June 09, 2019 at 12:49AM
Writer-producer Adam "Tex" Davis needed to dramatize an interesting experiment that was boring to watch. A scientist from the Yale Perception Lab could prove that when someone stared straight ahead at a fixed point, his peripheral vision stopped working. But demonstratinging this with numbers participants couldn't see wasn't cutting it.
Davis had a solution. "I wanted to bring in cheerleaders to jump up and down on the sidelines," he says. "When I called the scientist to explain my version using cheerleaders... he responded, 'Not only will it work, but I want to run the experiment!' It was an example of how to make science fun."
Davis, who is 48 and grew up in Bergenfield, is a self-proclaimed devotee of "smart comedy" like that of Monty Python, and has been making viewers laugh since selling his first script, the Ryan Reynolds-Anna Faris romantic comedy "Just Friends," in the late '90s. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, he went on to co-found Atomic Entertainment, a production company responsible for the Emmy-nominated NatGeo series "Brain Games" and 2018's popular Netflix show "Brainchild," with college friend and roomie Jerry Kolber. ("Brainchild" was created with executive producer Pharrell Williams.)
Former Bergenfield resident Adam "Tex" Davis, co-founder of Atomic Entertainment (Photo: Courtesy of Joe Gabriel)
"My first impression of Adam at NYU was that he was hilarious, a little wild, and someone who I wanted to hang out with," recalls Kolber.
"With 'Brain Games,' I always said 'Jerry's the brain, and I'm the games,'" Davis says. He recently spoke to (201) about creating "edutainment," casting buddy Judah Friedlander as Mr. Gadget and what growing up in Bergenfield taught him about making movies.
You grew up in North Jersey. How did you get the name Adam "Tex" Davis?
In college, I made a film with a character named Tex in it, and I put Adam "Tex" Davis on the cover of the script. My friends kept calling me "Tex," and I kept it as a writing name so it would stand out on any movies and TV shows I worked on. If you Google-search for Adam Davis, you get seven names. I even have a cousin named Adam Davis.
How did growing up in Bergenfield affect your story-telling?
It's a small town, and when I was growing up, it was blue collar and middle class, probably 80 percent white, with one person from everywhere else — one person from India, one from Japan, one from the Philippines. There was sort of a sameness, and I always felt very different, so I would write stories. But at the same time, I know the people who go to the movies, because I was of those people.
For three years after I graduated, I worked in a Hackensack factory that made car parts. When I sold my first script, it was like that moment in "An Officer and a Gentleman" where she gets carried out of the factory. I was carried off when I sold that script.
Your partner at Atomic Entertainment, Jerry Kolber, became a reality TV producer whose credits include the original "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Inked." How did you reconnect?
He was working on a [Food Network] show called "Meat Men," and that was what my dad did for a living. At a party, he was telling me about the meat show, and I said "I have 1,000 meat stories." I was between writing gigs, so we worked together on the show, and had such a good time.
We both wanted to do stuff that's real but that's in a smart, clever space. We recognized that sometimes there's a race to the bottom, and we wanted to be the salmon that's swimming against the stream to the top.
Does Atomic Entertainment do programming mostly for kids?
"Brain Games" is an adult (science) show, but we realized during the course of making it that kids loved it, too. The average age of a NatGeo audience member was 67, and we saw that the average age for "Brain Games" viewers was like 39-42. We had the highest-rated premiere for NatGeo, and won awards for co-viewing (when family members watch at the same time). We also won awards for the diversity of our cast — we wanted to show that brains gets tricked universally —and got an Emmy nomination.
When "Brain Games" ended, I said, "Kids love this show. They're starved for this kind of learning. We use the same ingredients and formula for "Brainchild."
Was there a big difference between working for NatGeo and Netflix, and how did you come to partner with Pharrell Williams?
NatGeo is a little less embracing of the comedy. I would worry that what we were doing was too funny; I would get notes saying "You're having too much fun."
Our agent told us that Pharrell loved "Brain Games" — he watched with his son — and wanted to do a science show like that for kids. Jerry and I were already in the process of creating one, so when we got to meet Pharrell, we simply explained what we were thinking of doing with "Brainchild." He loved what we were saying, and it aligned with his mission of making science fun and accessible for young kids of all walks of life in a way school doesn't.
We had a track record and an all-star team of producers and editors when we came to Netflix. We looked at 80 tapes to find Sahana Srinivasan, our host. She embodies smartness and she's like a cool older sister. I cast (standup comic and "30 Rock" cast member) Judah Friedlander as Mr. Gadget, who hates technology. He's a buddy of mine. We had the freedom to make the show we wanted to make, and that's rare.
You have a daughter who's now a teenager. Has that helped you create content for kids?
At 7 or 8, my daughter would see the rough cuts of magic and optical illusions, and she'd be blown away by it; she wanted to see the explanations, so I saw that kids were going to love "Brain Games." I wrote the "Sex on the Brain" episode and thought my daughter would be watching, so I changed it to "Attraction on the Brain."
When my daughter was 13, she did a cameo in "Brainchild" where she took part in an experiment. She had no idea what we were going to be filming. We just told her to show up at the mall, and then we ran her through an ice water experiment in the "Super Heroes" episode. She was very good, and came up with a great reason on the spot why the experiment worked on her. We used her explanation in the show.
What's up next for Atomic Entertainment?
We're hoping to get a second season of "Brainchild" on Netflix. We also want to do a science podcast, and we're shooting episodes of a show called "Making Magic," which we describe as the "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" of magic. Our version has our host going to meet with magicians and talking about the creative process and performing magic. We're launching them on Facebook this spring.
Do teachers ever ask you if they can use your shows in their classrooms?
We get stories all the time about teachers using our shows. We created an online curriculum for "Brainchild" that can be downloaded for free and used for lower and middle school students; Jerry went to a national science conference for teachers in Texas. STEM educators talk effusively about the shows. They get ideas for experiments from them.
Your family lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Since you work in the entertainment industry, have you ever thought of moving to Los Angeles?
I go out there two or three times a year, stay a couple weeks, take meetings, do pitches and shoot there, but it's too much of a bubble. Just driving in cars to meetings, you wouldn't get the experience you get in New York. I could hear a conversation in the subway that's the basis for a movie.
You've lived away from New Jersey for a long time. Do you still feel connected to it?
My parents still live in the house I grew up in. The Record is their hometown paper; they did a "Student of the Month" story on me when I was a junior or senior and won a Columbia Gold Circle Journalism Award — second place in a national competition. It was for a story I wrote for Bear Facts, the student newspaper. I got the inside scoop on how parochial schools can recruit from anywhere and public schools can't. I did an expose of this unfair practice!
I'll tell you a story. There was one crazy moment in my career where "Just Friends" had just gotten made, and they were setting up the premiere date in Los Angeles. I'd also written a smaller indie movie that my agent was able to get to Leonardo DiCaprio, and he produced it, and got Kevin Connolly, who was on "Entourage," to direct. I set the movie in a town like Beregenfield, and we scouted around to shoot there. But because of New York tax breaks, it was shot in Staten Island.
But there was one day when we were going to shoot on Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, and I thought "Oh my God, I'll be the returning hero shutting down Washington Avenue. I have to tell my journalism teacher."
Then I found out that the day of the "Just Friends" premiere was the same day. Ryan Reynolds, everyone was going to be there. So, I had to choose, and I went out to LA. It was heartbreaking, but I was on the phone, getting reports from the set in Bergenfield.
Read or Share this story: https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/2019/06/07/mix-science-and-comedy-and-what-do-you-get-atomic-entertainment/2989951002/
Writer-producer Adam "Tex" Davis needed to dramatize an interesting experiment that was boring to watch. A scientist from the Yale Perception Lab could prove that when someone stared straight ahead at a fixed point, his peripheral vision stopped working. But demonstratinging this with numbers participants couldn't see wasn't cutting it.
Davis had a solution. "I wanted to bring in cheerleaders to jump up and down on the sidelines," he says. "When I called the scientist to explain my version using cheerleaders... he responded, 'Not only will it work, but I want to run the experiment!' It was an example of how to make science fun."
Davis, who is 48 and grew up in Bergenfield, is a self-proclaimed devotee of "smart comedy" like that of Monty Python, and has been making viewers laugh since selling his first script, the Ryan Reynolds-Anna Faris romantic comedy "Just Friends," in the late '90s. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, he went on to co-found Atomic Entertainment, a production company responsible for the Emmy-nominated NatGeo series "Brain Games" and 2018's popular Netflix show "Brainchild," with college friend and roomie Jerry Kolber. ("Brainchild" was created with executive producer Pharrell Williams.)
Former Bergenfield resident Adam "Tex" Davis, co-founder of Atomic Entertainment (Photo: Courtesy of Joe Gabriel)
"My first impression of Adam at NYU was that he was hilarious, a little wild, and someone who I wanted to hang out with," recalls Kolber.
"With 'Brain Games,' I always said 'Jerry's the brain, and I'm the games,'" Davis says. He recently spoke to (201) about creating "edutainment," casting buddy Judah Friedlander as Mr. Gadget and what growing up in Bergenfield taught him about making movies.
You grew up in North Jersey. How did you get the name Adam "Tex" Davis?
In college, I made a film with a character named Tex in it, and I put Adam "Tex" Davis on the cover of the script. My friends kept calling me "Tex," and I kept it as a writing name so it would stand out on any movies and TV shows I worked on. If you Google-search for Adam Davis, you get seven names. I even have a cousin named Adam Davis.
How did growing up in Bergenfield affect your story-telling?
It's a small town, and when I was growing up, it was blue collar and middle class, probably 80 percent white, with one person from everywhere else — one person from India, one from Japan, one from the Philippines. There was sort of a sameness, and I always felt very different, so I would write stories. But at the same time, I know the people who go to the movies, because I was of those people.
For three years after I graduated, I worked in a Hackensack factory that made car parts. When I sold my first script, it was like that moment in "An Officer and a Gentleman" where she gets carried out of the factory. I was carried off when I sold that script.
Your partner at Atomic Entertainment, Jerry Kolber, became a reality TV producer whose credits include the original "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Inked." How did you reconnect?
He was working on a [Food Network] show called "Meat Men," and that was what my dad did for a living. At a party, he was telling me about the meat show, and I said "I have 1,000 meat stories." I was between writing gigs, so we worked together on the show, and had such a good time.
We both wanted to do stuff that's real but that's in a smart, clever space. We recognized that sometimes there's a race to the bottom, and we wanted to be the salmon that's swimming against the stream to the top.
Does Atomic Entertainment do programming mostly for kids?
"Brain Games" is an adult (science) show, but we realized during the course of making it that kids loved it, too. The average age of a NatGeo audience member was 67, and we saw that the average age for "Brain Games" viewers was like 39-42. We had the highest-rated premiere for NatGeo, and won awards for co-viewing (when family members watch at the same time). We also won awards for the diversity of our cast — we wanted to show that brains gets tricked universally —and got an Emmy nomination.
When "Brain Games" ended, I said, "Kids love this show. They're starved for this kind of learning. We use the same ingredients and formula for "Brainchild."
Was there a big difference between working for NatGeo and Netflix, and how did you come to partner with Pharrell Williams?
NatGeo is a little less embracing of the comedy. I would worry that what we were doing was too funny; I would get notes saying "You're having too much fun."
Our agent told us that Pharrell loved "Brain Games" — he watched with his son — and wanted to do a science show like that for kids. Jerry and I were already in the process of creating one, so when we got to meet Pharrell, we simply explained what we were thinking of doing with "Brainchild." He loved what we were saying, and it aligned with his mission of making science fun and accessible for young kids of all walks of life in a way school doesn't.
We had a track record and an all-star team of producers and editors when we came to Netflix. We looked at 80 tapes to find Sahana Srinivasan, our host. She embodies smartness and she's like a cool older sister. I cast (standup comic and "30 Rock" cast member) Judah Friedlander as Mr. Gadget, who hates technology. He's a buddy of mine. We had the freedom to make the show we wanted to make, and that's rare.
You have a daughter who's now a teenager. Has that helped you create content for kids?
At 7 or 8, my daughter would see the rough cuts of magic and optical illusions, and she'd be blown away by it; she wanted to see the explanations, so I saw that kids were going to love "Brain Games." I wrote the "Sex on the Brain" episode and thought my daughter would be watching, so I changed it to "Attraction on the Brain."
When my daughter was 13, she did a cameo in "Brainchild" where she took part in an experiment. She had no idea what we were going to be filming. We just told her to show up at the mall, and then we ran her through an ice water experiment in the "Super Heroes" episode. She was very good, and came up with a great reason on the spot why the experiment worked on her. We used her explanation in the show.
What's up next for Atomic Entertainment?
We're hoping to get a second season of "Brainchild" on Netflix. We also want to do a science podcast, and we're shooting episodes of a show called "Making Magic," which we describe as the "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" of magic. Our version has our host going to meet with magicians and talking about the creative process and performing magic. We're launching them on Facebook this spring.
Do teachers ever ask you if they can use your shows in their classrooms?
We get stories all the time about teachers using our shows. We created an online curriculum for "Brainchild" that can be downloaded for free and used for lower and middle school students; Jerry went to a national science conference for teachers in Texas. STEM educators talk effusively about the shows. They get ideas for experiments from them.
Your family lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Since you work in the entertainment industry, have you ever thought of moving to Los Angeles?
I go out there two or three times a year, stay a couple weeks, take meetings, do pitches and shoot there, but it's too much of a bubble. Just driving in cars to meetings, you wouldn't get the experience you get in New York. I could hear a conversation in the subway that's the basis for a movie.
You've lived away from New Jersey for a long time. Do you still feel connected to it?
My parents still live in the house I grew up in. The Record is their hometown paper; they did a "Student of the Month" story on me when I was a junior or senior and won a Columbia Gold Circle Journalism Award — second place in a national competition. It was for a story I wrote for Bear Facts, the student newspaper. I got the inside scoop on how parochial schools can recruit from anywhere and public schools can't. I did an expose of this unfair practice!
I'll tell you a story. There was one crazy moment in my career where "Just Friends" had just gotten made, and they were setting up the premiere date in Los Angeles. I'd also written a smaller indie movie that my agent was able to get to Leonardo DiCaprio, and he produced it, and got Kevin Connolly, who was on "Entourage," to direct. I set the movie in a town like Beregenfield, and we scouted around to shoot there. But because of New York tax breaks, it was shot in Staten Island.
But there was one day when we were going to shoot on Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, and I thought "Oh my God, I'll be the returning hero shutting down Washington Avenue. I have to tell my journalism teacher."
Then I found out that the day of the "Just Friends" premiere was the same day. Ryan Reynolds, everyone was going to be there. So, I had to choose, and I went out to LA. It was heartbreaking, but I was on the phone, getting reports from the set in Bergenfield.
Read or Share this story: https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/2019/06/07/mix-science-and-comedy-and-what-do-you-get-atomic-entertainment/2989951002/