: Here She Lies Written by Gracie Glassmeyer
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…
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Episode 178: Chris Marcil & Sam Johnson Interview (Blessed and Highly Favored, NewsRadio, Beavis and Butt-Head)
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...
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Episode 177: Blessed and Highly Favored by Chris Marcil & Sam Johnson - Live from the Elysian Theater
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...
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Episode 176: Ilana Peña (Diary of a Future President) and Anne Sundell (writer and comedian) Interview
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...
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Episode 175: How To Get Over Bryan Byers Written by Ilana Peña & Anne Sundell
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…
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Episode 174: Austen Earl Interview (Letters to Beyoncé, Up All Night, The Millers, Happy Together)
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...
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Episode 173: Letters to Beyoncé written by Austen Earl (Up All Night, The Millers, Happy Together)
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,...
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Episode 172: Lauren Herstik Interview (American Vandal, Pearson)
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...
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Episode 171: Camp Friends Written by Lauren Herstik (American Vandal, Pearson)
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...
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Episode 170: Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero Interview (Another Period)
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...
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Episode: 169: Buffalo Tens Episode 2 by Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero (Another Period)
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…
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Episode 168: Buffalo Tens Episode 1 by Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero (Another Period)
You can support Dead Pilots Society and get access to all of our bonus content, and the bonus content from every other Maximum Fun show, by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join. And if you're already a member, first of all - thank you!, you can upgrade or boost your membership and get some…
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About this show
In Dead Pilots Society, scripts that were developed by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve. Starring actors you know and love from television and film, a live audience, and a good time in which no one gets notes, no one is fired, and everyone laughs. Presented by Andrew Reich (Friends; Worst Week) Ben Blacker (The Writers Panel podcast; co-creator, Thrilling Adventure Hour), and Noah Findling (The New York Times, Comedy Central).
Hosted by
Ben Blacker and Andrew Reich