‘Crashing’ Based On Pete Holmes’ Life? New Judd Apatow Series Premieres Tonight

Is Crashing based on Pete Holmes’ real life? The new HBO series, directed by Judd Apatow, definitely has some truth to the dramatic comedy.

HBO’s latest indie comedy comes from the comedian and host of You Made It Weird podcast, Pete Holmes.

Crashing is about a comedian whose wife cheats on him and leaves him to crash on couches of his fellow comedian friends.

The basis for the show was definitely inspired by some personal suffering.

According to HBO, Crashing was inspired by Pete Holmes’ early stand-up career, drawing from his own real life experiences.

In an official HBO Q&A for Crashing, Pete Holmes says that the new HBO series is “loosely based on my real-life events, so every scene we shot had some sort of true emotional touchstone for me, which made keeping the show authentic much easier.”

“I grew up religious and married the first person I dated when I was 22, and she left me when I was 28, so there’s definitely a parallel there.”

https://youtu.be/U1vPbiStGAg

While Pete Holmes’s character differs from his own life, his own divorce and entry into the New York comedy scene did really happen around 10 years ago.

“Everything we wrote or shot has something real that inspired it, even though by the end, things had changed so much that it was a new story for the most part.”

Pete Holmes is a veteran comedian who, along with his podcast, You Made It Weird, and having his own show on TBS for a few years, The Pete Holmes Show!, has done videos with FrontPage Films, had a half-hour Comedy Central Presents. Holmes has been on Conan and Jimmy Fallon numerous times.

Holmes was once the e*trade baby and you may have seen him on Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans.

Pete also draws cartoons for The New Yorker, wrote for NBC’s Outsourced and Fox’s I Hate My Teenage Daughter.

During an interview with Vulture, Holmes and director Judd Apatow talked about other elements of Pete’s real life that made it into the HBO series.

At the end of the day, “the show is a tip of the hat to suffering,” Holmes says.

Vanity Fair mentioned that Holmes pitched the series to Judd Apatow on an episode of the TBS series, The Pete Holmes Show.

Apatow is now an executive producer on the show, but the Girls director originally rejected Holmes’ show idea in 2014, saying that it was too sad.

Guest comedians on Pete Holmes’ new comedy series include Sarah Silverman, T.J. Miller, Lauren Lapkus, and Steve Agee.

Presumably, Pete Holme’s character will “crash” on a new comedian’s couch each week.

Artie Lange was cast as himself and will act as a comedy mentor to Holmes.

Lange started off his comic gigging across New York in the early ’90s.

The comedian went on to release two comedy albums, star in three stand-up specials, and published two books — New York Times bestsellers Too Fat To Fish (2008) and Crash and Burn (2013).

Artie Lang is also a regular on the radio and even hosted his own show from 2011 to 2014.

Some of his credits include a two-year run on sketch series MadTV, cameos in Old School and Elf, and episodic stops in Entourage, Louie, and Inside Amy Schumer, among others.

RELATED POSTS BY THE INQUISITR

‘BIG LITTLE LIES’ PREMIERE ON HBO: THE CAST AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

‘VEEP’ CAST REVEAL NEW SEASON PREMIERE DATE: HBO SERIES RETURNS THIS APRIL

A ‘GAME OF THRONES’ BACKSTORY IS COMING – WILL HBO TURN IT INTO A NEW SERIES?

Lange is probably most recognizable as Howard Stern’s foul-mouthed sidekick on The Howard Stern Show, which he was on for around 10 years.

With a talented cast and crew, and an intriguing story combining humor and tragedy, Crashing is set up to be a successful new series on HBO.

Crashing premieres on HBO on February 19 at 10:30 p.m.

[Featured Image by Cindy Ord/Getty Images]