Exclusive First Look at Disney XD Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything

Exclusive First Look at Disney XD Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything

Last month during my trip to L.A. for the #AntManEvent we also had the opportunity to check out some of Disney Channel and Disney XD shows.  Included in the line up of screenings and set visits was Cameron Boyce’s new show on Disney XD – The Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything.  Filmed on a soundstage at Hollywood Center Studios, the show stars Boyce and a brand new cast.  We arrived on set just in time for their regularly scheduled Friday Network Run-Through.  We had an opportunity to interview the cast before walking through the entire run-through of their upcoming Halloween episode.

When you plan to make a show that’s all about gaming you have to make sure you do your research.  Showrunner and Executive Producer Jim O’Doherty, shared with us during the interview just how much they have committed to creating a show gamers will love.

O’Doherty: ” Among the staff writers, we’ve got two very hardcore gamers who that world like the back of their hand and everyone else we’ve had to educate ourselves.  And there’s games all over the second floor of this building, and there’s big consoles and, and it’s all over the room in the writers’ room.  So what we write is right in front of us.  And if we have questions, we go to our hardcore gamers and they supply the answers.”

We wanted to know if there were any hard core gamers among the cast members.  I couldn’t imagine being apart of a gaming show and now knowing anything about the culture.  Of the four cast members Felix Avitia seemed to be the biggest gamer in the bunch.

Avitia: “Yeah, I’m a big gamer.  I love to play games on console – console games which is like PS3, PS4, Xbox’s, but I am a PC gamer as well.  I love the advanced warfare like Call of Duty’s.  I love the FPS’s, which are first person shooters.  I also love racing games and sports too.   I can pretty much play everything and anything, so…”

Production started in April for the show and the cast has a pretty busy schedule, according to Boyce.  The network run-through was the ninth episode of the show, so they’ve been on set for about nine weeks.

Boyce: “Yeah, we work 5 days a week.  I’ll start on Wednesday ‘cause that’s when we do our table read.  It’s kind of the beginning of when we shift our focus to a new episode.  So we’ll do table read on Wednesday.  Our table reads are not table reads.  We never sit.  We’re standing and kind of making up blocking as we go, and it’s really crazy and high energy in there.  And then Thursday we have run through.  Friday we have run through.  We have a weekend, and then Monday, Tuesday, we come in and shoot.  I’m still getting used to it.  I used to Monday to Friday.”

I wanted to find out how different it was being on the set of Gamer’s Guide as opposed to being on the set of Jessie, since this is a different show for Boyce and he doesn’t have any of his other cast mates with him.

Boyce: “There are a lot of differences.  To start like I was telling her the schedule is the biggest adjustment I’ve had to make, going from Monday to Friday, and then having a weekend and then focusing on a different episode.  Now we’re kind of thrown into the fire.  On Tuesday, we stop shooting and then on Wednesday we have a whole, totally new script.  So that’s different, but I’m adjusting and it’s cool because the people on Jessie were really cool people. 

When I heard about this, I was really excited about it, but I was thinking wow, I’m really going to miss those really great people on Jessie.
And then I come here and they’re just as great if not better. I mean, we have such a tight group and it’s been 9 weeks. So it’s really weird to kind of go from a family to another family, but instantly feel like family at your second family, if that makes sense.  The transition has been really smooth and these guys make us all feel like we’re at home here and we all feel it.”

Meet the Cast of Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything:

Cameron Boyce as Conor: I play Conor.  His backstory is that he was a professional gamer and he did all these tours and kind of went around and, went to Tokyo and London and all these places doing all these professional tournaments basically.  And in the midst of a tournament, he breaks his thumb, which is kind of what you need to game.  It was very painful.  Yeah, but since then I’ve healed.  Conor has to basically be a regular kid now.  You know, he was home schooled and other stuff to do his gaming, so his mom tells him okay, well you’re going to go to regular school.  So it’s like okay, I don’t really know how to be a regular kid, so he goes and he makes some friends but he kind of tries to use them at first to get back on the tour where he thinks he belongs.  Then eventually he realizes that he kind of likes, likes having these guys around.  So instead of going on the solo gaming tour, he chooses to keep these guys around and go on the team tour, with these guys.

Felix Avitia as Franklin: I’m Felix Avitia and I play Franklin on the show.  Franklin’s very positive, very energetic.  He wants to fit in.  He’s not the best gamer like these guys who, you know, grew up like that, but he really wants to be, he wants to fit in with people and he wants to be a part of the group.  So he’s very smart, though.  You know, outside of the gaming world, he’s very smart.  He knows common sense and knows he loves school and just being in that.  And, of course, he’s got a great sense of fashion, always wearing ties and shoes and pants and shirts, but he’s just a good kid and he wants to make everybody as happy as they can be all the time.  That’s what I love about him.

Murray Wyatt Rundus as Wendell: Yeah I play Wendell on the show, and he’s very, very full of himself.  He is a very cocky character.  He believes everyone around him doesn’t know what’s really going on, that he is really the mastermind of everything that’s going on.  He’s very aggressive when he plays video games with the crew and that really describes him.

Sophie Reynolds as Ashley: I play Ashley on the show.  She’s the girl.  She hangs with the guys.  And, is not always the smartest with the books, but she’s got a really good heart and, she’s just a good friend, and she’s a great gamer, super-smart gamer.  That’s like her, her strength.

Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything premiere on Disney XD on July 22nd at 9:30 PM.  To check out clips, cast and more about the show visit the official website and check out a preview clip below:

About Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything:

The subcultures of high school and professional video gaming are merged in the sitcom “Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything” starring Cameron Boyce (Disney Channel’s “Jessie” and “Descendants”) as a 15-year-old video game-playing phenomenon who enrolls in public high school for the first time. Now, he must deploy his virtual gaming acumen to circumvent real-life challenges.

Cool and charismatic Conor gains notoriety as “KidFury,” a professional video game player, but he suffers a devastating thumb injury that forces him out of the glamourous pro gaming world. After years of being tutored on the international pro circuit, he begins high school for the first time and meets three fellow gamers – Franklin, Wendell and Ashley. They team up to form the first-ever gaming league at their school, and together they learn that building lasting friendships in the real world is more important than accumulating high scores in the digital one.

Also starring are Murray Wyatt Rundus as the overly-confident but lovable Wendell; Felix Avitia as the gamer-groupie Franklin; and Sophie Reynolds as the quirky and fun Ashley.

“Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything” was created by Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton (“Zeke & Luther,” “Turbo Fast”) who also serve as executive producers. Jim O’Doherty (“Grounded for Life,” “3rd Rock from the Sun,” “Kickin’ It”) is executive producing and will serve as showrunner of the series. It’s a production of It’s A Laugh Productions, Inc. and carries a TV-Y7 parental guideline.