The Point Radio: One Welcome CATASTROPHE

The quirky, sweet British comedy CATASTROPHE is back for a second season, and creators/stars Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan talk about how things have changed for their characters and just how their real life partnership began. GHOST ASYLUM is also back, for third season of chills that host Scott Porter tells us is more terrifying than ever for us and him.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. It's Mike Raub. It's sexy, it's funny, and it's back again for a new run of episodes on Amazon Prime. Catastrophe stars Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, and they come along to talk about the show and exactly how they came up with the idea in the first place.

Plus it's another type of catastrophe, a pretty scary one as well, with a new season of Ghost Asylum and this time things get out of control. Hang on to your chair and let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.

Get The Point Radio. Last year Amazon Prime treated us to a cute, quaint little British comedy called Catastrophe, and audiences loved it. Now the series is back for a new season and creators Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan talk to me about where the concept first came from.

Well, you know, we both, you know, Sharon and I have five kids between us. I've got three. She's got two. We've both been married about ten years each, and, you know, that's the stuff that consumes our thoughts and our fears and our dreams and all that stuff.

So this would probably be the ultimate example of write what you know. We just wanted to, you know, have fun with the stuff that we care about, are scared of and all that. So we just wanted to make our lives sort of more palatable to a sitcom audience since our actual lives would be boring or, you know, too horrific. But we were just talking about things that matter to us.

So did they write this with the two of them in mind? We very selfishly only wrote it for ourselves. We knew that from the start, and it was actually creatively an interesting way to begin it, because we had to think about the reason why an American guy and an Irish woman might be together when you were going to film it in London because it was initially a commission from a British TV channel.

So it actually made it, it put us on a really neat sort of creative path. But also we just, I would hate to think of anyone else saying these characters, as much as we love the other actors in our show. It's a very fun show to be in, and it's a real fun show to make. All right, so where do we find things in season two?

Well, I guess the most important fact that you realize pretty quickly in the first episode is there's a time jump. We jump a couple years into the future, almost three years, in fact, when Sharon and Rob are getting ready to have their second kid. So they've stayed married, they've been married, and they've grown the family. So, yeah, the stakes are certainly higher when we begin season two. Last year there were a couple of scenes that well blew up social media, including one with Sharon being about eight and a half months pregnant

and having a cigarette. Are there any standout moments in season two? Yeah, I mean, I hope so. I think the really important thing for Rob and I is that we get to be very honest in this show, and we get to show flawed characters, because we all have flaws, and there's nothing sort of sitcom-y or rosy about it.

So in the second season, my character struggles with motherhood, and she struggles with bonding with her new baby. There are moments within the show, and I don't want to give any spoilers, that I know are going to make people very angry. But also I hope they'll understand why they're in there, and know it's not just a… I mean, like a smoking thing, it certainly wasn't for shock value at all. It was a woman in a very stressful situation who very responsibly wasn't going to smoke apart from having a couple of puffs to calm her down.

And I think that is what happens in real life, and for us it's a challenge to put those sort of subjection topics in there. But it's a little bit scary, because you never really know how someone will react. But hopefully, hopefully people get it. So how did this all start? How did the two of them meet? Well, I was a fan of Sharon's, because Sharon's made some amazing sitcoms in the past in the UK.

And so I was just nuts about those, and I noticed back in 2009 or 10 that she followed me on Twitter. So I just took the chance to just say hello and asked her if she wanted to meet and get together for a coffee, or perhaps some rye toast with either Vegemite or Marmite. I'm not particular. I am. Well, I'm American, so I can't tell the difference.

And so we did. We got together, and then we kind of became friendly and introduced our families and would see each other when we were in each other's respective cities. And then after the pilot for this show, after we made that in London, it got picked up. I moved my family to London, and now I live there, and here we are. It's the next season coming out.

As Rob said, Sharon's been involved in some great shows, including Pulling and a new one called Divorce. I asked her how that was going. Well, we finished shooting it, and it's Miss Sarah Jessica Parker and Miss Sarah Talbotade and Church, and a lot of other incredible actors, Molly Shannon, Talia Balsam, Tracy Letts. Jermaine Clement. Jermaine Clement.

Just some Dean Winters, just a ridiculous cast. And so we have a shot now, and we're in the Edison. I think it's going to premiere sometime in the autumn, and I'm excited about it. Rob's also an accomplished author, so is there another book on the way? I don't know.

I am not. I've enjoyed the process of making a catastrophe more, where there's a serious fictionalization of anything that's happened in my life. So I think I prefer that way of telling stories. After I finished my memoir, which I came out when I was like 36, which who the hell am I to think I should write a memoir then? But I'm no longer really curious about myself.

I exhausted. I think maybe when I'm 72, I'll write another one. But anything else that I write for the foreseeable future will be fiction, or maybe essays that are not about myself. A show like Catastrophe and with a home like Amazon, it's made for binging. I talked to Sharon about whether or not they write episodes, keeping that in mind.

We just go ahead and write what we write, because we're lucky enough to have two broadcasters. We have Channel 4 in the UK and Amazon here. Channel 4 in the UK, they put it all out episodically, so people have to wait week to week to watch it. And of course, with Amazon, people can watch it any way they want. For us, that's really exciting, because it's kind of a challenge to know if the series works as a piece that you can sort of watch and enjoy back to back.

But it doesn't influence how we write it at all. We're just interested in stories, we're interested in stories within the episode, and we're interested in the journey of the series as a whole as well. And as far as binging goes, well, what's on their DVR? Oh, well, at the moment, unfortunately, I can't binge watch I've Got a Call Saul, because that is coming out episodically as well. But if I could, I would.

I'm wishing, I know that when Game of Thrones comes out, I'm not going to be able to wait and build them all up. I'm going to have to watch that like a loony as soon as it arrives. But if there's anything I can binge, I do. I think it's a really fun thing to do, to lie in bed watching your favorite show and have the privilege of watching one after the other after the other. It's quite a thing.

Entire second season of catastrophe available for you right now, only on Amazon Prime. More Comic Con coming to your TV. That's just part of what's going on in the world of pop culture. Well, it's not quite Captain America and Iron Man, but Warner Brothers has announced plans for an interconnected Hanna-Barbera movie universe. It'll begin with a Scooby Doo movie coming out before you know it here.

It's called Scoob. And from there, it'll include things like the Flintstones, the Jetsons and more as well. Scoob will be released in theaters in September of 2018. Yet another chance to enjoy Comic Con without ever having to leave your house. Sci-fi is taking the world's biggest pop culture event and bringing it right into the network for several nights,

starting on Thursday, July 21st and ending on the Saturday, July 23rd. Every night, it'll have celebrity interviews, breaking news and behind the scenes reports as well live from San Diego. A beginning, of course, with this year's convention. Some folks are starting to think this might be the one really true way to rate a television show. They're called the Listen First television interest ratings.

We've talked about them before. They judge things that are hashtagged on Facebook, Google Plus and Tumblr, as well as search for on Wikipedia. And a lot of TV experts feel they're pure. Well, because they aren't affected in any way by paid advertising. All that being said, the top 10 most talked about shows this past week included Outlander, Fear the Walking Dead,

Legends of Tomorrow, Lucifer, The Flash and Supernatural. And the top four were Arrow, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. And the number one most talked about show was Shadowhunters on ABC Freeform. The first quarter of the year is already behind is in some interesting numbers in comic book sales, including what looks like a little bit of a splash bag in the stores about how much those comics cost when you head to the register.

We'll run down the top 10 comics and graphic novel sales come up in a bit, but also keep in mind in the wake of all this, it is interesting to note the DC has announced a price decrease in cooperation with her upcoming rebirth. It well could be the 90s all over again. Coming up for Civil War 2 in Marvel, they've announced that all the issues for the flagship event will have special cover stock and special ink.

It's called Power Metallic Gloss and it adds a glossy shine and sleek finish to the covers. Not unlike some of the special things that were done for covers back in the 90s, mostly by Marvel. Although keep in mind Marvel promises not to single out particular issues of a title. In fact, all seven of the Civil War 2 run will have the enhanced covers. The CW is reviving Mad TV, the sketch comedy series that was part of Fox from 1995 to 2009.

It'll run eight episodes and unlike the original, it won't be buried late Saturday night. CW plans to run the series in prime time. The point, the point. Hard to believe we're already one full quarter into 2016 and when you compare the comic sales in the stores between this and last year, barely a difference, about a 1% gain for sales when you look at where we were in the first part of 2015.

And big dollar books seem to be the significant issue over half of the top 10 books that sold in comic stores in March. Had retail prices higher than $3.99 and some books which people thought would do well. For example, Captain America Sam Wilson number seven that had the return of Steve Rogers only ended up barely in the top 20 because possibly of a $5.99 cover price. Taking all that into consideration, here's your top 10 best-selling comics in comic stores in March.

And there are some surprises here at number 10 Avengers standoff assault on Pleasant Hill Alpha number one. At number nine, International Iron Man number one. At number eight, Deadpool number eight. At number seven, at number six, Darth Vader number 18 and Darth Vader number 17 from Marvel. At number five, best-selling book was Amazing Spider-Man number nine.

At number four, the 50th issue of Superman from DC. At number three, Star Wars number 17. Make surprise at number two, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the first issue from Boom. And the number one best-selling book in comic stores in March, Batman number 50 from DC. The point, the point.

It's hard to believe the guys from Ghost Asylum could make things any scarier than they have in the past. But there's a new season coming up and lead investigators Scott Porter told me what we can expect. I'll tell you what, in season three, we're traveling farther and wider than what we ever have before. We're going to Florida where it's warm. Finally, a warm location.

And then we're going to Hawaii to investigate some of the most incredibly infamous and super-hotted locations. You know, in the premiere, we're actually up in Michigan to investigate the USS Edison. In Florida, we investigate the Castillo de San Marcos, one of the country's oldest military forts. And we even go back to our first investigation at Old South Pittsburgh Hospital in Tennessee, where I say is probably one of the most haunted concentrations of supernatural activity that I've ever been at.

The guys on the show are all part of a group called the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, and they operate under a motto of respect, detect, and collect. You know, we're just a bunch of good old country bullets. And, you know, we try to treat everything we do in this field of disrespect. We try to respect the location.

We try to respect the entities that are there. We want to treat it as though it was ours, and that they were us. We don't want to treat them with any disrespect, that's for sure. We want to be able to be sure that we're clear in what we detect. We want to detect any paranormal or, excuse me, supernatural activity, and be able to debunk anything that's paranormal,

which is the normal, just not yet understood. And then we want to collect. We want to collect that evidence and assimilate it so that we can share it with the world and they can have faith in what we're doing and say that we're just trying to grab this stuff and present it to you the way it would be if you were walking along with us.

So any particular moments we should look out for in season three? I'll tell you what. Like I said, we go to some of these crazy places out here, some of the most super haunted locations. We're going to Hawaii, to the Cocoa Palms, where Elvis and Sinatra played. And, you know, in these other locations we went to, we've got some great evidence.

I mean, we've called full-bodied apparitions on video again. We've got some of the creepiest looking shadow figures that I think we've seen yet. It's just going to be one heck of a season. Over all the seasons, I asked God to share with me one of his scarier moments. Every one of the personal supernatural interactions, they kind of, they leave a scar in your mind.

I mean, you remember them, you will remember them for as long as you live. You know, I can remember the first time that I was touched on an investigation. You know, I felt a thumb on the back of my shoulder and the four fingers go right across my shoulder. You know, I remember the first time that I was standing in a room or in a building looking at the guys. And as I started walking toward them, I walked right through a shadow person.

And it was like I was in a void of light. There was no light getting in. I couldn't see out. I couldn't see them. I couldn't see anything.

So, you know, when these things happen, I mean, it really catches you off guard. And in some instances, you don't really understand it or can't really fathom what just happened until you're out of that situation and able to reflect back on it. But when it occurs to you, it leaves a mark, that's for sure. Coast to silent with a brand new season and new episodes every Sunday only on Destination America. That's it for the podcast, but we're back in a few days.

And we'll take a look at the new season of 12 Monkeys. The stars of the show talk about how now more than ever, this ain't the movie. All that and more, and you'll find it on great websites like ComicMix.com, popcultureupload.com, Tractvnews.com, and in the iTunes podcast directly. On Twitter, we're under PC upload, and you can also follow us under Pop Culture Upload on Instagram and on Facebook under the Point Radio.

See you back here in a few days. Thanks for watching.