An Interview with Matthew Scott Kane & David A. Goodman from ‘Hysteria!’

HYSTERIA! -- “New York Comic-Con” -- Pictured: Matthew Scott Kane, Creator/EP/Showrunner and David A. Goodman, EP/Showrunner, at the Javits Center on October 17, 2024 -- (Photo by: Scott Gries/Peacock)

Matthew Scott Kane and David A. Goodman are a pair of highly accomplished writers and producers. Currently they serve as the co-showrunners of the new Peacock series, Hysteria!, and we sat down with both of them to discuss this delightful new show.
 
John Betancourt: I'd love to start by learning how each of you were inspired to bring this beautiful homage to the 80s to life.
 
Matthew Scott Kane: Well, it started in the present day. I think when I was writing this back in 2019, I had a general kind of anxiety that I think a lot of people shared, that maybe we were moving into something of like a post factual age where anyone could say anything, and it could make the rounds and completely reshape everyone else's reality. That didn't sit well with me that made me very stressed out and anxious, and so I looked back through history, and lo and behold, this is this exact same thing is happening in the 80s with Satanic Panic. It's a lot more fun to write a TV show about heavy metal horror movies and John Hughes sort of stuff than it is to talk about the present day. So that's what brought us back to this world. And of course, paying homage to the kind of the films that were clearly so inspirational towards the series.
 
David A. Goodman: Well, Matt created the show. I came to the show after he had written this pilot, and I read the pilot, and he found me after seeing a movie I'd done called Honor Society, which was high school movie, and I read the script, and I thought it was one of the best pilot scripts I've ever read, because it had all these things in it. And it really got to a truth about relationships between teenagers and their parents. Here you have this teenager making some really bad decisions, and, and, and then you also have grown-ups making really bad decisions, and it really talks about the fear in that relationship. And I really connected to it, and it's been a great fun partnership for me to do the show with Matt.
 
John Betancourt: I do love that there is a lot of depth to this particular show, and yes, a lot of those parallels. And I'm curious, because there's, there's so many wonderful messages and so many different layers to it, what you hope audiences’ kind of take away as a lesson when they've had a chance to sit through this series.
 
Matthew Scott Kane: You know, I think it's for me as it's as simple as, kids, try to imagine what it feels like to be a parent. Parents, try to remember what it feels like to be a kid. I think so much of the fear on either sides of this story could be alleviated by one or the other doing just that.
 
John Betancourt: There's also so much fun here, because this was just a walk down memory lane of what I have on my shelf. And I'm curious what you enjoyed the most about going into to the 80s and kind of recreating and paying homage to all this wonderful 80s horror.
 
Matthew Scott Kane: Well, I mean, I to be honest, I was born in the 90s. I was born in 1990, so I never actually lived through any of this stuff. I just happened to have a father who didn't sell off his VHS collection, and, you know, passed them on to me. So, I was able to pick up a lot of that kind of stuff when some other kid is watching Bluey these days, back then, I would have been watching and rewatching taped episodes of Tales from the Crypt, or Tim Burton's Batman or something like that. So, I'm a 90s kid, but I still have so much of that 80s spirit, and especially when I was coming up in high school and really getting into filmmaking. You know, I think two of the most important films of my lifetime, when I was young, were The Evil Dead and Re-Animator, one taught me that I really want to make films, and the other taught me I really want to write screenplays. You know, with Sam Raimi… he is just the craziest director of all time. And then I felt like the script for Re-Animator was really something else and got me into horror writing in general. Honestly.
 
David A. Goodman: I am a huge fan of Sam Raimi as well. I mean, I think to me that was such a gift when, when Bruce (Campbell) agreed to do the show, and I got to briefly work with Sam many years ago, and it was a gift to get to do something with him. But I also, I also got to work with Jeffrey Combs, who's on our show. And Jeff had been on the Star Trek that I was on, like a myriad of characters. And so, to me, it's always like getting to work with sort of your idols, people whose work you admire, Julie Bowen and Anna Camp and Barbara Crampton and all these icons are in our show that's so exciting.
 
John Betancourt: In general, what are each of you most excited for audiences to be able to settle in and enjoy when this when the show airs?
 
Matthew Scott Kane: You know, I I'm excited to for everyone to see the different sides of these performers that you've come to know and come to understand. And I don't think people are going to be expecting what they get from any of them, from Bruce, from Anna, from Julie, I think this is not Claire Dunphy. This is not a kind of, you know, bubbly, funny character that Anna's typically played in her career. This is someone that goes to really dark places, and she does it beautifully. And I also don't think anyone would picture Bruce Campbell as being the voice of reason in a small town trying to tie it together. You know, we didn't want Ash Williams to be out there trying to be the Sheriff of the town, because that's not someone that I think the locals are going to follow. But Chief Dandridge, we think would lock Ash Williams up for a good long time. So, I'm just excited to see everyone see different sides of these incredible actors I love.
 
David A. Goodman: I think for me, again, having along the lines of what Matt's saying, even further, it's always an exciting moment, if, when the audience connects with your show and see the things that you intended, and then a million things you didn't. And that conversation that happens through social media, about how people feel about your show is always exciting, even --- it can be frustrating, but it also is usually very exciting, especially if it’s a show, they like seeing. And I hope people are excited by this show, or as excited as I am, I think it's a great show, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the audience's reaction and seeing what they bring to it.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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