The folks from Day by Day have come a long way since their time in RVA.
The folks from Day by Day have come a long way since their time in RVA. The comedy team of Dave Stewart and Will Carsola started with mags and videos here locally (their drivers license prank made headlines), and managed to move out to LA a few years ago doing expanding their prank works with the show ‘Stupid Face.’ They got picked up for Will Farrel’s Funny or Die online video project and have worked on a number of projects ever since.
Now, Day By Day is back with a terrifying new creation which could only be born by the dastardly minds of Stewart and Carsola. ‘Mr. Pickles,’ running on Adult Swim, is the story of a boy and his dog. The boy is in crutches and the dog is some sort of secret demon spawn.
The idea was one of a few pitched to Adult Swim, and it was a surprise to the Day by Day team to hear the animation giant was interested in it.
“We write so much all the time,” said Stewart. “It was a one line sentence about a dog doing demonic things for pickles and we went back and forth and they really liked it.”
Carsola said the idea came out of their creative process, which he called a “write off” where the two friends just sit and scribble ideas trying to get each other to laugh.
“We write for 10 mins, pour our thoughts out, taking all pressure off of them being good ideas, and every once in a while there will be one that sticks,” said Carsola.
And from one of these sessions Mr. Pickles emerged.
When you watch Mr. Pickles, you’ll notice the town where it takes place appears a bit familiar. That’s because Carsola and Stewart said it’s got some connections to RVA. “It’s an old-fashioned town set in modern times, and everything came after that,” said Carsola. The town in question, Old Town, features a diverse set of characters – while we only get a glimpse of it in the pilot episodes, both Carsola and Stewart said the town will play a role in the shows future.
Working with Adult Swim has been an adventure in of itself for the Day By Day dudes. The creative freedom they’ve been allowed has been outstanding. “[The notes Adult Swim gives us] are minimal, they say ‘we want what you guys do’ and we’re always surprised.” said Stewart.
Only further pushing the show into credibility is the voice of actress Brooke Shields as Mrs. Goodman, the lead boy’s sexy and buxom mother.
Carsola said Shields had seen some of their work with Funny or Die and got ahold of the Mr. Pickles script. She wanted in. “She’s so funny and she’s perfect for it,” said Carsola.
Though he admits the team couldn’t believe the legendary actress was interested in the first place.
“Out manager came to us and said [Brooke] Shields saw the script and said she wanted to play the mom and we said ‘yea right.'” said Carsola. But it came to pass, and Shields did the voice work with a studio in NYC while Stewart and Carsola supervised over Skype.
While Mr. Pickles has only aired as a pilot on Adult Swim, the Youtube version has gone viral several times over, with over 700,000 views since the video launched March 10th.
There are more episodes in the pipeline, though Carsola and Stewart couldn’t give a confirmed air date yet. “We’re working on the episodes right now and I’ll say each one gets better than the next,” said Carsola. “And each one gets crazier as well… we’re having a blast making them.”
Check out “Mr. Pickles” below and keep an eye out for the show’s real premiere on Adult Swim some time in the Fall.
