Showrunner Brian Metcalf discusses his digital series ‘Underdeveloped’

Brian Metcalf. Photo Credit: Black Jellybeans, LLC.

Showrunner Brian Metcalf discussed his digital series “Underdeveloped,” which is available for streaming on Tubi, and other streaming platforms.

The series stars Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tom Arnold, Mark Pellegrino, Kelly Arjen, Luke Edwards, Samm Levine, and David Henrie, among others. The series has been submitted in multiple Emmy categories this year.

Portraying Stan in ‘Underdeveloped’

On playing Stan, Metcalf said, “I liked being able to play a complete idiot and have no repercussions of what I say.”

“Stan serves as the idiot of the guy that doesn’t know anything about the film industry,” he said.

“So, I’m not calling the ‘general people’ idiots,” he noted. “Stan doesn’t understand anything about the business even though he is supposed to be running this department, so he is always asking others what things mean to him. We try to make it that it’s more about the relationships in this workplace more than anything else.”

Lessons learned from this screenplay

On the lessons learned from this screenplay, Metcalf said, “I’ve learned more about myself in certain ways… The script is based off of experiences that I’ve had personally in the industry, so it was a great way for me to delve back into what happened.”

“Obviously, you don’t want to be overly preachy, and you want to have fun with it and make things more far-fetched than they were or change things around,” he said.

“It was great to have all the actors jump in and play complete caricatures or polar opposites of themselves. Nobody is really like their character in this show, myself included,” Metcalf added.

Metcalf on writing the screenplay with the end in mind

“When I wrote the script, I wrote it with the end in mind,” he admitted. “Obviously, it had to have an ending to it, but also to continue on for a second season, if necessary,” he noted.

“I wrote it like one large screenplay, and then I outlined it into sections. After that, I went into the individual episodes, and I broke it down from there,” he said.

“Knowing how Thomas and Kelly work (because we previously worked on ‘Adverse’ together) and we were in the trenches together, so I felt really comfortable that we could pull this off,” he acknowledged.

“We did! We pulled it off in record time, especially to be able to shoot so many episodes with the small budget that we had. We actually shot it before the strikes happened, and I think we pulled off something fantastic,” he added.

Future plans

On his future plans, he shared, “I would love to develop the characters even  more, and possibly do a second season. I would love to bring everyone back and have some fun with it because there are a lot of journeys that these characters can go through.”

In regard to nepotism in the workplace, Metcalf shared that he has gotten comments and feedback from people that it has happened to them.  “Even though they may not work in the film industry, it can be relatable to everybody,” he said.

“It is not based off of one particular person… it is more of a combination of different experiences that I’ve faced with different people,” he acknowledged.

Closing thoughts on ‘Underdeveloped’

“Personally, I just want everyone to have fun with it,” Metcalf said. “Don’t take it too seriously but at the same time, I hope they can be entertained. Everybody can make a film these days.”

“When I was young, I didn’t have these 4K phones at my disposal. So, anybody who has access to it can shoot it and edit it on their phones, and they can put it on streaming platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo,” he said.

“We are on cable. You can see ‘Underdeveloped’ anywhere and everywhere if you look for it, and you can see it for free, which is even better. No excuses,” Metcalf concluded.