David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2012 issue of World Screen.

 

With distinguished careers producing hit sitcoms—David Crane was a co-creator of Friends and Jeffrey Klarik a writer on Mad About You—both men have countless stories about producing for U.S. networks. They took those experiences and used them in Episodes, a comedy series about adapting a British TV hit for an American network. It stars Matt LeBlanc in a fictionalized version of himself.

 

WS: Both of you had some battle scars from working for U.S. network television executives and you wanted to bring some of that into your show.

KLARIK: We don’t have the right to complain, but we both have war stories. It’s very challenging because the industry is ruled by fear. You have all of this money being spent and you have all of these executives who have to justify themselves and their jobs, and they are terrified that they will make a mistake. The truth is, no one really knows the answers, and the result of that is that there is a lot of anxiety, and a lot of notes. They love you until the minute things start to turn and the ratings dip a little bit and suddenly you can’t get them on the phone. And we thought, that would make a funny TV show—the way that networks tend to fall in love with an idea when you pitch it and then bit by bit, what’s the expression? Death by encouragement, and by the time you write it and hand it in, very often the show they fell in love with, they’re just not in love with anymore because their needs have changed.

CRANE: Also they get bored really quickly, so jokes that they loved during the pitch, when they see them on the page, are not so funny, and the more they hear them the less they laugh. They grow tired before it’s even had the chance to live on screen.

 

WS: And when do the ratings become a sword of Damocles over your head?

KLARIK: From the morning after the premiere of the show. [Network executives] make up their minds immediately. So much has to do with whatever their expectations for you were. If they have a number in their head of what they’re thinking the show should get and you don’t meet that expectation—it’s like the worst blind date ever! They have a picture of what they want and you are just you.

CRANE: It’s a journey, and hopefully [in Episodes] we have been able to mine it for the comedy that’s in it rather than the angst.

 

WS: Many people are saying comedy is experiencing a re­naissance. How have you seen the genre evolve?

KLARIK: It’s always cyclical, and before The Cosby Show came on the air back in the ’80s, sitcoms were pronounced dead. This time what happened was Modern Family came on and people were excited because it is a terrific show and they tuned in. Once that happened then ABC said, “Oh, well, let’s put something else next to it.” And bit by bit it just catches on.

CRANE: Other networks look and say, “They’re having success with comedy, let’s look at comedy again.”

KLARIK: Also, because there are so many channels now, and so many good niche channels, the cable channels [in particular] are forced to come up with shows that really define them. People are really pushing boundaries, so that you get a show like Louie or Girls that have a tone and a color that you couldn’t do on network TV, that have their own specificity. They’re just brilliant, brilliant shows.

 

WS: Have you picked up a lot of British expressions?

KLARIK: We picked up a word or two, like “shambolic.” Have you ever heard of the word “shambolic”?

 

WS: I have not.

CRANE: When someone is all in a shambles, when someone is disorganized, they are shambolic. It’s quite a common word over there.

KLARIK: However, words like “pussy-whipped”—they had never heard of it; they don’t know what it means. We used the word “popsicle” in an episode. They don’t have “popsicles,” they have “ice lollies.” But if we change it to “ice lolly,” it might be true to the British vernacular, but it sure wouldn’t be funny to an American audience. So we decided that since [the character] Beverly is living in America now, she is saying “popsicle.” The other thing is, though we don’t write with this in mind, Episodes is in 180 countries. You’re bound to confuse a lot of people all of the time!

CRANE: You just gotta do what makes sense for you and hope they understand what you’re talking about.

 

WS: Tell us about Matt LeBlanc, who is known around the world as Joey on Friends.

KLARIK: The idea was to give everyone an opportunity to see what range he has as an actor. It was fun playing with everyone’s perception of who he is. Everybody who meets him expects Joey, not the brightest bulb on the tree, but he’s nothing like that. Quite to the contrary—he is really smart and has great comic instinct.

 

WS: I work with my husband and that’s not always easy. You work together and are also partners in life. I was wondering if you have any advice to impart!

CRANE: Except when we get into production and it’s going 24/7, we’re pretty good at taking those moments when you need to step away. Jeffrey is better at it than I am. We’ll be going and he’ll look at me and say, “Let’s think about that. We’ve done as much as we can do right now, let’s take a breath, let’s step away.” So we, in fact, think about that, rather than keep trying to ride it out. If you’re in a writers’ room you can’t do that. If you’re in a writers’ room you just have to keep grinding.

KLARIK: Also, when you are in the writers’ room, you have to be nice to one another! You have to act as if you like what other people are suggesting because you don’t want to shoot them down. So you tend to be diplomatic and dance around and it wastes a lot of time. We have no problem just going, “No. Uh-uh, that doesn’t work.” And then we move on. But if you’re in a room and you’ve got 12 other people and they’re sticking their necks out to pitch something—

CRANE: You feel like you have to be supportive and everyone’s voice has to be heard, which is true, so in some ways it’s more convenient when it’s just the two of us.

KLARIK: It’s always more convenient.

CRANE: Right, but the flip side is that because we are doing it all ourselves we can’t send anyone off with a script, it’s just us.

 

WS: So the buck stops right there with you.

KLARIK: Yeah, but I prefer that, because usually when we send people off to write a script, they come back with something that is so far from what you wanted it to be—again, you have to tiptoe around without hurting egos. This way, it’s just us, and it really is almost 24 hours a day. We’ll wake up in the middle of the night and I’ll look over at David and his eyes are wide open [laughs] and I’ll ask, Where are you? And he’ll say, “At that third scene. That third scene isn’t working.”

CRANE: It has taken over our lives!

 

WS: What would you say is Friends’ legacy, and what did you take away from that experience? Those must have been ten unbelievable years.

CRANE: They were absolutely amazing, untouchable years. Legacy? I don’t know, that’s for other people to talk about. I had a brilliant time doing it and I give Jeffrey a lot of credit for being part of that even though he is uncredited. I don’t think I wrote a single word that the two of us didn’t work on here at home. We had a brilliant time doing it and it’s unrepeatable. When people talk about doing a Friends reunion, we shake our heads and go, “No, no, no, no, you’re missing the point.” It was what it was. We put a great big bow on the end of it.

 

WS: I think about an episode of Mad About You every time I go down to the basement to do the laundry. Remember the episode when Jamie and Paul forget to press the button on the door and lock themselves out of their apartment? I’m always scared I’ll do the same thing.

KLARIK: Yeah, that was me!

 

WS: Isn’t it funny how in great comedies, sometimes it’s the smallest little things that just stick with you for a long time?

KLARIK: That’s why Mad About You worked so well, because whether it was changing the toilet paper when it’s empty, it’s stuff that every couple deals with. I bet even Barack and Michelle Obama deal with stuff like that.