Casting call for "94110" a TV drama set in the Mission. pic.twitter.com/v1TfSr9e0K
— Doctor Popular (@DocPop) April 19, 2015
There's an open casting call for a TV pilot to be held by San Francisco Arts Quarterly, who write of themselves, "Art is for the people. We are for the people," and this has somehow set off a minor Twitter fire. Some locals expressed their immediate, visceral outrage at the posting, which can be found online here and reads:
Location: San Francisco
Type: TV Pilots
May 16-17, 2015
New TV drama 94110 is looking to cast six leads, supporting roles, and background extras for its pilot episode. The production will be accepting union + non-union submissions. No experience necessary. Each role will be cast with no preference toward age, race, or gender.
94110 imagines the story of six leading technology executives living, learning, and loving together in San Francisco’s Mission District, 94110. Production is scheduled on location in San Francisco for summer 2015.
No payment for casting call, payment upon production.
Contact [email protected] for more information.
SFAQ[Project]Space
449 O’Farrell St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Saturday - Sunday, 11-5:30pm
Payment: Other
City or Location of call: San Francisco
Please submit to: [email protected]
This casting notice was posted by: 94110 Official
Yes, an on-screen representation of lives lived in the Mission could imply a big-budget, mass-market hack job, and "leading technology executives" are overly valorized at the expense of other stories. But there's very little reason to assume that's going to happen. It's an open casting call, "no experience necessary." Each role will be cast "with no preference toward age, race, or gender." Sure, a TV show named after an area code isn't necessarily going to be good, but even if it isn't, do we need to care?
Uptown Almanac called in to 94110 and learned from a producer (who wisely chose to remain anonymous) that “The main collaborators are all residents of the Mission community." There's no order for the pilot and it hasn't been fully financed, either.
Though the producer did make the mistake of calling the show "Mark Zuckerberg fan fiction" — hopefully self-aware fan fiction — he added that "we want to take the neighborhood's new reality and do something with it."
Will they get modern SF more right than Looking did? We shall see.
Related: Here's Why Everyone Needs To Stop Bemoaning A Vanishing San Francisco And Move On
