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Channels with Peter Kafka

How to make a ‘comedy-horror’ TV show (Dana Gould, creator, ‘Stan Against Evil’)

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4585 Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2017

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Comedian Dana Gould talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his comedy-horror television series "Stan Against Evil," which just returned for a second season on IFC. Gould says the show never would have made it to the air when there were only three networks on TV and praises the fact that nearly "all programs are niche programs" in 2017. He also explains why it's important for content creators to be adaptable but not slaves to new modes of viewing TV, and reflects on the seven years he spent writing for "The Simpsons." Plus: Why he still does stand-up comedy and how he sneaks his politics into shows without turning them into lectures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Today's show is brought to you by Qualcomm, which is part of the daily lives of billions of people around the world.

0:06.4

They may not be the name you think of when you think of smartphones, but they invented all the stuff smartphones rely on to be so smart.

0:12.4

Qualcomm is why you love your smartphone. Learn more at Qualcomm.com.com slash we invent.

0:20.8

This is Recode Media with Peter Kafka.

0:23.0

That's me.

0:24.1

I'm part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

0:26.7

I'm here at Vox Studios with Dana Gould, who is a professional comedian, humor writer,

0:32.7

podcaster.

0:34.1

He's the creator of Stan Against Evil, which is a television show you can watch watch on actual television. It's on IFC. Welcome, Dana. Hi, how are you, Peter? We last talked eight years ago. I was just calling up the YouTube clip. Right. When you were sitting in with Adam Carolla, when he was a fledgling podcaster. Yeah, that was the early days right after the radio show went kaput, and he was just in his garage. He day. Everyone has a podcast. Everyone has a podcast. Welcome to my podcast. The guy, well, the guy who sprays vegetables at our Trader Joe's has a podcast called Still Spraying and I was on that. No, I was on some, and they're part of some network. And a venture capitalist gave them $15 million to start a humor division of their podcast.

1:28.5

Sure, why not? And I'm like, why am I in my kitchen? I'm quite literally too much. You don't want to my kitchen. We can get you some VC money. That'd be good. What's your pitch? How are you going to disrupt the space? Here's the pitch of my podcast. It comes out irregularly. It's never the same amount of time. and I don't take notes.

1:44.3

I'm a listener.

1:45.0

The Dana Gould Hour?

1:46.4

The Dana Gould Hour, never an hour.

1:47.9

Which is never... comes out irregularly, it's never the same amount of time. And I don't take notes.

1:44.3

I'm a listener. The Dana Gould hour? Never an hour. Which is never an hour. But always with me. And you put it out when you can. Well, now that I have advertisers, I'm usually at the very, very very, very end of the month, it's very, very, very good in the month. But I do, it's one of those things

1:59.0

that I started. It's, you know, I do it.

2:02.2

I do it on my dime. And I'm like, great, I'm going to do this how I want when I want and I'm not going to take notes. If I'm going to pay for it, it's going to be what I want to do. And it seems to have gotten a volitionership despite that. That's kind of your career, right? I mean, you have a lot of autonomy? You've been able to do a lot of cool

2:17.7

things, more or less of your own volition.

2:19.6

You have your own television.

2:21.0

Yeah, harder to hit a moving target. But I do. Yeah, I stumble. I keep stumbling into situations where I get very fortunate. You are here today. Stand against evil being the best example of that. Yeah. Talk about the people who are paying for you to be here today. Those fools.

2:54.4

It's a very nice publicist sitting right here, smiling. Describe Stand Against Deval. It's a mashup of sort of genres. Yeah, it's a horror comedy. The basic premise is, in fact, this was how I came up with the show. what if Dana Scully on the X-Files, instead of being partnered with Fox Mulder, was partnered with my dad, and it was set in my hometown.

3:00.5

And that's the entire character is John C. McGinley.

...

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