Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
OB band sitcom End of the 8 gaining both community support and film fest cred
TV show features songs by Slightly Stoopid, Half Hour Late, and more
End of the 8 writer/director/star Daniel M. Dyer
End of the 8 is a sitcom that follows a rock band around Ocean Beach, spotlighting the neighborhood’s eclectic vibe. For those who didn’t catch the pilot episode on YouTube last year, the show climaxed with the End of the 8 band (imagine if Spinal Tap and Grateful Dead birthed a surfer love child) playing to packed house at Winstons. The shots of the crowd featured a who's who of Obeacians, and this was no accident. Highlighting the real-life characters and scenery of Ocean Beach was one of the main objectives of show creator Daniel M. Dyer.
Video:
Pilot Episode: END OF THE 8
Since then, excitement has been building around the show. Over the past year, the pilot made wound through the indie film circuit and even made it through the first round of Cannes Film Festival. It scored six nominations and won a couple of awards: Best Web/TV Pilot at the Los Angeles Film Awards and Best Ensemble Cast at the Independent Shorts Awards.
Now the moment is approaching for Episode 2. “There’s a lot of new characters,” Dyer says. “We’re anchored in the same cast, but also expanding the scale of the whole world of OB. There’s a lot more female-focused characters, too. If people can like the characters, or at least like to laugh at them — or with them — you’ve got something. That’s what matters.”
As Dyer previously explained to the Reader, "[We strive to] create the overall visualization of their daily lives that are rather weird, bizarre, and hectic. It's a satirical take on Ocean Beach and all the colorful vibrant lives and different walks of life that stampede over the streets there. It’s an amalgamation of different characters, with different kinds of skits and takes on classic stereotypical things you’d see in Ocean Beach and Southern California at large. Whether it be the hippie culture, the surf culture, the overly expensive real estate, the lavish lifestyles being enjoyed right next to pockets of homelessness...we’re trying to jab at those things in a playful, loving way, because we love this community.”
Dyer: "We love this community."
The pilot episode has garnered over 10,000 views on YouTube, but the goal is to find the show a home on a streaming service. To do that, “You’ve got to make enough episodes,” Dyer explains. “You can’t really sell a two-episode thing. You can try to sell a pilot, but it’s harder. It’s easier to sell it to a streaming service as a whole season" — more like six to eight episodes.
Funding for the show comes through crowdsourcing, which has given the crew enough capital to begin production for a third episode. “It all goes back to paying the actors,” says Dyer. “When we get that funding, we can afford to hire out all the main actors, making it so it’s a priority on their schedule. They shoot for two to three days, then we go from there.” Every donor gets a name credit at the end of the episode. “We want to show you love and thank you for helping us out. Once we get that rhythm, you’ll notice it on the screen.”
As for the music, the End of the 8 band writes actual songs featured on the show. The band/cast is composed of local musicians Spence Noble and Kasey Dring from Band of Gringos, and David Pozay from Half Hour Late. Local musicians John Cristini and Kat Hall are also featured actors on the show.
For the second episode, they released the single “Tax Man.” “We have another song we’re going to release soon,” says Dyer. “John [Cristini] and I have composed about four or five other songs that we play with Spence and Kasey. We know them and have played them live. We just haven’t recorded them yet.” A show about a band does need a soundtrack.
Happily, they don't have to go it alone in that department. Other acts have granted permission to use their tracks on the show, with Slightly Stoopid being the biggest. “They said they were down to let us use some of their tracks. It’s huge. Then Kat Hall is down to use her music, and we love her songs. Then we might be incorporating some of Half Hour Late’s songs. By getting a lot of these local bands together, we’re trying to make that a little bit more communal on the soundtrack — with some of the original End of the 8 songs sprinkled in.”
Upcoming Event
End of the 8 TV Show Screening & Performance
- Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
- Harp, 4935 Newport Avenue, San Diego
- Age Limit: Not available
The premiere of episode two happens at The Harp in Ocean Beach on August 26. “We’ve got live music as well,” Dyer says. “It’s going to be a good old smorgasbord of live music. We’re going to have the End of the 8 band playing and a bunch of guest appearances.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
OB band sitcom End of the 8 gaining both community support and film fest cred
TV show features songs by Slightly Stoopid, Half Hour Late, and more
OB band sitcom End of the 8 gaining both community support and film fest cred
TV show features songs by Slightly Stoopid, Half Hour Late, and more
End of the 8 writer/director/star Daniel M. Dyer
End of the 8 is a sitcom that follows a rock band around Ocean Beach, spotlighting the neighborhood’s eclectic vibe. For those who didn’t catch the pilot episode on YouTube last year, the show climaxed with the End of the 8 band (imagine if Spinal Tap and Grateful Dead birthed a surfer love child) playing to packed house at Winstons. The shots of the crowd featured a who's who of Obeacians, and this was no accident. Highlighting the real-life characters and scenery of Ocean Beach was one of the main objectives of show creator Daniel M. Dyer.
Video:
Pilot Episode: END OF THE 8
Since then, excitement has been building around the show. Over the past year, the pilot made wound through the indie film circuit and even made it through the first round of Cannes Film Festival. It scored six nominations and won a couple of awards: Best Web/TV Pilot at the Los Angeles Film Awards and Best Ensemble Cast at the Independent Shorts Awards.
Now the moment is approaching for Episode 2. “There’s a lot of new characters,” Dyer says. “We’re anchored in the same cast, but also expanding the scale of the whole world of OB. There’s a lot more female-focused characters, too. If people can like the characters, or at least like to laugh at them — or with them — you’ve got something. That’s what matters.”
As Dyer previously explained to the Reader, "[We strive to] create the overall visualization of their daily lives that are rather weird, bizarre, and hectic. It's a satirical take on Ocean Beach and all the colorful vibrant lives and different walks of life that stampede over the streets there. It’s an amalgamation of different characters, with different kinds of skits and takes on classic stereotypical things you’d see in Ocean Beach and Southern California at large. Whether it be the hippie culture, the surf culture, the overly expensive real estate, the lavish lifestyles being enjoyed right next to pockets of homelessness...we’re trying to jab at those things in a playful, loving way, because we love this community.”
Dyer: "We love this community."
The pilot episode has garnered over 10,000 views on YouTube, but the goal is to find the show a home on a streaming service. To do that, “You’ve got to make enough episodes,” Dyer explains. “You can’t really sell a two-episode thing. You can try to sell a pilot, but it’s harder. It’s easier to sell it to a streaming service as a whole season" — more like six to eight episodes.
Funding for the show comes through crowdsourcing, which has given the crew enough capital to begin production for a third episode. “It all goes back to paying the actors,” says Dyer. “When we get that funding, we can afford to hire out all the main actors, making it so it’s a priority on their schedule. They shoot for two to three days, then we go from there.” Every donor gets a name credit at the end of the episode. “We want to show you love and thank you for helping us out. Once we get that rhythm, you’ll notice it on the screen.”
As for the music, the End of the 8 band writes actual songs featured on the show. The band/cast is composed of local musicians Spence Noble and Kasey Dring from Band of Gringos, and David Pozay from Half Hour Late. Local musicians John Cristini and Kat Hall are also featured actors on the show.
For the second episode, they released the single “Tax Man.” “We have another song we’re going to release soon,” says Dyer. “John [Cristini] and I have composed about four or five other songs that we play with Spence and Kasey. We know them and have played them live. We just haven’t recorded them yet.” A show about a band does need a soundtrack.
Happily, they don't have to go it alone in that department. Other acts have granted permission to use their tracks on the show, with Slightly Stoopid being the biggest. “They said they were down to let us use some of their tracks. It’s huge. Then Kat Hall is down to use her music, and we love her songs. Then we might be incorporating some of Half Hour Late’s songs. By getting a lot of these local bands together, we’re trying to make that a little bit more communal on the soundtrack — with some of the original End of the 8 songs sprinkled in.”
Upcoming Event
End of the 8 TV Show Screening & Performance
- Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
- Harp, 4935 Newport Avenue, San Diego
- Age Limit: Not available
The premiere of episode two happens at The Harp in Ocean Beach on August 26. “We’ve got live music as well,” Dyer says. “It’s going to be a good old smorgasbord of live music. We’re going to have the End of the 8 band playing and a bunch of guest appearances.”
Comments