Dub Cornett On Working With Bill Murray & Brian Doyle-Murray On “Extra Innings” For Facebook

Few actors are more universally-loved than Bill Murray and few concepts are more American than baseball. When you combine Bill Murray and baseball, and add in famed character actor Brian Doyle-Murray and director Dub Cornett, you have the new ground-breaking original series Bill Murray And Brian Doyle-Murray’s Extra Innings. As launched on Facebook Watch on November 20, Extra Innings is premiering a new episode each Monday until all 10 episodes have been released.

On no level is Extra Innings your average 2017 series. Not only is it an unscripted show without breaks or commercials, but it was produced on spec, entirely independent of the traditional entertainment industry. For the most part, Extra Innings finds the Murrays touring minor league baseball stadiums and surrounding culture, mixing together sports, comedy and documentary-style filming.

I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with the aforementioned Dub Cornett — also known as the co-creator of Mike Judge Presents: Tales From The Tour Bus — who proved to be just as honest and entertaining as the Murrays. As the founder of Oso Studios, Cornett has plenty of other projects in the works and can be visited online at www.osostudios.com. More on Extra Innings can be found at www.facebook.com/billbrianextrainnings.

I heard that this series was made without agents, managers or a real series of pitch meetings. Where exactly did the idea come from?

Dub Cornett: Yes, I don’t have an agent or manager and Bill doesn’t have an agent or manager. Brian has a manager, but he was cool and very easy to work with. I just came up with the idea. The idea really was birthed at a friend’s birthday party when I ran into Brian and we started discussing baseball. We both realized that we loved the sport, but truly the minor leagues. I thought it’d make a fun show and Brian agreed, then Bill agreed and we started shooting.

What was the hardest part of putting this series together?

Dub Cornett: Scheduling and keeping the production small and easy. We wanted to have a small footprint with the crew and keep it a docu feel.

Around how much filming was done per episode?

Dub Cornett: We usually shot when Bill and Brian felt like it. It was kinda like being on a vacation with the Murrays, that we had to put in some work in between. We shot for seven weeks and we pretty much shot two to three days a week due to the schedules of the teams.

Bill Murray is often associated with the “no one will ever believe you” trope. Did you observe any of that while filming?

Dub Cornett: Many times, every day and night, but always fun. It’s a very real, sweet show that shows him and how he and Brian like to be around people and talk baseball.

When in the series’ creation did the theme song come along? Who brought Paul Shaffer to the table?

Dub Cornett: I came out of music and I knew Bill loved music, and the brothers’ longtime pal Paul Shaffer’s daughter Victoria worked as a producer on the show, so it was organic. We always wanted them to work together on the theme song, but scheduling both Bill and Paul in same place at same time was difficult. Until we realized they would both be in D.C. together for David Letterman receiving the Mark Twain Award at the Kennedy Center. So we just all met there, had a great weekend, went to the awards and then spent the following Monday in a recording studio in Virginia writing and recording the song. It turned out great, and was fun, of course.

Everything about the show, theme song included, feels very loose. Were there any creative meetings? Or was it more of a “film now and watch everything later” approach?

Dub Cornett: I’m pretty loose and Bill wrote the book on it. Brian wrote out some ideas and skits and bits prior, but we mostly played by ear and let it present itself.

What was Facebook’s involvement with the series beyond coming on-board as distributor? Did you just give them a finished series?

Dub Cornett: Yes, more or less. They came on-board toward the end of shooting, and gave a few parameters as far as show lengths and structure that would work best for them and other practical details, etc., so we could cut to fit their platform.

Are there plans for a second season? Or is that based on how these episodes go?

Dub Cornett: We had fun, so we’ll just play it by ear and see what’s next.

Extra Innings aside, what is coming up for you?

Dub Cornett: Victoria Shaffer has a show about people and their pets that I dig a lot, so that may be next. And I have a cool music and film project that I’ve brought my ole pal T Bone Burnett and others in on that we are starting.

What is your baseball team of choice? Work aside, what’s the last game you attended?

Dub Cornett: Detroit Tigers. A Nashville Sounds game and a Dodgers/Angels game.

When not busy with work, how do you like to spend your free time?

Dub Cornett: I don’t really think I have a job, I pretty much just do whatever interests me, and that’s pretty much everything. So if I at work at anything, it’s just keeping it cool and fun for all involved.

Finally, Dub, any last words for the kids?

Dub Cornett: Don’t listen to them when they try to glorify normal, it’s just a place where folks with no imagination feel safe.

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Tags: Baseball, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, David Letterman, Dub Cornett, Facebook, Paul Shaffer, Victoria Shaffer

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."