Wednesday at 10 p.m. puppets, sketch comedy, a Get Him Eat Him concert and "Pregame: the only news show on earth you can drink to" will fill the halls of Smith-Buonanno. The event is the premiere of the third episode of the BTV show "Thayer Street."
Luke Harris '07, the show's official creator, started the show last year, but did not fully anticipate what a serious commitment it would become. "It started because I wanted to have the experience of working from complete scratch instead of trying out for something like a play. It was almost like a dare or test," Harris said.
Harris first turned to high school friend David Dryer '07 and began brainstorming ideas for a TV show, bringing in Jon Magaziner '07, Wade German '07, Lizzie Vieh '07, Thyra Heder '06 and C.J. Hunt '07 as additional writers and cast members.
The show's 55-minute pilot, broadcast on BTV last spring and produced over an entire semester, garnered praise from friends and plenty of laughter, but had "no rhyme or reason," Heder said.
"It started out as sort of a present to our friends," Heder said, but those involved soon realized the potential of their product and humor, and decided to continue the show this year more seriously. "We were getting positive feedback, and for a lot of us it was like, 'This is what we want to do in our time at Brown,' " Heder said.
Last semester's two episodes retained the pilot's puppet and sketch combination, but each revolved around a general theme as the team worked to find a balance between sketch comedy and the plotline of a TV show.
Although the show's content has evolved, Harris said the group has learned just as much about the production aspect of a TV show as what jokes resonate with their audience. "The production quality is continually going up because we're constantly comparing it to the production value of our last show," Harris said.
Taylor Friedman '07 produces the show with Ali Trustman '07, and Phoebe Lapine '07 joined the cast this semester while Scott Norton '08 began as director of photography.
Harris and Heder both direct and Norton assists them in the editing process, but the group collaborates on virtually everything and is hesitant to designate specific roles. "We are a complete group," Harris said.
"A big thing I'm learning from the show, which a film class can never teach you, is how to sacrifice, and look at product and understand that it's not 100 percent of what you thought (it might be)," Harris said. But Harris and Norton try to deal with technical limitations as creatively as possible, once using a wheelchair from Health Services to get the effect of a moving dolly shot.
The upcoming episode includes scenes from the MetBar in Boston and Campus Market, and an iPod commercial parody. The show's varied format makes it difficult to pigeonhole, but according to Hunt, "What we're all about is letting the Brown community laugh at itself."
Hunt said incorporating the show into a GISP this semester has encouraged its staffers to experiment with different styles of humor and reach their ultimate goal of integrating "Thayer Street" into Brown's cultural consciousness.
Harris said gauging the size of their audience is difficult. "Sometimes you think there's all these strangers watching it, and other times I wonder, 'Am I making this for my home DVD collection when I'm 40?' " Harris said.
Broadcasting at infrequent intervals on BTV presents a challenge to increasing the audience. Given that students spend more time in front of computers than TV screens, Norton hopes an upcoming Web site will make the episodes more accessible.
Harris, who is developing the site as part of a RISD Web design class, expects it will be running by the end of the semester. He has also been producing DVDs of the first few episodes and hopes to sell more in the coming months. "The more it's in the public eye, the more we can know whether we're doing a good job," Harris said.
Making their premiere a distinctive social event is the group's current priority, and how they hope the show will gain more exposure. "Things that build their way into the culture at Brown are based around events like a cappella and improv," Hunt said.
"The only constraint on it is that we're all in college, and have full lives," Norton said.
Like any college students, the people behind "Thayer Street" are not entirely sure whether their lives after Brown will follow this path into the entertainment industry. Regardless, they agreed, the show is an invaluable experience. "If you can produce a TV show, you can do anything," Norton said.
"Thayer Street" premieres Wednesday, March 9 at 10 p.m. in Smith-Buonanno 106. Get Him Eat Him will also perform.
