“We had a cable access show in high school, so we would make sketch comedy every weekend,” said Jeremy Beiler (SNL, Inside Amy Schumer). “If we’re going back to grade school, we were in a group called the BumperNickels but then I didn’t do it again until college where I was in an all-female group called The Bloomers,” said Vanessa Bayer (SNL, Trainwreck).
Working together at Saturday Night Live, Jeremy as a writer and Vanessa as a cast member, the two eventually found their own lanes in comedy. “I enjoy doing comedy that’s subtle and weird,” said Vanessa. “I think the reason we worked together so well is that there is a lot of his sense of humor too. We both like getting into stuff that people wouldn’t even notice because it’s unusual…or a strange turn of phrase,” said the duo.
In some ways, Vanessa found her niche as a guest on the “Weekend Update” segments. “You sort of get to do one character more than you would in a sketch. You really get to explore the character because the host — Seth Meyers, Colin Jost, Michael Che — it’s fun to play characters that were interactive and trying to make [the host] laugh.”
Vanessa Bayer
While working the hectic work schedule of SNL, they both learned the importance of a steady work ethic. “It does feel like the gym,” joked Jeremy. “You do it every week and what I think I took away from it is the value of not being too precious with things. It’s woven into the experience. Great week or bad week, it’s Etch A Sketch and back to one. Move forward. Move on.”
“I would agree with that,” added Vanessa. “When you’re at SNL, you’re part of this machine. The hours are crazy and we would be doing the pre-tape stuff and waiting for hours to film, and that’s just part of it. You’re coming up with a show in one way. There’s craziness, but it gets done. So now I work other jobs and they have me wait an hour [but SNL] made me so patient. You can’t be exact. You can’t be precious.”
I Love That for You
In their latest collaboration, I Love That for You, the story follows Vanessa’s character, Joanna Gold, who overcomes childhood leukemia to achieve her dream of becoming an on-air host for a popular home shopping network.
“I had always wanted to do a show about home shopping. I was really into it when I was little,” said Vanessa. “This is wild, because we wrote together at SNL and spent all that time together, but I want to do a show about home shopping. Jeremy and I had brunch and I mentioned this and he was like, ‘Oh I have an outline for a home shopping show that I’ve been wanting to do.’”
“It felt super organic,” added Jeremy. “Even before we had anything official lined up, we started building our… what we called… our Torah for the show of episodes of ideas. And we drove down to Pennsylvania to visit QVC on our dime. The show had no producing partners. It was just us following our enjoyment of QVC.”
During their visit, they got to meet two iconic hosts that Vanessa watched growing up which led to the Molly Shannon character Jackie Stilton. “They talked to us for like an hour and they’re so incredible at talking. It was fun to see what a huge operation that whole space is too. We knew it was a big industry, but seeing it was so impressive.”
Jackie Stilton (Molly Shannon) Photo by Nicole Wilder
As they were working on Vanessa’s arc for the show, they actually decided to show Vanessa’s real life story when she overcame childhood leukemia. “Putting it in there really helped. Even if it’s the coolest place in the world, the characters need to be on their own journey to make it interesting.” As the outline moved the plot to Joanna’s first day of work, the pieces fell into place.
The Empathetic Protagonist
In the pilot episode, after Vanessa’s character makes a fireable mistake on her first day of work, she lies about her cancer returning. “We wanted to have this character come of age in a way. Having her desire to not to be ‘Cancer Girl’ anymore but not get out of that felt relatable to us. On a literal level, I thought it would be fun to talk about; when I had cancer I got a lot of attention and got out of things.”
She continued, “That was the fun part and we felt that was relatable. When you go through something difficult, you get this special treatment and then once that thing is over, you miss that special treatment. What my character does is crazy, but we felt it was relatable because you just want people to be nice and give you special treatment.”
Jeremy added, “It became an exploration of labels, how people label you, how you label yourself, what good things it gets you and how it holds you back. It was an interesting question to pose: what if this person from a damaged place does this awful thing? And, maybe you can understand why she did it but then to naturally follow that progression, it is awful so it did necessitate as we were breaking the show, that awful things will happen as a result of it. We were excited to explore those gray areas.”
Jeremy Beiler. Photo by Frank Micelotta
Within this gray area, they felt like it was a “fresh take on cancer.” Vanessa joked, “I know that sounds like an insane sentence, but just the idea that we’re not necessarily talking about cancer in a super dramatic, upsetting way. We’re talking about people and how these experiences affect them and what they try to get out of them. For us, the twist that she misses the treatment felt fun for us to pitch and have that twist in there.”
Because Vanessa also had childhood cancer and because she also later worked in live television, there are some overlapping areas that helped with the pitch. “Obviously this is something I can speak to, having been sick as a teenager, but I also think we saw parallels as we went to QVC because it is live. There’s something exciting and scary about that world that felt relatable from working on SNL.”
Comedic Pathos
The writers said they didn’t really consider genre while pitching the story. “One thing important to us was that it had real laughs and was really funny. That’s been a guiding force for us. In terms of where it fits in on Showtime, I’m not sure if I’ve thought about it that,” said Jeremy.
One ongoing real laugh for the show comes from Molly Shannon’s character, Jackie Stilton. “Once we found out that we got her, she really did shape the character quite a bit. I think we thought of Jackie as exuberant and feminine and fun. But having Molly, who is so expressive and funny, it was easy to write to her. She’s so dynamic. We really wrote to her and she picked this up so quickly.”
The writers said they started to think more in the voice of the character. “She’s so easy to write for, not only because she can sell and do anything and make it layered and believable, but also because you can kind of channel her. She’s such a singular person that it starts to come,” said Jeremy of the writing process.
As for some of the other characters, there’s basically a room of unique personalities who also host different home shopping shows. “We built the characters at the pilot stage, but when they really came to life is with our incredible writer’s room. We spent months writing the show, weaving things in and out, and seeing who influences who to keep each person unique.”
“We wanted to make all of the characters go through their own journeys,” said Vanessa. “We thought about people from our lives, characters from our lives, and what would make these people interesting to watch, but also maybe people you haven’t seen before.”
Advice for Writers
“I think one of the biggest things is that when you’re trying to get a job or work on a show or get staffed, there can be a pull toward writing what you think other people are looking for or what people want to see or emulating what’s out there,” he said, “but the biggest thing you can do for yourself is to commit to what you want to do.”
Jeremy continued, “What makes you laugh the most? Even if it’s not being asked for, develop your own thing and figure out what you want to do and create that. That’s the best thing you can do for yourself and ultimately it’s what other people want too. They don’t want things they’ve seen before.”
Vanessa’s advice for writers is to have your materials ready. “Have your writing materials ready. Be ready. Be writing. Be ready. So when those opportunities come up, you have something and don’t have to come up with something in the moment. Honestly, just be ready for success. Have your writing done so when those opportunities come, you’re ready for them.”
This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio version here.
