On Sept. 26, the second season of MTV’s “The Buried Life” premiered to audiences nationwide, and the show’s four stars watched in fans’ houses after debuting the installment at the show’s premiere party the previous week at Drai’s Hollywood, sponsored by Three Olive’s Three-O “Naked” Vodka.
“Our idea is to just show up at a fan’s house,” Duncan Penn told LA’s The Place of the cast’s plans for the premiere episode. “[The fans are] who got us back for a second season.”
“The Buried Life” has a growing fanbase that began with the show’s inception nearly five years ago, though the original outlet to watch was not MTV but YouTube.
“We started out in an RV,” Duncan said. “We’ve come a long way in four years. It was supposed to be a two-week road trip.”
The two-week road trip followed four friends—Duncan, Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood and Jonnie Penn—across the country as the fulfilled items on their sort of Bucket List. Each item of the 100 on the list is something the friends wish to achieve before they die, and that original documentary was filmed in 2006 and 2007.
Ben and Jonnie of The Buried Life
The serial version of the show was announced for MTV in 2009, and now focuses on the guys’ list and shows the group helping a fan who has written in with a request. The first season ended in an all-time high for the comrades as they played basketball with President Obama.
“Every year it instrumentally just gets better and better,” Jonnie told LA’s The Place. “Like last year, we had the one with Oprah and Obama, and this year we’re trying to go even bigger.”
The second season opens with “The Buried Life” guys streaking at a major sporting event while also helping a young girl build a memorial skate park for her friends who had passed away.
“She had lost four of her close friends, all skateboarders, and wanted to make a memorial half pipe skate park there,” said Dave. “The way she wrote to us really touched us.”
Now, with the series’ second season, the guys think they are actually more accessible than ever to fans requests and remain very active online and social networking with their Facebook page.
Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed and Tyler Hoechlin of MTV's Teen Wolf
This year the guys promise that the list’s check marks are better than ever.
“We set the bar when we played ball with Obama [last season], it’s like, how do you top that,” Ben explained. “We just go bigger.”
This upcoming season has the guys dropped it the middle of the South Pacific to try and survive on an island, becoming real-life bounty hunters to catch a fugitive and struggling to obtain a lock of “Twilight” heartthrob Rob Pattinson’s hair.
“We went everywhere,” Duncan said of searching for the movie star based on a dare. “That was like our paparazzi episode. We just went with the paparazzi and followed him around. It was crazy.”
Individually, the guys also achieved some goals as Dave fought a real MMA fighter and Duncan asked country music star Taylor Swift on a date.
“We are so excited for the next season to air because it’s totally insane,” said Dave.
And with all of the success and recognition—the show was nominated for Best New Show at the VH1 Do Something Awards—the guys still can’t believe how far they have come from their humble beginnings.
“People connect with it,” Jonnie explained. “It isn’t like a regular show—people know that this is homemade. We started in a garage.”
And the stars of “The Buried Life” are also in the editing rooms making sure everything behind the scenes is to their liking as well.
“We’re always thinking of what can’t we do, cause that’s what we try and do,” Ben said. The project has changed our lives. You say, ‘I’ve always wanted to make a show with my friends…’ and then Obama coming…it really reinforced that you can do anything. It’s cool.”
Celebs Chat with LA’s The Place
Actors and actresses also attended the premiere party for “The Buried Life” answering the question on everyone’s minds: “What do you want to do before you die?”
Natasha Alam (“True Blood”) answered, “I would go to Puerto Rico and jump in the water!”
The actress has been busy working on the set of HBO’s hit vampire show and just finished an upcoming independent film revolving around a modern-day Romeo and Juliet tale.
Natasha Alam (True Blood) and Peta Murgatroyd & Damian Whitewood (Dancing with the Stars)
Holland Roden (“MTV’s “Teen Wolf”) would like to travel to Antarctica before she dies. “I would love to go down there and live down there for two years,” the once-science major explained. “See what’s making [the glaciers] melt…would love to be a part of that and be able to see that.”
The up-and-coming actress recently met “The Buried Life” cast and sat with the group at the Video Music Awards. With the sci-fi-esque show coming up, she is also featured in an upcoming episode of NBC’s hit “The Event.”
Holland Roden (Teen Wolf) and Jareb Dauplaise (Hard Times with RJ Berger)
Star of another MTV show, “The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” Paul Iacono is really enjoying the turn MTV is taking with some of its new programming like “Hard Times” and “The Buried Life.”
“I think it’s so motivational and an engaging documentary series vs. the reality series that MTV has pigeonholed lately,” Iacono told LA’s The Place. “They’re fantastic guys.”
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