If elementary school was where you first learned about reading, writing and arithmetic, then middle school was where you got an up-close education in peer pressure, growth spurts and raging hormones. If you weren’t one of the ‘cool kids’ on campus, though, then you had even bigger worries to confront than just the next pop quiz.
For all the jocks and dreamboats who’ve roamed the halls of middle school, there are also tons of nerds and weirdos that struggle to co-exist with their more “popular” classmates. Regardless of what group you fit into, the six episode comedy series Life Sucks captures all the uncomfortable memories of adolescence – but in hilarious and relatable ways.
Episode 3 of the series premieres on Wednesday, December 5th on YouTube (link below), but you can get a first look at the latest episode of Life Sucks at the link embedded at the end of this article. The first 2 episodes debuted on comedy news site Laughspin 2 weeks ago, and are also available on YouTube.
Created by Allyson Condrath, Max Fox, Jake Mann, Alex Zagey, Kyle Miller and Ian Wexler of the talented New York-based comedy troupe Dinner for One, Life Sucks co-stars Condrath, Fox and Mann as a group of pre-teens – Ally, Max and Jake, respectively – who are stuck at the very bottom of their school’s social hierarchy.
L-R: LIFE SUCKS co-stars Max Fox, Jake Mann and Ally Condrath. As part of comedy troupe Dinner for One, Fox, Mann and Condrath also co-created the series.
Challenged by the circumstantial trappings of life in middle school at the turn of the 21st century, and by their lack of steady personal relationships, Ally, Max and Jake ultimately discover that the best friends they have are each other.
Owing much of its inspiration to the classic NBC coming-of-age dramedy Freaks and Geeks, Life Sucks’ comparison to that series is appropriate given that it also features a predominantly young ensemble cast.
Though none of the members of Life Sucks’ cast are yet household names, Condrath, Fox, Mann and their co-stars give Life Sucks the same level of authenticity that still endears Freaks and Geeks to audiences almost 20 years after its first and only season ended.
While Life Sucks finally hit the interwebs after nearly six years of fits and starts, it didn’t start out as a comedy about kids treading the proverbial rough seas of middle school in 2001. The first version of its pilot, set in the then-present day (2012) was recognized among several finalists for the 2012 Comedy Central Short Pilot Competition. Although no network would end up buying the series then, the members of Dinner for One would spend 2013 raising $85,000 to produce what eventually became the six episodes that were finally introduced several weeks ago.
2 years later, the producers of Life Sucks would again find the joys of professional success contrasted by the pain of showbiz disappointment. After being honored at the 2015 ITV Fest with its Best Comedy Award, the show again failed to get a distribution deal in large part due to the lack of recognizable performers in its cast.
For Dinner For One, that disappointment would ultimately be a blessing in disguise. Free from the inevitable creative meddling that would ensue if Life Sucks was part of a major network’s programming, the creators of the series were finally free to relive all the highs and lows of their youth in an honest and true-to-life fashion that viewers will immediately latch onto.
How was the show developed, and how did you come up with its concept?
DFO: In 2012 we were writing sketch comedy as a group, and wanted to create something long form. So we decided to push ourselves and produce a spec pilot to submit to the New York Television Festival. People always say write what you know, which somehow led us to the subject of puberty.
Middle school, more specifically, felt like an endless well of heartbreaking and entertaining childhood traumas to draw upon. As we reminisced about these, at the time, horrific experiences, we couldn’t stop laughing at each other’s stories – and our own. We definitely all have unresolved feelings about being that age, so why not get a second shot at being 13?
Ally Condrath (Ally), in LIFE SUCKS’ fourth episode “Manstration”.
It was like this selfish therapeutic tool for all of us (to) go back in time and play ourselves. We also felt like by posing as middle schoolers, it would allow us to push beyond the limits of what we could make actual child actors do on-screen.
We could make it as gross and explicit as we wanted, and (we could) tell the true story of our cringe-worthy middle school experiences – not the Disney version.
Life Sucks has had quite a journey in getting to viewers, culminating with its debut several weeks ago on Laughspin. Describe how the show evolved over the past few years, and how the rejections and near-misses you all experienced in getting it picked up motivated you to make the series better.
DFO: It’s true. To be honest, getting to this point has been an insane, upside-down roller-coaster ride for us – both emotionally and creatively. When we started this process, digital TV was a new medium. We thought, “let’s make six episodes and sell it!” But even though the way that we watch TV is changing, the development process hasn’t.
TV developers loved the idea, but (they) wanted to put their own spin on it. (They) loved the characters, but wanted a big name. For the better part of three years, we put our episodes on the back burner, made trailers, pitched season arcs, wrote new iterations of the pilot for different famous actors.
L-R: Max Fox and Nathaniel Taylor Leach in episode 4 of LIFE SUCKS, “Manstration”.
After all that, here we are back to the original, raw show. And it’s still good! And as exciting as all that development was, there’s always been something authentic and magical about this original series of episodes we made.
The near-misses are obviously always tough in the moment, (and) rejection never feels good. But rejection is a part of this show’s DNA. It’s f*cking called Life Sucks! We just keep pushing forward.
After all those disappointments, how did Life Sucks finally get onto the web – and what were your memories of the moment when you all realized that the show would finally be ready for the world to see?
DFO: For a long time it seemed like nobody would ever get to see these 6 episodes, which felt like a real shame, after we worked so hard to make them with the help of so many people who we love. But we needed to see how far the idea for this show would take us, and we were very enticed by the idea that we could use what we learned to make an even better version of the show with a bigger budget and recognizable actors.
But eventually we realized that pitching our show to networks wasn’t proving fruitful. In that moment it was a mix of defeat and also relief that we could finally release the show online, share it with all of the people who helped make the show a reality and close the Life Sucks chapter of our careers.
Did your own memories of growing up influence the characters and storyline of Life Sucks, in any way? If so, how?
DFO: What? No way. Our middle school experiences were totally easy and fun. We were all so cool and well adjusted. Yeah…not true! Besides Ian, who insists that he had a fabulous time in middle school, we were all miserable at that age. While certain aspects of the show are definitely embellished or pure fiction as a means to capture the feeling of what we’re going for, other moments are deeply auto-biographical.
Did we all get kicked out of our lunch tables? Yes. Did Ally’s mom make her watch a musical video about her period? Sadly, yes. When we sat down to write, it felt like the words just poured out. It felt so easy to recall repressed moments from our childhoods; things that we had forgotten or wanted to forget. We want that to be the experience for the viewer, as well.
L-R: LIFE SUCKS co-stars Mallaigh Ashton, Maddison Abdul and Julia Mattison in the episode “Rumors”.
As actors, how did you find yourselves relating to the material you came up with?
DFO: We are a group of friends who met in college and wanted to create stuff together and here we are 7 years later. This show was an opportunity for us to write characters based on an exaggerated version of ourselves.
The three main unknowns are played by us (Condrath, Fox and Mann) and (the characters are) modeled after who we were in middle school. We thought of this process very much like therapy, playing out the scarring moments in our lives and reliving the traumatic bits and pieces of a time that ended up shaping who we became as grownups: comedians.
What was the production process like for the show?
DFO: The creation of this show was unique in a lot of ways. Unlike most shows or movies, our writing process is 100% collaborative. We do all the writing with 6 of us in a room, we riff and improvise and pass a laptop around, each taking turns being the stenographer. So every part of every episode is written by all of us. We wrote all 6 episodes in about two and a half months which was very intense.
The production was also different from most shows, because we were doing it 100% on our own, without a network, and without network money. So we rented out a middle school in Brooklyn for 5 weeks during the summer, and that became our set.
L-R: From LIFE SUCKS’ second episode, “Sleepover”: co-stars Gio Naarendorp, Noel Carey, Adam Rapchik, Samuel Chance, Timmothy Hartman and Damon D’Amico, Jr.
We had a huge crew who, incredibly, all worked for free because they believed in us and the project. The casting of the 20-somethings-playing-middle-schoolers was easy, because all those characters were specifically written for the members of our sketch comedy troupe.
Because we wanted to cast so many young teen actors, we also ran a summer camp at the same time as our production, so that whenever they weren’t needed on set, they were taking acting classes taught by Ian (Wexler, our director)’s theater company Proximity Theatre Company run by Kyra Lehman and Ken Urbina. So our casting process, at least for the teens, was basically summer camp recruitment!
The hardest character to cast by far, was Jonah Feldman (the kid that Max, Ally and Jake pick on in the first episode). After auditioning lots of young actors, we cast this tiny kid who was only 10 years old. He was funny and we shot with him for a week, but at the end of the week we realized that he was too damn cute and likable.
Jonah Feldman is supposed to be the sh*tty, gross, smelly kid who everyone loves to hate, but instead we felt bad for him every time we made fun of him in a scene. So we had to fire a 10 year old, (which was) not fun! During the second week of production, while shooting other scenes, we held auditions in a classroom at the school and finally found our Jonah (played by Desmond Towey), who was almost too cool to be in the show. When we asked him if he wanted to play the part, he was like “I don’t know I have a lot of plans this summer, a lot of video games…” Then he left and his mom made him go back in and accept the part, and he ended up being one of the funniest parts of the show.
The series has been compared most notably to Freaks and Geeks, another fondly remembered “coming of age” series that featured unknown young actors playing the adolescent roles. In what ways do you feel it’s similar, and in what ways do you feel your series is unique among the “coming of age” comedy subgenre?
L-R: Episode 2 of LIFE SUCKS (“Sleepover”) co-stars Julia Mattison, Mallaigh Ashton, Catherine Kennedy and Maddison Abdul.
DFO: Freaks and Geeks was obviously a major influence on us, for many reasons. There are so many things that are great about that show. It’s nostalgic but not in an overly sentimental way.
It’s raw (and) heartfelt. At times it’s painfully embarrassing, and it’s the only show about high school where the writing sounds authentic.
The kids in the show speak and act the way real high schoolers act, not the way TV writers often imagine they do. We felt like there was nothing that did that for middle school and at the time that we made Life Sucks, there hadn’t been.
But where Life Sucks differs is its absurdity and darker humor. We wanted it to capture the feeling of going through puberty by showing everything from the kids’ perspectives, and convey the idea that socially, every day of middle school could be the end of your life.
What audiences are you hoping to attract to Life Sucks, and how did you tailor the show’s style of comedy to reach those audiences?
DFO: Pretty much anyone who went through puberty, so everyone. We just made a show that we would want to watch and wrote what we thought was funny. We never worried about impressing a certain audience. Maybe that’s why no one wanted to buy it, but it also means that we still get to be fans of the show, and it still makes us laugh after editing and watching it a bajillion times.
Do you feel that today’s teens could relate to the characters and situations presented in Life Sucks?
DFO: Even though the show is set in 2001 and geared toward adults who grew up in the early aughts, we’re dealing with issues that every teen experiences. Let’s face it, puberty is absolute hell but Life Sucks gives teens today a chance to laugh at it and know that they’re not alone. We’ve all been there!
We don’t shy away from the gross, the real, the crude…this isn’t an “afterschool special” kind of show. Life Sucks is something adults who grew up in the era can relate to and show their kids and use it as a jumping off point to have those uncomfortable, awkward conversations.
When people watch the show, they don’t necessarily have to identify with remembering that time you needed to plug your computer in to use the internet or when Netflix was a store called Blockbuster. They identify with the raw, real personalities of the characters.
Besides the show’s ability to generate laughter from audiences while undoubtedly conjuring up their memories of growing up, what are some of the other hopes you have for Life Sucks’ success?
DFO: Mostly, we hope that it creates opportunities for us to create more shows. We are constantly writing and and trying to make as many funny things as we can, but we can only do so much with our personal resources. We hope that in some way or another, Life Sucks leads us to the next show, on an even bigger scale.
Overall, what do you feel viewers can take away from watching Life Sucks?
DFO: We hope people have a lot of “I did that” moments with this show. Middle school is so embarrassing for so many reasons. Seeing someone try to dye their hair platinum blonde like Marshall Mathers (Eminem) is hilarious but only because you or someone you know also did it. Besides the subject matter of the show, we hope people watch this and learn from the backstory of how it was made.
We’re proud of this show, and the truth is, a lot of what made it good also made it unsellable. It’s very different than the majority of what’s on television and it worked against us in the end. We heard a lot about networks wanting to replicate models of shows that were already successful and Life Sucks didn’t fit that description. It was different enough to get us in the room but not the same enough to get the green light. That’s how you end up with 17 different iterations of NCIS, regurgitated 3-camera sitcoms and revivals of literally every ‘90s show.
The bottom line is we needed someone to take a risk on us and it’s really hard to make that happen in TV unless you’re already a proven success. Even with so many ways to watch now, so many of these shows trace back to, like, 14 people making decisions. The idea of buying 6 fully produced episodes that no network had a hand in developing proved too big of a risk to overcome. If you read about It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, every producer and the head of FX said they were taking a risk by green-lighting it. Look at it now. It’s on its (13th, and soon to be 14th) season.
No one took a chance on our show but that doesn’t mean they won’t ever again. The right pieces didn’t fall perfectly into place with Life Sucks, but we hope people hear about how we made this show on our own, that they like it, laugh at it and it inspires them to go out and do the same. If more people try to take risks with TV, maybe a few more people will get a shot and the whole landscape of television can be amazing.
NOTE: Life Sucks is not presently closed-captioned, but the series’ producers say that they’re open to adding captions to each episode at some point in the future.
Episode 3 of Life Sucks is available here:
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