Rock-un-Rold: Musician's Talk Show (Unaired Television Pilot) (2008)

FILMED OCT. 28, 2007 in New York City at “The Studio”

This pitch episode is a 24 minute edited version of two guest panels, filmed for approx 75 minutes each, featuring guest appearances:

Panel 1:
Ross The Boss (Manowar)
Nick Douglas (Doro)
Joey Z. (Life of Agony)

Panel 2:
Vernon Reid (Living Colour)
Jay Jay French (Twisted Sister)
Dennis Dunaway (Alice Cooper)

HOW DID THIS START – and END? (a brief history)

ROCK-UN-ROLD Musician’s talk show was pioneered by recording artists Rat Skates (Drummer / founder of OVERKILL) and David Ellefson (Bassist, MEGADETH). As a percussion instructor, Skates became very concerned when he listened to his young students tell him about their dreams of stardom. Realizing they had absolutely no help outside of lessons, and the dangers they face by emulating their idols' path of mistakes, he conceptualized a musician- specific talk show that would connect artists by discussing real issues in the real world of rock 'n roll. With David as joint moderator, they taped a demo shoot to pitch the television networks.

Rock-Un-Rold was received with very high remarks and positive critique, but Viacom (VH-1) passed on the idea because, QUOTE: "It's too intelligent...it won't hold the attention spans of the 18-25 year old audience that we market to...if you want to really focus on some extreme drug use, sexual escapades, violence, embarrassments etc...then maybe we can talk more. The more tabloid style shock-value it has, the more we will be interested."

"This is beyond my comprehension" said Skates. "Encouraging us to help exploit the collapse of young musicians instead of reaching out to help just re-defines selfishness. The networks have the power to literally save thousands of young artists, but their only concern is keeping their job. They have made a conscious choice to perpetuate the problem by turning their back on millions of young people who need help. Screw ‘em! The Hollywood big business cartel has never been anything but toxic to all of us anyhow. I’ll figure out another way to do this…”

So…VH1 opted for “That Metal Show”…nothing gained…just more and more lost.

ROCK-UN-ROLD:
Conceived, written and directed by Rat Skates
Produced by Kundrat Productions LLC