GeekNation to premiere new season of sitcom 'Holliston' next year — exclusive
When the sitcom Holliston suffered both the death of a cast member and the folding of its network in 2014, the show’s future seemed grim. But Entertainment Weekly can exclusively reveal that Holliston, which centers around the misadventures of two aspiring filmmakers, is set to return for a third season next year. Original cast members Adam Green (who is also the show’s creator, writer, and showrunner), Joe Lynch, Laura Ortiz, Corri English, and Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider will all appear.
The 10-episode season will premiere in the summer of 2016 on the GeekNation digital network, where real-life film directors Green (Hatchet, Digging Up the Marrow) and Lynch (Everly) already have a hugely successful podcast, The Movie Crypt. “It’s almost embarrassing to admit,” says Green in the official release announcing the deal with GeekNation, “but there we were on a quest to find a new outlet for Holliston where we could continue to creatively make the show our way, but also have it distributed on a platform where absolutely anyone who wants to watch it can easily find and enjoy it…and the answer was literally right in front of our noses the entire time.”
In Holliston, Green and Lynch play two horror-loving Hollywood hopefuls who work at a cable company in the titular Massachusetts town. English and Ortiz portray their respective girlfriends and Snider is the Green and Lynch’s sexually ambiguous boss. The first two seasons of the show also starred Dave Brockie as Green’s imaginary friend “Oderus Urungus,” the persona Brockie adopted as singer for the rock band GWAR. Holliston has also featured cameos from a raft of cult horror actors, including Tony Todd (Candyman), Kane Hodder (Hatchet, the Friday the 13th franchise), and Danielle Harris (the Halloween series, Stake Land).
Holliston, which is produced by Green’s company ArieScope Pictures, premiered in April, 2012, on the horror-centric cable network FEARnet and season 2 screened the following year. Green was developing season 3 when, in March 2014, Brockie died from a heroin overdose. A month later, it was announced that FEARnet was effectively being dissolved by parent company Comcast.
Over the past year, Green repeatedly attempted to find a new home for the show, a search he and Lynch detailed on The Movie Crypt, which ultimately resulted in the GeekNation deal. “In most cases, the trials and tribulations we have endured as a cast would mean the end of a series,” says Green. “But this is Holliston and we are much more than just a sitcom. We are a bona fide family. By leaning on each other and embracing the overwhelming love and support of our fans, we never became disenchanted by our unfortunate circumstances or allowed our collective inspirational fire to go out.”
In the same release, Green’s costar Lynch, an excutive producer on Holliston, paid tribute to both Brockie and the show’s fans. “It’s crucial to note that Dave was so much more than just a cast member of Holliston,” he says. “He was a dear friend to all of us and his absence will be deeply felt by everyone in our cast and crew. For Adam especially, he not only writes every single episode but he was also the only actor on the show who shard scenes with ‘Oderus,’ so continuing the series without Dave is an extremely difficult task for him emotionally. It has been a very delicate and slow process to get outselves back to this point. Thankfully, we have an incredibly patient and understanding fanbase that has supported us unconditionally and that has mourned with us through all of this. Our fans appreciate that we’re real people who have to heal from our loss and that we’re not just fictional characters on their screens, despite the fact that we all play versions of ourselves in a way.”
Green believes Brockie would approve of Holliston going on without him. “As cliché as it might sound, no one would want to see Holliston continue more than Dave,” he says in the statement. “On the season 2 behind-the-scenes-Blu-ray making-of feature, Dave says directly to the camera that ‘Holliston is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’ It’s been a long heartbreaking road, but we’re at a point now where we’re back on our feet and we’re ready to laugh once again. Last week, the main cast got together to table-read some of the new material for the first time and we could all feel without a doubt that no one was laughing louder or harder than Dave.”
GeekNation was founded in 2012 by actress and CEO Clare Kramer and COO Brian Keathley. “With Holliston, Adam’s creation embodies the definition of intellectual humor combined with pop-culture creativity, creating what we believe is a cult phenomenon,” says Kramer. “We’re excited to partner on the third season, which will bring network-quality serialized programming to GeekNation for the first time.”
Pre-production on the third season of Holliston is scheduled to start early next year. The show will be produced by Cory Neal, Sarah Elbert, Will Barratt, and Peter Block and will be directed by Green and Sean Becker. For more about Holliston, check out the new Movie Crypt podcast, which debuts Monday at 10 a.m. PT, and opens with Green and Lynch being joined with Ortiz and English.
You can see a clip from Holliston, below.