Few logos evoke such universal nostalgia as the blue Blockbuster ticket with the orange-yellow lettering. Memories of wandering the aisles on Friday nights looking for that third title to complete the “3 for $9.99 deal” or scanning the trolley to see if a copy of the latest new release had been returned. They seem to be part of our collective consciousness, regardless of our individual age.

And so a comedy series set in the last Blockbuster store in America is sure to strike a chord with those wishing to relive some of those family nights at the local video rental. It marks the debut TV series for showrunner Vanessa Ramos.

Ramos has years of experience under her belt, having served as supervising producer on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, co-executive producer on Mr. Mayor and co-producer on Crashing and Superstore, She was also a consulting producer on Big Mouth and has written for numerous roasts and awards shows including the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and the MTV Movie Awards. I spoke with her about some of these experiences and how she has developed her writing process over the years into this newly established field of showrunning.

There is one Blockbuster store remaining, in Bend, Oregon. Was that store the inspiration and were the staff involved in the development of the series at all in terms of research?

No, it actually wasn’t super research heavy… the way it came about is that one of my producers, John Fox, had the rights through Davis Entertainment. He asked if I would be interested in developing a workplace comedy at the last Blockbuster. And before he was done speaking, I said I absolutely would!

Vanessa Ramos

It just felt like getting the golden ticket. And it was for the nostalgia! I grew up with Blockbuster, and it was much like a ritual that I remember as a kid. We’d wait for my dad to get home from work on Fridays so we could get in the car, go to Blockbuster and pick our movies. My dad, who had had a long week, would just want to find The Pelican Brief or The Firm. And my brother, who is two years younger than me, and I had to agree on a video. Somehow it always ended up being this animated movie called Rock-A-Doodle, about a rooster who was supposed to be Elvis. But yeah – it just brought me back to this time of wandering the aisles with my family, not knowing what treasures we would find.

There is an inherent irony in writing a series about a small video rental business for a streaming service.

Oh yeah! I think immediately, from the very first announcement of it being in development, people were saying, “this is kind of like Blockbuster wearing the blood of their enemies”.

But when someone comes to you with the rights for this place that you have such love for… I was just thrilled to be able to tell the story. I’m hoping that that is how it comes across as well. We do try to address the irony in the pilot episode by drawing reference to big corporations. I think it would have been strange had we not acknowledged it. But we’re in on it.

The need for human connection is a very timely theme that you explore in this series. Can you speak to that a little bit? 

Honestly, at the time when I first pitched the series and was developing it, it was around Fall 2020. It was the heart of the pandemic. I had just got this puppy that I was convinced hated me and I was feeling so alone. I was missing my friends and my mom…and a lot of the development of the characters came out of that. Like Connie (played by Olga Merediz) is based on my mom, Connie Ramos. It just came out of me missing the people in my life. In developing the series, it felt like writing these characters could create this sort of family and be like being around my family a bit.

Connie (Olga Merediz) Photo by Ricardo Hubbs/ Netflix

You’ve had a lot of experience writing ensemble comedies. While Randall’s Timmy and Melissa’s Eliza might be considered the “main” characters, the supporting cast occupy just as much space in the storyline. What is your process when it comes to writing ensembles?

So much like with my mom, there was a very specific story with my sister-in-law that basically built the character of Hannah (played by Madeleine Arthur). Perhaps not entirely, but definitely pieces of it.

And then it almost becomes like if you got to create a fantasy team of people in your life, from different walks of life. There was a kid that I knew and had done a couple of years of community college with. He had learned English from Cypress Hill songs and movies and I started to wonder, “Well, what is that perspective?”

I had a lot of time to think about these people and I honestly just really missed them. I wanted to see certain things on screen. Or I would come up with a character and think about what energy would complement that character. Try to find a little bit of that “can’t live with them, can’t live without them”. And then from there, fill in those blanks or round them out. What is this dynamic missing? What sort of voice does this person have? What instrument is missing from the song?

Tell me about your career and what has led you to this point. You’ve worked on diverse projects and with some very strong personalities! Can you speak to some of those experiences and what you may have learned along the way?

Yes, so I’ve been a little all over the place! I started in the Comedy Central Roast world, which is such a very specific job. You’re just writing mean jokes about strangers that other strangers say and it makes you feel weird…

Is it cathartic in a way?

I think It’s very cathartic. Even when I started doing scripted shows, like Superstore… if I could have gotten back and done a roast, I would have because it was a little bit like letting the demons out there. 

But I think the variety of it has given me the ability to kind of roll with the punches, There will be times where you write for three weeks and then you’re just shooting at the Palladium or at a studio or whatever. Things could go off the rails and you have to roll with it. And once you’ve done that, going into a writers’ room where you have more time and it’s not such an immediate turnaround is a different feel. The pacing of that is much nicer.

Timmy (Randall Park) Photo by Ricardo Hubbs/ Netflix

With respect to the different personalities… there are people I have great relationships with now but there were times I would keep going to cry in the car so no one could see me. Ultimately, I think those are the experiences that really make you. It might be a cliché, but they do make you stronger. And they also gave me a better sense of things – like if I can survive this crazy environment where scripts are constantly changing, you’re out there shooting stuff and someone walks off, whatever the issues are… then yeah, I can do pretty much almost anything in the world.

Do you prefer one style of writing over another? Does your process adapt pretty seamlessly from one type of project to the next?

I think it’s a little bit of “what am I craving at this moment”, you know? It’s like having a palate. Sometimes you’re in the mood to just unwind and not think too deeply about things. I watch reality TV after doing a scripted show where I’ve been thinking long term and about all these characters with these arcs and building this world for them.

And the roasts are blowing off steam. Just enough of a palate cleanser where it’s like “I’m going to write a bunch of unrelated jokes that aren’t connected to each other in any way”, and that feels like the mental equivalent of hitting the heavy bag for a little bit.

What advice would you offer to other writers?

I think people have their own approach to things. But with me, I like to know where I’m going, be it for a pilot or a series or whatever. And then I work backwards by saying “OK, I’m starting the characters here, emotionally.” Even if I don’t know what the big obstacle is, this is where they need to end. What do I need to do by the end of Act One to get there and then to stay on this trajectory? What do I need to hit by the end of Act Two? I think that is so helpful in figuring out who this person is and what their journey is. And then you can backtrack a little bit and see where the missing pieces are a little more clearly.

Have you been to the last Blockbuster store?

I have not! I don’t know… I wonder if I should go on a bit of a voyage out there. Yes, we have this great location and we absolutely use it. But I think because so much of the show was based around these characters, as opposed to the location, I didn’t do too much work into the “last Blockbuster”. I also already had these characters developed and didn’t want to get in that mentality of “this is what I should be doing” versus “this is the world I want to create”. But yeah… I think now that I have a season under my belt, I’m probably in a good headspace to dive in and go to Bend, Oregon.