LA LA LAND

WHEN SHOWTIME NETWORK STOLE MY TV SERIES

PART 2 OF 2

MIKE CARAVELLA

JUNE 24, 2026

Limbo… whether you define that term from a theoretical, or a theological point of view, they both apply here to what happened next for me.

Lots of encouraging meetings. Lionsgate. FX Network. To name a couple more where we had thorough discussions. The fact that I was getting this project into the hands of network and studio executives as a “nobody” actor with no formal representation and they were responding and discussing, speaks to the weight of how LA LA Land was viewed around town in 2008.

But that's the crux of the problem. And actually still is to this day. I’m not “famous”. I’m not “connected”. The powers that be have no issue at all with distributing my work without compensating me for it. Lots of people wanted LA LA Land. Nobody wanted to pay me for it. Astral Plane Drifter is currently living in this world as well. The difference is now, I’m in control. Although my bank account would agree with the limbo analogy.

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Nothing ever surfaced with the William Morris Agency either. Not even another meeting, or word for that matter. Stone silence after all of that encouraging foundation building. John has been a good friend, and I appreciate his initial efforts, but that's part of the issue. Initial efforts. To have success in any industry, not just, but especially entertainment, you need a strong advocate. And it’s not just John, but all of my industry friends that know me well. They just don’t follow through. With everything they know about me, and my will, and that I will never stop, they still doubt me in the end. And I end up going it alone.

So this is the part of the story where the slope gets slippery, and I got one foot on a banana peel. I need to broaden my canvassing at this point. So I start to hand out DVD’s and paper scripts to more than just “verifiable links” at studios, agencies, and production companies. I start handing it out to known actors and directors, and also that dirty terminology that I’m now defined by... Independent producers.

At this point, we are into the winter of 2008/2009. Joe di Gennaro, my DP, was involved in another project with an indie filmmaker, Seb we’ll call him. Seb wrote a feature script as a vehicle for himself to star in, and hired Joe to be his Director and Co-Producer. I got to know him. Casual friendly. He was a decent enough guy, but in his pursuit to get things done, he was unafraid to swim in sketchy waters with sketchy people. And I got sucked into that riptide.

On February 9th, I fire off a letter to Melinda Benedik, Executive VP Of Business Affairs and Production at Showtime, and present what I think has transpired. On February 23rd (keep in mind this is 2010 and everything is still snail mail) I receive a response from Anne Kurrasch, Senior VP Of Business Affairs and Production. She says that they purchased the rights to the show from Fooling Nobody Productions (nameless shitbag “creator/star”) and have notified their representative and they will be in touch with me directly. This is pretty expedient correspondence from some pretty big network higher-ups to a “nobody”...

Just 3 weeks later, I get another letter in the mail. This time from Richard P. Brull of The Brull Law Firm. Yes, now the Owner and Managing Partner of a top entertainment law firm is responding to little ole me pretty damn quick. He says he is counsel for Little Duke Productions, the production company for the show… Wait… I thought I was supposed to be contacted by reps for Fooling Nobody Productions whom they bought it from… Why are they directly responding with top lawyers from supposed Showtime “production companies”? And yes, he was a notable lawyer for Showtime Network shows at that time, not just “Little Duke Productions” for which there is zero history or trace of that production company. Anyway, he gave the blah, blah, blah legal mumbo jumbo, the similarities are coincidence, and they reserve all rights and defenses should I attempt to pursue any claim.

What I didn't fully understand back then was that I was caught in a classic Hollywood shell game. When a network like Showtime buys a show, their contracts include a nasty little clause called "indemnification shifting.” That means Showtime tells creators, “If anyone comes forward claiming you copied their work, you have to pay for the lawyers and handle the mess.” Melinda Benedek passed the baton to Anne Kurrasch. Anne wasn’t being helpful; she was tossing a legal hot potato. And that’s where Richard Brull and "Little Duke Productions" came in. Little Duke wasn’t a real, lasting company—it was a temporary corporate shield, a throwaway LLC. By having Brull respond only under the Little Duke banner, they built a legal maze. If I wanted to fight, I’d be suing a ghost company with zero assets, while the parent company and the network stayed completely insulated, safe, and fat behind their corporate walls.

So I did the only thing I could do… I ate it. Several factors here. First one is, I just finished a brutal 4 year custody battle with my ex-wife just 6 months prior. I won full custody of my kids, but I was completely mentally and financially drained, and what should have been a slam dunk custody trial, turned out to be a money pit aimed to destroy fathers who defend themselves. I had no faith in the court system and judges. Even less for lawyers.

The other factor is, I’m just a guy trying to find his way doing one of the toughest things in the world to do. Find success in the TV & Film Industry. The last thing I wanted to do was blackball myself taking on the studio system. So maybe for the only time in my life in anything, I backed down.

Karma had its way, and it turns out their version was shit, nobody watched it, and it was cancelled after 6 episodes. Mr. Fooling Nobody Productions, aptly named, went back to insignificance where he remains.

So me being who I am, I went right back after it. I took my six episodes I’d written already, reformed them into a feature script, and decided to try my hand, for the first time, as an indie filmmaker.

By this point, in 2010, I have a new neighbor who to this day is still one of my dearest friends, Chad Coleman. This is pre Walking Dead, and I didn’t watch The Wire, so I had no idea who he was. We just started talking football at the gym one day, and later that afternoon he’s sitting down by the pool in our complex. We hit it off fast. One day, I told him the whole story, and then we watched the Pilot DVD and he absolutely adored it, and still talks about it to this day. He wanted to be a part of it, and thus, I started assembling my new team.

Jason, Gilbert, John and gang all moved on and gave up at this point. That’s not in my vocabulary. Joe di G wasn’t involved either. We grew apart for a while after those events. No animosity. Just didn’t know what to say to each other. What I found out later was he carried tremendous guilt from association with Guinan, and it weighed heavily on him. When it was time to make the short film version of Astral Plane Drifter, I gave him a call to see if he could recommend a young and hungry DP for my no budget short. At this point Joe was the Senior Technical Advisor to the Academy Of Motion Pictures And Sciences, working on The Academy Awards among other projects. He jumped in with both feet to help make Drifter, and stayed with me all the way through the feature production, giving greatly of himself and his resources.

This might have been my most deflated, depressed moment in my life. I was just numb. 5 years of working my ass off and had nothing to show for it. 2012 was dark for me. I was functionally depressed. I had 3 kids and a wife that needed me, and I was there doing all the things I needed to do. But I drank too much and would have moments of just being lost. I would move on from LA LA Land, and begin to work on other projects, and have more close call stories I’ll tell at some point. But, I ebbed and flowed pretty hard all the way until my cancer diagnosis in 2016, when that knocked all the negativity shit right out of me.

In 2018, the beauty and tragedy of LA LA Land would rear its head once more. As I mentioned, Marty Kove was attached to it at one point. And in my slinging DVD’s all over town, Billy Zabka had a copy as well. When Cobra Kai premiered, the first episode's opening title sequence looked hauntingly familiar to me. Here’s a side by side I made with the opening sequence of LA LA Land. Pay particular close attention to the last sequence in this clip.

It is through him that I was introduced to Joseph Guinan. This guy is 100% pure scumbag, and I don’t need to list his offenses here. A common internet search will do that for you. Joe di G invited me out to an industry mixer with him and Seb. Seb knew Guinan and made the introductions. He presented himself as a Producer/Sales Agent. Snakes like Guinan have charm, and that’s what makes them effective. Couple that with the introduction from people who I know, and in Joe di G’s case, trust, made it easier for me to hand over my script and DVD to him to see if he could help get something done.

Months go by. No word from Guinan. Which is not alarming in and of itself. Most times in this industry that’s exactly the response you get. Initial meeting, everybody loves you and promises the world. The next day… crickets.

January 2010. I start getting text messages and phone calls, messages and Facebook comments from random friends congratulating me. “You sold LA LA Land!” Except I didn’t. Apparently there’s a new show, La La Land, premiering on Showtime January 24th. I start to dig and find out the concept is eerily similar to my LA LA Land. I won’t go into details of the show or name the “creator/star” because he doesn’t deserve my validation, and let’s just let him continue to live with no one knowing who the fuck he is. Lets just say one of the main characters borrows a lot from Mikey Forearms and so does the whole setup, scenario, locations and camera work.

After I watch the first episode, I’m livid but not shocked. One of my mantras in life is “Always Disappointed. Never Surprised.” (I write my own mantras.) But what really stands out to me within all of this similarity, is Joseph Guinan. Right there on the fucking screen as an actor in it.

Part 2 of 2

I’m not accusing them of theft on this. But the influence is undeniable given the connection. There will always be a special place in my heart for LA LA Land. It’s such a piece of me, and its legacy can be seen all over the place in other people's projects. It would have been nice to get paid for it. Would be nice to get paid for Astral Plane Drifter at some point as well. 11 years of work for two projects with literal pennies to show from it. But that will change soon. Drifter is alive and chipping away, inch by inch. And if I can ever get a breakthrough with it, and am able to make the next Drifter movie, the spirit of LA LA Land will be resurrected, as some great bits from its feature script are repurposed for it.

If everyone else is going to steal from me, why not steal from myself?

“When In Rome, Man…” - The Drifter

LA LA Land has been up on my YouTube channel for years now. Up for so long, it goes back to the days when you weren’t allowed to post anything longer than 10 minutes. Here it is in 3 parts:

The feature script version of LA LA Land is wild, and takes some real crazy turns. I figured to be able to raise money to make it I need name talent. Being this is a fringe Hollywood story, I need fringe celebrities. Preferably 1980’s fringe celebrities. Remember, I already started handing out DVD’s to actors I had access to, so it was already out and about in the town’s zeitgeist. I got deal memo attachments, with no money being exchanged because I don’t have any, from C. Thomas Howell (The Outsiders), Martin Kove (The Karate Kid), Taylor Negron (Easy Money) and Frank Stallone (Frank Stallone).

Now in 2011, I partnered with a management company recommended by a friend. Their main focus was finding money for independent films. It all seemed to be going along great. We were part of a 10 picture deal they packaged. Without getting too wonky, it was Chinese investors as part of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Wealthy Chinese Investors would invest in this package, get a conditional green card, bring their families with them, work on these 10 movies over the course of several years and eventually become citizens. Done in Hollywood all the time by the major studios.

For several months there was lots of paperwork shuffling, and we seemed to have all of our ducks in a row, and I was ready to head into pre-production on the movie in about 6 weeks time. Then the phone call came. The investors pulled out. No rhyme or reason. No explanation given. Done. Poof. Over.