On the set of “The Aughts”: Jared Skolnick ’09, as Lindsey, act in what is possibly one of the funniest shows to ever grace the waves at Fairfield.
“It’s a quirky comedy that every student can absolutely relate to because every situation in the show is an exaggerated version of something everyone went through freshman year, possibly even later. That’s what comedies are all about…laughing about something similar that happened to you that is also happening in the show,” Amanda Ammirato co-creator and producer of “The Aughts” said in describing the new show.
Amanda Ammirato along with Pat Wallace, Pat Ginnetty, Jared Mezzochi, Dan Schivoletti and Casey Timmeny are part of team of Fairfield students writing, directing and producing “The Aughts,” for the HAM channel.
The story of “The Aughts” focuses on Lindsey (Jared Skolnick) a freshman in college and his experiences in sharing a bathroom with two girls and his wacky older brother.
Pat Wallace, one of the co-creators described the show by saying, “In style it’s definitely The Wonder Years meets Arrested Development.”
The students have been working since the summer on developing the scripts for “The Aughts,” and now are working on actually filming the first three episodes that are set to air on the HAM channel in December. “The Aughts,” like any real television show, is incredibly time consuming and it is even more of a challenge to make the show because all the participants are also full time students.
“The biggest challenge has been getting people to commit the time necessary. We think that we’re making something special, and to pay justice to the material it takes a long time. It really is a full-time commitment, from the cast and crew as well as the creators. There are two of the five who haven’t even been able to go to one shoot yet,” said Wallace. “Pat and I are both currently doing short films as well, plus we all also have full course loads, and now that we are seniors most of those are upper level classes.”
The amount of work didn’t stop Skolnick from wanting to be a part of the show. “I heard about a show being made by students on Facebook and I thought it would be fun to try acting in something funny,” Skolnick said.
The show has proven to be funny just in the making. Skolnick recalls his funniest moment on set: “Not everyone will agree with me, but the moment when I got myself stuck in a trash can trying to see if I would fit [was pretty funny]. It took a few people to pull me out, but I thought it was hilarious.”
Although the show has been a lot of work, it has been a great learning experience.
“So far working on the show has taught me how to stay on my toes and to always have a backup plan. You never know when something might go wrong, but you can’t just stop and sulk. You have to suck it up and keep on moving,” said Ammirato.
The plans for the show doesn’t just stop at the HAM Channel. There has been talk of working the show on to FUSE, an up and coming network.
“Jim [Mayzik] wants the series to go somewhere outside of the Ham Channel. There are certain programmers who have shown interest in finding shows, but we have to obviously shoot the show first before thinking about sending out to anywhere,” says Pat Ginnetty, co-creator and director of photography on “The Aughts.”
The show may have the winning formula. Wallace believes it will add something fresh to the comedic format “Old writers who have been writing not-funny comedies for decades, relying on laugh tracks and outdated jokes now create most TV shows. They’re out of touch. That’s clearly not the case here. Also, we’re in the situation we created. We all are still in school, relying on our own personal experiences.”
It is these personal experiences and commonalities that the creators are relying on to really make “The Aughts” shine, but the real judge will be the students’ reactions.
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