Horace and Pete is in the red. On a recent episode of Howard Stern, series creator and star Louis CK said the self-financed web series has put him millions of dollars in debt, Deadline reports.
The drama, about two brothers who run a 100-year-old Brooklyn bar, was released in January with no promotion. It stars CK, Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco, Alan Alda, and Jessica Lange.
Speaking to Stern, CK said each episode of the web series cost him $500,000. He ended up making 10 episodes, after only budgeting for four:
So I made the first four, and I didn’t tell nobody and it made a nice little amount of money. But when I got to episode four, I was like, ‘Hey gang, I don’t have any money.’ So I had to take out a line of credit.”
Now, he says he is doing promotion and live shows to make the money back. As of now, each episode is available to purchase on Louisck.net for between $2 and $5.
It will hurt, and it will leave me with no cushion in life, but I’m willing to do that. I’ll go on the road, doing stand-up, afterwards, and I’ll make it back.”
CK added that he invested his own money because he wants to explore new avenues of show business:
It’s so fun. … I want to make a new avenue for making this stuff. I’m fascinated and I’m curious. And also, no other way could I have made a show where, when you’re watching it, you don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know when you’re going to see another one, you don’t know who’s in it. That was well worth it to me.”
What do you think? Have you seen Horace and Pete? Do you think it was worth the debt?
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