The origin of Apple TV's new horror-comedy Widow's Bay is stranger than the show's cursed island premise. Creator Katie Dippold originally wrote the script as a writing sample to get hired on Parks and Recreation, not as a television pitch.
It worked. Parks and Recreation showrunner Mike Schur hired her off that sample, and Dippold spent four years on the show, writing seven episodes. The horror script sat, changed, and eventually became the 10-episode series now streaming on Apple TV.
"It gave a good understanding of my sense of humor, and Mike Schur hired me off of that," Dippold said in an interview with Screen Rant.
The show follows Mayor Tom Loftis, played by Emmy-winning Americans actor Matthew Rhys, who wants to transform his obscure New England island town into a tourist destination along the lines of Martha's Vineyard. The problem: the locals believe the place is cursed, and they are not wrong. The cast also includes Barry's Stephen Root, My Lady Jane's Kate O'Flynn, Snowfall's Kevin Carroll, and Bashir Salahuddin as a New York Times travel writer whose visit sets the plot in motion.
Dippold told Screen Rant that her original draft was "a lot more joke-heavy" and "could have easily felt more like a parody." She eventually overhauled the script because she wanted viewers to feel genuinely scared, not just amused. One scene from the original draft survived: a moment in which Loftis gives the reporter a tour of the town's historical society, though even that was substantially reworked.
IndieWire's review of the first three episodes, all directed by Atlanta veteran Hiro Murai, praised the show's balance of dread and deadpan. The series opens with a barrage of darkly comic local headlines at the historical society: "Priest Eaten by Whale," "Man Found Dead by Horse," and "Cannibalism in God's House." The review called it "a cathartic, curious, and chilling experience."
Dippold began her career in sketch comedy at MADtv before transitioning to traditional television writing with Parks and Recreation. She later co-wrote The Heat with director Paul Feig and wrote the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. She also penned Disney's Haunted Mansion reboot before making the leap to full series creator with Widow's Bay.
