The Point Radio: CRISTELA and MARRY ME Make TV Comedy Magic

This season, some of the first cancellation casualties have been situation comedies, but beyond the cast offs there are two shows which have made their marks in ratings. Stand up superstar, Cristela Alonzo, brought much of her charm and her act to CRISTELA and she explains why it was so important for her to keep it old school. Meanwhile, NBC’s MARRY ME has plenty of comedy cred with stars Ken Marino and Casey Wilson who don’t even finch when you call them cute.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. Network comedies this year are having a tough time on the new schedule. There have been some casualties already, but there's some success stories as well. Among them, Marry Me on NBC, starring Casey Wilson and Ken Marino.

We talked to them about that show. Plus, Kristella Alonzo, creator of the hit series Kristella on ABC, talks about how she went old school to make it all work. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point.

The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. There's no doubt that Kristella Alonzo was on top of the stand-up comedy chain, being on lists like Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch and Cosmo's 13 Female Comedians to Look For in 2014.

She took her act like so many others have, from the stage to in front of the television camera, a new series called Kristella, one she co-created and produces too for ABC. It's truly her baby, and I asked Kristella how the whole concept began. I felt like doing stand-up for so many years, I was traveling all over the country, and I was doing material about my family that everybody was really responding to.

They loved my mom, they loved my sister, and after a couple years, it just made sense to take those same stories from my stand-up into a TV show. So making the transition has actually been pretty seamless for me, because what we do in the sitcom is we take it in front of a live studio audience. I'm still performing in front of an audience all the time, which I'm really excited about.

You'll find that Kristella is a throwback to the old-school family situation comedies, and I asked her if that was intentional. I grew up watching a lot of TV, but I used to love watching Roseanne. I loved Roseanne because she was a blue-collar family. It was a blue-collar family that couldn't pay the bills every month.

They struggled with money, and I totally related to that. I love watching the Golden Girls. I like the dynamic of the family's dynamic they had. It was a fun show to watch. They were very funny. Cosme Show had a… I loved the Cosme Show because it was a family that really cared about each other.

And I also really liked the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I mean, for me, the Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of the best workplace comedies of all time. So for me, being influenced like that, I wanted to create a show that was a throwback to those times, where my show is a family comedy that kids can watch with their parents. So it's actually something that we're not trying to be raunchy.

I always tell people, we're edgy by not being edgy. And I mean, I really feel like we needed something like that because if you watch TV, they show re-runs of the show that you just mentioned all the time. It's showing that there's a need for that. So why not do that on network TV during prime time?

Why not bring it back to that? I mean, I thought it just makes sense. It was a no-brainer. So as co-creator and executive producer of the show, it's a different lifestyle than doing stand-up. And I ask Cristela what's the one big lesson she's learned so far in TV? The biggest lesson I've learned, I think, is to always trust my gut.

I think that just as humans, we always try to doubt ourselves, we'll make a decision, and then we always wonder if it's the right decision. And I think that I've learned that, you know, trying to second-guess myself and the choices that I'm making is never a good thing. So I've actually learned – I learned pretty quick that whatever I decide to do instantly,

I always have to go with my gut and think, that's the best decision. That's why I did it right off the bat. And I think that by doing that, you actually save yourself a lot of time and cut yourself a lot of corners by doing that. So growing up, was she a big comedy fan?

Oh, I loved it. I was a big stand-up nerd from when I was a little kid. I was obsessed with it. I didn't know it was a job. I just thought that you were kind of chosen to do it, and you did it. So as a kid, I didn't know that there was a comedy club that you practiced, you did sets, you did open mics. I had no idea.

So I started – I accidentally – I saw a book wanted out in the newspaper. I didn't say where it was for. They needed an office manager. I went to this office. I answered the ad, and there was a coffee club in Dallas. And when I found out that it was a comedy club, I want this job. I want to be around stand-up all the time.

I got the job, maybe a year after I got the job, I decided to try it. And I kept telling myself, I keep doing stand-up until it's no longer fun. And 11 years later, I'm still doing stand-up. Who were some of her inspirations? I really loved – well, obviously, I really loved Bill Cosby,

because I liked the family stories that he used to tell. I liked the stories that, you know, he talked about his family. He always has these long stories about one thing. And I learned storytelling from him. I also really liked – I mean, it's funny.

I really liked Ellen DeGeneres. I thought she was great, because she was quirky, and she would make jokes, just like Bill Cosby. She'd make something hilarious for five minutes. And she could talk about peanuts for five minutes. She could talk about wolves for five minutes.

And I would die. I couldn't get enough of it. You know? And I also – even though I shouldn't have, I listened to Eddie Murphy as a kid, and I used to listen to Richard Pryor. And I thought they were great, because they were also honest. And I loved that. I loved being honest.

I think that's where the best comedy comes from, from being true and being authentic. A lot of Christella's stand-up success was in front of college crowds as well. And I asked her if that audience is different from the ones usually found in the clubs. No, really not. It's funny. I think people have a perception of the college market that, you know, maybe it's going to be a lot of frack guys,

and you're going to go party, and it's a big party scene. But no, actually, a lot of people, they forget that the college students, they just left home a year or two ago, or maybe a week ago. And they respond to the same kind of jokes that the comedy clubs do. My set was the same for clubs and colleges. I always did the same joke.

And the only thing I'll say is that maybe college audiences would be a little bit more sensitive to certain materials, because, you know, in college, that's when you really learn to be, you know, sensitive, you know, politically correct. And I think that when you learn that term, you become overtly sensitive towards it, you know? But even then, I never had a problem with it, because I always did an hour of G-rated material

that was not offensive to anyone. That's why I work so much. You can see new episodes of Cristela every Friday on ABC, and there's a lot more, too, waiting for you at ABC.com. They're ready for the latest in pop culture. So at least some of the answers to all those teaser images of Marvel has spread all over the web.

During the past few weeks, they're starting to come together, and it seems they all lead to one thing. That's the 2015 Secret Wars event that was announced at New York Comic Con a few weeks back. The series will start in May. Alex Ross apparently is doing the covers to the entire series. There's a video and a map up at Marvel.com that'll give you a little more clarity on where the images all fit in.

But it looks like from the image that we see, there's probably more teasers to come over the next few weeks. Following the debut of their All Access web platform last month that gives viewers content from CBS programs past and present for about six bucks a month, the network has now unveiled their new CBS and ad-supported streaming news service. It'll contain live anchored coverage from 9 a.m. to midnight Eastern time every weekday,

simulcast of special events and of course breaking news and a lot more as well. CBS also has hinted around they might be doing a similar rollout for a new app that would involve their showtime programming. WWE's SmackDown is moving from Fridays to Thursdays on the Sci-Fi network beginning in January. The show which brings in a little over 3 million viewers a week is expected to make the move due to what Sci-Fi feels is a bigger audience, at least in the male demographic available to them on Thursday nights.

Seems perfectly logical that the Marvel promotion machine would hook up their two biggest franchises of recent years. And that means we'll get a Guardians and X-Men crossover event coming early in 2015. It's called the Black Vortex. Sam Humphries will be the writer and McGinnis will do the art and the covers as well. And it begins in comic book stores in February. The cast of the new Robert Kirkman TV series Outcast have been announced and a director too as well for the pilot.

The series went into pre-production last month right about the time the first issue hit comic book stores. Patrick Fugard will play the lead in the show. Phillip Glenster from Life on Mars will also be in it as well as Gabriel Batman as well. It's set to be directed by Andrew Windgard who did The Guest and again is scheduled for Cinemax sometime in 2015. Universal is continuing plans to reboot their classic monster franchises with some more films being added to the list.

Of course that list will eventually include all the biggies including the mummy Frankenstein, Dracula, Invisible Man, Wolfman and the creature from the Black Lagoon. The series is being produced and overseen by Alec Kurtzman who certainly knows these reboots and Chris Morgan from The Fast and the Furious. The mummy has already been announced for a release date of June of 2016 and there will be a new film announced soon that will hit theaters in April of 2017. Continuing to go full on into the holiday tradition the Hallmark Channel has kicked off their digital and social actions. For their countdown to Christmas programming this year the digital content includes a new site which you can find at ShareTheHappiness.tv

Also there will be an original Hallmark movie The Lair called North Pole. There's a countdown to Christmas Clock made shareable on Facebook and a lot more. Again check it all out from Hallmark at ShareTheHappiness.tv After seven seasons CBS is finally closing the door on the mental list. The final 13 episodes begin a run on the network on the 30th of November and a two hour series finale is planned for February 18th of next year.

The first of them has some heart but I guess maybe if you combine those we get cute. I'll take it. I thought we were making a very kind of erotic comedy but I guess now we're hearing from America. So there's similarities between the actors and the characters they play. Ken Marino comments. I'm six one Jake is six foot so every day I have to act an inch shorter on set and sometimes I act too hard. I'm like I'll get the dailies back and I'll be five eight and then we have to do a whole reshoot where I have to act less.

But you know the key to acting is less acting and just reacting. So when I get to the reacting part I'm usually landing I'm usually coming in at six foot. And for Casey. I think Annie is a little more upbeat and friendlier than I am. I think you know I think there are definite similarities and I think I'm pretty emotional and I get big ideas and I want to see things through and kind of they're often wrongheaded ideas but I feel as though I'm playing a character.

But you never know. Maybe I'm not. You'll never know. I asked Casey about situations in her real life marriage that might creep into the show. We did an episode a few episodes ago where my character or actually Ken's character tried to get me to do this thing called the open eyed cuddle which is an intimacy exercise that I learned in acting school that I tried to get my husband to do. Or you stare about two inches from each other's face and just stare into each other's eyes. My husband thought I was insane.

A lot of the comedies these days are part script and part improv. So how about Marry Me? Well I mean David and the room full of writers are amazing and they write great scripts. So you know we David will encourage us to improvise off of that a little bit. But I mean a lot of it probably 95 percent of it is scripted I would say.

Right Casey. Yeah it's definitely you know collaborative in the sense of it's something we want to do. We definitely do it and have fun with it. The scripts are pretty tight but we can and I have initiated our own writers room with just the two of us. We go.

I wouldn't say it's gone over well. No no they're not they're not they're not fans of it but we use mostly use stuff from like the Zooka Joe bubblegum rappers. Yeah just kind of try to reinvent those jokes because those are classics and you know I think America wants to kind of enjoy the classics. You can't get enough. Yeah it's caused I guess a rift is the word but okay.

Casey's characters on television have always been funny and relatable women and it's true once again with this show. Thank you. I think that I don't know if Annie feels exactly the same way. I think Annie's a little more high strong and kind of self-conscious about how her life should look. But I think that and obviously never worked out the way she's planned.

But you know I think this show I've seen a little bit of criticism about you know especially our opening episode because Annie really wants to get married. But I actually think there's something a little bit more like post-feminist about it in the sense that this couple's been together for six years and this woman you know for a woman who works and kind of does it all. Sometimes getting engaged is the one thing you don't have any control over which I think can be kind of frustrating. And I think it is actually relatable that you know you kind of I know a lot of women like that you want to be in control of the one thing you kind of can't be in control of in a way. So I don't know if that answers your question but I think Annie is a little bit less so in thinking that she's everything needs to be perfect.

I think she does think everything needs to be perfect. So the question is will the couple finally tie the knot? Yeah I think we're probably going to get married at the end of the season because I don't think the show's going to be about you know well they won't stay really. That's kind of a spoiler alert. I think we will get married and the show's more following this couple and their friendships and kind of I think it's more about what happens when you are committed to someone than when you are on the fence.

That word comedy has to compete a lot with the much freer material available on cable television. I asked Ken Marino of the writing here which is crisp and funny ever comes close to crossing the line. It's always nice to read a script and see something that we haven't seen before or something that's pushing the envelope a little bit. And you know that's always exciting for me to kind of go in and do that and then you know whether or not it's going to work on TV is kind of out of our hands. I mean it's just an exciting thing to you know approach and do and then you know you hope especially if it's funny you hope that it gets on the air.

And you know I think we've been kind of I don't know if we've been pushing the envelope or anything but you know we're doing what we want to do on the show and then you know that that stuff is getting out there and I think that that's what makes the show special. New episodes of marry me every Tuesday on NBC. You can catch up on previous episodes too right now on Hulu Plus. As for now but when we come back we'll take a look at some of the Fox animation and comedies that are combined together. What's become an interesting round of Sunday night viewing Chelsea Parede from Brooklyn nine nine will be here as well as the cast of Bob's Burgers and more.

You can find that all of course at all the usual places like ComicMix dot com Michael Davis World dot com. Get the point radio dot com and in the iTunes podcast directory where one little click get you to subscribe and makes us also very happy. Follow us on the social media to the point radio at Twitter Facebook and of course on Instagram. We'll see you right back here in a few days. You.