Two is company. Three or More is Life with Kat and McKay.
I recently sat down with Writer/Producer/Director Sandra Payne – an award-winning filmmaker, columnist for Celeb Staff Magazine and former writer for the hit children’s show Barney & Friends. With Payne’s sights now set on new media, the multi-talented Payne brings us Life with Kat and McKay, a comedic look at how family and friends get in the way of love.
Life with Kat and McKay is a fun, highly-addictive dramedy exploring the lives of Kat Steele (Jenna Finley) and McKay Dunn (Paul Haitkin) as they manage their friends and family while trying to hold on to their relationship. The show begins with a fun Brady Bunch-style intro that gives us a look at the many characters playing a part in the lives of Kat and McKay. In the first episode, Kat and her BFF, Tiffany (Pamela Joy Walworth), crush on their cute waiter, McKay. While both girls are obviously taken, it’s Kat that instantly clicks with McKay. This is just the beginning of their journey together.
As the episodes unfold, Kat and McKay meet each other’s families. When McKay brings Kat home to meet his over-bearing parents, Doyle and Belinda Dunn (Dean Gosdin and Maria Del Marco), Belinda’s main concern at that moment is whether Kat can cook. Then it’s time for McKay to meet Kat’s dad in the fifth episode. And just wait until McKay and Kat announce their engagement to their family and best friends.
“As a writer, you need to create great stories and conflict. So each of the characters in Life with Kat & McKay are crafted to be unique, play off of the other characters and add to the ensemble. Once I had a Mama’s Boy and a Daddy’s Girl in place, that meant adding parents, and then best friends, that would help to complicate their lives,” says Payne. Although she wouldn’t be specific, Payne did divulge that some of her fictional characters may or may not be inspired by real-life family members.
The origin of Life with Kat & McKay can be traced back to three years ago when Payne attended a digital media conference entitled “The Future of Television.” There she learned more about new media and short-form storytelling. In 2008, she shot a pilot for Life with Kat & McKay. A few months later she re-shot the pilot. Prior to launching on KoldCast TV in November 2009, she re-shot the pilot for the 3rd time, which is the version available now.
“The idea for the series itself came from a mixture of ideas. Originally, I was going to write a spoof on a soap opera, with really dramatic characters and ridiculous story lines. I also like romantic comedies. Somehow, the romantic comedy side of things won out and the series is much more grounded in reality than I had intended it to be at first. Basically, the idea began by having two seemingly mismatched people fall in love, decide to get married, and then have to navigate a minefield of “helpful” family and friends as they make their way to the altar. It percolated for a while, and then finally gelled into Life with Kat & McKay. As we all know, family dynamics can be a rich source of humor.”
Payne’s goal is to write things that resonate with different kinds of people, make them laugh and appeal to different age groups. “I feel like there are people out there who would like this kind of content, but I know I need to do a little more work to find them. I need to find moms in middle-America who may not yet know what a web series is.”
Payne has more than 20 episodes of her series shot and is excited about the ones that are soon to be released. For the season finale, Payne tells us “there will be a shocking twist that, hopefully, will keep people interested during the show’s hiatus as I work on building up a budget to make another season.” For now, there is an unending flow of stories to write about within the series. “I love working with these characters, and with my actors, so it’s a really fun series to play in.”
As for what we should expect for season two of Life with Kat and McKay, Payne did leave us with a little something to whet our appetites. “Although we haven’t visually seen it yet in the series, Gabe loves Tiffany from afar. And Tiffany doesn’t have eyes for anyone but McKay… tsk tsk.”
Joanne Rose is an Australian writer, actor, producer and creator of the Green Apple Award winning 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.
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Two is company. Three or More is Life with Kat and McKay.
By Joanne Rose, Feb 08, 2010 in Life with Kat and McKay, Show News
Two is company. Three or More is Life with Kat and McKay.
I recently sat down with Writer/Producer/Director Sandra Payne – an award-winning filmmaker, columnist for Celeb Staff Magazine and former writer for the hit children’s show Barney & Friends. With Payne’s sights now set on new media, the multi-talented Payne brings us Life with Kat and McKay, a comedic look at how family and friends get in the way of love.
Life with Kat and McKay is a fun, highly-addictive dramedy exploring the lives of Kat Steele (Jenna Finley) and McKay Dunn (Paul Haitkin) as they manage their friends and family while trying to hold on to their relationship. The show begins with a fun Brady Bunch-style intro that gives us a look at the many characters playing a part in the lives of Kat and McKay. In the first episode, Kat and her BFF, Tiffany (Pamela Joy Walworth), crush on their cute waiter, McKay. While both girls are obviously taken, it’s Kat that instantly clicks with McKay. This is just the beginning of their journey together.
As the episodes unfold, Kat and McKay meet each other’s families. When McKay brings Kat home to meet his over-bearing parents, Doyle and Belinda Dunn (Dean Gosdin and Maria Del Marco), Belinda’s main concern at that moment is whether Kat can cook. Then it’s time for McKay to meet Kat’s dad in the fifth episode. And just wait until McKay and Kat announce their engagement to their family and best friends.
“As a writer, you need to create great stories and conflict. So each of the characters in Life with Kat & McKay are crafted to be unique, play off of the other characters and add to the ensemble. Once I had a Mama’s Boy and a Daddy’s Girl in place, that meant adding parents, and then best friends, that would help to complicate their lives,” says Payne. Although she wouldn’t be specific, Payne did divulge that some of her fictional characters may or may not be inspired by real-life family members.
The origin of Life with Kat & McKay can be traced back to three years ago when Payne attended a digital media conference entitled “The Future of Television.” There she learned more about new media and short-form storytelling. In 2008, she shot a pilot for Life with Kat & McKay. A few months later she re-shot the pilot. Prior to launching on KoldCast TV in November 2009, she re-shot the pilot for the 3rd time, which is the version available now.
“The idea for the series itself came from a mixture of ideas. Originally, I was going to write a spoof on a soap opera, with really dramatic characters and ridiculous story lines. I also like romantic comedies. Somehow, the romantic comedy side of things won out and the series is much more grounded in reality than I had intended it to be at first. Basically, the idea began by having two seemingly mismatched people fall in love, decide to get married, and then have to navigate a minefield of “helpful” family and friends as they make their way to the altar. It percolated for a while, and then finally gelled into Life with Kat & McKay. As we all know, family dynamics can be a rich source of humor.”
Payne’s goal is to write things that resonate with different kinds of people, make them laugh and appeal to different age groups. “I feel like there are people out there who would like this kind of content, but I know I need to do a little more work to find them. I need to find moms in middle-America who may not yet know what a web series is.”
Payne has more than 20 episodes of her series shot and is excited about the ones that are soon to be released. For the season finale, Payne tells us “there will be a shocking twist that, hopefully, will keep people interested during the show’s hiatus as I work on building up a budget to make another season.” For now, there is an unending flow of stories to write about within the series. “I love working with these characters, and with my actors, so it’s a really fun series to play in.”
As for what we should expect for season two of Life with Kat and McKay, Payne did leave us with a little something to whet our appetites. “Although we haven’t visually seen it yet in the series, Gabe loves Tiffany from afar. And Tiffany doesn’t have eyes for anyone but McKay… tsk tsk.”
Joanne Rose is an Australian writer, actor, producer and creator of the Green Apple Award winning 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.