November 12th, 2009
I was on a Show Called Cavemen
A lot of people thought it was a terrible idea for a TV show. A few people thought it was a great idea. I just needed a job acting on TV and this was the one I got. I can’t say that I was sad when it got cancelled— we spent 4 hours in makeup every morning and another 45 minutes to get out of the makeup every night. I couldn’t eat anything wider than quarter and I averaged about 4 1/2 hours of sleep. But losing your job is never easy especially when you’ve spent all your waking hours with the same group of people for months on end.
The reviews were overwhelmingly bad. But I will say that, like most shows, it got better and better as time went on. People don’t realize how hard it is to make a tv show, especially one with as much baggage as Cavemen. The Geico commercials were (and are) amazing. They captured our imagination like almost nothing in advertising has. So we had big shoes to fill. I would argue, though, that they were completely different shoes. The expectations were so high (or low) that to get it right, right from the beginning was nearly impossible.
The craziest thing about working on a TV show is that if it is just a pilot or gets cancelled before all the episodes air, no one ever sees it. All that work, gone. I have had a lot of people asking me over the last couple of years about whether they’re going to put it out on DVD. I was told ABC Studios was going to but I ain’t seen shit. So… Below is a link to all the episodes we shot including the unaired pilot.
Check em out, I think there is some pretty funny stuff in there. Definitely some great performances from some very talented actors: Bill English, Sam Huntington, Dash Mihok, Kaitlin Doubleday, Stephanie Lemelin, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Kim Director and the amazing Julie White. Our Cave Kid was played brilliantly by Kelly Stables-Patino. Also the makeup department headed by Tony Gardner with our amazing sfx artists Gabriel De Cunto, Steve Prouty and James Roland were our saviors over those 18 or 19 hour days. Not to mention a very funny writing staff who spent countless hours coming up with some very funny stuff for us to say.
Working on Cavemen was the most important experience of my professional career. I learned more about acting, writing, and show business in general, in the four months I worked on that show than I had before or since. I made amazing friends both in front of and behind the camera and I realized, without a doubt, that comedic acting was what I wanted to do with my life.
I know this is all very schmaltzy but fuck it. We’ve all worked on things that we put our hearts and soul into that disappear, never see the light of day. The fact that the internet allows people all over the world to see our work (even when it was intended for a different medium) whenever its convenient to them is amazing. So if you choose not celebrate Cavemen, at least celebrate the fucking internet. OH, ALSO I GOT TO GO ON THE FUCKING VIEW, SO IT WASN’T ALL BAD!
My personal faves to check out are: Cave Kid, Hunters Gatherers, Cavemen Holiday but all are worth checking out.
*Unaired PILOT (when we were southern)—
1— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3-VniegiM&feature=related
2— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhpZ3AO2h08&feature=related
3— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpS1eg00GWQ&feature=related
*AIRED PILOT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhFIijFD9kg&feature=related
****THE CAVEWOMAN EPISODE:
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAID2VZdUtk&feature=related
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3VGbDnqiAI&feature=related
****THE SHAVER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ono2CiMSPH8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYdbr2af8RY&feature=related
****ROCK VOTE:
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy-8P0MCaoU&feature=related
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3-VniegiM&feature=related
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXBG86ZCalI&feature=related
***ANDY STAND-UP
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmlET1hqV48
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYhmzbC8EUE
*NICK JERK, ANDY WORK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q-_V0bRoaE&feature=related
**THE CAVE KID
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6YXUtsH1dI
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgBpAGx4Wg
****CAVEMAN HOLIDAY:
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqtbPiIMQ2g
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6n9vI6fPXo
*HUNTERS AND GATHERERS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIBpn4-pNVI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIBpn4-pNVI
