John Hawkes (Goodman Hesselman)Release: A pilot was filmed, but the series was not picked up.
The Pitch: "FX Networks has greenlighted How And Why, a half-hour comedy pilot from Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman. It tells the story of a man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works, but is clueless about life. Kaufman will write and direct the pilot and serve as executive producer. FX Prods will produce." (Source)
"[John] Hawkes is set to play the lead role of Goodman Hesselman, host of the How & Why educational show-within-the-show, who loses his passion for explaining how complicated things work, yields his show-within-the-show to a younger host, then moves to a smaller town, where he tries to create a similar, yet significantly less popular, parallel-show-to-the-show-within-the-show. According to Deadline, Hawkes’ character then also “encounters the supernatural world,” which is, indeed, its own show-surrounding-the-parallel-show-to-the-show-within-the-show. [Michael] Cera will play Hawkes’ boss at his new studio." (Source)
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Cast: John Hawke (Goodman Hesselman), Michael Cera (Mendelson), Sally Hawkins (Yvonne Hesselman), Catherine Keener (Alice)
The pilot script is available for download via the Scripts/Writing section of this website.
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