Fox television affiliates KCYU – TV Fox 41, and KFFX – TV Fox 11 in Washington State (the Pacific Northwest) are in the works of launching a new dramatic television series set to air prime time on Saturday, December 2nd. “Jackson Horn” is an hour-long drama created and written by Josh Hodgins, a 27 year-old local Yakima, Washington filmmaker.
Based on the life of Josh Hodgins, “Jackson Horn” a heart-felt drama centered around the journey of a youth struggling through a broken family, homelessness and ultimately finding himself through challenging pursuits of life, love and happiness, as well dealing with the importance of family. Set in Hodgins’ home town of Yakima, “Jackson Horn” depicts the pitfalls and triumphs of his courageous life thorugh fictional characters set in the path of making the wrong decisions in life and facing the harsh consequences of such – a series that could both educate and relate to youths and families of today in many ways.
Jh Productions is working in association with Sunday Moving Picture Show Productions on this very ambitious drama intended for the family audience.? “Jackson Horn” was initially planned as a show intended for local Fox station KCYU – Fox 41, though it has been picked up in the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco, Richland) and is now set to air to a much larger audience.
“To my knowledge this is the first instance like this. A Locally produced television show with support and guidance from a Network affiliated television station. I hope the relationship continues to blossom into what is sure to be a lot of fun and excitement for this little city of Yakima.” said Hodgins last year just after the “Pilot” debuted. “We ran a “Pilot” last November, and the first season starts this December 2nd. We have wrapped a 22 week shoot. We have a full cast and crew and have done all of this for under $15,000.00.”
The series starts at the point at which the main character, Jackson Horn (Josh Hodgins) is kicked out of his mother’s home after an argument, with a cast that also includes Noelle Atwood (Kate Drisco), Jennifer Russell (Erin Lovelace), Casey Hilliard (Sam Carter), Lauren Hernandez (Ray Rimalo), Jaclyn German (Jaime Burress) and Brooke Bastinelli (Christina McNielson). Brooke, a Yakima native now living in Los Angeles has done recent work on HBO’s “Entourage.” She felt it was important enough to fly home and be a part of this historic event.
I asked Josh to fill us in on his background and what lead up to this unprecidented event. In his own words:
“I started acting when I was four years old. I was featured on “World New Tonight” when I was 8. I started a public access comedy show at 17, then was homeless right at the end of high school. I continued to do the show and started doing stand-up comedy. I traveled the country and found myself at Comedy Central. I decided against the glitz and glamour, choosing instead to go home and try to re-build a family life from scratch. I put myself in counseling and soon became a counselor to my Mom and sister.
After re-establishing a connection there, I went back full time into the entertainment industry. I won mulitple awards for filmmaking and soon decided to write the “Pilot” for Jackson Horn. Fox got wind of it and called me. Soon after we were producing the Pilot and in November of last year the show aired. It left much to be desired.
But, Fox committed to a season, and I went out to raise money. I had the option of taking money from FOX or keeping creative. I went with the latter and raised about 15,000.00 for the year. I got apartments donated for the crew, I got clothes custom made for the show by KINK Clothing in Seattle. I got cars, phones, and just about everything else we needed, donated. Ninety-nine percent of the music is local, the locations, the clothes, the actors, the story and just about anything else you can think of. We started filming May 1st, and just wrapped on Oct. 4th. The show is in post and it looks really good. I can’t wait for people to see it. We have been called about a season two, and we are very interested, but we are hoping to take the next step and do this for a living.
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Cast:
Josh Hodgins – Jackson Horn
Noelle Atwood – Kate Drisco
Jennifer Russell – Erin Lovelace
Casey Hilliard – Sam Carter
Lauren Hernandez – Ray Rimalo
Jaclyn German – Jaime Burress
Brooke Batinelli – Christina McNielson
Jeremy Shaw – Mark Lovelace
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