S.O.A.P.: Movies So Bad, They’re Almost Good4

By Joanne Rose, Jan 15, 2010 in Show News, Son of a Pitch

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S.O.A.P.: Movies So Bad, They’re Almost Good

Web series Son of a Pitch shows us the painfully funny side of the biz

Andy Mogren is the creator of Son of a Pitch, a successful and hilarious comedic web series now in its second season. The laugh-out-loud SOAP (Son of a Pitch) is about two writers (played by Mogren and John Lange) pitching their far-fetched ideas to the executive at Dinosaur Pictures in Hollywood, CA. Dressed in suits, the overeager writers use every angle possible to convince the unimpressed exec that their idea is the next big thing. As a result, we get pitches like the blood thirsty “See: The Prequel to Saw” and “Time Buddies,” a trip back in time to visit your childhood self and reverse painful memories.

You can’t help but feel bad for these two likeable writers who remind us of those awkward audition rounds for American Idol. But their gracelessness is exactly the point. The show entertains on the fact that everybody has an idea for a movie. “Sometimes they’re great, but most of the time they aren’t. Even if they are, if you do a terrible job explaining the story and pitching the idea, then it’s going to come across as a stupid, awful movie. That’s what it’s all about,” says Mogren.

“What’s funny is that for every one of these episodes, at least one person has said to me, ‘You know, I think you could actually make that!’”

Mogren was first introduced to filmmaking through his dad’s passion for creating amateur B-movies that involved using the family, a video camera, and scripts. Mogren created his first film, a sci-fi horror, with friends at the tender age of eight using his dad’s video camera. The movie was stunning and complete with special effects.

The idea of SOAP came about when Mogren first moved out to Los Angeles. He found enjoyment in entertaining other people by making up terrible Lifetime Original-type movie plots and Oscar movie hopefuls. The reactions he received from these “pitches” were priceless. Around this time, he was hired as a Mobile Multimedia Producer for the show Big Brother at CBS. Mogren says he was shoved into a small office with another guy – his future co-star, John Lange – who couldn’t have been less thrilled about having to share a tiny office. Mogren best describes Lange’s demeanor at that time as a “stressed-out-cartoon-character-on-a-mug that says, Not Without My Coffee.”

Soon, CBS Mobile and Interactive were looking for new, cheap content, and Mogren decided to take his popular “act,” previously reserved for parties and bars, and build a show around it. Being that it was going to be online, he knew it needed to be short. “I didn’t want it to just be about a pitch – you see that concept done everywhere – so I decided to add movie trailers at the end of the pitch as sort of the grand finale of each episode,” says Mogren.

When Mogren approached Lange to be the other half of the show, he agreed but didn’t become involved immediately. However, after a chance meeting with some Swedish girls in the hot tub of Mogren’s apartment complex, and the subsequent green-screen shoot at CBS, which resulted in “Swedish Treasure Hunting Sisters,” Lange was 100% onboard.

After throwing around a lot of names for the show, it was eventually a lawyer at CBS who came up with the name Son of a Pitch. It stuck, and though it was originally developed for CBS, the economy was taking such a hit that the Interactive department and the cell phone carriers didn’t want to take a chance on an unknown show. So with an overwhelming confidence in the show, Andy left CBS with hopes of selling SOAP, ultimately landing a distribution deal with KoldCast TV.

The characters have a dynamic heavily influenced by Laurel and Hardy. “I remember watching “Way Out West” as a kid and always thought the dance they did… was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.” So when they started to do the show, Mogren introduced Laurel and Hardy to Lange. “It became obvious to me that I was the Stan Laurel to his Oliver Hardy. I have so much of the child-like innocence that Stan embodies. Most of my facial expressions I credit to Stan. John has the less obvious idiotic demeanor. He is just as moronic as I am only he doesn’t think he’s stupid. He just thinks I’m stupid, which makes him stupid.”

The influences for the actual movie trailers in Son of a Pitch and Mogren’s sense of comedy come from a variety of places. “I grew up watching TV shows like MTV’s The State so I am heavily influenced by David Wain and his style of comedy. Wainy Days and Wet Hot American Summer are some of the funniest things you can ever watch. Also, movies like The Naked Gun and Airplane are simply amazing movies.” Other influences are movies about things that could never happen in the real world such as “Jurassic Park” and “Final Destination.”

Since the launch of Son of a Pitch, doors have opened wide and the future looks very bright for Mogren. Most recently, KoldCast TV funded season two of the series which premiered January 12, 2010. Regardless of all this good news, however, I’m sure Mogren would tell you: “It’s not as easy as it looks folks!”

Joanne Rose is an Australian writer, actor, producer and creator of the comedic web series, Vegan 101, on KoldCast TV. She is based in Los Angeles and is the author of the vegan children’s book, Tommy Tofu Saves The Day and spokesperson for Green Lifestyle Film Festival.