And listen, they know how that sounds. The greatest college football audiences have ever seen, at least in a scripted series? That seems like quite a serious undertaking for a half-hour comedy about a disgraced former college football player who sets off to redeem himself by catfishing his way into becoming the quarterback for an underdog team in south Georgia. Well, that\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The idea] start[ed] with me and Glen, who have been pals for a while, getting on the phone and me saying, \u2018All right, the only thing I know is that we couldn\u2019t actually do a show about a guy wearing prosthetics like Mrs. Doubtfire,\u2019 and then Glen saying, \u2018What if we did?’\u201d Waldron told Deadline. \u201cAnd, I think, both of us lighting up and saying, \u2018Oh, that\u2019d be insane. How could you possibly make that show? That would be so hard.\u2019 Then we were kind of off to the races. Once we realized that that actually felt impossible to pull off, we knew it was the right jumping-off point for the series.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair did have the distinct advantage of working with Eli and Peyton Manning, who executive produced the series through their Omaha Productions banner and also helped pull some strings to license branding for several actual college football teams so that, while the South Georgia Catfish are not real, their opponents are. They, in addition to Patrick Mahomes\u2019 quarterback coach, also gave Powell plenty of pointers on how to believably play like a collegiate-level quarterback.<\/p>\n
The football was only one of the hurdles toward authenticity, though. The entire conceit of the story hinges on the prosthetics that Powell dons to transform from disgraced former Oregon Ducks quarterback and overall unlikable person Russ Holliday into the eager and endearing South Georgia hopeful Chad Powers. In the series, Russ steals the prosthetics from his dad, who is a professional prosthetic artist for film and television in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took [that] as seriously as the stuff on the football field,\u201d Powell said of the prosthetics. On the subject of authenticity, he added: \u201cI think one of the things that Waldron and I talked about very, very early on is that, when you have a ridiculous premise like this, when you have such a crazy entry point, it means you don\u2019t get much leeway in terms of authenticity to really make this thing work. Everything around the conceit of the world\u2026has to really work, including the mask itself. This is the lie at the center of our show. So, while you want it to be funny, everything has to be grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Throughout the series, viewers will spot real sports analysts including Kirk Herbstreit commentating during the games as well as authentic ESPN visuals \u2014 and even the actual home of the Georgia Bulldogs, Sanford Stadium, where the crew filmed a few scenes during halftime versus Mississippi State last year. Powell got mercilessly boo\u2019d (for the show, of course) and Waldron got to live out a \u201cdream come true\u201d by capturing that footage at the home of his favorite college football team.<\/p>\n
The experience was the \u201ccoolest thing ever,\u201d Waldron said, though he admits he couldn\u2019t fully soak in the moment because he \u201cjust wanted to make sure we got on and off the field in time so [head coach] Kirby Smart didn\u2019t get upset with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chad Powers places the South Georgia Catfish in the SEC, so most of the teams depicted on screen are also from that conference with the exception of Russ\u2019 west coast alma mater. So, where are SEC newcomers and Powell\u2019s beloved team the Texas Longhorns?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, one of the raspberry seeds in my wisdom tooth over the course of this process is that my Texas Longhorns were not demonstrated on camera,\u201d Powell remarked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As for why he chose against donning the Longhorn uniform himself, he continued: \u201cI never want to be responsible for the Texas Longhorns losing a national championship. We wanted not only Russ Holliday to be from a school on the west [coast] so that he could travel as far as possible east, but I feel like the cubic zirconia stud definitely works best in an Oregon Ducks uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian might be getting a phone call sometime soon, though, as Powell vows that he\u2019ll incorporate the team into the story should Chad Powers be renewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we get a Season 2, which as long as the world begs for it and cheers as loud as we think they should, I will definitely be showing the Texas Longhorns,\u201d he assured. \u201cThe Catfish will definitely be playing the Longhorns somewhere in Season 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are only six episodes in Season 1, two of which debuted Tuesday. A new episode will be released weekly throughout the month of October. It\u2019s quite a short episode count, especially for a half-hour series, bringing the total runtime to around three hours.<\/p>\n
Waldron, who also created Marvel\u2019s Loki series (each season of which is also six episodes), explains that there were multiple reasons to contain Chad Powers to a shorter episode count, at least for now. Without giving anything away, the first season ends on a note that is likely to leave viewers wanting more, and that\u2019s exactly the intent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like six episodes, because it makes it feel like an event. I had six episodes with Loki, which similar to this, had a movie star on television, which is a special thing. I like that feeling that the audience feels like they\u2019re getting something they shouldn\u2019t be getting,\u201d he said. \u201cI also just like the way it kind of makes you accelerate your storytelling\u2026I think about Eastbound and Down, which was a big inspiration for us. Their first season was six episodes. So it\u2019s a nice, tidy number, especially for these sports comedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The story at the center of Chad Powers is one of redemption. As Russ finds himself deeper in this lie about his identity, he starts to realize some essential truths about who he is and what he\u2019s done, not all of which are very pretty. While his breakthrough begins in Season 1, Waldron says they\u2019re taking the long road toward an ultimate redemption \u2014 at least, that\u2019s the hope.<\/p>\n
And a long road it will be. At the beginning of the series, Russ is far from revelation after he loses his new XFL contract when a child who Russ knocked over at that ill-fated national championship game during an altercation with the boy\u2019s father dies of cancer, prompting videos of that moment to resurface online. Talk about rock bottom.<\/p>\n
But, even though audiences will start the series strongly disliking the main character, \u201cthe good news is you have Glen Powell playing [him], and the audience loves Glen,\u201d Waldron joked.<\/p>\n
In all seriousness, he adds: \u201cWe wanted to start him in a low place, as a guy who\u2019s been hated by the world and sort of hating himself for a long time, and then start that redemption story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chad Powers marks the start of Waldron and Powell\u2019s working relationship, which they say was built on their appreciation for the same types of stories \u2014\u00a0ones that they felt were missing from the zeitgeist at this current moment. Powell calls the series \u201can outlet for so much of that heart that I feel like is missing from a lot of different entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why, despite being one of the busiest stars in Hollywood right now, Powell took on this passion project with Waldron.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why you do this job is you get to make something that you really feel like gives people a new pep in their step every week, something they can look forward to, something that fills them up, makes them laugh, lets them escape and something that you just have a joy making,\u201d he continued. \u201cWaldron is one of my best friends in the world\u2026and obviously this is the first thing we\u2019ve ever made together, but I\u2019m sure this is the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first two episodes of Chad Powers are currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+. A new episode will be released next Tuesday, October 7.<\/p>\n
Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Chad Powers, co-creators Michael Waldron and Glen Powell had some pretty lofty ambitions. Adapting Eli Manning\u2019s viral…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":280056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[104005,1428,144794,144795,171,112679,144798,144793,34238,144797,144796,9662,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-280055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chad-powers","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-college-football-team","11":"tag-college-football-teams","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-glen-powell","14":"tag-half-hour-comedy-series","15":"tag-michael-waldron","16":"tag-patrick-mahomes","17":"tag-russ-holliday","18":"tag-south-georgia","19":"tag-texas-longhorns","20":"tag-tv","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115322994789294453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}