By Robert Goldrich

Not quite a year ago, Mark Grande came aboard as head of development at Hungry Man Entertainment (HME), a then recently formed division of leading commercial production house Hungry Man. HME currently has a couple of feature scripts in development, one for director/Hungry Man co-founder Bryan Buckley, the other for helmer Marcos Siega. And there are two TV series in the script stage–one for an hour-long comedy/drama series, the other a half-hour, single camera comedy.
    But the most prominent piece of HME is Hungry Man TV (hungrymantv.com), a web channel unveiled last year that has brought a new dimension to the branding of production companies and directors.
    Hungry Man has debuted seven short-format series on that channel, starting in late May with Buckley’s Undercover Cheerleaders, a cagey mix of scripted and reality TV, as the cheerleaders–under the guise of being window dressing–explore different facets of life in a way that offers at least food for thought, if not some social commentary, on the world at large. Undercover Cheerleaders has already elicited interest from a cable network for series development. Towards that end, a pilot has been shot, which at press time was in the process of being edited.
    Prior to HME, Grande was director of development at The Howard Stern Production Company. During his four years there, Grande was involved in development of such properties as proposed remakes of the films Porky’s and Rock ‘n Roll High School, as well as an animated series for Spike TV about Howard Stern’s life in high school.
    Previous gigs for Grande include his serving as assistant to David Eick, head of original series development for USA Networks and then Studios USA.

SHOOT: Hungry Man TV has created quite a splash. Give us some insights into the strategy behind the channel in terms of its value to Hungry Man in helping to brand its directors and as a launching pad for other projects.

Grande: The web channel can be a proving ground for shows, laying the foundation for them to be expanded upon and possibly become full fledged series on cable or broadcast TV. We have a major cable network, which I’m not at liberty to yet publicly identify, making a commitment to Undercover Cheerleaders, for example. We just shot a pilot for them.
    But there’s much more than series opportunities. For Hungry Man TV’s The Biggs, we built an animatronic puppet who’s a centerpiece of the series, which is from director Marcos Siega. This puppet character could blossom into a spokesman for a brand. We have another web channel series, Mouthpieces, from an aspiring director and amazing writer Alex Kuciw. We’re looking to take this property to the mobile phone space.
    And Strange Detective Tales is an animation series based on a comic book property we optioned in which Dracula’s sidekick Renfield and Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant Igor are private detectives in Los Angeles in the 1950s. Their clients are the movie monsters who came out to Hollywood in the 1930s when monster movies were all the rage. Fast forward to the ’50s and these monsters need protection. Renfield and Igor are their protectors. It’s a pure noir-style detective series in which humans turn out to be the most dangerous monsters of all. Director Gualter Pupo, who’s with our Rio de Janeiro studio, is working on this series, which has the potential to be a great film franchise.
    Plus we have one of my favorites, Phistophicles. Basically he’s the worst philosopher in history and he spouts off on various subjects. On punctuality, he advises that being the last man to an orgy is never a good idea. There’s potential here for a book, a funny and irreverent product spokesman. Hank Perlman is the director behind this series.
    We also have such series as Bryan Buckley’s Chuck School of Texting, a wickedly smart, webcam style show consisting of one-minute episodes, and an animated parody series Danimal’s Late Nite Cartoons. This is a series from directing team Southpaw and the character Danimal is a teenager who sleeps in his parent’s basement and gives his take on things like pop culture and the political debates going on now.

SHOOT: How do you think the web channel has branded Hungry Man and its directors?

Grande: The different series show that our directors can create, develop and produce content, working in longer formats than commercials. If an agency or client is looking for a director to take on a new form of content for an advertiser web channel or any other outlet, they can see that our directors have demonstrated their abilities on that front. We’re branding our directors as content developers as the advertising industry is evolving into new areas. And we’re branding Hungry Man on a larger canvas as an entertainment company.

SHOOT: Has the Writers Guild strike served as a catalyst for heightened interest in Hungry Man TV content?

Grande: Yes, there have been quite a few inquiries fueled by the strike but that’s a slippery slope for us. On one hand we can be viewed as an alternative source for content during the strike. Yet you have to remember that some of our directors are with WGA. And in the long term, do we really want Hungry Man to be viewed as a place for replacement content? I think we are much better than that.
    Ironically I was scheduled to come out to L.A. on Nov. 1 to pitch two series to major Hollywood studios. But the strike took hold at the end of October and I cancelled my trip. So from that standpoint, the strike was a setback for a couple of hot irons we had in the fire. Our hope is that the strike is settled soon and that the writers can get back to work. A lot of people are being hurt by this strike, particularly many of the everyday workers who are lower down on the food chain.

SHOOT: You have the advantage of having actual content to showcase in pitches to make them cable or broadcast series. Did that figure in the thought process behind the launch of hungrymantv.com?

Grande: Most definitely. Our approach was to get the best content we could up and running. We wanted to create programs that we could show people–the Hollywood studios, brand managers. Now we have seven shows–and counting–that we’re proud of. And now that we have them, we are exploring how to best monetize this product. It’s much easier to sell something after you’ve done it and can show people something tangible.

SHOOT: Thus far your directors have generally been the series creators. Are you looking to bring agency creatives into the equation?

Grande: Yes, we’re very much open to collaboration with agency creatives. That’s an area we’re looking to get into.
    And we’re very much looking to develop original content in collaboration with brands and agencies. While there’s value in user-generated content, we think brands and advertisers will see that high quality-produced original content is really the future.
    And we hope to be at the forefront of that movement–that’s a compelling reason that led to us launching Hungry Man TV.

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