Brian Volk-Weiss Reveals How Many Jokes He Got Back on Notes From Ryan Reynolds' Production Company for Discontinued

The series is better as a result of the producers' notes, he says -- which isn't always the case.

By Russ Burlingame

Brian Volk-Weiss, who brought the internet the joys of nostalgia through shows like The Toys That Made Us, recently launched a new series on Maximum Effort's branded channel on Fubo. The show, Discontinued, is hosted by indie film icon Bruce Campbell and centers on products that have been...well...discontinued. As you might expect from a series executive produced by Ryan Reynolds and hosted by Campbell, this one is slightly less earnest and a bit more snarky in its nostalgia. The jokes permeate it, and that's part of the show's voice. 

According to Volk-Weiss, you wouldn't be wrong in thinking that at least part of that is as a result of Reynolds and company. According to the filmmaker, he feels pretty lucky to be working with a studio where pretty much everybody has a sense of humor, and the notes are sharp and laser-focused.

"They are hands-on in a good way. I have never seen better notes. We would put the cut together, send it to them, and it would move up sometimes even two letter grades from their notes," Volk-Weiss told ComicBook.com. "We don't have this luxury very often; as a company, every single person there that we interact with not only has a sense of humor...the vast majority have a phenomenal sense of humor. So we would send cuts and get notes with jokes. They would say 'That's good, what about this?'"

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He noted that one of the worst things that can happen when you're putting a show together is broad, generic notes that feel more like "do it better," and that he loves the very precise way Maximum Effort chimes in.

Discontinued premiered on Maximum Effort Channel on Fubo on Thursday, November 30th at 8 p.m. ET. Starting the following week, episodes will move to Wednesdays (12/6 being the first) at 9 p.m. ET. Maximum Effort Channel, curated by Ryan Reynolds and the Maximum Effort team in partnership with Fubo, is available to watch on Fubo as well as Amazon Freevee, LG Channels, Plex, Sling Freestream, Tubi, VIDAA, VIZIO Watchfree+ and Xumo Play.

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