I was a big fan of the much underappreciated (and virtually ignored) comedy “The TV Set” when it came out earlier this year. Starring David Duchovny as a TV series creator facing a series of vexing career dilemma as his pilot negotiates the “creative” process in Hollywood, it’s a fine effort by director Jake Kasdan (set to make the leap to the big time next with the holiday comedy, “Walk Hard”).

With “The TV Set” newly released on DVD, I spoke with Kasdan about the sadly small release his flick received, his leading man, and why his dad won’t spill the beans on Indiana Jones.

MTV: Do you feel “The TV Set” got a fair shake at the box office?

Jake Kasdan: People wrote really nice stuff about it. I was happy about that. But it sort of barely came out in theaters. We got a little art-house release but it’s not exactly what you’re hoping for when you’re making it.

MTV: It must have been especially odd for you, working on your biggest film, “Walk Hard,” to see this film get sort of abandoned?

JK: Yeah. It was a drag. [Laughs] I was grateful it came out. When you make an independent movie there’s no guarantee about that. So I was glad that it went into theaters. And there’s no question that there was something funny and peculiar because yeah, I’m finishing up a movie now that is different in every way. It’s just a totally different thing. It’s hard to even relate to them as both being movies. The job is so different.

MTV: Why Duchovny for your lead?

JK: He’s incredibly funny and incredibly dry. He’s very understated. He can say a lot of words and be funny or say just a few and be funny. Some of my favorite stuff he does in the movie he does with his eyebrows or with one syllable. You read so much of his dilemma and agony.

MTV: Was the facial hair your idea?

JK: The story he always tells is I asked him to gain some weight. That is true. And that he didn’t want to gain weight. I guess that is true too though I don’t remember him flatly saying, “no.” He said, “I can wear something to make it look like I gained some weight.” And one of us said he should have a beard. He’s just so strapping and handsome that I wanted schlump him up a touch. It barely works. He looks like what nebbishy guys wished they looked like.

MTV: Hoe much of the film in the end was based on your own experiences trying to turn your film, “Zero Effect,” into a TV show?

JK: It wasn’t really based on the “Zero Effect” experience though that informed it. What happens in the movie is more nightmares piled on top of each other than I’ve ever endured myself in any single experience. It’s a kind of composite experience of my own experiences, my experiences with Judd [Apatow], and my friends who went on to do their own pilots. I’ve been around a lot of pilots. I’ve spent a lot of time in that milieu, a lot more than actual functioning shows.

MTV: Was it disconcerting for you to see Duchovny in a way playing you on the set?

JK: It wasn’t disconcerting for me. I’m sure in his mind he was drawing certain stuff from me. He talks a little like me but I don’t really look like that. Where it was sort of disconcerting sometimes was, we went to great pains to make it incredibly real in all of the performances and how we shot it. And I felt like we succeeded in accomplishing a level of veracity about something that is vaguely unpleasant.

MTV: Finally, as the son of the man who wrote “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” are you given any special inside info on the new Indy adventure?

JK: I don’t know anything! I tried a couple of ways to find out stuff but I know nothing. I think my dad knows a little bit but he’s sworn to secrecy. I know that at one point he knew a little about it but he was very coy and elusive about it. I’m so stoked for that. Just seeing Harrison in that hat brings back so much stuff.