‘October Road’ Cast and Creators Have an Emotional Reunion at the ATX Television Festival

It was an experience that was like “lightning in a bottle.”

The cast and creators of October Road celebrated a 10-year reunion on Friday at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, TX. After a screening the memorable Season 1 finale, “Best Friend Windows,” creators Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg joined cast members Odette Annable, Rebecca Field, Jay Paulson, and Geoff Stults on stage at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz to reflect on the series.

October Road follows the story of Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg), who returns home to his small town of Knights Ridge after ten years. It isn’t easy returning, though, since everyone he knows is still reeling from a book he wrote based on their lives.

Though the series was canceled after just two seasons, it certainly left an impression. Scott Rosenberg explained how the series was based on himself and his group of friends, who were also the inspiration for the film Beautiful Girls. (Even the air band came from real life experience.)

Rebecca Field, who played Janet on October Road, spoke a bit about her character’s love story with Eddie Latekka (Geoff Stults), and how it was so relatable. “This was the first time that I’ve seen on television where it was someone who was normal, that a lot of people could relate to, having that kind of love story,” Field said.

She also recalled a specific piece of advice co-star Geoff Stults gave her while they filmed the series. She said Stults “took her under his wing” while the group was filming in Atlanta. “He’s like, ‘Enjoy this. This is lightning in a bottle. This is a special moment, and it is something that you probably won’t ever experience again.'”

That’s not the only thing he taught her, though. “The only thing I remember teaching Rebecca was — I was like, ‘Come with me.’ And we pulled my rental car up to the craft service trailer and stole a bunch of shit,” Stults laughed.

Odette Annable reflected on her character, Aubrey, and recalled the audition process.

“They put me through a hell of an audition process, I’ll tell ya that,” Annable remembered. “I was 18 or 19 at the time, and the audition came in, and I didn’t recognize half the words that were on the page. I was like, you know what, I’m just gonna go for this. And I loved the character so much, and we went through probably four or five rounds of auditions,” she continued. “I sat down with these guys, and we talked about the character, and then I tested twice for the role.”

“I loved Aubrey because, yes, she was super young, but she was so smart and well beyond her years,” Annable noted. “She just always got it. She was so wise and well beyond her years. I’m just so happy to be here, you guys. I cried almost through the whole thing.”

Watching that Season 1 finale with the fans on Friday was an emotional experience for the other cast members as well.

“I haven’t seen it in ten years, and I was surprised how moved I was to remember what we all did and how much fun we had doing it,” Jay Paulson said. “I think it was the group. We were greater than the sum of our parts.” 

“I don’t know if I ever saw that episode, so I got a little emotional up there,” Geoff Stults admitted. “This was just such a fun time for all of us.”

“Any chance we get to get together it’s all like, ‘it’s ten years later, guys, we should stop talking about this f—ing show.’ It’s ridiculous. We’ve worked since then, but all we do is talk about this show,” Stults joked. “I had such a great experience on this. It really kinda informed my — very much — the next ten years of my life.”

The show’s creators also discussed the show’s “tortured development,” noting that the first time around, the pilot wasn’t picked up. (The original pilot also had a different actress playing the role of Janet.)

While the first season, which was only six-episodes in length, did well following Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights, the second season didn’t go quite as well. It was not only around the time of the writer’s strike, but they also premiered Season 2 on Thanksgiving. “It was downhill from there,” Scott Rosenberg noted.

Rosenberg said he would have gladly continued writing the show for the rest of his career.

He remembered there being talk of moving the show to Fridays, which would have meant an even smaller audience. Rosenberg recalled thinking, “If you tell me that the rest of my career is writing this show for this cast, and on Friday, and only this many people would see it — I would have done it gladly. That’s how special it was.”

October Road was canceled after Season 2, which ended with a few cliffhangers and still left fans with some burning questions. Upon news of the cancellation, the cast and crew pulled together to do something special.

“I’ve never seen it done before — and maybe it was been done — but the really beautiful thing, when we found out that we were canceled was that these guys pulled together an epilogue, and they gave not only us, but the fans an ending. And I don’t feel like you get that often,” Odette Annable remarked.

“To have that ending was really wonderful and something that we really value. Also, all of our crew members came back. Nobody got paid for it. It was all a labor of love, and we did it because we love the show and we love each other so much.”

Be sure to check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here (there is still more to come)

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