Hello.

Okey dokey.

So originally I wanted to start doing more skit content, if you will, on my YouTube channel. And so I thought, "Why not poke fun at news channels that cover video game news". And so I just did my own spin on that. And it was supposed to be a one time thing. But people liked it so I was like "You know what why not keep doing it?". I had fun doing it, especially compared to the stuff I used to make, I felt like I could be more free with my comedy and my storytelling enough that I thought we have a really good thing going here, why not make this a short series. And now we're here, with (when this will come out) at least 7 episodes are out. (There isn't)

It's rather insane.

Out of the cast if you will?

So originally it was supposed to be just me and there would be a character, but it was basically like schizophrenia, you would never see them but I would just "respond", and that was most of the first episode. And then for the second episode I was like "if I'm gonna do a sequel I might as well have someone else actually be there." So we have the introduction of camera guy in episode 2, who we later know is named Dean, and he's got an attitude, I wanted to add a character who would be like a reality check, obviously the setting is more comedic, and a lot of the things I say and do in the show would be things I would never get away with in real life. I would probably be fired on the spot. So Dean is the reality check where he can say "you know you should not be doing that" or just starts fights. Then we have the manager whose name is Manager. The reason why he's called that is originally I just could not come up with a good name, I'm terrible with giving characters names. So I thought for the joke what if the manager was just called; Manager. Manager kind of plays the same role as the camera guy in that he is sort of a reality check, takes things more seriously and just makes sure he can keep his job. And later in episode 7 we have Peter, and he is kind of the opposite of our main character. He's a lot nicer, actually cares about other people. Not egotistical. And these are all my friends. I've done a lot of projects where they've played roles before so this wasn’t anything new.

Yeah. And originally I wanted them to play the same character, but it just didn't work. So in the end these are all different characters from other projects.

Yeah so originally it was supposed to be the same cast and it would be another sketch involving Pineapple (character) makes a news show so he hires his friends. But then I was like “that’s stupid”, so I scrapped that idea. So it’s a brand new story, these guys are not “friends”, and you can tell from most episodes they do not have friendly conversations, they’re mostly arguing and fighting.

Basically yeah. It’s like if I was making a new show but I didn’t have the budget to hire new actors so I just reused them.

Just like Wes Anderson.

Originally when I made the first episode it was supposed to be a joke on how news channels will say “we’ll be right back after the break”, and it was inspired by that. So the original gag in episode 1 was that they literally had no money for commercials, they had zero and they couldn’t promote anything. So all they could do was just, smash an egg, and that was it. And even in that episode the character alludes to say is that all they can do. So it went from there so I went y‘know what, this could be a segment where I can do skit ideas, and can compress that into a commercial.

So episode 2 is just Quagsire telling A.I. jokes. But episode 3 which was the chef skit, it became moreso about mini-ideas that I wasn’t confident in it as a full length sketch, but I could compress it into a Pineapple News episode. And I think it works better that way, but I don’t know how people took to that. It’s just now a thing where even if it’s a short thing it’s important to the episode. In my opinion it’s what makes Pineapple News, Pineapple News.

Basically.

Unfortunately.

So in the background, even from filming to editing it was not the greatest experience. I was super ambitious, I wanted the episode to be very special, a lot of that having to do with it being on Wii Room and it being a “holiday special” and to have people look forward to it. So I wanted people to think it was really good. I didn’t have all the time in the world to make this either, I did have a time limit. So I did end up having to push some people around for it to happen, but the hardest part was the editing. You can testify to this.

There was a point where I did not sleep at all trying to work on this, and then having to actually upload it to Wii Room was a whole other nightmare. I was uploading this at the highest quality which meant it took forever, and when I did upload it there was an unfinished part. So I had to spend another 20 minutes to get that done, and then it was uploaded essentially at the end of the day. With all the stuff that went wrong with filming and editing, I’m still happy it was done relatively on time. It was definitely one of the biggest projects I had ever done. There’s two original scores, I commissioned special art for it, it had a lot of characters. And this was one of the longest live action stuff I’ve ever done too. It was a challenge, but I’m happy with the way it turned out.

Oh yeah I completely forgot about that. I wanted to have cameos to make it feel special.

There were 3 cameos from the team. There was you (Jess), there was Kolton (KGR), and then there was Isla (at the time known as Harry) who was the voice of Jeff the Comedian. She didn’t have a visible appearance, you and Kolton did, but she did play a character, just as a voice role. Those are really the only three that I asked for.

I think it was 16 and a half minutes. It was very long.

It is funny because season 1A ended up becoming about going from nothing and in the end becoming something, and now with episode 5 and beyond it’s sort of become popular. Maybe you could consider these 4 episodes season 2.

The biggest changes were those opening scenes in specific episodes in black and white. It’s a completely new subplot showing me in present time thinking about how Pineapple News didn’t last long. All these episodes start with a date from 2023, 2024, and obviously we’re not in those years. So we know it didn’t last long, but we don’t know why. So the scenes hint at the turmoil the main character is facing and that’s going to be a big part of the series finale. Another thing is just the credits sequence. I made it more fun.

I added better music, each one ends with a backdrop from the episode now. It isn’t as major but I also retooled some things, like adding sound effects or just cutting everything just a little better, so it’s just mostly a better version of those episodes.

Remastered Plus.

I know, I check once in a while and it’s gone up like crazy. People are still watching it.

These episodes were originally released on YouTube the day the news actually happened. So the first episode was on November 2023, and the episode itself was actually from November 2023, so on and so forth. So now that it’s not released like that anymore, I added the date in the beginning to let people know about it. Originally that was my method to tell people, since that’s the first thing on-screen, not counting the WiiLink Originals intro. I’m pretty sure I’ve read most of the opinions said about the pilot on the WiiLink Discord, and I don’t blame them for being confused. A lot of news shows talk about things happening right now, like Homebrew Tea. So having a news show take place at late 2023 is very confusing and I don’t blame them.

Yeah that’s true, who wouldn’t want to listen to that? Probably better than the stuff going on now.

There’s a couple new characters, a couple new environments that you’ll see Pineapple in, there might even be a story about getting over grief. There’s a lot more stuff in these episodes that I think are just season 1A but better, I do think these episodes are a lot more high quality, a lot more story driven than just the news, there’s a lot more character interactions. I can’t wait for what people will think about the new characters and interactions, and what crazy low budget special event I can do after the cooking one. Be excited.