After changing the way network television viewed queer comedy with their revolutionary sitcom 'Will & Grace', creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are set to alter the landscape of the streaming space with MID-CENTURY MODERN, a classic multi-cam comedy series about old friends, new roommates and chosen family.
Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, directed by James Burrows, and starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham and Linda Lavin (in her final on-screen role), MID-CENTURY MODERN is a riotous comedy about three gay best friends who, after an unexpected death, decide to embrace their golden years together in sun-soaked Palm Springs, where the wealthiest one lives with his mother.
As the series sets its premiere this week on Disney+ here in Australia and Hulu in the United States, our Peter Gray spoke with Kohan and Mutchnick about the evolution of their comedy from 'Will & Grace' to now, the content freedom that comes with airing on a streaming service, and how Ryan Murphy got the show wheel’s running more than they could have ever imagined.
#interview #will&grace #midcenturymodern #comedy #maxmutchnick #davidkohan #disneyplus #hulu #nathanlane #mattbomer #lindalavin #nathanleegraham #lgbtqia #theaureview #australia #ryanmurphy
Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, directed by James Burrows, and starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham and Linda Lavin (in her final on-screen role), MID-CENTURY MODERN is a riotous comedy about three gay best friends who, after an unexpected death, decide to embrace their golden years together in sun-soaked Palm Springs, where the wealthiest one lives with his mother.
As the series sets its premiere this week on Disney+ here in Australia and Hulu in the United States, our Peter Gray spoke with Kohan and Mutchnick about the evolution of their comedy from 'Will & Grace' to now, the content freedom that comes with airing on a streaming service, and how Ryan Murphy got the show wheel’s running more than they could have ever imagined.
#interview #will&grace #midcenturymodern #comedy #maxmutchnick #davidkohan #disneyplus #hulu #nathanlane #mattbomer #lindalavin #nathanleegraham #lgbtqia #theaureview #australia #ryanmurphy
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TVTranscript
00:00Peter Gray from the AU review in Australia. Hello, Max. Hello, David.
00:03Hello, Peter.
00:05I just want to quickly first say how much Will and Grace meant to me as a teenager trying to
00:11trying to figure a lot of stuff out. It made me feel seen and understood. And now as a grown man
00:18with the confidence of someone that has hair, it's awesome to see this show and it just like
00:25embraces what it is to be sort of unapologetically gay. It's just incredible. So I just want to say
00:30thank you, first of all. Thank you. Really nice. It's really nice to hear. Thank you.
00:34Obviously, going off the success of Will and Grace and going into a show like this, like,
00:38is there a an approach for both of you in, I guess, seeing this as a natural revolution,
00:45as well as a departure, sort of like balancing that familiarity with the unexplored, so to speak?
00:51Yes, that is kind of that. That's pretty much how I would describe it. I mean,
00:57we didn't set out to we didn't set out to say to each other, OK, what's going to be the next
01:02evolutionary step in, you know, sort of in gay representation on multi-camera sitcoms?
01:09What we did was, you know, it's sort of we wrote we wrote Will and Grace when we were that age
01:15and now we're this age and we and we want to, you know, cover characters that are are similar
01:23in some ways and very different than others, but happen to be our age. You know, that really is
01:28the whole evolution. That's the whole of it. I guess being on a streaming like as much as it's
01:33a, you know, the multi-camera sitcom made me also feel very like I was like, I'm so glad that that
01:37format is still still around. But being on a streaming service like does that give a certain,
01:42I guess, license to to to go places that you couldn't before? Because like I say,
01:48the language the language in this when when the great Linda Lavin says what time is, I was like,
01:54that was unexpected as an Australian. We say that word all the time. So that was awesome. But I was
01:58like, does it give you a certain license to be able to go, OK, we're on a streaming service. We
02:03have that we have that buffer. We can sort of say the things that maybe we wanted to say back then.
02:08Absolutely. I mean, it's it's part it's part of the job now, you know. I'm glad, though, to hear
02:15that you like multicams and you it sounds like you want to you want to see them again. And and
02:22we feel like with this with this go around, maybe we get to freshen up the way that that it's done
02:29because we're on Hulu and they will allow us to go places that we weren't allowed to go when we
02:36did it on a network for NBC with Will and Grace. No, yeah, I was someone, as I said, Will and Grace,
02:42but like friends, like suddenly Susan Ronick's closet, all of that. I was like, that's the sort
02:46of shows that I had watching, you know, every sort of Monday night here in Australia. So it's like I
02:51was so happy to see the multicam format come back. And then obviously, you know, mentioning Linda,
02:57who like the way that that episode was handled was so like beautiful. But, you know, you the
03:05chemistry is so key. So like, how did it come about that? You got Linda Levin, Nathan Lane,
03:10Matt, but like it's the cast here is just they everyone just feels so, so lived in. Like, how
03:16did the process go about for you in finding just the right people to, you know, to give us these
03:21beautiful characters? It was a lot of luck. And Ryan Murphy. I mean, yeah, we we wrote it. We
03:30had Nathan Lane in mind. And it was his voice in our heads when we were writing the character of
03:36Bunny Schneiderman. And but we had no idea whether or not we'd be able to get him. And then when
03:41Ryan got involved, he said, I think this would be a good vehicle for Nathan Lane. It's like,
03:45really, do you because we think so, too. He's like, why don't I get it to him on the set of
03:49one of my shows tomorrow and see what he says. And that is exactly what happened. And the next
03:53day he was doing the show. I mean, it really was one of those extraordinary things where,
03:58oh, you mean things can come together this quickly when Ryan Murphy's on it?
04:03But there was a lot that was that took place in the making of the show that felt like it was meant
04:08to be this. This was going to work. You know, it was it. You know, writing is always difficult,
04:15but it was it was fun for us to write this and then to hand it over to Ryan and have Nathan get
04:23on board and then Matt Bomer come on board and then to be lucky enough to find Nathan Lee Graham
04:30and the you know, the great Linda Lavin. It was just it was it felt like it was all meant to be.
04:37And that was bigger than us. That had nothing to do with us. We just we wrote this script and
04:44the right people responded to it. I think you can tell that it was a lot of fun to write because
04:50as I was watching it, I was like writing down specific lines that just like that just hit me
04:56in a way that I wasn't expecting. So I just have to say the way Matt Bomer delivers. It's shoved
05:01it in, isn't it? That was just like so perfect. And then you have, you know, like, you know,
05:07the fact that that's kind of like a nice little play or like the visual gag. So, yeah, I as I
05:12said, I couldn't be happier that a show like this exists in this time. It's the kind of show that we
05:18need to have to show that, you know, like this kind of comedy can still still still matters.
05:24You know, we we see that television feels like it's becoming these sort of like mini cinema.
05:29And this is just a way to bring us back to to the way television used to be. And as I said,
05:34like it just meant so much to me. So thank you so much for for creating the show. And I
05:39I'm hoping we get a season two because I need more of these of these people.
05:44You'll be you're very kind.
05:46It is very gratifying hearing you say all this. Thank you so much for saying.
05:49You're very generous. Tell your neighbors.
05:53I will. Don't worry. I'll be I'll be shouting it from the rooftops. But no,
05:56thank you so much for taking the time out. I can't thank you enough. Cheers.