At some point during the filming of Bulldozer, law enforcement got word that the half-hour comedy pilot was filming without proper permits.
“They started trying to bust down the door,” recalls director Andrew Leeds of officers showing up to their shoot in the Valley, demanding the production clear out.
It was a potentially disastrous moment, given that Bulldozer was self-financed (no studio lawyers to intervene), and was largely made by calling in favors to people like Mary Steenburgen, who plays the mother to creator/star Joanna Leeds’ character. Producers held the door shut so they could finish filming, and tried to shield Steenburgen from the chaos, not wanting the show’s biggest name to feel she was on a production that didn’t have its shit together.
“I am literally chatting Mary up, looking over my shoulder at these cops going, ‘Oh my God, please don’t turn around,’” says executive producer Rhett Reese, the screenwriter known for co-writing Deadpool and Zombieland.
Ultimately, the production agreed to leave, though the team now says they did have the proper permits, but didn’t know enough to complain to the cops.
The incident was just one several stranger-than-fiction anecdotes from the comedy’s rocky path to the Sundance Film Festival, where it was one of just two scripted pilots to screen out of 16,000 entries.
The pilot stars Joanna Leeds as, per the logline, “an undermedicated, chronically impassioned young woman who lurches from crisis to crisis of her own making.”
Joanna notes that many female-fronted comedy series hit the same beats again and again. For example, they often follow a sexually liberated protagonist going from a tryst to tryst. And for some reason, as she notes, the shows usually features a shot of the star sitting on the toilet, contemplating life.
“I’m not judging any of that,” says Joanna, whose brother is Bulldozer director Andrew Leeds. “But my female friends and I — we are neurotic, we’re tired, we’re angry. We don’t find life to be so easy. We can’t even get a guy on an app to not ghost us. So I don’t even know how people are having one night stands.”
Joanna nearly got the pilot off the ground with Endeavor Content five years ago, signing paperwork in the days before the coronavirus pandemic hit, killing its chances. Other potential suitors came and went, but all along, her brother, Andrew, and friend Reese believed in the project.
Reese is known for pushing projects up the hill when nobody seems to want them, such as 2016’s Deadpool or the comedy reality show The Joe Schmo Show, both made with partner Paul Wernick. But Bulldozer became the first project he put his own money into.
“It’s the ultimate expression of just how much I believe in it,” says Reese, who financed it with Andrew and Joanna, as well as his brother, executive producer Caleb Reese. “It’s one thing to rant at a system for not being courageous and say, ‘Hey, why aren’t these executives greenlighting things? Why aren’t they making stuff and taking a risk?’ At some point, we needed to look back at ourselves and ask, ‘Well, why aren’t we willing to take a risk?’”
Andrew, who has worked as an actor on shows such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Barry, called in favors to help secure actors, with the cast including Allen Leech, Harvey Guillen, Kate Burton, Nat Faxon and Comedian CP.
And Joanna called in a favor to her doctor to secure his office as a shooting location. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize there’d be 40 crew people involved, clogging up the arteries of the building.
When the building’s landlord found out mid-shoot, he told the production he was going to evict the doctor — unless the Bulldozer team paid him off.
“It was a shakedown of epic proportions. He was so mad. He wanted to fire everyone, even people he wasn’t even a boss over,” says Caleb Reese with a laugh. “Joanna’s sitting there bawling, because she thinks her doctor’s about to get evicted. And Andrew comes up, and he says, ‘Use it for the scenes,’ because she had this big crying scene coming up.”
The doctor was not evicted, thanks to the production paying the landlord. But Joanna is no longer a patient at the office.
The team agonized over the shoot and post-production, intent on making a pilot that was ready to air, not just a proof of concept. And they succeeded in creating an episode that would look right at home on anything from FX to HBO to Apple TV+. The audience at its Jan. 28 Sundance premiere laughed as though they were watching an early Deadpool screening.
Reese feels particular pride that they were able to shoot in Los Angeles, which has seen production in decline after the pandemic, the dual strikes and now the L.A. fires.
As for Joanna, she has plenty of material for the rest of the season, should it sell. And despite the ups and downs, she savors the chaotic moments from the shoot, even finding humor in getting kicked out of that Valley location by the cops.
“One of the cops said, ‘You guys got to get out of there now,’” recalls Joanna. “And then he goes, ‘Is that Mary Steenburgen? ‘And we’re like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘She is so hot.’ We’re like, ‘Wait, could we stay? ‘And he’s like, ‘No, you still got to go.’”
