The Other Two Creators Break Down Season 1 and Justin Therouxs Motorcycle Toilet

Few shows understand the dynamics of modern fame better than Comedy Centrals The Other Two, from the never-ending churn of triumphs and short-lived “cancellations” to the chicken-and-egg relationship between social-media influence and mainstream success. For a perfect example of its wry yet thoroughly uncynical approach, look no further than Thursdays first season finale—which finds the shows young YouTube prodigy, Chase Dreams, tweeting his way into N.Y.U. while his mother, Pat Dubek (Molly Shannon), lands her own talk show after a nationally televised meltdown on an airplane.

Throughout this season, Chases siblings, Cary (Drew Tarver) and Brooke (Heléne Yorke), have struggled to accept their brothers success. Why, they wonder, has it happened for him and not us? Episode after episode, the answer has unfolded: following the loss of their father, wannabe actor Cary has struggled to figure out who he is, while ex-dancer Brooke has fallen asleep at the wheel of her own life. Chase, meanwhile, was the only sibling shielded from the truth: their father was an alcoholic who died after falling asleep on the familys roof—his penis eventually freezing to the surface.

During its 10 weeks on air, The Other Two has attracted a loyal bevy of fans, thanks both to its sharp eye and its emotionally grounded storytelling. In a recent interview, co-creators and former Saturday Night Live head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider said they were thrilled to see the response to the show—especially to its deeper elements. “Were glad that people werent like, We dont need this from this show,” Kelly said. “We felt very lucky early on when people even watched the pilot, they said that one of the things that they liked was that the family cared about each other, and that they were nice to each other, so we like that people are responding to the show the way that we had hoped.”

Added Schneider, with a hint of playfulness, “Or even dreamed.”

Vanity Fair: Now that the seasons all out there, Id love to talk more about how you crafted Pats arc once you realized her husbands death would play such a big role on the show.

Sarah Schneider: We kind of wanted to deepen the story of her being in denial, so thats [what] drove the idea of her “Year of Yes.” We went back through and thread[ed] that storyline to give her this happy, up for anything vibe—so then in Episode 9, when she did crack for the first time, you were like, “Oh, I see what she was doing all along.” She plays both sides of that so, so well.

Chris Kelly: Also in the finale, now shes going to have her own morning show. That also came about organically, because her character had such an authentic, honest, raw blow-up on this plane [in Episode 9]. I makes sense that America would respond to that, just someone speaking honestly about what theyre going through.

Something we talked about throughout the season was, “Why is Cary not famous? Why is Chase famous and not Cary?” And I think Carys been struggling with who he is, or his identity, or what people want from him, or who hes supposed to be; hes not comfortable in his own skin. And then in Episode 9, you see Pat Dubek just authentically sad and mad, and it made sense to us that people would relate to that and want to see her on TV. She was thrust into this world as a passenger—and so the idea that now she is in the drivers seat is such an interesting dynamic.

One of the other things were most excited about for Season 2 is going in, we know who our cast is. When we sold the show, we sold it in a void. We didnt know who we were writing for. And so going back into the room, its been fun because even just led by Heléne and Drew, theyre so funny and good; we know we struck gold with them.

Is Justin Theroux aware of the show and its jokes about him?

Kelly: Oh yeah, he knows about it. Hes actually friends with Ken Marino.

Schneider: Which isnt the reason we did it, but it happened to make him aware of it, I think.

Kelly: And then before we did it, we asked his permission just to make sure he knew. We wanted it to be poking fun at him, not some mean secret take-down. We wanted him to think it was funny too. So we showed him the scripts and he knew what was coming, and he had a good sense of humor about it the whole way, which was nice.

Did he confirm that he has a motorcycle toilet? Because I now believe that he does.

Kelly: If he doesnt already, he needs to get one fast.

What part of that motorcycle is the toilet part?

Kelly: Oh my God, thank you for asking, because we have the answer. So this is exactly how it works, and I would love it to be verbatim in this article.

It definitely will be.

Kelly: You go to the bathroom in the seat—duh, of course—and then it silly-straws its way through all of the metal and all the tires, and then it shoots down into the ground. It doesnt need to work like that, but it makes it fun. Your business really has to, like, swish and swash through a lot of things, and then it goes into the ground.

Amazing.

Kelly: And of course, we know the flush handle is the brake.

Schneider: And this is one of many conversations that we had, very seriously, about such stupid plot points or props, just because Chris and I want to make sure that even if something is crazy and weird and absurd, its still, “I can see that, yeah.”

Do you care to share any other things that you discussed to this degree of detail?

Schneider: I think we were talking about the things that Streeter was doing to Chase in Episode 2, like binding his neck and dyeing his tongue. We had a very serious conversation about what was the right level for that: what was comedy but still you were like, eh, someone might have done that at some point, without being too, “Yikes!”

Where does the costume department get all of the crazy, amazing jackets?

Kelly: Oh, yeah! So our costume department is led by Jill Bream. Jill Bream and her crew were incredible. And Sarahs been her friend forever, and then she also does costumes at S.N.L., so we have known and loved her for many years. Shes incredible.

Schneider: But she also—the look in [Episode] 208, where hes in, like, head-to-toe GuccRead More – Source