Nathan Fielder made headlines in June when he called the Federal Aviation Administration “dumb” for its pushback on claims made in the second season of HBO’s The Rehearsal.
The second season of the show focuses on airline safety, specifically related to communication between pilots and co-pilots with Fielder highlighting the issue in a series of rehearsed situations, including the comedian flying a Boeing 737 passenger jet in the finale.
In an interview on CNN’s The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown after the show ended, he criticized the F.A.A.’s training standards, claiming that they don’t really prepare pilots and co-pilots to say what’s on their mind if they are concerned about something happening in the cockpit.
In the series, Fielder was hoping to be invited to speak about the issue in front of Congress in order to raise awareness.
Since the show ended, a bill is now moving forward, a move that Fielder said may have been influenced by the HBO series.
In June, the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure voted to approve the Mental Health in Aviation Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the FAA to encourage pilots to disclose mental health conditions, something they are not currently doing so as to not lose their jobs. The bill would allocate $13.7M per year to recruit professionals including psychiatrists.
Speaking on a Deadline-moderated panel at the Writers Guild Foundation’s Sublime Primetime event last week, Fielder said that he still hasn’t been invited to speak in front of Congress.
“But actually, after the show aired, John [Goglia, former National Transportation Safety Board member] texted me and said that a bill that’s been stuck in the House for years about pilot mental health finally went through and was passed, and went to the Senate, and he was talking to the young staffers, and he said, ‘I think the show pushed them to [do it]’. I guess the young people make all the decisions. He’s like, ‘That’s how it works’. Anyway, I don’t know if it did anything, but it was nice to hear. That’s the most recent update,” he said.
Fielder was a fan of Canadian series Mayday and actually started taking flying lessons before even pitching the idea it to HBO.
“I noticed this thing that would happen in [Mayday] a lot. They reenact plane crashes and talk about why they happened. I started to notice this thing that was always happening, where the co-pilot would know what the issue was, but would be too afraid to or intimidated to speak up to the captain or take over the controls. For like 10 years, I was just telling people this at parties. Then when I was thinking about the second season, I had that idea, and I thought that would be a really good,” he added.
Fielder was on the panel alongside writers Eric Notarnicola, Carrie Kemper and Adam Locke-Norton. Exec producers include Fielder, Notarnicola, Dave Paige, and Christie Smith and Dan McManus. Kemper is a co-exec producer alongside Kris Eber and Locke-Norton is a producer.
The Rehearsal is currently nominated for a number of Emmys this year including Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series, Outstanding Picture Editing For A Single Camera Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series.