Tannhäuser Gate Entertainment Announces New Audio Drama Coming in 2021

Tannhäuser Gate Entertainment, the production house that brought us the Jake Muller Adventures, has announced that they are developing a new show that will be coming next year. The show, titled The Watch, will be a police drama that follows a homicide detective and his fellow officers as they face off with the criminal element in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Co-created by Randy Streu (Agent Beck; Jake Muller Adventures) and Darby Kern (writer; Left Behind: The Kids, Lamplighter Theatre, Kids Corner), this new audio drama series will be released as a free podcast beginning in 2021.

Photo courtesy Randy Streu

The script for the pilot episode was written by Kern and Streu and is currently being reviewed by a veteran police officer. Regarding the genesis of the show, Streu says, "Darby actually approached me and said we should do something where I could take on a more prominent role. As a voice actor still trying to get noticed I obviously thought that was an outstanding idea. I had a very vague idea for a police drama that I wanted to call 'The Watch.' Darby and I drove to Sonic-Con together and by the time we got there, we had the bones of the idea basically set." Kern echoed the sentiment, “Randy and I spent way too much time in the car together, traveling to Sonic-Con,” he said. “You put creative people in a car for that long and a series will come out of them.”

When asked for specifics on the characters and situations the show will cover, Darby Kern provided the following overview for The Watch:

The Watch is a dramatic audio podcast that will follow three members of the Milwaukee Police Department as they do their job (The Job) while they navigate difficult waters in their personal lives.

The Watch follows Dave Maddaloni, a veteran Detective as he solves the murder of a mid-level mobster. What he discovers will test him professionally and personally as he faces a series of tests with his family and the cops he believes are his friends.

James Wilson is a Uniform Officer facing his own personal challenges. When he finds himself being manipulated by some nefarious characters he needs to decide who he can trust, and what the ramifications of that decision will be.

Kat Fairfax is a Dispatch Officer and a good friend of both Maddaloni and Wilson. As a woman in a man’s world, she also has an axe to grind and she is getting blinded by the sparks.

Their stories are interwoven, and sometimes at odds with each other, as they try to do their job. Friendship and duty are tested regularly as they speed towards an inevitable confrontation. 

Marked with realism, humor and strong characterization, The Watch will be unlike any podcast on the internet right now.

Darby Kern

“So many cop television shows are wrapping things up, or putting an irresponsible spin on law enforcement,” Kern says. “The Watch is designed to give the audience an idea of what cops go through in the course of their day, at work and at home. They have problems like all of us and sometimes they let their problems define them.”

The team plans to begin recording in January 2021 with a two-part pilot episode. When funding comes available they will record the remaining six episodes of season one. It is planned to be an ongoing series with eight episode seasons. The episodes will involve “crime of the week” stories as well as an arc that will play out over the entire first season.

The series will be produced by Tannhäuser Gate Entertainment with Micah Touchet and NewBirth Audio Productions co-producing, though Kern was very clear that this program is not going to replace Jake Muller Adventures. “It’s a side project while we await funding of the next JMA series,” he said.

Most of the principal characters have been cast already and there are lots of familiar names. The writers will also be spending some time in front of the mic too. Randy Streu will be portraying Dave Maddaloni and Darby Kern will be Lieutenant Dorner. Joining them in the cast will be Stacey Bradshaw (Lamplighter Theatre) as Kat Fairfax, Christian Gill (Jake Muller Adventures) as James Wilson, and Nato Jacobson (Jonathan Park, The Adventum) as Officer Tommy Wilke. Katie Leigh (Adventures in Odyssey) will be Tori Maddaloni and Aimee Lilly (Kids Corner) will voice Janet Wilson.

Scene Breakdown for Pilot Episode of The Watch
Photo courtesy Darby Kern