Smith filmed the half-hour TV comedy pilot in 2016, but it never got picked up. Now, he's trying out a crowdfunded entertainment platform to see if the show can get a new chance at a full season. Watch video
Kevin Smith‘s “Hollyweed” project is getting a second chance at an audience through a nontraditional platform.
In 2016, the Red Bank native wrote, directed and starred in the half-hour stoner comedy TV pilot with Donnell Rawlings (“Chappelle’s Show,” “The Wire”), but the show never got picked up.
Rawlings and Smith play marijuana enthusiasts who manage a Los Angeles cannabis dispensary, their story just one entry in the pot programming boom (“Disjointed,” a Netflix comedy with a similar premise starring Kathy Bates, was canceled in February).
Joining the leads in the show are Frankie Shaw (“SMILF”), Smith’s podcast collaborator Ralph Garman (“Family Guy”), Ashley Greene (“Yoga Hosers,” “Tusk”) and Adam Brody (“The O.C.”).
Smith, 47, had been hinting on social media recently that the show was not dead and buried.
Years ago, @donnellrawlings & I shot a pilot for a show called #Hollyweed that was essentially CLERKS in a dispensary. Now, @RivitTV is giving it a second chance at life! See me acting with words coming out of my mouth! Watch the pilot FREE and (if you can) help us make more! pic.twitter.com/plqtQRyL0b
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) July 12, 2018
On Wednesday night, Smith tweeted that the series pilot, which he described as “‘Clerks’ set in a dispensary,” would be available for free viewing at Rivit TV.
From there, viewers can decide whether or not they’d like to see more of the show by way of the new crowdfunding platform. Rivit allows fans to greenlight a show after watching a pilot by paying to finance the production of the series. Each viewer decides how much they want to pay per episode — anywhere from $ 1.99 to $ 5.99. The more people that fund the show, the less it will ultimately cost each backer. “Hollyweed” is Rivit’s first pilot.
Viewers have 45 days to contribute to the show, but if the fundraising goal Smith has set is not met, none of the fans will be charged. Smith is asking fans to pre-purchase a few episodes to get the project going. The goal is to generate $ 5,305,264 for the first season of the show by August 26.
Those who watch the pilot will also recognize Jason Mewes, Smith’s longtime friend from Highlands who has played Jay to Smith’s Silent Bob in the director’s New Jersey-set “View Asknewniverse” films, starting with his 1994 movie “Clerks.”
After years of playing the mostly silent Silent Bob, Smith mused that his role in “Hollyweed” was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream — to be an actor who talks. He said that he originally wrote the part of Randal Graves in “Clerks” for himself but “chickened out.”
“To better understand what this means to me, here’s a text I sent my kid after I finished putting her scenes together (she plays my daughter in the show),” Smith posted on Facebook when he announced the show two years ago.
“My secret dream my whole life was to be an actor (one who talks),” he told his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, in the text.
“Hollyweed” was originally funded by entities from the cannabis industry and produced by FremantleMedia.
Smith recently shed more than 40 pounds after making lifestyle changes following a massive heart attack earlier this year. (A scene later in the episode appears to have been filmed and tacked on when Smith was in the “after” stage of weight loss, a fact his character cheekily acknowledges by saying he randomly dropped a lot of weight.)
The writer, actor and director, a onetime hater of vegetables who is now vegan, became a Weight Watchers ambassador this year.
Marijuana has played a key role in Smith’s life apart from the show. The director said that the doctor who operated on him to clear a total blockage of his left anterior descending artery told him that using marijuana before the cardiac event likely helped to save his life.
In his recent Showtime comedy special, “Silent But Deadly,” filmed in California about an hour before he had the heart attack, Smith tells a story about the time he was on tour in Arizona and mistakenly thought he was being called out by a police officer for smoking marijuana on a hotel balcony. He frantically changed his clothes to meet the officer, but it turned out the gesturing man was just a fan in a dark blue shirt.
Smith will be back in Red Bank on August 2 (his 48th birthday) for his sold-out 20th anniversary Vulgarthon at Bow Tie Cinemas.
To watch the “Hollyweed” pilot, head to Rivit TV.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.