Sneak Peek at New Sitcom Filmed in MI
LANSING, August 25, 2009 – Teenagers, music and fun, they’re all a part of a new TV show called “The Wannabes.” Producers say it’s the first sitcom ever shot in Michigan. The lights are set, the cameras are in motion and members of the singing and dance group Savvy are delivering their lines right on cue.
Jeff Spilman, Producer, “The Wannabes”: “They’re an established band. They’ve been around for a number of years and they are playing the leading roles in this TV series called “The Wannabes.”
A show that takes six hip hopping teens and throws them into highland academy, a performing arts school where the classics and discipline take center stage.
Doreen Spicer Dannelly, Creator, “The Wannabes”: “They are expecting it to be fun, and like “American idol,” and so you think you can dance?”
Jeff Spilman: “And they kind of get in trouble, and they’re kind of sentenced to detention by the principal who sends them off to work at a sweet shop.”
Doreen Spicer Dannelly: “They find a place to rock out, but they have to keep it hidden so they are always in disguise.”
Producers say each episode will take the teens on a moral journey, ending with a music video to wrap it all up. Most every scene will be shot inside Howell’s vacant Parker High School.
Jeff Spilman: “We’ve utilized the gym as a place to build our sweet shop. We use the classrooms, we use the theatre that’s behind me here.”
Producers say using the empty high school as a set allows them plenty of room to move the cameras around, getting different angles at every scene, and that’s something that’s never been done before on a children’s television sitcom. Permanent sets for a semi-permanent home. Producers for The Wannabes plan to keep the cameras rolling as long as they can.