Episode Details

Editor Chris Passig’s latest work, HBO’s “Telemarketers”, follows the 20-year journey of two telemarketers as they vow to expose the scam behind the American telemarketing industry. This three-part documentary takes you from an anarchic, seedy New Jersey call center filled with booze, drugs, and debauchery to the halls of the United States Senate as the world's unlikeliest journalists uncover a deep, nation-wide billion-dollar racket. Tiller speaks with Chris about how the series evolved from years of raw tapes into an HBO series with high-profile EPs (5:05), constructing multiple cohesive storylines in the edit (11:00), his shared background with director Sam Lipman-Stern (15:15), developing Sam and Pat Pespas’s friendship on screen (20:00), screening the series for Pat (25:10), pacing the series (28:35), the lead characters’ borderline stupid bravery (32:30), clarifying the complexity of the scam without including outside experts (37:20), and the reverberating effect of the series in the world (41:10). 

Produced by: Jacob Miller

Executive Producer: Tiller Russell

Music by: Graham Tracey & Zydepunk

Distributed by: Jake Brennan & Brady Sadler, Double Elvis Productions