Lewistown man, friends star in self-produced sitcom
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LEWISTOWN -- It might not be considered must-see network TV, but Edward Kenepp certainly thinks a self-produced sitcom made with friends could garner a few laughs.
The Lewistown man and some friends recently wrote, produced and starred in the 30-minute pilot episode of "Ted's Last Hurrah," a story about a bunch of retired guys who try to put their old band back together and the comedy and pain that goes with it.
"I'm a fan of shows like "The Office," "Curb Your Enthusiasm and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," said Kenepp, who turns 66 this month and is the oldest cast member by two or three years. "In fact, I kind of taught myself how to piece together a show by watching the bloopers of "Sunny in Philly" and then watching the final episode, and you can see in the bloopers how much fun they are having."
In March 2022, Kenepp, who has been songwriting for 40 years, decided to try his hand at television writing. He wanted to challenge himself by trying to write in a longer format.
"I chose a 30-minute sitcom because it was a form I was most interested with," Kenepp said. "Within two weeks, I had roughly 10 episodes worth of content.
"I relied on my own experience of playing in bar bands in central Pennsylvania for 30 odd years when I started writing the script," he added.
Kenepp envisions the final product to be a 10-episode web series.
"As soon as I had around 80 pages, I sent it to my friend and long-time songwriting colleague John Xanthopoulos," he said of his Lewistown friend. "I asked, 'Do you think we could film one of these episodes?' To my surprise, he replied, 'Yes, I think it would be great fun to try it.'"
Kenepp and Xanthopoulos played in several bands together from 1980 to around 1995. They've also played in bands with everyone on the show at one time or another.
With scripts in place, he began to assemble a cast, recruiting mainly long-time friends to fill the roles.
"I contacted Donna Matthews to play my wife," Kenepp said of Matthews, who is from Boalsburg. "Donna, John and I all knew each other since high school here in Lewistown. Donna was interested in trying it because she said it was 'outside of her comfort zone.'"
The rest of the ensemble -- Dana Hawk, James Miller, Jud Mantz and Lynn Chaplin -- are all old friends and former band mates from State College. The friends believe their camaraderie and chemistry are evident on camera.
"That's really what I hope people get from our show," Kenepp said. "We are just a bunch of average Janes and Joes, who just want to hang out together and make each other laugh. I don't mind that it looks homemade. I kind of prefer it."
With the cast in place, filming began. Xanthopoulos and Mantz manned the cameras because they had previous experience, having worked in the video industry. Kenepp also shot many scenes just using his iPhone.
"We wanted it to look as good as possible without getting in the way of just having a good time," Kenepp said. "We knew we couldn't achieve a professional network TV quality."
Each scene was usually shot in 2 to 4 takes. While there were scripts, the actors also improvised on numerous occasions.
"We had a script, but since none of us are professional actors, we decided to improvise the general idea of the script rather than learning it word for word," he added. "Sometimes while improvising, we went completely away from the script. It was an amazingly fun process."
Off the top of his head, Kenepp believes they spent around 40 hours filming the episode and another 40 to 60 hours editing. "That's a lot of time for an amateur 30-minute episode," he explained. "We had three cameras running most of the time."
Kenepp said each episode costs about $2,000 to produce, which includes a small stipend for each cast member and renting a two-man film crew. Xanthopoulos and Mantz let Kenepp use their cameras for free to keep production costs down.
Kenepp also owned editing software, but he still had expenses for food, transportation, props and location rental. He's trying to raise $2,000 through a crowdfunding site called indiegogo.com to help fund future episodes.
"It's a lot of fun, but it's expensive and time consuming," Kenepp said.
Production for the pilot episode took about eight months. "We filmed on weekends mostly because everyone in the cast still worked day jobs and we all had busy lives, so it was pretty tricky finding time when everyone was available," Kenepp said.
The two-part pilot episode is available to watch on Kenepp's YouTube! channel, Woodshed with ED. The show does contain mature language.