When Susie Prince, a typical San Diego Comic-Con science fiction nerd, learns she was invited to be on Nick Iandolo’s Dedham TV show, she gets a bit too excited. Prince runs onto the set practically dive tackling Iandolo.
“Okay, okay, okay, Susie, take it easy; calm down! Phil! Get this girl off me!” Iandolo shouted to an assistant.
That was the first act of the second episode of “Nick’s Sci-Fi Corner,” a brand new comedic show that focuses on science fiction and the fantasy world.
On January 8, Iandolo ran around the studio like a mad man, placing cameras on the set, chatting with crewmembers and running his lines.
“The idea is that someone is going to have to be behind the couch manipulating the alien,” he told a cameraman a few minutes before shooting “Star Wreck Into Weirdness,” which is a parody skit of “Star Trek Into Darkness” and the first of six segments in the episode.
In the second section, “Wormhole Extreme!” Iandolo and Prince (played by Emmy Kuperschmid) discuss “New Las Vegas,” a sci-fi eBook series.
The episode continues with “The Amazing Cinematograph,” where Iandolo discusses movies with Anthony Ambrosino, president of the Rhode Island Film Collaborative.
In “From Beyond the Stars,” Iandolo interviews a character out of a science fiction, fantasy movie or book, and he provides the inside scoop on the latest news in the science fiction world in “Future Shock.”
The episode closes with a one-minute parody where Planet of the Apes meets Star Wars.
“I’ve designed the show to be versatile, so I can mix and match and pull things in and do all kinds of stuff,” Iandolo, 46, said. “It’s not like a hard core scripted drama.”
Iandolo, an author and science fiction fanatic, draws inspiration from every fantasy canon that he has ever watched when he was a kid, he said.
As a child, Iandolo faithfully watched “Mystery Science Theatre 3000,” a show featuring a man and a robot that are imprisoned on a space station. Iandolo used the television series as a basis for his show.
“They would take old science fiction movies and they would rank on the movies,” he said. “They’d have funny skits in between showing scenes of the movies. It was hilarious, and I said to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do a show like that again only in the 21st century?'”
Iandolo has already planned out the next five episodes. The third will feature a parody of the Godzilla movies, he said.
The Dedham resident has been writing scripts since his college years, but it wasn’t until he met Donna Greer, executive director of Dedham TV, in April at the station’s open house that he sold his first script.
“I said ‘I’d love to come up with an idea for a show,’ and she said, ‘Pitch me a show,’” Iandolo explained enthusiastically. “I said ‘I’ll do better than that; I’ll write you a script.’”
According to Greer, Iandolo had convinced her to support the show long before he handed her the script for the pilot episode.
“Nick has this infectious enthusiasm for everything,” Greer said. “When he started talking about what he wanted to do I got so excited. He’s basically what we are all about, which is basically for people to come in and let their creative juices flow and have a place to do it.”
When Iandolo is not producing his show or working at Dedham TV as the social media director, he is sitting near a fireplace at Paradise Café with one hand on the keyboard of his laptop and the other holding a cappuccino.
“If I’m home, I’m going to be distracted,” he said. “The best place for me to work is Paradise Café because I can do six hours of writing. It’s a lot of fun. I can get a lot of writing done there in a short amount of time.”
Iandolo is also working on “I’ve got a book for you!” which will air on the Dedham TV educational channel in two months. In the show, he will discuss science fiction and fantasy books in hopes to encourage youngsters to read.
He is also developing “Nick’s Sci-Fi Corner Update,” a seven-minute clip of movie reviews and upcoming science fiction events that will premiere at the end of the month. The date has not been determined.
The second episode of “Nick’s Sci-Fi Corner” will be on Dedham TV in early February. The date has also not been determined.
The pilot episode aired in November and can be seen on Fridays at 9 pm and Saturdays at 6 pm and 11 pm.
For more information, visit www.dedhamtv.org.
Reprinted with permission from Wicked Local Dedham.
