UNPICKED
New York City, New York | Series
Comedy, Sport
When their captain’s nemesis joins the roster, a queer basketball team must navigate loyalty and rivalry to win a rec league title. UNPICKED is a shamelessly gay comedy about messy friendships, mid-tier athleticism, and the glory of people who refuse to quit on each other.
UNPICKED
New York City, New York | Series
Comedy, Sport
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $9,165 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
102 supporters | followers
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When their captain’s nemesis joins the roster, a queer basketball team must navigate loyalty and rivalry to win a rec league title. UNPICKED is a shamelessly gay comedy about messy friendships, mid-tier athleticism, and the glory of people who refuse to quit on each other.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Jerica Flanagan treats recreational basketball like it's the WNBA Finals. She's run every Diana Taurasi trick play, rehearses her trash talk in the mirror every morning, and genuinely believes it is her destiny to hoist a shimmering plastic rec league championship trophy above her head. That is, until the league assigns her sworn enemy to her team.
UNPICKED isn't just another sports comedy, it's a love letter to the beautiful chaos of queer community and team sports. Set in a fictional Brooklyn women’s league, it follows a ragtag crew of underdogs who absolutely do not have it together but keep showing up anyway.
We’ve (Ray and Brigid) spent the last two years building the world of UNPICKED from the ground up. From developing a full series bible and writing the pilot, to crafting character arcs, comedic set pieces, and the emotional backbone of this team, we’ve done everything we can to get this show ready for production. Now we need your help to bring it to life. If our posts have made you laugh or reminded you of your own weird rec league, we hope you’ll join us in getting this queer sports comedy off the bench and onto the screen.
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We made UNPICKED because we’ve never seen queer, sports-obsessed weirdos like us at the center of a comedy. We’re comedians, writers, and longtime rec league players. We’ve been in these trenches. Rec games that feel like high-stakes showdowns, losses that hit like heartbreak, and teammates who are one missed layup away from sobbing into their post-game beer.
So many LGBTQ+ stories on screen are built around trauma or coming out. But in UNPICKED, queerness just exists. No explanation, no backstory, just messy, hilarious humans trying to win something that technically doesn’t matter… but also really, really does.
Now is the time for queer joy, unserious resilience, and comedies that make space for our weirdest selves.
We’re making a 25-minute TV comedy pilot about a queer rec league basketball team that unravels when the league assigns their captain’s nemesis to their roster. Told in part through a documentary lens, the show blends mockumentary chaos with emotionally grounded storytelling.
The story unfolds through the documentary lens of Yumi, a self-serious documentarian who thinks she’s making the next Grizzly Man...while her subject, Jerica, thinks it’s a motivational sports doc. Each character engages with the camera in their own way: Jerica performs, Pauly calibrates, Fox psychoanalyzes, Zahara vents. Meanwhile, Yumi’s editing evolves into a storytelling voice of its own, revealing the shifting dynamics of the team.
Stylistically, UNPICKED blends single-cam sitcom energy with stylized, over-the-top basketball sequences. Signature moves get animated title cards, time slows for dramatic moments, and the ball itself becomes a kind of character. Inspired by sports anime, screwball comedies, and the absurd sincerity of rec league culture, the gameplay feels as intense and high-stakes as the WNBA Finals,because to these characters, it is.
Jerica ran half a marathon without training because "warriors endure hard things for their teammates." She's unhinged, loyal to a fault, and convinced she's the role model everyone needs.
Pauly is the effortlessly charming new teammate—friendly, supportive, and dangerously good at basketball. But Jerica’s convinced she’s hiding something… and she’s not about to let her guard down.
Fox just wants everyone to get along while juggling their social work job and an overwhelming impulse to fix everything. They're the gentle giant caught between two forces of nature.
Zahara is too busy for the bullshit, but she never quits anything. When she's not fashion designing or cosmic consulting, she's playing voice of reason for the team.
Yumi thinks she's documenting a sports team but might actually be capturing a slow-motion train wreck. She sees potential Pulitzer material in every petty argument.
Created by Brigid Reilly & Ray Morgan, two queer comics and rec league lifers who’ve spent two years workshopping this script, world, and team.
July 2025: Fundraising campaign launches! We're building our community and raising funds while finalizing our incredible cast and crew.
August 2025: Pre-production ramps up with table reads, rehearsals, and final location scouting. Our team gets ready to bring these characters to life.
September 2025: Production! Six intensive shoot days across Brooklyn's indoor and outdoor basketball courts, capturing every moment of rivalry, friendship, and gold trophy drama.
October 2025: Post-production begins. Our editor works their magic to showcases the kinetic energy and authentic heart of UNPICKED.
Late 2025/Early 2026: Festival submissions and industry outreach. We're taking this pilot to festivals and pitching directly to networks and streaming platforms that champion diverse storytelling, so we can bring the entire series to living rooms across the country (and PLANET!).
Our goal is to raise up to $10,000 to film our series pilot episode and display the heart and humor that makes UNPICKED special. This funding will cover a wide breadth of equipment rentals, cast and crew member stipends, location fees, and essentials on set for our 6-day shoot in Brooklyn this September. We (Brigid and Ray! Heeey!) have saved up $7K over the past two years as we've written and developed UNPICKED, but we need an extra hand from our community to afford all the resources that will make this show happen.
We're creating a proof of concept that demonstrates there's a hungry audience for stories about queer joy, chosen family, and the hilarious religion of recreational sports. Your support helps us take this story from script to screen with the quality it deserves.
UNPICKED is for anyone who's ever cared too much about something that didn't seem to matter to anyone else. It's for the underdogs, the try-hards, the people who show up even when they're guaranteed to lose.
Come along in our journey of bringing these characters to life and get behind a series that celebrates queer women in sports and the handsome disaster of stubborn people refusing to give up their dreams.
Because sometimes the best teams are the teams that shouldn't work at all.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew Wages
Costs $3,000
We've saved $10K so far, but need about $3K more to pay our talented, hard-working 10-person production crew livable wages on our shoot.
Cast Wages
Costs $1,500
We'll support the dedicated actors pouring their hearts into the characters of this story, who are taking days off from their regular work.
Gear & Equipment Rental
Costs $3,000
We're resourcing to get high-end equipment at accessible prices, but we'll still have a steep cost for cameras, lighting, audio & transport.
Prop & Costumes
Costs $1,000
We'll build our arsenal of basketballs, league jerseys, wardrobe and accessories to make our team and league believable on screen.
Gym Rental
Costs $1,000
Help us afford to rent out Hoops Klub, an indoor Brooklyn court and community-based gym, to shoot our practice and game scenes.
Craft Services
Costs $500
As our large cast and crew works six long set days back-to-back, this will help us supply them with meals, coffee and snacks to stay strong.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Brigid and Ray met as performers in Chicago's comedy community before co-founding their indie improv team, Burnt Toast, in 2022. They co-wrote and premiered their first short film, The Ill-Conceived, Poorly Executed Housewarming Party of Amy & Jaime, in June 2023, and began writing UNPICKED together soon after. As they developed the characters and outline for the series, they flew out to each other's cities (Ray's in NYC now) to film and share dozens of basketball comedy sketches on social media as @BucketsBiiiitch, hoping to find their fanbase somewhere in the ether. Buckets, Biiiitch! has earned millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes and over six thousand followers ahead of their planned pilot production in September 2025.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Jerica Flanagan treats recreational basketball like it's the WNBA Finals. She's run every Diana Taurasi trick play, rehearses her trash talk in the mirror every morning, and genuinely believes it is her destiny to hoist a shimmering plastic rec league championship trophy above her head. That is, until the league assigns her sworn enemy to her team.
UNPICKED isn't just another sports comedy, it's a love letter to the beautiful chaos of queer community and team sports. Set in a fictional Brooklyn women’s league, it follows a ragtag crew of underdogs who absolutely do not have it together but keep showing up anyway.
We’ve (Ray and Brigid) spent the last two years building the world of UNPICKED from the ground up. From developing a full series bible and writing the pilot, to crafting character arcs, comedic set pieces, and the emotional backbone of this team, we’ve done everything we can to get this show ready for production. Now we need your help to bring it to life. If our posts have made you laugh or reminded you of your own weird rec league, we hope you’ll join us in getting this queer sports comedy off the bench and onto the screen.
We made UNPICKED because we’ve never seen queer, sports-obsessed weirdos like us at the center of a comedy. We’re comedians, writers, and longtime rec league players. We’ve been in these trenches. Rec games that feel like high-stakes showdowns, losses that hit like heartbreak, and teammates who are one missed layup away from sobbing into their post-game beer.
So many LGBTQ+ stories on screen are built around trauma or coming out. But in UNPICKED, queerness just exists. No explanation, no backstory, just messy, hilarious humans trying to win something that technically doesn’t matter… but also really, really does.
Now is the time for queer joy, unserious resilience, and comedies that make space for our weirdest selves.
We’re making a 25-minute TV comedy pilot about a queer rec league basketball team that unravels when the league assigns their captain’s nemesis to their roster. Told in part through a documentary lens, the show blends mockumentary chaos with emotionally grounded storytelling.
The story unfolds through the documentary lens of Yumi, a self-serious documentarian who thinks she’s making the next Grizzly Man...while her subject, Jerica, thinks it’s a motivational sports doc. Each character engages with the camera in their own way: Jerica performs, Pauly calibrates, Fox psychoanalyzes, Zahara vents. Meanwhile, Yumi’s editing evolves into a storytelling voice of its own, revealing the shifting dynamics of the team.
Stylistically, UNPICKED blends single-cam sitcom energy with stylized, over-the-top basketball sequences. Signature moves get animated title cards, time slows for dramatic moments, and the ball itself becomes a kind of character. Inspired by sports anime, screwball comedies, and the absurd sincerity of rec league culture, the gameplay feels as intense and high-stakes as the WNBA Finals,because to these characters, it is.
Jerica ran half a marathon without training because "warriors endure hard things for their teammates." She's unhinged, loyal to a fault, and convinced she's the role model everyone needs.
Pauly is the effortlessly charming new teammate—friendly, supportive, and dangerously good at basketball. But Jerica’s convinced she’s hiding something… and she’s not about to let her guard down.
Fox just wants everyone to get along while juggling their social work job and an overwhelming impulse to fix everything. They're the gentle giant caught between two forces of nature.
Zahara is too busy for the bullshit, but she never quits anything. When she's not fashion designing or cosmic consulting, she's playing voice of reason for the team.
Yumi thinks she's documenting a sports team but might actually be capturing a slow-motion train wreck. She sees potential Pulitzer material in every petty argument.
Created by Brigid Reilly & Ray Morgan, two queer comics and rec league lifers who’ve spent two years workshopping this script, world, and team.
July 2025: Fundraising campaign launches! We're building our community and raising funds while finalizing our incredible cast and crew.
August 2025: Pre-production ramps up with table reads, rehearsals, and final location scouting. Our team gets ready to bring these characters to life.
September 2025: Production! Six intensive shoot days across Brooklyn's indoor and outdoor basketball courts, capturing every moment of rivalry, friendship, and gold trophy drama.
October 2025: Post-production begins. Our editor works their magic to showcases the kinetic energy and authentic heart of UNPICKED.
Late 2025/Early 2026: Festival submissions and industry outreach. We're taking this pilot to festivals and pitching directly to networks and streaming platforms that champion diverse storytelling, so we can bring the entire series to living rooms across the country (and PLANET!).
Our goal is to raise up to $10,000 to film our series pilot episode and display the heart and humor that makes UNPICKED special. This funding will cover a wide breadth of equipment rentals, cast and crew member stipends, location fees, and essentials on set for our 6-day shoot in Brooklyn this September. We (Brigid and Ray! Heeey!) have saved up $7K over the past two years as we've written and developed UNPICKED, but we need an extra hand from our community to afford all the resources that will make this show happen.
We're creating a proof of concept that demonstrates there's a hungry audience for stories about queer joy, chosen family, and the hilarious religion of recreational sports. Your support helps us take this story from script to screen with the quality it deserves.
UNPICKED is for anyone who's ever cared too much about something that didn't seem to matter to anyone else. It's for the underdogs, the try-hards, the people who show up even when they're guaranteed to lose.
Come along in our journey of bringing these characters to life and get behind a series that celebrates queer women in sports and the handsome disaster of stubborn people refusing to give up their dreams.
Because sometimes the best teams are the teams that shouldn't work at all.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew Wages
Costs $3,000
We've saved $10K so far, but need about $3K more to pay our talented, hard-working 10-person production crew livable wages on our shoot.
Cast Wages
Costs $1,500
We'll support the dedicated actors pouring their hearts into the characters of this story, who are taking days off from their regular work.
Gear & Equipment Rental
Costs $3,000
We're resourcing to get high-end equipment at accessible prices, but we'll still have a steep cost for cameras, lighting, audio & transport.
Prop & Costumes
Costs $1,000
We'll build our arsenal of basketballs, league jerseys, wardrobe and accessories to make our team and league believable on screen.
Gym Rental
Costs $1,000
Help us afford to rent out Hoops Klub, an indoor Brooklyn court and community-based gym, to shoot our practice and game scenes.
Craft Services
Costs $500
As our large cast and crew works six long set days back-to-back, this will help us supply them with meals, coffee and snacks to stay strong.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Brigid and Ray met as performers in Chicago's comedy community before co-founding their indie improv team, Burnt Toast, in 2022. They co-wrote and premiered their first short film, The Ill-Conceived, Poorly Executed Housewarming Party of Amy & Jaime, in June 2023, and began writing UNPICKED together soon after. As they developed the characters and outline for the series, they flew out to each other's cities (Ray's in NYC now) to film and share dozens of basketball comedy sketches on social media as @BucketsBiiiitch, hoping to find their fanbase somewhere in the ether. Buckets, Biiiitch! has earned millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes and over six thousand followers ahead of their planned pilot production in September 2025.