Yorktown Native Creates Web Sitcom “Home at Last”

A 24-year-old and Duke University graduate now living in Burbank, CA, and is getting closer to achieving his dream of making it on the big screen.

Matthew Giegerich, along with girlfriend and co-creator Chelsea Mize, have developed a new web sitcom "Home at Last." Mize, also a Duke University graduate where she studied English and theater, co-created, co-wrote and co-produced the series.

Together, they thought of the concept, wrote the script for each episode and organized the production, oversaw casting for the series (along with director Steve Sprinkles and Mike Bash) and hired the crew: a director of photography, two assistant camera operators, an assistant director/sound guy, and a makeup/wardrobe person. 

The show stars William Russ (also known from Boy Meets World and American History X) and features notable Internet celebrity Jeff Lewis (known from the The Guild, The Jeff Lewis 5 Minute Comedy Hour.) The series, directed by Stephen Sprinkles, focuses on "Bob," (played by Russ) a homeless man who moves in with his long lost son. 

"It's edgy, but it has heart," Giegerich said. "We're using the Internet to tell a story that you might not see on network TV, where homelessness is rarely the focus. But we're approaching it from a comedic angle, careful to never take the subject matter too seriously."

Giegerich said the advantage of producing something on the web yourself is you didn't have to worry about saying or doing things that aren't "as mainstream as the major sitcoms." 

"The reason we created the series specifically for the Internet is pretty much because we had to in order to get our stuff seen," he said. "You don't need permission to produce a show and release it independently online, and there isn't really a better distribution option out there. Plus, you can go a little further online. You can stray a little further from the heart of the mainstream and you don't have anyone looking over your shoulder as far as the content is concerned."

He said the show, which has six episodes with the first one debuting on Oct. 25, is geared toward men between the ages of 18 and 34. New episodes will be released every other Tuesday and new supplemental or promotional video will be released every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Giegerich's interest in writing began at Yorktown High School. One of his favorite moments was being a part of the jazz band and taking English classes that sparked his interest in writing and telling stories. 

"Growing up in such a supportive, creative community had a huge influence on my decision to pursue screenwriting after college," he said of his hometown. "It's hard to live all the way across the country, but my family back home is extremely supportive, and their encouragement and enthusiasm is a big help."

But it wasn't until he got to college that he developed an interest in writing for TV and movies, and wrote a sample script for a show as part of a contest that a teacher had told his girlfriend about.

"Our writing professor really loved it," he said. "It was a ton of fun to write, and we haven't stopped writing together since."

As far as his expectations for "Home at Last," Giegerich said he hopes it will help him get further in his career, possibly produce a second season of the show, but ideally he would like the show to be picked up for TV development. 

"Maybe that an agent likes it and signs us, or a producer sees it and wants to produce it or something else we wrote," he said. 

There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into creating the show , producing and marketing it, but the most rewarding aspect is the people's responses the creators have received, Giegerich said. 

He and Mize wrote the script, which is about 30 pages, in a few days. After that, they had almost 10 casting sessions for the various characters and saw close to 1,000 actors auditioning for a part. They used their apartment, which was entirely repainted and redecorated for the show, as the set. 

"Most of the decorations we got at local tag sales," Giegerich said. "It's not a huge apartment, and we pretty much shot the whole series in the living room, kitchen, but it was definitely a big process."

In addition to launching this series, he and Mize were recently hired to write a currently untitled romantic comedy, which will begin production in the spring of 2012.

"It is going to be our first feature film, so we're really excited," Giegerich said. "We're really lucky to have the opportunity to have one of our scripts get made, so we're excited."

And where does he see himself in five years?

He hopes his movies would be in the theaters, he is staffed on a TV show, he is running the sitcom version of "Home at Last" as a popular show on cable, or a combination of any of those.

"Home at Last" premiered its first episode Oct. 25, 2011. New episodes are scheduled to air every other Tuesday through January on HomeAtLastShow.com, as well as on Facebook and YouTube at “HomeAtLastShow.”