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HOW THE APOCALYPSE IS MADE We went inside the writers’ room for Fox’s end-of-the-world sitcom, The Last Man on Earth. BY DANIEL KURLAND
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ight from its isolating opening moments, Fox’s The Last Man on Earth has been unpredictable television, the kind that rejuvenates the sitcom format. The series, masterminded by its star Will Forte, looks at a group of misfit survivors trying to get by in a broken, empty world. Now in its second season, the show continues to find new ways to play with an off-kilter concept that has taken viewers to
the corners of outer space and back again. Andy Bobrow, executive producer and writer for the series, took Den of Geek through an unprecedented tour of the show’s second season, an exclusive journey into the writers’ room of a major network sitcom. With the crew’s full episodic account available on DenofGeek.com, here’s a small taste of how such a unique sitcom comes together. Episode 1
EPISODE 1 – "IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?" “Carol quickly learns of how wrong her decision was to accompany Phil on his new journey away from Tuscon.” How much of a plan did you guys have for the second season when you ended the first one? ANDY BOBROW, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: There was no plan at all at the end of season one, except that we knew we had Tandy and Carol off on their own. And we liked how that gave us an opportunity to get back to basics with them. There was some criticism in season one that we expanded the cast too quickly, and in hindsight we agreed. So we thought of this as a way to give ourselves a little do-over and get back to the OG’s, Tandy and Carol. We would have gone longer, but there’s a financial reality to deal with. The actors’ contracts were in place since season one, and it’s standard for series regulars to get paid whether they are in an episode or not. The network promotion model is very much a game of “remember that thing you like? Well it’s right here and it’s just how you like it.” They wanted the cast on the billboards, and we wanted people not even to know that the cast was coming back.
EPISODE 2 – "THE BOO"
ALL IMAGES: FOX
“Phil goes on a search for Carol after he accidentally leaves her in a gas station in Oklahoma.”
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Tandy himself becomes a much more empathetic character after his antagonistic run during the first season. Can you talk a bit on that new re-positioning for the character? AB: Yeah, it was definitely a conscious decision. Tandy’s personality last year became polarizing. Not at first, but around episode six, some people started saying, “fuck this guy.” And the truth is we pretty much corrected ourselves before we heard any feedback, because you know we shot all 13 episodes of season one before they aired. But even in the room, some of us were very worried that, for example, scenes like the “don’t trust fats” scene would push viewers too far. Will
knows what’s funny and he knows that he is particularly funny when he is selfish, inappropriate, scheming, horny, and failing. Some of us who come from a traditional sitcom background were like, “Those things are well and good, but Tandy is the lead character. Kramer could be those things, but Jerry had to be more likeable.” And Will was like, “This is funny.” And it took many of us out of our comfort zone, just like it did for the audience. And I’m proud that we went there because it’s yet another reason why this is not a typical network show.
EPISODE 4 – "C TO THE T" “Phil is welcomed back into the group, but he must face consequences for how he acted in Tuscon. This episode more than any other feels like a showcase of Forte’s physical comedy ability. Did this sort of just fall together this way, or was it intentionally engineered as a physical piece for Will? AB: It just fell together that way. I mean, the first assignment was now that he’s in the stocks, how does he get out, and how does he redeem himself? I think the main flow of logic was just realizing, okay, at some point, they have to let him out of the stocks, but would they just forgive him? Probably not. And would he screw something else up? Probably would. Will wanted the main comic engine of the story to be the way Tandy keeps offering up his own punishments and then screwing them up and then punishing himself harder to compensate. The way Will thinks, he really can’t like an idea until he can picture how he’s going to play it, and how he’ll make it funny as an actor. He thinks in set pieces. So I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but we were talking in the area of punishments, and someone said shock collar. The point is it was one of those things that just bubbled up and quickly took root. That episode was ridiculous fun. Not terribly fun to shoot, though. It was ridiculously hot that week, and we had a ton of outdoor scenes. So when you watch Will doing all that physical stuff outdoors, keep in mind it was 100 degrees the whole time.
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