At one time or another, some of music’s most popular bands began their dreams of stardom inside the confines of a garage. Every time they plugged in, tuned up and rocked out, these groups continued their journey towards what they hoped would lead to record deals, sold out arenas and stadium tours, late night TV appearances, dozens of Grammys, and of course, tons of gorgeous ladies.

For some wannabe rock stars, though, not every dream comes to fruition, and the new comedy web series THE BAD shows just how difficult and yet hilarious the pursuit of rock ‘n roll greatness can be. Its seven episode first season is now streaming on its official web site, Youtube and Vimeo pages, and series co-creator Blair Rowan hopes to continue the show’s story for three more seasons of 10 episodes each.

THE BAD follows the complicated lives of a group of best friends whose dreams of being the next big thing in rock music began when they were teens, and whose hopes of fulfilling those dreams have become increasingly unattainable.

Series co-creator Chris Gardner plays The Bad’s frontman, singer/guitarist Clark. Even though he’s an adult holding down a job working for a roadside carnival, Clark still behaves pretty much like his old teenage self and continues to hold on to his old dream of being a rock star. Yet, what he lacks in maturity and smarts, he more than makes up for in passion and enthusiasm for his music and for life itself.

Clark’s bandmates include his childhood best friend, Ira (Casey Wickson), the group’s bassist whose activities outside the band comprise of his current job as a video store clerk. Ira feels a warped sense of loyalty to Clark as a result of a bizarre childhood incident where he accidentally injured Clark’s back. As a result, Ira willingly goes along with whatever crazy ideas Clark comes up with to make their fledgling (and not very talented) garage band achieve stardom.

Unlike Clark, though, Ira tends to take a more realistic view of the band’s chances and of life itself, yet he somehow uses both his loyalty to Clark and to The Bad as the perfect excuses for him to remain just as immature as his best friend – not only making him less than 100% at his job, but also at his marriage to Penny (Carly Goodwin), who’s seemingly the only sane and reasonable one amid Ira and the otherwise childish men she deals with in his band. Rounding out The Bad is its unpredictable and unstable drummer, Hunter (Deva George), who makes life scary and miserable for just about everyone given his propensity for the powdery white stuff.

Having co-written and co-created the 2007 indie horror comedy BLOOD ON THE HIGHWAY, which featured a hilarious ‘80s style hair metal song co-written by Gardner and series composer Paul Nichols under the pseudonym of a fictional rock group called Thunderthizzze, Gardner and Rowan were inspired to create another feature length film that would depict the misadventures of that band. Yet, as time went on, they soon learned that the best way to tell the story of the band that would eventually become the series’ namesake was through the emerging medium of web series.

“The more we thought about it, the more we realized the story we wanted to tell and the characters would be best served with a longer format. And the original plot we had in mind for the movie would’ve been a little too expensive, so this first season gave us the chance to tell what’s basically a small scale prologue to that story development. If we’re lucky enough to get the chance to do a second season, it’ll revolve around that original story idea,” Rowan says.

Targeted towards fans of adult comedies like IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, GIRLS and EASTBOUND AND DOWN, THE BAD is unlike most web series comedies in that it uses a unique serialized form of storytelling that’s not commonly found in other shows. Furthermore, its emphasis on character based storytelling is another key factor that sets it apart from other comedies.

“I think a serialized web based comedy about characters rather than just premise is pretty new to the web series world. Mostly I’ve found genre stuff; horror, sci-fi, crime (etc) and the story is written around the genre. We’re trying to tell a story and bring people into the world of our characters. It’s about these shitty, awful people.  If you’re not afraid to cringe or feel bad about yourself, you’ll like our show. We’re very cruel to our characters but they pretty much have it coming. We want it to feel like a show about people you know but wish you didn’t or maybe about people you wish you weren’t,” says Gardner.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, production of THE BAD’s first season began with much of the cast coming from prior projects that Rowan and Gardner worked on including BLOOD ON THE HIGHWAY. Yet, as Rowan recalls, filming in the sweltering heat of midsummer in Dallas was just one of many difficulties he, his cast and crew had to endure.

“Given our limited budget, we had an extremely small crew and everyone was pulling their weight in a million different directions. It was an 8 day shoot for the second half of the production, averaging 10 to 12 hour days. So, considering these extreme conditions we were working under, it’s a testament to how incredible everyone involved in the production was that we only went over schedule a single night, and that was by maybe thirty minutes at most. All in all, believe it or not, it was a really pleasant and laid-back production. Just a really mother f*cking hot one.”

For Gardner, who also co-wrote the show with Rowan, the task of bringing not only his character but also each episode of THE BAD to life was slightly different even though the production conditions were the same for everyone else. “(The production process was) surprisingly easy. For me anyway. A few locations got a little tenuous but once the scripts were done and the props were purchased my job on set was to pretty much just show up on time with some retained knowledge of what I or Blair had written due primarily to the unbelievably streamlined shoot schedule created by Blair and (assistant director) Amber (Emery). After that my job was pretty easy. Show up, act dumb, sweat profusely. Did I mention we shot this in the dead of summer? In Texas? On a reflective outdoor soundstage made entirely out of astronaut blankets?”

Along with its serialized, character driven narrative, THE BAD also carries personal meaning for both Gardner and Rowan as web series creators. “I guess I’d have to say the most unique thing about the show is the worldview Chris and I used as the foundation for it. A lot of the series is very personal to us and comes from our own experiences in dealing with creative frustrations and struggles, and while we hope we’ve handled it in a way that’s universally relatable, it definitely comes from our own perspective. We both have kind of a dark yet hopeful outlook on life, and a lot of the humor of the show comes from these people desperately fighting against whatever stupid obstacles and failures life has set out for them. So even though the show gets pretty bleak at times (it’s not called The Good for a reason), we try to wring as much humor out of the awful circumstances as possible, because that’s essentially how we deal with anything awful in our lives,” Rowan adds.

Gardner echoes that sentiment. “This is probably our most close-to-home project. There are little bits of Blair and I in every one of these characters and as far as the overall story, it’s about two dudes, they’ve been best friends since childhood and they have unrealistic aspirations in an overcrowded creative field which challenges every relationship they have. That’s a lot closer to mine and Blair’s actual life than, say, the vampire comedy we made. Personally, I’ve been in a number of bands that I didn’t get super famous from, no matter how awesome I thought we were. Those experiences also provided a great outlet for shame filled tales of woe from that world. You do a lot of crying in the bathroom when you play live music.”

Along with great original music and distinctively edgy adult humor, THE BAD is a comedy that also proves that as life goes on, the reality is that while some dreams are worth chasing and are within reach, others aren’t always worth fighting for. Says Rowan: “To me, the overall theme of the first season is to know what’s important in life. To recognize the things and people that really matter and give them the due diligence they deserve. At this point in the character’s lives, they keep struggling to make it as a band without recognizing that their drive is no longer a passion but a distraction, and they’re just using it as an excuse to avoid growing up. The greatest thing a person can have is an artistic passion, whether it’s the pursuit of a career or just a hobby, but these guys are at some weird, unhealthy place in between the two that’s keeping them stagnant, and as a result, they’re neglecting the things that matter most. And life will do all sorts of terrible shit to you when actively ignore it.”

(Note: The series is not currently closed captioned, but Rowan says he would like to utilize that feature at some point.)

ON THE WEB: www.thebadseries.com

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/BlareRuin

VIMEO: https://vimeo.com/user500804

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TheBadTheSeries

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/@Clark_theBAD

TUMBLR: http://thebadseries.tumblr.com/