Debuting last week, the hot new webseries DATING RULES FROM MY FUTURE SELF has already taken off like wildfire.  As seen in the first webisode, Lucy is on the verge of getting married and out-of-the-blue gets these text message warning her to not go through with it.  Unsure who exactly is sending the messages, Lucy is uncertain whether to take the advice being offered.  But as the series continues, even more adventures are to be had as Lucy discovers that she is receiving text messages from a future-version of herself.  Sounds like a sci-fi show, but in reality, this webseries is a fun comedy about a young woman trying to make the right choices in her life.  Taking a few minutes in an exclusive interview with theTVaddict.com, the vivacious star and producer Shiri Appleby gave the inside scoop on the series and what is really going on with the mysterious text messages that her character Lucy is receiving from the future.

Why don’t you describe how you got involved both starring and producing DATING RULES FROM MY FUTURE SELF?
SHIRI:  The guys at Alloy Entertainment came to me and basically asked me if I wanted to do it, and they said that if I would, that I could produce it and that was something I was really looking forward to and looking to want to do.  And I read the read and I thought it was an incredible show and a great concept, and I got involved.  And they were really, really awesome letting me be as involved as I wanted to be.

Sounds like a really rare treat in Hollywood, where they come to you with this dream-project.
SHIRI: Yeah, and I was really involved with the director, the writer, casting, production design.  I sat in editing every day.  I was involved with it from the beginning, so it’s been so incredibly rewarding.

What about Lucy, what can you describe about her and what really drew you to that role?
SHIRI: She is a girl that is learning to start listening to herself, that’s really what the text messaging and the Future Lucy is all about, and she’s got two great friends around her and she’s at that moment in her life where she is starting to blossom, and become a woman and have fun and enjoy her dating life.

Those text messages, are they going to translate more from a warning of “don’t date so-and-so” to more like advice along the lines of “look for a guy who has these qualities”?
SHIRI:  It’s more like “let loose,” “have fun” — yeah, she gives her all kinds of advice.  Lucy goes through all kinds of things.  Future Lucy even says, “stop texting me and go date!”  It’s really what you want somebody to hear.  It’s not just the sweet things.  It’s kind of like the harder things also.

Who writes the texts?  Does the writer write those or do you get to write them?
SHIRI: The writer wrote the episodes and the text messages, and then when we’re in editing we tweak to make sure they really work and hit home for the scene where the show was.

Do you ever feel tempted to re-write some of the texts yourself?
SHIRI:  I’m definitely part of the process, but we’ve got Sallie Patrick who is from LIFE UNEXPECTED.  She is an incredible writer.  We got pretty lucky having her aboard.

The show feels like a dream-cast and dream-setting for fans, particularly for those who followed you from LIFE UNEXPECTED.  It’s really fun that Sallie’s working with you again! 
SHIRI:  Thanks!

How would you describe the relationship between Lucy-in-the-present versus Lucy-in-the-future?
SHIRI:  Lucy-in-the-future, I think, is a little more desperate.  She knows where the story is kind of going, and she doesn’t like it.  She’s very lonely.  And Lucy-in-the-present is definitely a bit more timid, but is getting the courage and kind of getting the guts to make bolder choices because she has Future Lucy in her life.

Do you think Lucy-in-the-present will become dependent on her future self, or will she learn to become independent of herself as well?
SHIRI:  No, she gets made a Future Lucy.  She definitely has fights with herself. But, hopefully, she becomes — that they will have a relationship that will be back-and-forth and give-and-take.

I know there are a lot of questions initially whether it could be one of Lucy’s friends pulling a prank on her and trying to help her without her knowledge.  Is that explore further or is there a definitive that the future version is actually helping her?
SHIRI:  The future version really proves herself.

So it becomes really obvious.
SHIRI:  Yeah.  She says something that nobody else could know.

The clue!  For the upcoming season, it seems like there has been some wonderfully cast men on the show.  How many exactly are more romantic prospects and which are more just the friend variety in Lucy’s life?
SHIRI:  The guys?  Well, Vincent played by Martin Starr is really just a friend.  Dave, Taylor Kinney’s character, he might be a potential love interest.  And there’s a lot of guys that she kind of goes in and out of dating.  Like picking up a guy at bar.  Going to parties.  She does speed-dating.  There’s a ton of really cute boys that came in and out of this show.  It was pretty fun.

Maybe you could talk about the casting.  This seems like a fun cast.  How did you come up with everybody?
SHIRI:  For Mircea Monroe, Alan (the director) and I had emailed a few executive producers that we knew asking them if they knew of any hot, funny girls, and they all wrote back with Mircea.  Alison Becker, we found browsing the PARKS AND REC IMBD page.  Martin Starr, I had worked with a few times and I called him.  And Alloy had actually worked with Taylor Kinney on THE VAMPIRE DIARIES.  So they were really excited about having him on the show.  And Bryce Johnson, who plays Brendan, he and I have known each other for years ’cause when I was on ROSWELL, he was on a television show called POPULAR.  So we were both on the WB at the same time.

Oh that was fun! That was a great era of the WB.
SHIRI:  It was!  That was when FELICITY was on.

Were you a fan of FELICITY?
SHIRI:  I love FELICITY!

We all miss that.  In fact, we miss a lot of WB shows!  So where are you filming?  What sort of locations are you filming this webisode series?
SHIRI:  We shot in Los Angeles.  We built a lot of the sets.

What would you say would be clues that the viewers should be keeping an eye out for as they watch the webisodes to kind of enrich the experience for them?
SHIRI:  I think to got along with and just have a really good time.  The show is meant to be fun and have a bit of a message.

Maybe you could tease some of the upcoming storylines, like the speed dating, the Lucy, Kelsy and Amanda get involved with.
SHIRI:  They have parties at the house.  Future Lucy is definitely pushing Lucy to go to a bar and hook up with random guys. Lucy learns to stand up for herself with Brendan.  And the app that Lucy came up with becomes more and more a possibility.

With this new dating life being pushed upon her and to pursue the things that the future version of herself wants, are we going to have a major cliffhanger at the end of the season or where does this end up at for the first season?
SHIRI:  There’s a little bit of a cliffhanger.  Yeah, there is.  We want to leave everyone wanting more.

Will Brendan be kicked to the curb right away, or will he kind be featured more in the series?
SHIRI:  He’s actually not a bad guy.  He’s just not the right guy for her.  But he pops in and out.

So he’s not completely out of the series, he can come back at any time?
SHIRI:  No, no, not at all.

Maybe you could take a little bit about Lucy’s work environment.  The twins that she works with as her bosses are funny as anything.
SHIRI:  I know! Aren’t they?  The Yuan twins.  Yeah, she works at this great place where they create apps and she pitches an idea in the opening episode that has a lot of potential but isn’t received very warmly.  But the idea definitely comes back around.  Maybe somebody else pitches it.  But she stands up and definitely asserts herself at work.  So as the show goes on, we see her blossom there.  I think you start to realize that we’re starting to see how she created this app.

Is there a possibility that she’s being texted from a computer-version of herself, and not her actual physical self in the future?
SHIRI:  Oh, that I have no idea about!

That’s probably too sci-fi for your show.
SHIRI: It’s too sci-fi for me!  I don’t know.  I don’t know about that!  [Laughter]  But I think we did a really great job and I hope that everybody can tune in!

To see the next new webisode of DATING RULES FROM MY FUTURE SELF, be sure to keep an eye on the show’s Facebook page.  New episodes are posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Find out exactly what kinds of advice Lucy is getting from her future self and whether that advice really works. The adventures await!

Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to The TV Addict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower). Tiffany also writes as a columnist for NiceGirlsTV.

In a recent one-on-one with theTVaddict.com, Meaghan Martin shared what it was like working on the new webseries WENDY and the wonderful message that it has for women of all ages.  It focuses on the story of a young girl who finds her dream-world and real-life converging in a beautiful way and it offers a story of hope and inspiration about self-destiny.

It seems that there has been a very position fan-reaction to the first couple of episodes of WENDY, have you been able to see some of the fans comments online?
MEAGHAN:  Yeah, I have and I’ve been looking at them.  I am really excited. Everyone seems to be enjoying it!

It’s quite beautiful. It’s exactly what young woman and women of all ages just love!  So when did you get to see the final version of WENDY?
MEAGHAN:  I am watching as it is airing, just like everybody else.

So you’re a little surprised as well?
MEAGHAN:  I am! I’m very surprised!

What has been your favorite part of what you have seen so far ’cause it was probably a lot different making it.  Is there anything when you’re watching it that makes you go, ‘Oh my gosh!’?
MEAGHAN:  Yeah, I mean I had no idea how beautiful the lighting and the production value was going to be like.  It just looks so beautiful and our DP did an incredible job, as did our director.  I think my favorite scene so far has been up in the forest, which is in Episode 3, ’cause they worked so hard to make it beautiful with the lighting and they had fog machines going and the forest is already beautiful but they make it so magical.

It is honestly stunning just to look at.  It’s quite unlike anything I’ve seen on a webseries so far!  Can you talk a bit about the background and how you were recruited to be a part of this project?
MEAGHAN:  I had a meeting in New York City with some of the producers of Alloy and they mentioned the project to me and told me that they were doing it as a modern day tale of “Peter Pan” and it sounded really cool, but they didn’t really talk about me being in it.  They just talked about the project itself.  And then about a week later, I got a phone call from my agent saying that they were asking if I would be interested in WENDY in the role of Wendy and I was surprised, but very excited.

It’s like a dream-come-true and you were probably like, ‘Hey, wait, that’s one of my favorite stories!’
MEAGHAN:  Exactly!

How would you describe the character of Wendy?
MEAGHAN:  Wendy is very sweet and very caring and she works to make everybody happy.  She self-sacrifices a lot.  She doesn’t think about her own happiness ’cause she’s so busy thinking about everybody else.

Would you describe her as a good friend, like with her boyfriend and her best friend?
MEAGHAN: I would definitely say that she’s a good friend and a good girlfriend too.  She’s just very privileged.  She’s had family drama and family issues that she’s been trying to work out, but then at the end of the day she hasn’t been thinking about her own.  So throughout the webseries, she discovers that she has to think about it sometime.

What one quality do you admire most about Gwen/Wendy?
MEAGHAN:  I think I would say her selflessness.  Like I think it is very hard to be that type of person — always thinking about others.  Although it is also Wendy’s downfall, I wish I had that.  I wish that was my downfall! That’s not a very bad downfall.  [laughter]

What was it like for you as an actor to work on the webseries?  I understand that it was a really quick film shoot, only taking a few days.  Can you talk a bit about that?
MEAGHAN:  Working on the webseries was great because I didn’t even think it would be set up, but it wasn’t much different than making a television series.  We had long days.  It was 9 days, which is actually really long because the episodes end up being about a half-hour total, and usually a half-hour show shoots for 4 days.  Not 9 days.  So it was longer than you would think and just working on it was just like making a TV show.  It’s a family environment.  Everyone working hard to put out this product.

Were there any specific challenges or was it an easy filming experience?
MEAGHAN:  I think that the challenges had to be the stunts that we did.  We did a lot of stunt work.  There was underwater work that Tyler and I did.  I did falling and I did kind of flying work.  And I had to climb a fence.  There was just a lot stunt work.

Did you actually work with wires?
MEAGHAN:  Yes.  Yes, I did.

Did you ever look around and say, ‘Uh, where’s my stunt person?’
MEAGHAN:  I had stunt people with me.  They were very safe about it.  We had a lot of people on set and they took a lot of time to get the stunts perfect and safe.

Sounds fun!  What would you describe as your favorite moment working on WENDY?
MEAGHAN:  I would say I really did like doing the underwater work.  It was a challenge, but it was a lot of fun. 

It seems like the webseries employed a lot of visual imagery and one of the images that stood out is the angel that we see on the walls or the gates. What does that symbol mean to you or what message is it supposed to convey?
MEAGHAN:  I always thought of her as Tinkerbell actually. In my mind, she was the fairy leading me.  She was the clues leading me to Pete.  Because I see the painting in the dream and I see it on the gate and then I see the painting in the house, so I saw her kind of leading me, almost like a hint to find a way to Pete.

Maybe you can talk a bit about the character of Pete as well as working with Tyler Blackburn a little bit?
MEAGHAN:  Yeah, yeah.  I liked the character a lot because he’s super sexy and kind of mysterious and obviously Wendy is very drawn to him.  And Tyler is hilarious in that role because  — I love Tyler, but I don’t know if I would describe him as “mysterious.”  He’s very funny and he really embodied Pete well.  I just overall enjoyed working with him.  It was always a fun experience. 

So are you prepared if this webseries goes very successfully to possibly continue it as a television series?
MEAGHAN:  I would love that.

We’re hoping it does that well.
MEAGHAN:  Yeah, me too.

I know you probably don’t want to spoil it, but can you describe if the ending of the webseries will be closed, like book-ended, or will it be open-ended for a possibility of a TV series?
MEAGHAN:  It is definitely open-ended!  No doubt about that!  We’re going to leave people on the edge of their seats. 

Oooh, sounds fun.  So in those dream sequences, you get to wear some absolutely fun little outfits, as well as in Gwen’s real-world life.  Can you talk about the costuming in the series?
MEAGHAN:  The dream sequences are funny because I wasn’t sure how they were going to edit it all together in the final product, especially the sequence that had me falling asleep on the couch and then going into the dreamworld and seeing the young version me and the young version of Pete.  I didn’t even realize that they were going to put that in the webseries.  Because we just shot everything all at one time, the dream and real life, we weren’t even sure what was going to be in the dream and what ended up in real life story.  The only thing I did know was that every time I was in that white dress, I was in the dream.

So they made it trickier even for you to figure out which part you were doing. 
MEAGHAN:  Exactly.

How would you describe the central message that the fans should take away from this series?
MEAGHAN:  I think that the message is: being true to yourself and finding what you want out of life — because, like I said, Wendy is very selfless and she’s always trying to do what other people would want her to do; and at the end of the series, she has to make a big decision.

So it is definitely a journey of self-discovery and to find out what your own path is.
MEAGHAN:  Exactly.

Besides the central theme or message, what would you hope that your fans take away from the experience of watching the webseries?
MEAGHAN:  I hope they are entertained.  I hope that they are on the edge of their seats, wanting to know more.  I hope that they like the romance of it and the drama of it.  Mostly, I hope that they like it!

And as you look upon it and are now seeing it, what are you taking away from it?
MEAGHAN:  I think that what I take away from it is hopefully I’ll be entertained.  So far I am!  And also the message of self-discovery, and I think that applies to everybody in all ages and aspects of life.  I know that I’m still figuring out what I want out of life every single day!

WENDY, the 6-episode series, is currently airing new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Facebook and YouTube, with its final episode airing October 6th.  For those curious to know more about the webseries, read theTVaddict.com’s interview with Tyler Blackburn here.

Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to The TV Addict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower). Tiffany also writes as a columnist for NiceGirlsTV.

Good News: AMC has just announced plans to extend the upcoming second-season premiere of THE WALKING DEAD to 90 minutes. Bad News: Also extended, the length of the season. Which will, for the first time in AMC’s history, see the increasingly popular Cabler split a season into two parts starting October 16th and February 12th respectively [Source]

Good News: Showtime has renewed THE BIG C for a third season. Bad News: Still no word on the fate of WEEDS, despite the fact that it has just about wrapped shooting on its seventh (and possibly final?!) season. [Source]

Good News: After years of waiting, the incredibly popular online streaming service that is Hulu is finally being made available to TV Addicts outside of the United States. Bad News: For everybody outside of Japan. [Source]

During an exclusive interview at Comic-Con, Greg Grunberg and Josh Cooke shared what their new webseries ISSUES is really about and why they think it is riding the wave of the digital era and offers a unique perspective on the tortured psyche of superheroes buckling under the weight of their responsibilities and insecurities.

So what is ISSUES about?
JOSH:  It was created by myself and Matt Oates, and the concept of the show is that it’s about a therapist – a psychologist — whose clients are animated superheroes.  So it’s a live action, real world with superheroes who have a lot of serious issues.  Greg came into because he plays The Dark Kodiak, who is sort of our Batman arch-type character, but in a bear get-up, pretty much.
GREG:  In a gay world, I’m a bear.  So it fits perfectly!
JOSH: When I asked him, ‘Can you play a bear?’ His response was, ‘Grrrrr!’
GREG:  And so the answer was ‘Yes!’  We had done a movie together called ‘Group Sex,’ so I was kind of returning the favor.  I was thrilled when he asked, especially when I saw the sketches and since Josh was kind enough to come over to my house to do the pilot.  It was easy.  When I saw it, I was like, ‘Uh, can I stay on this show?’

Where did you come up with such a zany idea?
JOSH:  When Matt [Oates] was in college, he took a psychology class there.  It was so fascinating. The teacher said that, in child psychology, it had become more popular to use comic-book and superheroes to explain certain diseases or issues, like Batman might be schizophrenic or a have a different kind of bipolar disorder. So it associates things, like if Superman had alienation issues.  They will get to kids through these characters.  So [Matt] wrote this down in his book and he’s like, ‘Hmmm, superheroes in therapy.’  Then 10 years later I asked him if he had any ideas and he came up with that.
GREG:  How did you guys meet?
JOSH:  I’m in one of his movies.  It’s called ‘Wasted’ with Eddie Kaye Thomas, who plays The Incredible Flame in this, and Kaley Cuoco was in that movie with a whole bunch of other people.  And we sort of stayed in touch ever since then.  But it just came from that.  It was mainly just to laugh or crack-up since we’re both comic-book fans.
GREG: Have you seen it?  It’s a lot of fun. You’re going to love it ‘cause he did all the stuff with a tennis ball in the scene.  It’s an animated character like in ‘Roger Rabbit,’ but his reactions are real and so believable.  I was so happy ‘cause when you do something like this.  I had done a game called ‘L.A. Noir.’  I had no idea – and then like ‘bang!’ I’m like, ‘This is cool!’  A lot of times, you never know.
JOSH:  You don’t know how it translates ‘til you see it.
GREG:  Yeah.
JOSH:  There are 6 episodes and they are on Crackle.com, which is Sony’s web arm and they range about 4 and ½ minutes long.  There’s six different heroes.  We had imagined it as a larger world initially, but animation is expensive.  We have an amazing animation company called TitMouse that did METALOCALYPSE, ADULT SWIM – they are awesome, awesome guys – and Garret Vander, who did our character designs is great.  He’s a comic artist.  He doesn’t have a comic-book, but he did an amazing job.

So this is original online content?
JOSH:  Online original content.  We have no idea where it will go, if it goes anywhere.  Originally, it was sort of a movie or a half-hour and we decided to go this route because ‘what the hell?!’
GREG:  Well, it’s a great launching pad.
JOSH:  It will be interesting.  The industry has gone through a lot of changes since we started.  It was actually supposed to premiere last summer, with internal changes and everything like that.  So we’re just excited that it’s here now.  There’s also going to be a comic-book in stores I think this Fall.  Just one issue, a special edition.  There’s also going to be a teaser – a 5-page teaser of that comic coming out in August or September on Crackle.com available for digital download.

You’re essentially creating mini-webisodes?
JOSH:  Yeah, definitely.  These are webisodes.
GREG:  The cool thing though is that more and more of these guys are looking for a ½ hour format.  They are not looking for and they don’t want the 6-minutes formats.  They want more.
JOSH:  When we created this, they were looking for the 4-6 minute format.  But then the entire thing took so long that now we’re sort of riding the edge of the wave and people are looking for longer content.
GREG:  What’s great is these webisodes are teasers for a full episode.
JOSH:  We can maybe build on it.

Kind of like sprinkling candy all about.
JOSH:  Yeah!  We have a whole other back-story and whole future of a character.  We originally were supposed to have 12 episodes.  But we couldn’t.  It was too expensive to do.  To have one animated character is expensive, but we had more like 8 in a scene.  It was just like we couldn’t afford it so we had to hold off on that.  Maybe we’ll get there.

Can you describe some of the other characters?
JOSH:  We have a character called the Bohemeth.  They are all sort of similar archetypal characters.  He’s sort of based off The Hulk a little bit, if The Hulk was Woody Allen terrified of everything.  And then we also have a character very loosely based on Professor Xavier, sort of — but he’s not sure if he’s a bad guy or a good guy.

Is he collecting superheroes?
[Laughter]
JOSH:  The whole episode happens in voice-over ‘cause they are communicating telepathically and he’s a very disturbed individual.  We also have The Quickness, which is sort of The Flash type character who is remanded to rehab due to drunk running and has a publicist and sort of deals – like superheroes have reality shows, if they were in our society, so he kind of deals with that aspect of it.  And then Dr. Ted, himself, has live-action nemesis who is a psychiatrist who treats super villains across town.  It’s sort of another character who comes into it.
GREG:  Kind of a Kurt Fuller-type.

Awesome! Just talked with him in the PSYCH press room. 
GREG:  Did you really?!

I did!
JOSH:  He’s here?!

He was here for PSYCH.
GREG:  What?!

Yeah, he moderated the PSYCH panel.
JOSH:  Is he here now?!

He was.  I don’t know if he’s here at the moment.  But he might be for the SUPERNATURAL panel.
GREG:  We have to call him!

Definitely.  I’m sure he’d love to do it.  Okay, we’re a little off-topic.
JOSH:  If you’re talking about Kurt Fuller, you’re never off topic!
GREG:  That’s true.  [Laughter]

Back to EPISODES, do you foresee this turning into a much bigger project?
JOSH:  I hope so.  It would be nice and I am hoping that it does.  I would love to have Greg involved more.  But I can’t afford him.

Do either one of you have the time available to take on a bigger scale project?
JOSH:  Matt’s the co-creator and he directed the episodes and he did all the editing for like nothing.  He really did it as kind of a passion project.  He’s the one who really spear-headed the whole thing.  He found the deal.  He’s just an amazing director.  He is really the one who kind of deals with everything.  I was off doing other stuff. The nice thing for a voice-over is you can come in a knock out 6 episodes in a day, if you needed to.  So if we’re lucky enough to have some kind of life after this, hopefully we will have the Greg Grunberg ‘Grrrrr’ back.
GREG:  You’ve got me!  You had me at ‘Grrrrr.’  [Laughter]
JOSH:  Also on the show as Side-Car is Seth Green.  He wants to become his own hero.  He plays kind of a Robin-esque character to [Greg’s] Batman-esque character.  But he wants to go off and be his own hero, so he has devised his own costume and theme song.  So I think at the end of his episode, he’s playing his theme song on the keyboard and he’s singing horribly and he calls himself Night Blazer.  He’s signing, ‘Night Blazer – king of the night!’ And at the end of it, we had Greg do this pounding on the wall and yells, ‘Shut up! You’re terrible. Shut it down!’  It just cracked me up.  Whatever.  It was so funny!
GREG:  It was loosely based on the song ‘Black and White.’

Do you have a hard time keeping a straight face when you do the scenes?
GREG:  Oh, yeah!  You know what?  What is funny is the tone.  I immediately went to this place with a deep voice and I’m going to do my voice like this like Batman, and he’s like, ‘It’s just you and you’re talking and stuff.’  But then when the issue is pressed – he confronts me about my parents and past and really what is at the root of all this and my voice gets deep.  That’s his wall, ‘cause I’m going to my superhero place where it is safe.  Just like Christian Bale, all whispery.
JOSH:  It was such a fun thing.  Everyone was so great.  I’ll tell you the cast — it’s this lovely gentleman right here [indicating Greg], Seth Green as Side-Car, Eddie Kaye Thomas who plays the Incredible Flame, Rob Riggle as Captain Magnificent, Ron Livingston as Agent Nothing, Eric Stonestreet as K-9.

You must have a wish list of actors who you’d like to have work on the show.
JOSH:  The Quickness who I always imagined JD Smooth.  That guy is so funny.  We never actually got to that stage ‘cause that got cut early on.  We had a female character and then  Patton Oswalt would really love to do this one character.  But all these things got cut.
GREG:  This is what happens when you’re a journeyman, like this guy [indicating Josh].
JOSH:  A journeyman?
GREG:  Yeah, you just work all the time.  Look, I work a lot too, but he – you can call him up and he’s working.  But he can just call these people up.
JOSH:  I don’t know any of these people!
GREG:  You’ve worked with them.
JOSH:  You’re the one who’s plugged-in.
GREG:  I’m just saying, you’ve got friends.  It’s nice to call up friends, like you called me.  He was like, ‘Can you –‘ and I was like, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’
JOSH:  He’s just such an awesome guy.  He’s like the best guy ever.
GREG:  Hey, I also would appreciate it if you could mention TalkAboutIt.org.  It’s my website for epilepsy.
JOSH:  Talk about friends!  You had like Captain Kirk, Spock.
GREG:  Yeah, everybody I asked to do TalkAboutIt.org, they come and do it and Josh was nice enough to come on a Sunday and it was great.  Curt [Fuller] was funny too. Curt did it. Jamie Denton did it.  Bob Guiney did it.  Who else did it? Jorge Garcia.  He’s really funny.  He’s like on a subway and he’s holding on and I’m like, ‘You know where you’re going?’ and he’s like, ‘Lost.’  [Laughter]

Do you ever say to yourself, ‘Pinch me, I’m living the dream and I can’t believe it’s real’?
JOSH:  It’s pretty awesome, I’ve got to say!  It’s pretty great.
GREG:  It is.  Yeah, it really is.  Honestly.  Then my wife says, ‘Don’t forget, you’re taking the trash out.’  Seriously, this is the dream.  This stuff doesn’t matter.  [Josh] is married to a beautiful woman.  My wife is the greatest. And the kids.  That’s the most important.

And she’s letting you work on a show about superheroes in therapy.
[Laughter]
GREG:  Exactly!  My wife is amazing.

Okay, so what would be the message you would like the fans and your audience actually take away from the show?
JOSH:  You can make fun of me, but actually, deep down, it’s kind of like it came from this whole initial concept which we couldn’t really get to about what is it like to be a normal guy living in a world with these demi-gods that can do things. What would that be like when someone like us is doing this interview and then suddenly a dude flies through the room like some evil guy and smashes though the wall  You’re just kind of living and then you’re like, ‘Okay, what the hell?!’
GREG:  In all these superhero movies –
JOSH:  There’s always that moment.
GREG:  All these people are just like, ‘Aaaaaaahhhh!’ and you don’t focus on the one who goes home and goes, ‘Oh, traffic sucked because that superhero did his thing again.’
JOSH:  One of my initial pitches was the opening scene of the first ‘Matrix’ movie and Carrie Ann Moss is in the computer room and they go, ‘Freeze!’  I always imagine that after she leaps up and everything, one of those cops goes home and he’s just like, ‘The bitch ran on the walls! How did that happen?!’  So my initial thought was Dr. Ted runs a group therapy place to deal with all this crap.  In the larger form of the show, that is something he’d do.  But it really came from what you just said about living the dream.  Looking around, I’ve been fortunate enough to work a decent amount and do some things.  But then you look around at people who are really doing things, like Greg with the charities that he does and the website and everything, and I go, ‘What am I really doing? Am I really anything at all?’  That’s what Dr. Ted and the show in a larger scope is meant to be.  It is like, we are in a world where there are people who do incredible, phenomenal things on another level. So how do you cope with it?  One day you realize, ‘Well, I’m just not there.’  You actually go there.  There is those moment in your life and I think there is a lot of people that feel that way, and that really is sort of the center of the whole larger scope of the show.  For right now, we’re dealing with the therapy bit.  But if we ever get to go forward, that would be the premise.

So it’s like dealing with the after-shocks and ripple-effects that superheroes have on the rest of us?
JOSH:  The rest of us and really how do you deal with it.  I think the ultimate answer is: what would they take away — you do the best that you can. You just do the best you can and hope it’s enough.
GREG:  I came from a show where there were ordinary people waking up with powers and how do we deal with that and figuring out, ‘Why us?’  My character especially, I just wanted answers and I just wanted a normal life afterwards.  So it is very relatable to me.  I just thought ordinary people are dealing with this extraordinary thing.  We’re dealing with extraordinary characters.
JOSH:  And also, the heroes being really ordinary people who are caught up in it and probably don’t understand these extraordinary things – and no one ever thinks of their feelings.
GREG:  Plus, Josh’s reactions — when you see it, you’ll see what I mean – are so great.  They’re real.  It’s funny.

Are you actually worried now that you’re working on something so zany and fun that other projects will pale in comparison?
GREG:  Not really.  I’m on BIG MIKE, which is an awesome show.
JOSH:  Anything can be zany in a way and that’s pretty awesome.
GREG:  At the end of the day, I want to laugh.  I want it to be zany and funny.  HEROES was always like, ‘It’s the end of the world!’ and ALIAS too.  I want to do sitcom and that’s how BIG MIKE is.  It is a sitcom/procedural 1-hour, but it hasn’t been picked-up yet, so we’ll see.

So you think they are compatible if you want to do both?
GREG:  Yeah.  Hopefully, we can bounce.
JOSH:  Oh yeah.  This would be on a much smaller scale.
GREG:  But you never know! 

An abundance of riches, it’s never a bad thing to have too many things to do.
GREG: Yeah!
JOSH: Absolutely!

With an abundance of enthusiasm and energy for their latest creative endeavor, Greg and Josh invite you to join them in the mixed up world of ISSUES where superheroes are just like us and need a bit of therapy to figure out who they really are and what they want out of their lives.  ISSUES is currently airing as a 6-part webseries on Crackle.com.  Check it out and let Greg and Josh know how you feel about superheroes being just like us – fractured, insecure and wondering what the meaning of life really is about.

Oprah ain’t the only one who has favorite things. For us, it comes down to always knowing the answers to entertainment-related trivia, people being made to do silly things for our amusement and being given an opportunity to win things. So when we heard that the Web series RED CARPET RUN combined those things, we were on it quicker than Homer Simpson on a donut.

The concept? Simplicity itself: Contestants answer trivia question in the hope of advancing to the final round. The last player standing dons an ill-fitting tuxedo or low-rent gown and jumps on an increasingly fast-moving treadmill to try and answer questions while keeping pace.

As you can imagine, hilarity ensues.

“I wanted to combine JEOPARDY! and DOUBLE DARE,” says producer Michael Todd Cohen, who recognized that while the internet was quickly filling with programming options, few of them were in the game show category.  The reaction of his production partners upon hearing of his plan to fuse trivia and a treadmill? “They looked at me like I was crazy,” he admits. But with 11 episodes under their belts and plans in the works for a second season, it’s clear that Cohen and company have a winning formula on their hands.

It doesn’t hurt that the show offers prizes not only to the contestants willing to risk life and limb — or at least injuring their pride — on the treadmill but to those of us lazily watching on-line. “We went to Netflix and the AMC theater chain, and they gave us prizes for the Watch And Win question that we stick into the middle of every episode.”

That’s right, just like the gooey goodness at the center of an Oreo cookie, RED CARPET RUN offers viewers a mid-episode treat! So each Thursday afternoon, when episodes are posted, viewers have a chance to win gift subscriptions from Netflix and combo packs from AMC! (Perhaps not coincidentally, his team is in talks about the possibility of running RED CARPET RUN in movie theaters as pre-show entertainment!)

Asked how well he’d do on his own show, Cohen admits he’d struggle in the final round. “I tried the treadmill, and it’s hard! No matter how much you think you know about trivia, it’s tough to run and answer questions at the same time. Your brain just wants to stand still and answer the question!”

Sometimes, the contestants actually throw an unexpected twist into the mix. “Keep an eye out for the final episode of the season,” previews Cohen. “Our contestant decided that he didn’t want to wear the tuxedo, he wanted to wear the dress! It was a daring choice!”

As for the show’s future, he admits that more corporate sponsors would help the show fulfill the biggest request he hears from viewers. “They really want a cool-looking, digital sets. And we’d love to get some internet celebs to come in and give the treadmill a try!”

Martin Yan’s Hong Kong
Master of Asian cooking, Martin Yan hosts this web series on Hong Kong cuisine. Not only does he teach you how to cook amazing Hong Kong dishes, he also teaches about Hong Kong culture and history. So not only can you cook something unique, you can also sound intellectual when talking about it.