Feature Category: Article

THE TELEPHEMERA YEARS: 2001 – PART 3

Ah, telephemera… those shows whose stay with us was tantalisingly brief, snatched away before their time, and sometimes with good cause. They hit the schedules alongside established shows, hoping for a long run, but it’s not always to be, and for every Street Hawk there’s two Manimals. But here at STARBURST we celebrate their existence and mourn their departure, drilling down into the new season’s entertainment with equal opportunities square eyes… these are The Telephemera Years!

2001-02

Although they were still experiencing difficulties finding the right show for their 8.30pm slot, NBC’s Must-See Thursdays continued to dominate the TV ratings in in 2001-02, with Friends and ER occupying two of the top three spots and Will & Grace and Just Shoot Me not far behind. Their chief competition came from CBS, whose CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was entering its second season and threatening to topple Friends from its perch. Monday Night Football was ABC’s sole top-rating show and the Alphabet network also said goodbye to two sitcom stalwarts when both Spin City and Dharma & Greg began their final runs in Fall 2001.

ABC did have JJ Abrams’s Alias and insane dating show The Bachelor on deck for the new season, though just two of a handful of notable new arrivals that also included 24, Scrubs, Six Feet Under, and Star Trek: Enterprise, while Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved from The WB to UPN for its sixth season. Genre fans were well served by new shows in 2001, with Roswell and Smallville coming on board, although The X-Files would reach the end of its conspiracy trail by May 2002. Those are all shows that actually made it to air, though; what about the ones fell at the final hurdle, rejected concepts that might have been better than what did air? This is the story of four unsold pilots from 2001…

Constant Payne (Nickleodeon): After attending the University of Arizona, where he graduated in creative writing and both wrote and performed with a sketch comedy troupe, Micah Wright moved to Los Angeles to break into television. He joined Nickelodeon as a writer and script supervisor on The Angry Beavers, while also developing his own show, a steampunk adventure affair with an aesthetic inspired by anime, pulp magazines, and Soviet propaganda posters.

Wright’s concept was centred around the Payne family, a series of knights, monster hunters, policemen, and adventurers who have protected the world from the forces of evil for generations. Doc Payne, the incumbent defender, not only has to deal with the fact that his arch-nemesis – Welton Payne-Smythe – is his brother, but he is also forced to contend with the heroic ambitions of his daughter, Amanda, who wants to follow in his footsteps, much against his advice.

An eleven-minute pilot titled Constant Payne was produced by Madhouse, a Japanese animation studio best known for anime movies Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Perfect Blue, as well as a string of popular anime TV shows. The voice cast was led by David Keith and Fred Tatasciore as the warring brothers, with debutant Aspen Miller as Amanda. Shown to test audiences in the Summer of 2001, the pilot rated highly, but news soon broke that the show had not been picked up to series.

Officially, Nickelodeon opted not to continue with Constant Payne due to concerns about airing violent shows in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but Wright has always contended that the real reason had more to do with his activism during a drive by Nickelodeon writers to unionise. Wright would later point the finger of blame at Nick Executive Vice-President Cyma Zarghami, who he accused of illegally harassing, firing, and blacklisting staff who were members of the Writers Guild of America. Zarghami, he said, accused Constant Payne of “promoting terrorism.”

Subsequent efforts by Wright to sell Constant Payne to Warner Bros, and as a feature film to overseas producers, came to nothing, and he instead moved into the world of comic books after a meeting with DC imprint Wildstorm editors at the 2001 San Diego Comic Con. The result was Stormwatch: Team Achilles, a critically acclaimed but low-selling book that was cancelled short of completing Wright’s planned 26-issue arc.

Nevertheless, Wright began work on Vigilante, a title set in the mainstream DC Universe, but also had a collection of his anti-war posters – You Back the Attack, We’ll Bomb Whoever We Want – collected in the wake of the second Gulf War. Some editions of the book included an introduction by Wright where he told of his experiences as an Army Ranger, but it was discovered – by some hostile to his message – that he only served in the reserves, and the ensuing fallout was huge. Wright was privately told he was blacklisted by both DC and Marvel and subsequently moved into video games and combined his interests by leading the WGA’s video game caucus.

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (The WB): The original Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was created by Sid and Marty Krofft in 1976. Sixteen short episodes aired as part of the first season of The Krofft Supershow, a ninety-minute variety show on ABC that was hosted by rock band Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.

After a quick flash of light known as the ElectraChange, Newsmaker Magazine journalists Lori and Judy (Deidre Hall and Just Strangis) would transform into Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, fighting crime using a host of gadgets and their ElectraCar, all under the direction of Frank Helfin, a scientist who stayed back at the ElectraBase and monitored criminal activity with his CrimeScope computer. After dispatching some nefarious threats as The Sorceror, The Empress of Evil, Ali Baba, Glitter Rock, and the Spider Lady, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl did not return for the second series of The Krofft Supershow, which was cut down to an hour for its sophomore outing.

Although it obviously wasn’t popular enough for a second season and soon faded from popular memory, it did stick in the memory of those who saw it and in 1992 writer Bryan JL Glass and artist Michael Avon Oeming created Lycra Woman and Spandex Girl, their comic book tribute to the show in Spandex Tights: The Adventures of the Aerobic Duo. After threats of legal action by Du Pont Chemical, who owned the trademark to Lycra, Lycra Woman became Flex Woman (Spandex is apparently a generic term, an anagram of “expands”), but the affectionate parody still stood.

Glass and Oeming were not the only ones who loved the show as kids and then grew up to be in a position to do something about it, and in 2001, Warner Bros announced that they were producing a new Electra Woman and Dyna Girl pilot, to be scripted by Vegas Vacation‘s Elisa Bell and Extreme Ghostbusters creator Jeff Kline. Cocking a snoot at the original show and superheroes in general, the pilot starred newcomer Anne Stedman as Judy, a lifelong fan of Electra Woman (Night Court‘s Markie Post) who tracks down her hero in Las Vegas.

A hot, drunken mess, Lori has been living in a trailer since her divorce – her husband ran off with the original Dyna Girl – but Judy not only manages to convince her to come out of retirement, but she also becomes the new Dyna Girl! The pilot ends with Lori deciding to continue being Electra Woman and finish her college studies, joining Judy in her university dorm, and there were apparently plans to bring back some of the original series villains and have Strangis reprise her Dyna Girl role as the show’s arch-villain. All that was moot, though, as NBC decided against a full series. The 2001 pilot can still be found in the deepest recesses of the internet, but it would be another fifteen years before the property was rebooted again, this time by Legendary Pictures as a series of eight eleven-minute webisodes in 2016, later released on DVD.

Invincible (TBS): From the moment identical twins Chad and Carey Hayes appeared in a Doublemint commercial as kids it was clear that a career in Hollywood beckoned, even if it did take them a few years to land their first feature roles, as twin BMXers in Hal Needham’s Rad in 1986. Chad took a few more roles, but they began to dabble in scriptwriting; Carey got his first credits on 21 Jump Street spin-off Booker in 1989 before the two collaborated on a movie script, 1990’s The Dark Side of the Moon, the sole feature by music video director DJ Webster.

From there, a series of TV movies – including Crowned and Dangerous and First Daughter – led them to Jefery Levy, an interesting character who’d written and produced Ghoulies straight out of UCLA in 1985. In 1991, Levy directed his debut feature, Drive, and became the youngest associate professor at USC’s School of Cinema-Television, later delivering slacker cash-in SFW and then moving into television.

After working on shows such as Sliders, Levy directed a series of unsold pilots, including Hollyweird and Freakylinks, becoming a go-to man for slightly outré concepts. This made him perfect for Invincible, a spec script sold by the Hayes twins that went into production in 1999, by which point it had been rewritten by Levy and future 2 Fast 2 Furious writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. The bones of the Hayes’ story remained, however, a story of warring races of immortal beings known as the White Warriors and the Shadow Men.

Billy Zane starred as Os, a Shadow Man offered a path of redemption by a White Warrior; find the five elemental warriors who can save the world and stop the Shadow Men and their leader, Slate (Australian actor David Field). Field’s casting was convenient as the pilot was shot over 23 days in Australia, also belying the presence of executive producer Mel Gibson, who brought Lethal Weapon 4 co-star Jet Li on board to oversee wire work on the film.

After the pilot was completed, work began on trying to find a home for the project. Zane would not be part of any future series – the climax of the pilot has him sending the four surviving elemental warriors (Tony Kittles, Byron Mann, Stacy Oversier, and future Prison Break and Legends of Tomorrow star Dominic Purcell) off to find more of their kind, which presumably would have formed the backbone of the subsequent series.

By 2001, the cast had all gone their separate ways and it was clear that there would be no Invincible series. A deal was made with the TBS Superstation to air the pilot as a TV movie, with a DVD release following two years later, marketed with Jet Li’s name front and centre. The Hayes would eventually strike gold with The Conjuring in 2013, while Levy largely faded from the business in the mid-2000s, roughly around the time he was scammed by wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan, the subject of the 2016 documentary Sour Grapes.

Earth Angels (NBC): It might be uncharitable – if fair – to describe Anne Rice as a one trick pony, so tied is she to her Vampire Chronicles series, but that’s not to say she hasn’t attempted to branch out, albeit with decidedly mixed results. Rice roared out of the gate with 1976’s Interview with the Vampire, spawning a cross-media empire built around the dashing vampire Lestat that would later include a big budget film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, and a 2022 AMC TV adaptation.

After two historical in 1979 and 1982, Rice returned to Lestat in 1985 and again in 1988, before trying her hand at other genre staples with 1989’s The Mummy and the first of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series a year later. During the 1990s, Rice wove between vampires and witches, and the success of Neil Jordan’s 1994 movie adaptation of Interview with the Vampire saw her courted by Hollywood, for whom she delivered a story outline for a proposed series, Rag and Bone, in 1997. The resulting pilot starred Dean Cain and Robert Patrick but was not picked up for series and instead aired as a TV movie in 1998.

As well as Rag and Bone, two other Rice adaptations were in production (Servant of the Bones and Feast of All Saints, the latter of which was made into a TV mini-series in 2001), as well as another pilot based on an original story by the author. The basic conceit behind Earth Angels was an ongoing war between good and bad angels, with the focus on five such beings who live secret lives on Earth. Primarily, they act as a police force of sorts, their assignments coming through prayer, ready to combat demons – and their own kind – with righteous fury.

The show was set in New York and – being an Anne Rice story – made much of the temptations of the flesh on offer to our angel heroes, particularly the main character, the curious and rebellious David. Toni Graphia, creator of the short-lived 1997 show Orleans (set in Rice’s beloved home city), was tasked with writing a script for a presentation pilot, which was filmed under the direction of Bronwen Hughes in Toronto in March 2001 with a cast including The X-Files’ Nicholas Lea and The Walking Dead’s Lynn Collins in an early role.

Contemporary reports in Variety and other records of note reveal NBC were quite excited about Earth Angels, but that excitement obviously faded since they declined to pick up their option on the series. There was talk that they might adapt Lives of the Mayfair Witches instead, but that came to nothing, too, and it would be 2023 before we got to see a live-action Rowan Fielding, courtesy of AMC. As for Earth Angels, portions of Rice’s original treatment for the story were included as bonus material in the 1999 Sicilian Dragon Press comic book Anne Rice’s Tales of the Body Thief, but the publisher closed down before the series was finished.

Next time on The Telephemera Years: What were the kids of 2001 watching? Sumo wrestling, apparently…

Check out our other Telephemera articles:

The Telephemera Years: pre-1965 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1966 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1967 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1968 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1969 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1970 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1971 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1973 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1974 (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

The Telephemera Years: 1975 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1976 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1977 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1978 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1980 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1981 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1982 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1983 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1984 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1986 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1987 (part 1, 2 , 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1989 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1990 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1991 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1992 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1995 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1997 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1998 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1999 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2000 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2001 (part 1, 2)

The Telephemera Years: 2002 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2003 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2005 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2006 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2007 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2008 (part 1, 2, 3 , 4)

The Telephemera Years: O Canada! (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

Titans of Telephemera: Irwin Allen

Titans of Telephemera: Stephen J Cannell (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

Titans of Telephemera: DIC (part 1, 2)

Titans of Telephemera: Filmation (part 1, 2)

Titans of Telephemera: Hanna-Barbera (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Titans of Telephemera: Kenneth Johnson

Titans of Telephemera: Sid & Marty Krofft

Titans of Telephemera: Glen A Larson (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

Titans of Telephemera: Quinn Martin (part 1, 2)

Titans of Telephemera: Rankin/Bass

Titans of Telephemera: Ruby-Spears

Titans of Telephemera: Sunbow

Eleanor Morton • HAUNTED HOUSE

Eleanor Morton is a Scottish comedian and writer who lives in Edinburgh and makes internet videos as well as doing stand-up. Her latest show, Haunted House, is on at the Edinburgh Fringe. You can book tickets here.

STARBURST: How would you pitch Haunted House to a mysterious relative who mostly lives in the attic?

Eleanor Morton: This is THE show for you. It’s all about spooky houses and interpersonal relationships, plus it’s in a basement, which will make a nice change.

How would you pitch it to someone who has never seen a ghost or watched the Patrick Swayze movie Ghost?

It’s a show about meeting Americans, going to Pizza Express and the dark side of the Fringe.

Is Edinburgh actually haunted?

Yes. And No.

What are the origins of this show?

I’ve always been a bit ghost-obsessed, and I wanted to combine that with my love/hate relationship with the Fringe and what it means to be from the place where your industry congregates once a year for its biggest calendar moment. So it’s about ‘real’ ghosts and whether or not they exist, and also about the emotional ghosts we made along the way.

One of your characters is Craig the disinterested tour guide. How similar are you to Craig?

I think I use Craig to channel my frustrations at the way Scotland is romanticised by tourists. But I’m also painfully enthusiastic about history and facts and Scotland, so in that sense we’re very different.

How different does Edinburgh feel before, during and after the Fringe if you both work the Fringe and live in the city?
That’s a good question that rarely gets asked because the comedy industry seems to forget Edinburgh exists all year round. Edinburgh is always busy and touristy, but it gets turned up to 11 just before the Fringe. All the maintenance work starts because the council thinks they’ll get it done in time, all the posters go up, and you start seeing ads for shows on social media. During the Fringe it sort of feels like a different city – everything is suddenly very small and immediate and intense. After the Fringe, I sort of love the mundanity of the city going back to normal-ish. I think there’s been a big increase in tourism since COVID, and so I kinda miss ‘dead’ September when you could go into town, and there would be absolutely NOTHING happening, and it was great.

What’s the biggest change you’ve had to make to the show?

Not a change, but there’s a prop in the show I’m very excited about that is nearly ready, and I think it will be one of my favourite bits. My friend Julia made it and I don’t want to say too much but I love how much passion she’s put into it.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt on tour?
Always assume your train will either be cancelled or delayed.

What’s your next big project after the Fringe has ended?

I’ve written a book! It’s about cool women from history, and it comes out on August 15th! It’s pop history from the perspective of a non-expert who loves listicles and wanted to tell the world more about my favourite historical women, like Bobbi Gibb, who crashed the Boston Marathon in the ’60s when women weren’t allowed to run it, Noor Inayat Khan, who spied for Britain during the war, and The Match Girls, who made history with their strike campaign. There are lots of jokes, too.

Is it bad luck to rub the nose of the Greyfriars Bobby statue?

It’s not bad luck, but it is bad if you want locals not to hate you. It’s quite interesting to see a myth develop in real-time – when I was growing up, no one touched the statue, and in the last decade or so, it’s become this tradition out of nowhere. Damaging the statue is annoying, but the real ballache is people standing about on the pavement – I’m walking here!

Where else can we find you?

All the usual places. Search for me on YouTube, Twitter, Insta, and TikTok and I should come up.

Simpsons or Futurama?
Both, but only up to their mid-seasons

Game of Thrones or Outlander?
Can I say neither?

Salt or Sauce?
Ketchup

Doctor No or Doctor Strange?

Doctor doctor

Truth or Beauty?

There is beauty in truth and truth in beauty.

Edy Hurst • EDY HURST’S WONDERFULL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES IN THE COUNTIE OF HIMSELF

Edy Hurst’s new show is called Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself and is currently at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We caught up with him to find out more.

STARBURST: How would you pitch Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself to a an elderly relative who absolutely is not a witch?
Edy Hurst: Listen, you old bat, ever heard of the Pendle Witch trials? It’s local history and folklore, you’re gonna lap that up. I’ve found out that I, and as a elderly relative also you, am/are related to women accused through those infamous events. Also, I found out I have ADHD and want to share a big theory that the Vengaboys made a concept album, but quite frankly, I’m not sure how much that will land with you at your age, and the show is definitely not about those at all.
There’s also a big cauldron that I may or may not nearly fall out of every show, so as an elderly relative of mine there’s some additional jeopardy there. Yes I am happy with my life choices. PLease don’t give me that look.

And how would you pitch it to someone who someone who thinks Macbeth is a comedy?
Oh, you’re going to love this. Imagine if it was that opening bit of Macbeth with the witches, but instead, it’s one guy with a dead-on theory about the Vengaboys that, for legal reasons, he cannot talk about on a public platform. Also, there are some shamanic chants via a loop pedal. And here’s the best bit – not a damned spot in sight!

Why Witches?
My mum instilled in me a great fascination with fantasy and magic, as well as of contemporary beliefs in witchcraft, and as my previous work probably shows, I have a real interest in taking my experiences and hooking them onto high-concept ideas that I can bounce off.

I think that witches occupy a strange space in our popular culture. As one of the few gender-specific mystical antagonists, they’re also the only ones that have such a grounding in reality that there are court documents of people accused of being them. Say what you like about Dracula, but I never think he took the stand.

I’ve been really interested in making a show about shamanism, witchcraft and the role that magic has and does play in our lives, and this show, with the support of The Lowry, really let me explore it in a big way. Through huge deep dives into the folk philosophy of the 17th century to the court documents of the Lancashire Witch Trials, I think audiences are mercifully now spared a lot of extra reading I did (Bad luck, WIP audiences of 2023) but I hope through the show it’s a chance to look at how we treat otherness and those that are often the most vulnerable in society regardless of the period of time we are living in.

How different is this from your previous shows?
This is the first show where I have worked with a team and even received funding to develop it. The fantastic Joz Norris has been directing the show, as well as a number of comedians, dramaturgs and production team members, to create something that while keeping my DIY lofi vibe but stepping my work into something specific for theatre spaces.

It’s been supported by The Lowry’s ‘Developed With’ Programme and Arts Council England, and the opportunity through them to really sit and think about what we’re making as its developed has been a huge new experience and a real departure from previous work.

Would we notice if H.G. Wells’ Martians invaded?
Where do you live? If it’s outside of the 75-mile square radius of Woking and London, it’s incredibly unlikely beyond a BBC News notification. Don’t argue with me, read the book, he’s so specific to where the Martians invade, and not once does he say their effects are even felt beyond Birmingham. More like War of the Worlds and a number of Borough Councils.

Why the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Edinburgh is the world’s largest arts festival and a place where audiences across the world gather to watch work that challenges the formats and mediums they’re made for. My new show straddles the worlds of comedy and theatre, as well as combining Witches, Neurodivergence and the Vengaboys. So, if it doesn’t find an audience here, then I am in trouble.

What’s the biggest change you’ve had to make to the show?
Probably cutting the 10 to 15-minute bit where I talk about the socio-political climate of James I’s England, alongside the social function magic provided in 1600s Britain, and why Witch Trials didn’t really happen in Britain in the same way as mainland Europe for a couple centuries. Turns out I didn’t need it! Who knew? Definitely the Buxton Fringe audiences of 2023!

What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt on tour?

Always check for parking before you get to your destination. Even if travelling by train, it’s just good to know.

What’s your next big project after the Fringe has ended?

Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself will embark on a National Tour starting at The Lowry on October 31st – Autumn 2025. Other than that, I’m not sure yet. There’s a few pans on the hob, but I ain’t sharing the soup until it’s simmered.

Will we all be wearing witch hats next summer?
I hope so! I haven’t got any merchandise (yet), but they’re a great shady hat option that provides a great alternative to the ubiquitous baseball cap.

Where else can we find you?
You can find me on my occasional podcast, I Pod a Spell on You, where I use 1600s Magic to help solve guests and listeners’ problems, or in my very long titled War of the Worlds-themed podcast, Edy Hurst’s Podcast Version of.. The War of the Worlds. I’m on Twitter, Insta, and some others @edyhurst.

The Simpsons or Futurama?
Simpsons was a foundation for my humour and creativity, but those first 4 seasons of Futurama are just perfect, and I think i was the perfect age for when they came out. I was so excited for the millennium, but where were the jet packs?! Where was the floaty cars? Turns out they were all in Futurama.

Star Wars or Star Trek?
I’d rather go on a Star Trek, I’d rather watch a Star War.

Badgers or Racoons?
The age-old question – Bodger or Rocket? I think I’d have to choose Badgers as they’re one of the top five exciting animals to see in the UK, but raccoons have got those lil’ fingers that are all creepy, and I’m a big fan.

Doctor No or Doctor Who?
Doctor Who! I used to have a bit in my stand-up where I would ‘remember’ every single James Bond theme tune, but there’s no way I could even think about taking on that Derbyshire jam.

Truth or Beauty?
The beauty of truth, the dignity of being wrong. The vulnerable revelations that come with the art of spectacle.

You can book tickets here.

THE TELEPHEMERA YEARS: 2001 – PART 2

2001-02

ABC did have JJ Abrams’s Alias and insane dating show The Bachelor on deck for the new season, though just two of a handful of notable new arrivals that also included 24, Scrubs, Six Feet Under, and Star Trek: Enterprise, while Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved from The WB to UPN for its sixth season. Genre fans were well served by new shows in 2001, with Roswell and Smallville coming on board, although The X-Files would reach the end of its conspiracy trail by May 2002. Those are all shows that people remember, though; what about the ones that left less of an impact on the collective memory? This is the story of four more flops from 2001…

That ‘80s Show (Fox): When That ‘70s Show debuted in August 1998, viewers couldn’t get enough of the 1976 exploits of Eric Forman and pals, and the show became a mainstay of the Fox schedules. After the network announced they were renewing That ‘70s Show for its third and fourth seasons, co-creator Mark Brazil joked that they would soon have to rename the show to That ‘80s Show as the characters moved forward in time. In the end, it took eight seasons for That ’70s Show to reach December 31^st 1979 and the show ended just one second away from the new decade.

Although season two’s ratings had fallen to just under six million viewers from a season one average of seven, season three saw almost a million new viewers a week turning into That ‘70s Show and Fox were keen to capitalise on their hit. In August 2001, Fox asked Brazil and Terry Turner to repeat the formula for a spin-off show set a decade later and they tasked producer Linda Wallem with developing That ‘80s Show for real.

It was decided that the show would not be a direct spin-off of That ‘70s Show and would be set in 1984 in San Diego, California, rather than Point Place, Wisconsin, with an all-new set of characters unrelated to Eric, Donna, Kelso, and company. Rather than High Schoolers, That ‘80s Show would focus on the lives of twentysomethings who frequent record store Permanent Records and Club Berlin, led by struggling musician Corey Howard. Newcomer Glenn Howerton was cast as Corey, living at home with his Valley Girl sister Katie (Tinsley Grimes) and divorced father RT (Geoff Pierson from Unhappily Ever After).

Corey’s main foil is June Tuesday, a punk rocker played by Chyler Leigh who also works with him at Permanent Records, with members of their gang also including wannabe yuppie Roger, Corey’s ex-girlfriend Sophia (who now has a crush on his sister), and Margaret, the ex-hippie owner of Permanent Records who has some wild stories to tell.

Episode one – written by Brazil, Turner, and Wallem, and which aired in January 2002 as a mid-season replacement in a slot previously running Malcolm in the Middle repeats – ends with Corey and June going out for coffee, and it was “will they/won’t they?” from that point on. Critics were less than kind to That ’80 Show from the off, but the more helpful pointed out that the show missed its target audience, depicting the experiences their older brothers and sisters had in the 1980s rather than their own teenage years.

Still, the premiere attracted over eleven million viewers, dropping to nine a week later for a Valentines’ Day mix-up yarn and tumbling steadily thereafter. By episode eleven, ratings had dipped beneath five million and the decision was made to cancel the show after it had finished its run of thirteen episodes, the last one including a subplot built around the last episode of M*A*S*H, a show whose longevity That ‘80s Show could only dream of.

Tales from the Neverending Story (HBO): The process of adapting a novel for TV or movies is never a simple one and often ends up with either the original author or his fans railing at the result. That’s certainly true of The NeverEnding Story, 1984 German/American adaptation of Michael Ende’s 1979 novel, although that’s probably news to fans of the film, for whom it is a delightful fantasy adventure with a nice Limahl theme tune.

Ende worked on the script for The NeverEnding Story with director Wolfgang Peterson, but Peterson later made so many changes that Ende asked him to not release the film or at least change its name. They did neither and a subsequent legal challenge went the way of Peterson. Peterson’s film adapted the first half of Ende’s book, with the second taken care of by 1990’s The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter. A third film, The NeverEnding Story III, followed in 1994 but was based on an original story.

In 1995, Canadian animation studio Nelvana produced a twenty-six-episode series, The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux, which told stories of Bastian’s further adventures in Fantastica, at least getting the name right from Ende’s novel, even if it was again only loosely based upon it. Ende died shortly before it premiered on HBO in December 1995, but he may have been more accommodating towards it than the films, which he dismissed as “gigantic melodrama made of kitsch and commerce, plush and plastic”.

Five years later, Dieter Geißler, who had produced the three movies Ende hated so much, partnered with Canadian production company Muse Entertainment for Tales from the Neverending Story, a thirteen-part series loosely based on Ende’s novel but departing even more from key parts of the narrative than before. The series begins with a diverged origin story for Bastian’s discovery of Fantasia (the name used in the movies) and introduces new characters such as Lucas, Marley, and female adventurer Fly Ry, with events from the novels often out of sequence (when they are included at all).

Newcomer Mark Rendall starred as Bastian, with Tyler Hynes as Atreyu and Audrey Gardner as the Childlike Empress, and the bulk of the writing duties were divided between Leila Basen and David Preston, who’d recently worked together on several period dramas. The thirteen episodes were shown on the Hallmark Channel in the UK from August 11^th 2001 and recut into four two-hour movies to be shown monthly on HBO in the US from October 1^st that year.

Reactions were divided between those who thought it anathema to Ende’s novel (just as they had the movies), those who loved the movie but regarded Tales from the Neverending Story as a cheap imitation, and those who enjoyed it as a cheaply produced children’s TV show despite its obvious shortcomings. Recently, with rights back in the hands of Ende’s estate, plans have been revealed for a series of films based on the book, this time hoping to capture its charms in a more faithful manner.

Greg the Bunny (Fox): Greg the Bunny started as a character on the cable access TV show Junktape, hosting a segment where clips from various films were edited together to make it seem like they were from the same movie. Created by friends Dan Milano, Spencer Chinoy, and Sean Baker because none of them wanted to appear on camera themselves, Greg’s role expanded to street interviews, soon becoming a cult hero among the alcoholics, the unemployable, and angry loners who made up the bulk of New York public access TV viewers.

The Independent Film Channel, a spin-off from cable TV channel Bravo, approached the trio with an offer of Greg becoming the channel’s mascot, but they turned the offer down, instead – through Chinoy’s brother Kevin, an independent film producer – signing a deal for a series of short films, beginning in 1998. In the features, Greg would enjoy little adventures while his pal, Warren the Ape, would supply trivia about the movies IFC were showing.

After two years of doing the shorts, they shopped Greg around Hollywood and caught the attention of Neil Moritz, who had just produced his first film, I Know What You Did Last Summer. Although Moritz didn’t really do TV, he came on board as a co-producer and sold the Fox network on a half-hour sitcom starring Greg as the co-host of a fictional kid’s TV show called Sweetknuckle Junction.

In the world of the sitcom, puppets like Greg – and Warren (the Ape) DeMontague and Count Frederick Blah – are living creatures, a minority who prefer to be known as “fabricated Americans.” Greg’s co-host on Sweetknuckle Junction is an anti-puppet bigot named Jack Mars (The Shawshank Redemption‘s Bob Gunton), who nevertheless enjoys drinking with Warren and the Count. Off-air, Greg shares an apartment with Seth Green’s Jimmy Bender, son of Sweetknuckle Junction’s put-upon producer Gil (the wonderful Eugene Levy)

Also featuring Sarah Silverman and Dina Waters, Greg the Bunny debuted in March 2002 with a run of thirteen episodes planned, but only eleven aired before Fox pulled the plug. Low ratings were the official reason, although Greg the Bunny did better than Temptation Island, Futurama, and Family Guy, all of which were renewed. The real reason probably lay more in the conflict between Greg’s creators and the network over the direction of the show, which was marketed as an edgy, adult puppet show but with showrunner Bill Freiburger keen on a more traditional family sitcom feel.

In August 2004, IFC began re-airing Greg the Bunny, complete with the final two episodes of the Fox series. A DVD release in October 2004 led to Fur on the Asphalt: A Greg the Bunny Reunion Special on IFC in June 2005, followed by two seasons of movie parody shorts, bringing the character full circle to his public access TV origins. IFC continue to show the shorts and in 2010, MTV gave Warren the Ape his own show, with Greg, Seth Green, and Sarah Silverman as guest stars in a storyline continuation from the Fox show.

Andy Richter Controls the Universe (Fox): The son of a kitchen cabinet designer and a Russian language lecturer from Chicago, Andy Richter got his start with the city’s Improv Olympic, where he went from student to “house performer” within a year. Moving onto the Annoyance Theatre, he caught a lucky break when their production of The Real Live Brady Bunch – a word-for-word recreation of episodes of the famous sitcom – transferred to New York and the actor playing Mike Brady didn’t want to go. Richter asked if he could take the role and moved to the Big Apple with the rest of the cast in 1991.

While The Real Live Brady Bunch was playing in New York, two of the cast – Beth Cahill and Melanie Hutsell – were hired as cast members on Saturday Night Live and Richter began to mix socially with SNL’s cast and crew. Two years later, when SNL writer Robert Smigel landed the job of producing NBC’s new late-night talk show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, he hired Richter to be the comedian’s sidekick.

Richter stayed with Late Night with Conan O’Brien until May 2000 when he left to pursue other opportunities. Mindful of friends who’d left TV and been swamped with offers from Hollywood, he left for Los Angeles but struggled to find the right opportunity until he was introduced to Victor Fresco, a former ALF writer who’d just created the soon-to-be-cancelled The Trouble with Normal for ABC.

Immediately bonding through mutual friend Paget Brewster (who’d starred in The Trouble with Normal and would go on to appear in Andy Richter…), the pair developed Fresco’s idea of Andy Richter as a character, an unreliable narrator. With an ambition to become a short story writer, fantastic stories would spin out of Andy’s job as a writer of technical manuals, including conversations with the long dead founder of the company he works for and a sandwich man he accuses of being Adolf Hitler.

Alongside Richter and Brewster (who played Jessica, his former colleague and now his boss) were Jonathan Slavin, musical theatre actress Irene Molloy, and soap opera veteran James Patrick Stuart, with guest stars including O’Brien, Cedric Yarbrough, Jon Cryer, and model-turned-actress Molly Sims. A short first season of seven episodes ran on Fox from March 19^th to April 23^rd 2002 and was successful enough that a second season was ordered, to begin in December that year.

Never afraid to push the envelope, season two upped the ante, a tough proposition when Richter fought a real-life kangaroo in season one, but ratings fell to the point that Fox cancelled the show after just eight episodes, the final five episodes going unaired. All nineteen episodes did eventually get shown on cable channel HDNet in 2004, by which time Richter had moved onto his next Fox project as the father of father troublesome teens in Quintuplets, a barely remembered single-season affair. It’s Andy Richter Controls the Universe, though, that pops up in lists of shows cancelled before their time and with very good cause.

Next time on The Telephemera Years: 2001’s unsold pilots, including the return of Electra Woman & Dyna Girl!

Check out our other Telephemera articles:

The Telephemera Years: pre-1965 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1966 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1967 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1968 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1969 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1970 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1971 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1973 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1974 (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

The Telephemera Years: 1975 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1976 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1977 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1978 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1980 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1981 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1982 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1983 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1984 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1986 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1987 (part 1, 2 , 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1989 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1990 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1991 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1992 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1995 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1997 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1998 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1999 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2000 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2001 (part 1)

The Telephemera Years: 2002 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2003 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2005 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2006 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2007 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 2008 (part 1, 2, 3 , 4)

The Telephemera Years: O Canada! (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

Titans of Telephemera: Irwin Allen

Titans of Telephemera: Stephen J Cannell (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

Titans of Telephemera: DIC (part 1, 2)

Titans of Telephemera: Filmation (part 1, 2)

Titans of Telephemera: Hanna-Barbera (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Titans of Telephemera: Kenneth Johnson

Titans of Telephemera: Sid & Marty Krofft

Titans of Telephemera: Glen A Larson (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

Titans of Telephemera: Quinn Martin (part 1, 2)

Titans of Telephemera: Rankin/Bass

Titans of Telephemera: Ruby-Spears

Titans of Telephemera: Sunbow

Barry Church-Woods • TERF

We caught up with theatrical producer Barry Church-Woods to find out more about their new show, TERF, currently on stage as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

STARBURST: Introduce yourself, please.
Barry Church-Woods: I’m an artist, activist, and live arts producer based in Edinburgh (most of the time). If you Google me, you’ll find loads of work I’ve been associated with or created myself. You’ll also find some writing on the art of producing, a lot of press cancelling me and my company Civil Disobedience for one reason or the other – I’m always on the right side of history – and some funny columns I wrote when I was bored and thought I should run a queer website. There will also be a lot of thirsty pics of me in various stages of undress as I build my audience for my comedy boylesque career.

But today, I’m here to talk about the fact that I’m producing TERF, Joshua Kaplan’s new play about JK Rowling and her gender-critical beliefs.

How would you pitch TERF to someone who is really into fantasy fiction and publishing?
It’s the story of a single mum who has a fantastic idea to write a book about a young boy wizard and his chums. It focuses on her meteoric rise to fame after signing her first book deal and the power and influence that comes from having a readership of half a billion. It’s not the entire focus of the narrative, but there’s some great stuff in there around her relationship with her publisher and navigating those problematic goblins. It also addresses the cult of celebrity thrust upon the franchise’s young stars. Ultimately, though, it’s storytelling. Joshua Kaplan made it all up. Well, most of it. The premise is absolutely based in fact, but of course no one knows what has gone on behind closed doors.

And how would you pitch it to someone who is a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK?

Guuuuuuurl. It’s about this shady bitch who keeps coming into the ‘workroom’ claiming that only the AFAB queens should be there, despite the fact that 1. It’s not her world, and 2. No-one fucking asked her opinion. At first, she’s surprised that people respond badly to her and tries to blame it on the edit, but by the end, we all know that biiiiiiiitch… she’s the one who said it. And she probably can’t sow.

STARBURST readers love science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories and tend to enjoy groundbreaking and progressive shows such as Star Trek and Doctor Who. What is the appeal of this show to our readership?
Well, both those shows are famous for breaking ground on discussions around civil rights and have been instrumental in profiling the advancement of equality through representation. TERF is aiming to do the same, albeit through a much more obvious lens of focusing on the antagonist’s negative impact on a marginalised community and searching for resolve. But it’s also a multifaceted production with a lot of nuance, subtext and indicative allyship. I fell in love with this show because of the writing. Before we had a cast, it was just me and Joshua Kaplan and his script. He is an incredibly disciplined and observant writer – just check out his work on Tokyo Vice. Some days, he reminds me of Russell T Davies in that he has a sophisticated knack for addressing issues without ramming them down your throat and making the whole experience seem overly didactic. I’ll posit that Josh is much funnier than Russell, though Russell will always hold a very special place in my queer little heart.

What’s been the hardest part of the production so far?
I’m pretty thick-skinned and have been doing work for a long time that pisses people off for one reason or another. I’ve gotten used to people misinterpreting the intent of a project before they see it, but this is definitely on a different level and has spilt into my family life, with trolls actively pestering my relatives. The subject matter has proven controversial for sure.

As soon as we announced our intention to bring it to Edinburgh, we were bombarded with threats of protest from gender-critical groups and individuals before even understanding the concept of the show or reading the script. To them, the fact that this is about their icon, JK Rowling, meant it must also be about them, too, and as always, the unhappiest voices are the loudest. This meant that before we even got into conversations with potential venue partners about the work, we were having to address the practicality of hosting it, and the additional resource this would require the venue to provide. Understandably, a lot of the multiplex venues felt that the potential disruption to other shows would be too high a price to pay. But it’s definitely frustrating that it’s also getting in the way of the conversations about the actual work.

What is the most important lesson to learn during rehearsal?
To give it time to sit. To find the humanity in all of the characters. To honour the writing. As I’ve said before, it’s a terrifically clever script, and Josh has spent years finessing it to ensure that different perspectives of the conversation are represented. It’s also hilarious in parts. Some of the behaviour is abhorrent, and some content is quite visceral, so it’s important to provide light relief for the audience. However, having spent the last week in the rehearsal room, this is absolutely not a concern. The cast is flawless and has great chemistry, so the words are just jumping off the paper.

What has been the most ridiculous moment so far?
Having someone ask us to sign a gag order that would offer them full impunity from their terrible behaviour and leave the show fully vulnerable.

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
Josh originally approached me as he’d already decided that he wanted to premier the show in Edinburgh, and he knew that was my stomping ground. If he’d come to me with the script and asked for ideas for development, we’d be in the exact same predicament, as I genuinely believe that the Fringe is the only place to break work of this nature. Apart from being the cultural centre of the universe in August, it also gives us a chance to represent it to an international audience willing to take risks, get it in front of hundreds of critics and, of course, court industry mods for the future development of the show.

Who are Civil Disobedience, and what’s it all about?
We’re a live arts production house whose work focuses on amplifying the voices of marginalised communities and using art as activism to challenge the current injustices in the world. We started out a very queer company focussing on issues affecting the rainbow family, but that work very quickly became intersectional. I cut my teeth making AIDS response work, with one of my earlier creative successes being directing a national tour of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart – a depiction of the work of ACT UP and the Gay Men Health Crisis during the early years of the epidemic – and was lucky enough to have Kramer take me under his wing for a bit during my fledgling career as an activist. It’s fair to say his politics and the work of ACT UP rubbed off on me so hard that it grazed my skin, but from that point on, I considered most of my work to be founded in the tenets of Civil Disobedience. Maybe not quite accessing the national transport grid to cause disruption, but certainly agitating the norm and shaking people out of their complacency. It’s not all presented in anger. I’m a firm believer that you catch more flies with honey, and sometimes the route to helping people understand that they’re on the wrong side of history is helping them see aspects of themselves reflected in someone else’s hubris.

How similar is this to other projects you’ve worked on?
It’s actually quite different and represents a significant step-change for Civil Disobedience in getting back into a traditional space and presenting a more conventional theatre offering. Most of our large-scale theatre projects in the past have been immersive experiences that have involved either developing apps for outdoor walking tours (thank Covid for that massive ball-ache pivot on a project) or building makeshift queer spaces and asking the audience to experience it as both observer and participant. The storytelling is still the same, though. The themes continue to be universal. It’s still about injustice, bullying, the need to protect our community, confirmation bias and the general desire for the betterment of society.

What is your favourite moment in the show?
Too many to choose from. The cast has incredible chemistry, and the play between Piers, Trelawny, and Tom, who play the film cast, is incredibly dynamic. We’re working with a wonderful trans artist in the show who provides some perspective from their community. Their work is visceral and frames the show. Due to safeguarding concerns, we are keeping their identity private while we can. But what’s really killing me right now is that Laura Kay Bailey is incredible as JK Rowling and has impeccable comic timing. Throughout the show, there are comic barbs that attest to her character’s likeability, but it’s fair to say that she manages to straddle the inherent cruelty in JK’s gender-critical beliefs with a thoughtful interpretation of character that keeps her well out of villain territory. There are moments that take my breath away throughout the show, but there’s a particularly devastating scene towards the end with her father.

Where else can we see you?
I’m currently in pre-production on another theatre show, Now I Know You’re Mine. This one I wrote is the tale of two teenage friends from West Lothian hitchhiking their way to London’s Wembley Stadium in July 1990 to see Madonna’s Blonde Ambition Tour. It’s an old-fashioned tale of friendship, fandom and self-discovery and is set against a backdrop of Section 28, the AIDS crisis and a lingering echo of the Poll Tax riots. The script was commissioned earlier this year and is drawn partially from my own violent experiences of the anti-Scottish ‘Settler Watch’ movement in Norfolk, being a teenager from Livingston’s poorest area in the late eighties and finding an ally through Madonna’s politics. The tagline says it’s a story of hope, of resilience, of falling in love… and of turning tricks in lay-bys to pay for macaroni pies.

What’s your next big project after the Fringe has ended?
I have a visual arts practice and will be going straight into the studio to finish my HIV de-stigmatization exhibition LOADED, which opens in November and includes a series of portraits made from my bodily fluids, including blood, piss and cum. The pieces are all collaborations with models where I interrogate their relationship to HIV and their understanding of advancements in medicine – usually incorporating text from either their favourite books or some of their own creative writing around the subject. I have all the drafts done and am now in the final stages of upscaling the concepts to exhibition standards. They’re on a much larger scale than I usually work, which means the bleeding aspect is both time-consuming and fatiguing, so I’m going to be spending most of the rest of the year locked away and focused on that.

Simpsons or Futurama?
I grew up on Simpsons. In fact, I’m pretty sure I had a Cowabunga t-shirt when I was going through puberty. I tried to watch some of the new series recently and felt it had maybe lost its edge a little. Maybe I was just tired and should give it another go. Futurama, however, always makes me giggle. It’s just so daft. It certainly helps matters that I’ve been obsessed with Katy Segal since Married with Children.

Ursula Le Guin or Terry Pratchett?
Pratchett. I could never get up at 5.30am every morning to work. Le Guin sounded like a psychopath. 5.30am should only be used for cheap flights, club night afterparties and the occasional Grindr visitor when you have insomnia.

Sondheim or Webber?
One of them was a flag-flying cock-sucking genius, and the other was a member of the House of Lords. I’m sure you can guess where my proclivities lie. I am a massive Madonna stan, and while Evita is definitely a masterpiece, nothing quite compares to Madonna singing Sondheim’s Sooner or Later at the Oscars in the ’90s. I recently attended And Friends, the celebration of Sondheim’s work and had the joy of witnessing Bernadette Peters sing some of his most profound work, so it’s Sondheim, hands down.

Magic Wands or Sonic Screw Drivers?
The last time I was asked that question was by my ex in the basement of a sex shop in Manchester he was working in, but I’m guessing this is not about Clonezone’s dildo marketing strategy during Comic Con. So, I’m going to have to say wands, based on a hilarious moment in TERF that acknowledges some of the less successful Potter franchise merchandise.

As a side note, if you haven’t already, you should check out Elizabeth Berkley’s Comic Con Q&A from 2023. I’m truly happy she’s finally getting her moment in the sun after Showgirls.

Doctor No or Doctor Strange?
If I say Dr No, then the Mumsnet crowd will start a board about how the producer of TERF thinks it’s ok that Sean Connery slapped his wife. If I say Dr Strange, it’ll be ingenuous because the last one was edited so choppily that it made me feel sick and all I really liked about the first one was that Tilda Swinton was in it. Dr Snuggles? I do love James Bond though, despite the inherent misogyny.

Truth or Beauty?
My school motto was honesty is the best policy, and that place was a fucking dump.

You can book for TERF here and find out more about the show here.

Ben Trigger • SWAMPLESQUE

Ben Trigger is the creative genius behind Trigger Happy Productions and the main star of Swamplesque The Burlesque Parody. Ben has been in the live theatre industry for over 15 years, both on stage and behind the scenes. He has worked with companies such as Harvest Rain, Basement Arts, Metro Arts and The Powerhouse. We caught up with him find out more about this amazing show, on at the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

STARBURST: How would you pitch Swamplesque to an ogre?
Ben Trigger: Get ready for Swamplesque, the wildest, most outrageous burlesque and drag parody you’ll ever see! Imagine all the zany fun of the original movie, cranked up with striptease, lip-sync battles, live singing, fire breathing, and even break dancing! It’s a rollercoaster of laughs, sexiness, and sheer absurdity, guaranteed to keep you roaring for more!

And how would you pitch it to someone who enjoys fairytales?
This show is a fairytale for the underdogs, a heartfelt ode to those who’ve been told they’ll never have a fairytale ending. Swamplesque celebrates the unconventional heroes and heroines, proving that everyone deserves their own magical story.

Does this ‘Parody’ have layers?
Absolutely! Swamplesque is packed with layers upon layers. Each character unveils new facets of themselves, and hidden meanings are woven throughout the show.

How similar is this to other projects you’ve worked on?
Swamplesque was my first parody production. While I’ve worked extensively on musicals and traditional theatre, blending burlesque elements like comedy, striptease, and elaborate costumes with classic theatre techniques in lighting, sound, and staging has been a thrilling, unique adventure. It’s a whole new theatrical format!

Why Shrek?
I’ve always loved the Shrek films, but as I grew older, I realised their true brilliance. Beyond the laughs, they deliver a powerful message: love everyone for who they are, not how they look. This resonates deeply with me and fits perfectly with the ethos of burlesque, where everybody is celebrated as beautiful and sexy.

What was the biggest obstacle to getting the show made?
Costuming was a massive challenge. Creating distinctive burlesque and drag outfits for over 15 characters was no small feat. Each costume needed unique elements and imaginative ways to be removed, keeping the audience engaged and entertained.

What is your favourite tune in the show, and how easy was it to write?
You can’t have an ogre parody without All-Star by Smash Mouth! It’s definitely a show-stopper and always gets the crowd going!

Why do we like laughing at fairy tales?
Fairy tales are inherently ridiculous. They paint a picture of perfection that, upon closer inspection, is delightfully absurd. Everyone deserves a fairy tale ending, but it’s the imperfections that make the journey so entertaining and relatable.

What’s the most entertaining part of the show for you?
I don’t want to spoil too much, but my absolute favourite moment is when the ogre meets Princess Number 3 in the tower. It’s such an outrageously silly scene, and the audience’s reaction is priceless every time!

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
The Edinburgh Fringe is the ultimate arts festival, a dream stage for any performer. Bringing Swamplesque here means sharing it with some of the best audiences in the world, connecting with industry pros, and experiencing a vibrant mix of incredible shows all in one place.

Where else can we see you?
I’ll be doing a few extra spots around town including at Reuben Kaye’s – The Kaye Hole and Aiden Sadler’s – Big Gay Afterparty!

What’s next?
We are starting to plan the next instalment of Swamplesque – bringing in some characters from later movies and really developing those characters’ relationships!

Shrek or Donkey?
Shrek – only because I play him

Dungeons or Dragons?
Dragons – they’re just so campy!

Simpsons or Futurama?
Simpsons! Fun fact – the 2nd burlesque parody I worked on was called The Stripsons!

Truth or Beauty?
Truth – everyone is beautiful but not everyone is truthful.

Book for the show here.

Rik Carranza • RIK CARRANZA PRESENTS: STAR TREK VS STAR WARS

Rik Carranza is the only Scottish/Filipino comic on the UK comedy circuit. Rik’s dual heritage gives him a wealth of funny stories from an intriguing perspective and experience. . We caught up with them to find out more about their Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, Rik Carranza Presents: Star Trek vs Star Wars….

STARBURST: How would you pitch Rik Carranza Presents: Star Trek vs Star Wars to a fan of the TV show Star Gate?
Rik Carranza: Star Trek, Star Wars, and Stargate fans. If there’s one thing that we can all agree on. Firefly deserved another series. In the meantime, while we’re waiting for that, laugh at comedians trying to justify why their franchise is better than the other. We all know you think it’s Stargate – it’s definitely better than one of them…

And how would you pitch it to someone who doesn’t know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars?
Don’t know your Wookie from your Klingon, your Phaser from your blaster, or is it the Millennium Enterprise to you? I guarantee this show will make you laugh while you learn how an Empire was taken down by teddy bears.

Why is the rivalry between the two a thing?
The size and longevity of these two franchises. Aside from Doctor Who, there is no sci-fi franchise that is as long-running or as popular as either of them. Star Trek fans will tell you that Trek was first and is more cerebral. Star Wars fans will point out that if it wasn’t for Star Wars‘ success, there wouldn’t have been Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Not something I think Star Trek fans would consider showing off about.

How similar is this to other projects you’ve worked on?

Prior to this show, I had been doing pretty straightforward comedy shows. This was a chance for me to truly embrace that nerdy side of myself and have fun with other comedians on stage.

Why Edinburgh?
I love the Edinburgh Fringe. This will be my 11th as a performer. I get to work and play with fellow comedians that I may only see sporadically throughout the year. However, what I really love is that with so many people coming to the city to see shows, it’s a really good chance to find your audience.

Should we just ignore folk who are constantly negative about new SF shows?
Yes and no. There are definitely people who are constantly negative no matter what is done, but some criticism is valid. I personally feel that while I am happy that we’ve had four new Star Trek series and over 11 new Star Wars series as well as five movies in recent times, I sometimes think quality over quantity is key.

What is your favourite moment in the show?
The Ultimate Knowledge round at the end, where I test not just the comedian’s general knowledge of their franchise but also the audience!

What about The Orville?
I loved the early seasons of The Orville. It felt like a fun, silly homage to Star Trek, but I felt the last season took itself too seriously, and it lost a bit of what made the first two seasons so special.

Where else can we see you?
I have a kid’s show, Marvel vs DC, at 11:45 at the Counting House, and I’ll be doing various spots around the Fringe. I also have a YouTube and Twitch channel you can catch me on!

What’s next?
Star Trek vs Star Wars will be on the road to a couple of places I can’t confirm yet so keep an eye on that! I’ll also be hosting on stage at ACME Comic Con in Glasgow in September.

Simpsons or Futurama?
Futurama. Love the Simpsons but no episode comes close to Jurassic Bark for emotional impact.

Picard or Kirk?
Picard. He accepted baldness and made it look effortless.

Doctor Who or Doctor No?
Doctor Who. Allon-sy!

Truth or Beauty?
Is There in Truth No Beauty?

You can book for Rik’s show here. Rik’s Instagram is here.

Mo Fry Pasic • WORSE THAN YOU

Mo Fry Pasic is best known for their amazing sketch comedy work. We caught up with actor Mo Fry Pasic to talk about their new Edinburgh Festival Fringe Show, Worse Than You. You can book tickets for the show here.

STARBURST: How would you pitch Worse Than You to an elderly relative who loves to pretend they’re shocked by rude words?
I would say… Nan… you know how you don’t like that one friend of mine because she talks too much and is always panicking, and you think it’s unbecoming?

Well, this is a play that will help you understand that she’s in pain…and she’s experienced a lot of the same pain you have, even if you don’t give yourself permission to talk about it. My friend has turned it into comedy, even though I know you turned yours into perfection or order. She deals with it very differently than you, but I think you getting to see what she’s been through might help you understand her a little better and also appreciate yourself for how resilient and creative you’ve been in your own healing. Now let’s go grab a bite at The Educated Flea – I Googled good restaurants to take your grandparents in Edinburgh!

And how would you pitch it to someone who is a huge fan of Captain America?
I’m getting chills as I say this… but remember how you felt when Cap lifted Mjölnir? And not that first time when they were all having drinks, and it was like, huh? No, I’m talking THE MOMENT IN ENDGAME. My play is that moment, but it is emotionally drawn out and not like that moment at all. Also, you will see shirtless Chris Evans.

What are the origins of this show?
The origins of the show are that I really wanted to write something. There had been quite a lull in my consistent creative output after the pandemic, and I needed to open that release valve back up. I wanted to put my energy into a project that inspired and challenged me.

I wasn’t feeling excited by writing jokes, and I was overwhelmed by the idea of writing about anything, so thankfully, my dear friend – who happens to be an amazing writer and director – held me accountable and asked me to send her a draft of anything – be it TedTalk, be it script, be it poem, and we would discover together what it would become.

She combed through a lot of starts at premises and ideas and helped me zero in on the story that felt most compelling to be told in this specific play medium. And then we were off to the races, baby!

Why do we dwell on past relationships so much?
I will answer this one with the Rumi poem A Gift to Bring You:
You have no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What’s the point of bringing gold to the goldmine
or water to the ocean?
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.
It’s no good giving my heart and my soul
because you already have these.
So I’ve brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself
and remember me.

How much emotional distance is there between yourself and the show?
I always think this is an interesting and common question, considering I deal with deeply personal and traumatic subject matter. There is plenty of emotional distance between myself and the production.

If it succeeds, amazing, I helped people and was affirmed. If it doesn’t, amazing. I helped people and will be off to make something else or perform it in empty rooms for the rest of my life if I feel like it. As far as emotional distance between the actual subject matter and myself, I’m going to be annoying and pedantic because I understand the general idea of the question being like – have you healed enough to tell some of your most volatile pain – and sure!

I feel comfortable sharing this story and in control when the emotions arise, but there will never be emotional distance. I use my art to process and understand my experiences better, so the idea that I need to be clear or understand exactly what I’m doing emotionally 1) isn’t really discovery as I think good acting and writing should be and 2) to me is confusing considering I’m performing TO understand not because I do understand. I can tell I’ve made this answer very muddy, but it’s clear to me lol.

What’s been the hardest part of the production so far?
Taking a bow and thanking people after. I feel naked. It’s awful. As a comedian you can hide or be protected behind sarcasm. As an actor, you’re protected by the character.

As a writer by the page, etc., I wrote this, performed this, and brought myself to this. You can find all of me in it. Whether you think it’s good or not, I really leave everything on the court- my emotions, my heart, my vulnerability.

I give it all cause I love to… but I’m able to feel very private on stage because of all those veils of protection, so then all of a sudden blackout happens – lights back up for a bow, and it’s… oh shoot! You pulled back the green curtain – it’s me, the great and terrible humbug Mo. You’ve revealed it was just me the whole time! And then I gotta just be like, “What’s up y’all! Thanks for comin’! Exit to the left! Wanna grab a drink?” I have thrown up in my mouth before because of it.

What is the most important lesson to learn during rehearsal?
I think you need to release what you think rehearsal should be, i.e. blocking or just acting, getting reps. Sudi and I had sooo many rehearsals where we would feel something was off in a scene and spend the rest of the time rewriting or laughing at dumb stories from our past or maybe just decompressing from the day.

I used to worry I was bad at focusing, but every one of those moments has been so valuable. Sudi is really intuitive as a director so we never got too far off the rails. In fact, her acceptance of, say, exhaustion or one of us having a bad day led to so many creative inspirations in performance and entire scenes we added to the piece. I grew up as an athlete, so I really had to reconfigure my idea of discipline in order for creativity to flow.

What has been the most ridiculous moment so far?
I think Sudi, our producer Lauren, and I kind of expect insanity from the world in a pretty inoffensive way, so nothing really pops out as ridiculous, although I’m sure there have been moments

Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
David Mitchell is one of my biggest comedic inspirations. I started watching Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look, and all the panel shows I could in college, and my goodness, does he talk quite a bit about The Fringe in his autobiography Back Story.

So it’s partly like… value what those who inspire you value, and also it is so exhilarating to perform internationally. I did a play at the Radikal Yung Festival back in 2019 in Munich, and there’s something so exciting about seeing art, comedy, and theatre from people who culturally and emotionally have such vastly different conditions, permissions and values. It’s so freeing.

Also, ‘cause Fringe is the best of the best, and if ya ain’t first, yer last! I know you guys have seen Talladega Nights… this is probably ageing me, not Americanising me!

What’s your next big project after the Fringe has ended?
I really want to go blonde.

Simpsons or Futurama?
FUTURAMA ALL DAY. I can’t believe you asked this. Huge for me. I was JUST the other day telling someone about the Da Vinci episode where, on his home planet, he’s dumb as rocks, but for Earth, he’s smart. Perfection. Also, my name is also Fry, so….there’s that.

Captain America or Batman?
DC has never appealed to me. Now, I know this is controversial, and god forbid they cast me as Wonder Woman – DON’T DO IT! I DON’T WANT TO BE A POWERFUL LEAD IN AN INCREDIBLE AND FRUITFUL FRANCHISE. STOP IT! DC comics has always felt a little off-brand to me. Like… we want Oreos, we don’t want Vanilla Creme Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. I am a huge Marvel head, though. I think they are modern fairy tales. I think, somehow, some of the queerest and most marginalized people’s stories have managed to become mainstream by way of Marvel, and that is nothing short of a miracle.

The Little Mermaid or Lilo & Stitch?
Neither do it for me, although I do a mean Stitch impression. I hear Stitch is on their way to Tweety Bird icon status. Good for them (claiming Stitch for the non-binary community).

Truth or Beauty?
Truth every single time. Beauty without truth is ugly. AND I DON’T MEAN that fillers or makeup or performance of self is not truth. Those can be some of the most truthful people you’ve ever met who have the guts to say, “I want to look different.” Beauty without truth usually looks to me like judgment or comparison. But truth – always truth.

Learn more about the show here. You can find the Worse Than You Show Podcast wherever you find good podcasts, and you can book for Sudi & Mo’s live show here.

Jamie Denbo • BEVERLY LIVE!

Jamie Denbo is an American writer, producer, and comedian born in Boston, but now lives in Los Angeles. They are also co-executive producer and writer on Grey’s Anatomy, as well as experienced member of legendary comedy troupe, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre. Their latest stage show is Beverly Live!, which they’re putting on at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We caught up with them to find out more.

STARBURST: How would you pitch Jamie Denbo: Beverly Live to a controlling elderly relative with bad hearing?

Jamie Denbo: “Hey Aunt Ruthie, come see this documentary about your life!” Kidding. Beverly has more ‘selective’ hearing than bad hearing. I think Aunt Ruthie would enjoy Beverly Live because it would be validating for her. When my mother comes to see the show, she recognizes all of her friends – women of a certain age trying too hard to be cool. Be sure to tell Aunt Ruthie that I’ll save her the best seat with the best view in the house*. Older women LOVE to go VIP. *Every seat has a great view. Don’t tell her.

And how would you pitch it to someone who someone who is a huge fan of Ghostbusters or Family Guy?

You saw Jamie Denbo as a waitress for five seconds in the all-female Ghostbusters and you heard Jamie Denbo scream on one episode of Family Guy, now is your chance to see her not waiting tables or screaming! And for a longer period of time! On a stage! In a wig! This is what you never knew you wanted! Come see Jamie Denbo as a hilarious older Jewish woman in a wig! Then look Jamie Denbo up and see all the other things she’s had five seconds of screen time in! There are weirdly a lot.

Why do you have a bell? Why do you need that?

Beverly is a 74-year-old woman who’s doing her best. But even when she does her best, she often falls short. She is learning (as we all are) what’s appropriate and what’s not- where the line is. The BELL is there for someone hipper, cooler and more culturally sensitive to ‘ding’ her when or if she says anything ‘problematic’. Beverly would say it is “so the audience knows what to be triggered or offended by”. For example, Beverly on her twin girls: “I love them both equally. Except the fat one.” (DING!)

What are the origins of this show?

The character of Beverly started in 2005 as part of a duo called ‘Ronn and Beverly’. We had a successful run as a podcast, TV show and live act, performing all over the US and UK. When we parted ways in 2017, I thought I would only return to the character when the time was right. And after a long break, I decided to bring the character back in 2023, when it felt like the world needed her opinions and point of view. And by then – and now – I think we all REALLY needed to laugh. So, Beverly emerged from her cocoon*, older, wiser and transformed in other more enlightened ways. *She is convinced she left an earring in there, however, and has called the Cocoon company no less than 400 times since emerging last year. They finally blocked her.

What’s more rewarding: script writing or performance?

For me, the most rewarding thing is to perform my own material, so Beverly Live is really the perfect scenario. I can write and improvise what I want and perform it as I see fit. That said, I love writing scripts for TV and watching other brilliant – mostly far better-looking – performers bring my words to life. So… I guess the answer is really all of the above.

Why the Edinburgh Fringe? What other festivals/conventions are you planning on being part of?

I was at the Edinburgh Fringe 14 years ago with the double act, so it feels like I am returning home. I am even staying with the same locals I befriended back in 2010! I plan to return to the San Francisco Sketch Fest again next year and I have always wanted to do the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. What I really hope is that Beverly is well-received enough in Edinburgh for me to bring her to more venues in and around the UK. No one really understands the comedy of an embarrassing American Auntie like the UK. She won’t rest until she can get Kate some unsolicited parenting advice. She finds Charlotte’s looks a little risqué for that age. DING!

What sort of guests do you expect to have on Beverly Live this year?
All sorts! Bev will aim high [Hannah Gadsby, Alan Cumming] and low (whoever is this year’s pre-Baby Reindeer Richard – some shmuck performing for three people in a shady pub). We are still booking, so no guarantees. You never know who might turn up on any given night – allowing themselves to be interrogated by Bev in the hopes of promoting their own fringe show. Beverly Live is fun for guests because they get to just relax and just be themselves WHILE getting steamrolled by a woman who could be the lovechild of Jiminy Glick and Joan Rivers – and the audience is always on their side.

What’s been the hardest part of getting this show produced so far?

I have stellar producers on the ground in Edinburgh, including Barry Church-Woods of Civil Disobedience, so getting produced in the literal sense hasn’t been that hard. I am 14 years older than I was the last time I did the Fringe, and I have to work much harder to be physically healthy and strong enough to run. So, I’ve been working out, eating well, and shaping up! Okay, yeah – so I guess what’s genuinely hard is admitting that I have done none of those things.

What has been the most ridiculous moment so far?
Throwing on my Beverly costume, wig and makeup in my Grey’s Anatomy office to do a promotional video for the fringe and then walked in on by a fellow Grey’s writer who wasn’t familiar with my alter ego. He was pretty sure I was having some sort of psychotic break. And I have yet to convince him otherwise.

What’s your next big project after the Fringe has ended?
I will be back at Grey’s Anatomy for Series 21! And I hope to pitch some new original projects as well. I also appeared as a guest star on an episode of 9-1-1 entitled Buck, Bothered and Bewildered that should air in the UK soon if it hasn’t already. Another episode of something good or something bad – you decide.

Simpsons or Futurama?
Futurama – Katey Sagal can do no wrong.

Kirk or Picard?
Kirk. William Shatner was born in Montreal! Like Beverly!

Doctor No or Doctor Strange?
Doctor Jay Schapira M.D. – top cardiologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

Truth or Beauty?
BEAUTY. Because you don’t have to tell the TRUTH about whichever plastic surgery you’ve gotten to achieve it.

You can book tickets for Beverly Live here.

Josephine McAdam • CALL OF CTHULHU – LIVE IN THE LIBRARY

Josephine McAdam is a London-based French/Scottish actor known for their work in horror anthologies such as The Mortuary Collection and Scare Package. Josephine plays the lead in Hard Reset and also recurred in HBO’s The Leftovers Season 2, Actual-play RPG fans will know them shows such as LA by Night, Battle for Beyond, Haunted City, and more. They are coming to Edinburgh to be part of a special actual play show, Call of Cthulhu – Live in the Library. We caught up with her to find out more.

STARBURST: What is Call of Cthulhu – Live in the Library?
Josephine McAdam: A three-hour improvised show using the Call of Cthulhu RPG ruleset to frame a 1920s mythos scenario set in Edinburgh’s Garrick Theatre! Creative director Mike Mason will act as Keeper of Arcane lore, guiding four brave Investigators through this tale.

How did this come about?

Chaosium, the publishers of Call of Cthulhu, wanted to expand the platforms we share these cosmic tales in – the Edinburgh Fringe Festival felt like a great venue to explore that! Having worked with them before and just newly relocated to the UK, I jumped at the opportunity to get to work with them once more in literally and figuratively new territory!

What else would we know you from?

I have been fortunate enough to get to act in both film and television productions as well as Actual Plays. A few films of note are Tower, The Mortuary Collection, and Scare Package. As for Actual Plays you can find me on Graveyards of Arkham, LA by Night, The Dungeon Run, Haunted City, the podcast The Between and more!

Is actual play roleplay now a legitimate part of theatre?

I personally find it no different to long-form improvised theatre, which generally follows a ruleset, to begin with – actual plays just often have a few more rules to integrate, though it really depends on the production! Many shows lean into the performance of it all, and you rarely see dice getting rolled at all. Instead, they use the established world of an RPG book as a setting to collaborate and tell a story. Like with theatre, I think we see all sorts of different interpretations of the craft develop, as is common with art – one’s level of enjoyment thereafter becomes subjective to the style one personally prefers to watch!

Do you have to be familiar with Graveyards of Arkham to enjoy this?

Not at all! This is a scenario separate from the Graveyards of Arkham story with new characters at play!

Who else is at the show?

We will be led by Chaosium’s creative director, Mike Mason, as our Keeper. Myself, Jasper William Cartwright, Katie Morrison, and Liv Kennedy will be the players!

Why the Edinburgh Fringe? And why such a limited run?

You’d have to ask Chaosium what led them to choose Edinburgh Fringe first – my best guess is that it’s such a great and welcoming creative space to try new things in, in a city surrounded by such great history and aesthetics that match up with Call of Cthulhu so well!

What was the most challenging part of the production?

So far – knock on wood – everything has gone smoothly! Everyone we reached out to to be involved in the show was available and excited to be a part of it! Now we just have to get there and improvise an entertaining show for our audience!

Why do we keep returning to Cosmic Horror?

In a world where we increasingly feel a loss of control or ability to impact events around us, I think it’s easy to connect to the idea that there is some greater Cosmic Horror playing with us mere humans. And it’s great escapism to feel like we might, in insurmountable odds, still be able to overcome or withstand those great horrors!

Are actual play RPGs the best format for these sorts of stories?

I think when talking about art, it’s almost impossible to say one medium is ‘best’ for a story – there are so many different mediums at our disposal, and this is just a wonderful other option in order to explore telling stories! Just like plays aren’t always better than novels that aren’t always better than films… it becomes subjective to which you prefer or feel like consuming at any time! I think it depends what you’re in the mood for!

What’s next for you?

I’ve just recently moved to London from Los Angeles so I’m excited to explore the acting opportunities ahead of me in film, television, theatre and Actual Play! I’ve got some Actual Play shows I’m fortunate to be a part of happening here in the UK in the next few months with the brand new Twelve Sided Studios as well as with Modiphius! I try to keep my social media updated with what’s coming next and when for more details! [@JCVIM on both Instagram and Twitter]

What other projects would you love to be involved with?
For me, my biggest passion is performing in genre work so anything that lets me step into another world of that kind brings me so much joy! It would be an absolute dream to be involved in shows like Interview with the Vampire or House of the Dragon, so I’m excited to see where the next few years here take me!

Shoggoths or Ghouls?
Definitely a Ghoul. I think I could befriend a Ghoul and we can share tea and biscuits together. Last time I met a Shoggoth… ng Y’ ahor mgsyha’h ot ai h’ ephaii

Doctor Who or Doctor No?

Doctor Who!!!

Godzilla or Cthulhu?

Oooof….. Cthulhu for me. I can’t break the Eldritch pact I made so many moons ago now…

Truth or Beauty?

Truth always!

You can find out more about Chaosium, h ere and book for the show here and find out more about Josephine McAdam here.

Feature Category: Article

THE TELEPHEMERA YEARS: 2001 – PART 3

Eleanor Morton • HAUNTED HOUSE

Edy Hurst • EDY HURST’S WONDERFULL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES IN THE COUNTIE OF HIMSELF

THE TELEPHEMERA YEARS: 2001 – PART 2

Barry Church-Woods • TERF

Ben Trigger • SWAMPLESQUE

Rik Carranza • RIK CARRANZA PRESENTS: STAR TREK VS STAR WARS

Mo Fry Pasic • WORSE THAN YOU

Jamie Denbo • BEVERLY LIVE!

Josephine McAdam • CALL OF CTHULHU – LIVE IN THE LIBRARY

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