Sad news today for fans of Stan Against Evil as series creator and co-star Dana Gould has revealed on his podcast The Dana Gould Hour that the show has been cancelled at IFC.
“‘Stan Against Evil,’ I am sad to report, will not be returning for a fourth season,” said Dana Gould. “It had a great run of three seasons. It’s not coming back. Will it show up in some other form on some other network someday? Maybe. But right now, as we like to say, it’s dead as Kelsey’s nuts. I’m very proud of the show and its fantastic cast: John McGinley, Janet Varney, Nate Mooney, Deborah Baker Jr., our great directors, Eban Schletter our great music person, Autonomous F/X, all the people that worked on the show. I’m leaving a lot of people out. This isn’t the official format for my thank you, but I thought everybody did a great job. The show’s on Hulu, you can enjoy it. It ain’t comin’ back anytime soon, but that is -as they say- showbiz, and I’m already working on some other cool crap that will hopefully come your way.”
At New York Comic-Con last year we asked Gould in the event the show were cancelled if it could go on in another form such as a movie or podcast…
“Yeah, no, definitely,” Gould told us. “Or a comic book would be really interesting, a really good innovation. I could probably sell it to Boom. I’m writing for them now. A radio show would be really good. It’s interesting. A podcast might work because how would I make the humor work in a different context. I think a low budget Kickstarter movie would probably be the best way to do it because it’s a TV show that’s an homage to low budget horror movies, so it should sort of end on a drive-in screen.”
However, star John C. McGinley told us he would not be interested in appearing as Stan outside the actual series run.
“Nah. I’ve never done that,” McGinley explained to us. “As soon as ‘Scrubs’ was wrapped all I got was smartass doctors. We did it for almost 10 years and almost 200 episodes. I’m like, ‘I kinda got that out of my system.’ If you didn’t it begs the question what were you waiting for? So I turned all that down. Then ‘Stan’ came along and from his vocals to the way he walks I made him diametrically opposite of Cox. Very much on purpose. The fact that he’s a bit of a smartass there’s some connective tissue there, but that’s it. This is a guy who after the loss of his wife and his job just wants to sit in his barcalounger and watch the History Channel. That’s not Dr. Cox! So no, I wouldn’t. Wherever this goes with Dana and with Janet that’ll be good. My cup is full.”
RELATED: Take a Bite Out of the Stan Against Evil Season 3 Trailer
Created by Dana Gould (The Simpsons, Parks and Recreation) and starring John C. McGinley (Scrubs) and Janet Varney (You’re the Worst), Stan Against Evil has grown its dedicated fan base since originally debuting in 2016, with The New York Times calling it a “gruesome, deadpan delight.”
Stan Against Evil Season 2 concluded in November 2017 with Stan Miller (McGinley) and Sheriff Evie Barret (Varney) accidentally opening a portal into the past, allowing the 17th century demons to create new mayhem in their quaint town of Willard’s Mill.
Stan Against Evil follows Stan Miller, the perpetually disgruntled former sheriff of a small New England town, and Evie Barret, his younger, more spirited successor, and how the two are forced into an unlikely alliance upon realizing their sleepy little town is the subject of a 300-year-old demonic curse. Willard’s Mill, it turns out, was the sight of a massive 17th century witch burning and as such, Stan and Evie are forced into battle against demons, witches, haunted ponies, giant piglets, evil babies, you name it, all while trying to bridge their chasm-wide personal differences.
RELATED: Dana Gould Talks Stan Against Evil Season 2
Stan Against Evil is created, written and executive produced by Dana Gould, with Tom Lassally (Silicon Valley) also serving as executive producer. RadicalMedia (My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, MARS) produces the series with Frank Scherma and Justin Wilkes executive producing. Star John C. McGinley also serves as a producer. Deborah Baker Jr. and Nate Mooney co-star.
Dana Gould's Halloween Playlist
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The Thing (1982)
Dana Gould: "John Carpenter’s 'The Thing' is, I think, pound-for-pound the best monster movie ever made, just in terms of literally a monster in the movie. It’s great."
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Infection (2004)
Dana Gould: "'Infection' is a brilliant Japanese haunted hospital movie with a great 'Twilight Zone' twist at the end, an underrated gem of a horror movie. We do a tribute to it on 'Stan Against Evil' this year in episode seven with Maria Bamford. I really wanted to do a Japanese ghost story, so we came up with an episode in a haunted hospital like the movie 'Infection.'"
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An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Dana Gould: "My favorite werewolf movie. It’s a thing of beauty."
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House of Dark Shadows (1970)
Dana Gould: "A big influence on 'Stan Against Evil,' just the feel and the tone and the music and the color."
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The Night Stalker (1972)
Dana Gould: "One of my favorite horror movies just got re-released by Kino Lorber on Blu-ray, the original 'Night Stalker' 1972 TV movie with Darren McGavin. The sequel 'The Night Strangler' and the 'Kolchak' TV show are good, but 'The Night Stalker' TV movie stands apart. It is 72 minutes, it’s a freight train. It never stops. I love it so much. I watch it all the time. I’ll just put it on and watch it. It just chugs along and it’s a beautiful story. The reason I love it so much is it was the first thing that scared the daylights out of me when I was a kid. I saw it when it premiered in 1972, I was eight, too young to be watching it... and it scared the pants off of me. We have an episode of 'Stan' this season with Carl Kolchak and Mulder & Scully in it, just sort of our TV show homage episode. But they all fit into the mythology of the show."
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War of the Gargantuas (1966)
Dana Gould: "I would put 'War of the Gargantuas' in there. You have to have Japanese kaiju action. It was originally sort of a spinoff of 'Frankenstein Conquers the World,' but it never really translated. We do a salute to 'War of the Gargantuas' on 'Stan Against Evil' this year too. We have a 'The Words Get Stuck in My Throat' song called 'The Thoughts Get Stuck in My Mouth.' We have the Mothra twins, a lot of that beautiful stuff."
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Hellraiser (1987)
Dana Gould: "The first 'Hellraiser' I would put in there. I have fond memories of seeing it in the theaters. It was a great idea. It’s a really clever, smart idea."
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Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)
Dana Gould: "I love the original Japanese version of 'The Grudge.'"
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Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)
Dana Gould: "You'd have to have that in there."
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Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
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Evil Dead 2 (1987)
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28 Days Later (2002)