43
Golub optimistic about filming TV pilot
NILES — Bob Golub is back in town, and maybe this time he’s going to stay awhile.
The Sharon, Pa., native who has been carving out a career in Los Angeles for years as a comedian, actor and filmmaker, is doing a weekend stint at The Funny Farm, beginning tonight.
But his trip to the area has a double purpose, because Golub plans to do some shooting for a pilot TV show he’s developing, which is based on his colorful family.
Golub talked about the project in a phone call from his California home last week. He said he’s got interest from a major player, although he can’t reveal names. The pilot stems from his documentary, “Dodo,” which he made a few years ago in Sharon. “Dodo” was the nickname of his late father, a hard-drinking roofer in Sharon who was a character around town and a tyrant to his wife and kids.
Golub described the TV series. “It’s a single-camera one-hour dramedy about a struggling Los Angeles comic and actor — Bob Golub — who goes back to his hometown in western Pennsylvania to spend time and get closure from his dying, politically-incorrect, one-eyed, alcoholic father,” he said.
Golub has worked up a treatment, with characters and plotlines, over a 22-episode arc. If he gets the green light, Golub said he’d love to shoot it in Sharon, Pa., to give it authenticity. “There are a lot of great actors there who can handle the smaller parts,” he said.
In the series, Golub returns to Sharon with his pregnant wife and kids to tend to his dying father. Only his father never dies — at least not until the end of the series. He stays alive to torment Golub and renew his unresolved father-son issues.
Unlike the documentary, the pilot is set in the present, and the area’s economic woes inform the writing.
The comedian has spent most of his life trying to make peace with his late father, and he’s developed a stand-up act that borrows from his relationship with him.
If the series proceeds, Golub said to look for it on cable because it will be too edgy for broadcast networks.
After 25 years in the entertainment business, Golub is realistic and knows that the pilot could fall through in a moment. But he also knows the value of persistence.
“I had a lot of people tell me to give it up and move on,” he said. “But I always and still do believe it is a story that people can relate to, and it is funny.”
In addition to the pilot, Golub has also been busy doing commercials. “I just did a national Miller Light commercial with Mike Starr and Frank Vincent from ‘The Sopranos,’” he said. “It is a funny commercial. Hopefully it will start running next week.”
Golub is also pitching a show called “Construction Detectives” to producer Mark Wolper. It’s a tongue-in-cheek take-off on a home improvement show.