Last summer, Amazon attended the Television Critics Association press tour for the first time. Their pilot season made a lot of news, where viewers could see every pilot and vote on which should become series. Some of their new series, “Alpha House” and “Transparent” have already become acclaimed and popular. “Alpha House” season two becomes available on Amazon Prime Instant Video as of Friday, October 24.
After their session, we got to sit down with series creator Garry Trudeau and John Goodman, who plays senator Gil John Biggs on the D.C. based comedy.
CraveOnline: Satirists have been warning us about politicians for years. Why is no one listening?
Garry Trudeau: They’ve been warning you for centuries.
John Goodman: But they seem to be putting in overtime in the last eight years or so.
Trudeau: We’re just parasites though. We make a living off this madness.
Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy then?
Trudeau: I don’t know. If you read what politicians said about one another at the beginning of this country’s history, it’s no less crazy and polarized. The things that Adams and Jefferson —
Goodman: Especially Adams.
Trudeau: Trashed each other, called each other philanderers and traitors.
Goodman: And Burr and Hamilton. They were kids.
Trudeau: Yeah, they were hot headed kids. In that sense, and of course there was no consensus whatsoever as to what political comity looked like, because up until then, it was pretty top down. You got your king.
Goodman: And then the serf.
Trudeau: There was this kind of golden age in the ‘50s and the ‘60s where Republicans and Democrats, the difference between them wasn’t so great and it was easier for them to slip over to the other side. There were some pretty brave Republicans who voted for Civil Rights legislation. A lot of that really important legislation in the ‘60s and ‘70s wouldn’t have happened if there had been this great gulf between them. There wasn’t.
Goodman: We are living under the curse. May you live in interesting times.
Trudeau: I hope it’s not indefinite because for sure everything’s come to a standstill. I think what’s going to have to happen is they’re going to have to have their [Barry] Goldwater moment, the Republicans. They’re going to have to go down in such flames.
Goodman: If that happens. I don’t know if that’s possible anymore. The way things are rigged, if people vote, they’re voting out of fear. You know what, I don’t want to turn this into what I believe.
Trudeau: There is a good demographic argument to be made that that could happen, and it could happen as soon as 2016. Depending on who their candidate is, but if their candidate is Ted Cruz or Paul Rand, it could very easily happen. And then that catastrophe, which is what it would be, they could lose all sorts of places they’re not accustomed to losing simply because the country isn’t ready for that kind of extremism.
Goodman: If they haven’t gerrymandered the hell out of everything.
Trudeau: It’s kind of hard to do that on a state level in a national election. It could happen.
Goodman: Gary has a rosier view of the future than I do.
Trudeau: But satirists generally do. Otherwise you turn into a total cynic and I’m not a cynic. I kind of believe in the perfectibility, that long bending arc towards progress.
Goodman: No, you’re absolutely right.
Trudeau: Because I don’t think the show would be much fun for these guys to do if it came from a hopeless place or a totally cynical place.
John, you’ve done a lot of TV comedies in studios in front of audiences. Is “Alpha House” more like a movie?
Goodman: Yeah, except we have to move very rapidly which is great because we have very good people to move us along. We had a great crew, great cinematographer and everybody by now, I was noticing this even on Monday, was just back in the groove again just cranking it out. We’ve really been fortunate with directors, so things are very happy.
Does it change the comic timing of things to do it single camera style?
Goodman: Oh, absolutely. Whether you think you’re playing for an audience or not, you are.
Trudeau: But you’re not hunting for laughs on a moment to moment basis the way you do in front of a live audience.
Goodman: Which you really shouldn’t be but it comes naturally to a ham like me, to fish for that extra laugh.
Trudeau: It’s not a joke centric show. It’s character humor.
Goodman: And that’s where the humor is.
Trudeau: And you don’t have to leave spaces for laughs, and all that stuff you had to time out perfectly in front of audiences. I don’t know how you did that.
Garry, is there a character you enjoy writing for the most on “Alpha House?”
Goodman: Zonker.
Trudeau: He said “Alpha House.” No, not particularly. I have a pretty good sense of the four leads and the principal parts. What I think is a kind of journey for a writer in season one is that the actors who don’t have much information are just kind of thrown out there. It’s not because I’m withholding. It’s just because I haven’t thought of it. So they’re doing a very creative thing and trying to figure out who this character is, and there becomes a feedback loop.
So that my comfort level right now writing these characters in season two, typically for the secondary characters who I’d given very little thought to, but they’re all strong. Man, they’re all locking into place. I know who they are now. The company of actors has good morale and they feed each other. The old master, everybody who’s on the set with you, does a scene with you, feels like they’re in a master class. They feel honored to be there.
Goodman: Except is a cooking class. Or learn to draw.
You seem to shy away from the compliments. Are you modest?
Goodman: Yeah.
Trudeau: Yeah, he’s really modest. We don’t say too many nice things to him because it makes him uncomfortable. Just, “That was an okay take, dude.”
Goodman: Yeah, thanks.
Trudeau: Hey, that was good enough.
Goodman: That’ll work.
Trudeau: You know, in my business, my regular career business as a cartoonist, because it’s so deadline driven, and I don’t know if you ever feel this way about your work, you probably don’t. The window shuts at a certain point. You cannot work on it anymore. So what you learn to become good at is identifying where it’s good enough to move on. Because otherwise, if I had to write a novel, decades would pass before I turn it in. But having the deadline there, and you know as an actor there’s the whole team of 100 people who are just standing around so yo’ve got to get to where you gotta get as fast as you can, as efficiently as you can.
Goodman: So they can do their job. It’ll never be as good as you want it to be, but that’s what theater’s for I guess. You get another chance.
Trudeau: Do you miss doing theater?
Goodman: I was going to and I don’t want to do it unless I’m 100% healthy. It’s too hard.
Trudeau: Are there any great sitting roles? Big Daddy.
Goodman: The Man Who Came To Dinner.
You say if you’re 100% healthy, are you okay?
Goodman: I had knee surgery in March. Until I can stand on it for long periods of time…
Trudeau: So he’s just starting to heal, he comes back to set on the first day and a 60 lb. bloodhound lands on his knee. We can put the howl in there just for fun.
What is coming up for season two of “Alpha House?”
Trudeau: Well, there’s a built in structure to it because of course we follow the campaign season in real time. So season one was about the primary, season two generally speaking is about the midterm elections where three of the four senators are up for election again. They trip all over themselves and create all manner of problems for themselves and getting to that goal. We certainly don’t want to say who prevails.
Goodman: We’re getting deeper into family background as well.
Does that mean there might be some new characters?
Trudeau: Yes, Gil John’s daughter arrives.
Goodman: We get more Amy Sedaris. You can’t have enough Amy. She’s incredible.
Trudeau: Amy’s a show within a show. She’s such a delight on the set. There’s nothing she does that isn’t funny. I think she kind of lives performance art. You know that that cab ride home was interesting. The quotidian details of her life she manages to make interesting. She’s got a cell phone, for instance, it’s hand carved. It’s a 1990s style Nokia hand phone and she keeps it in her handbag. Every now and then she’ll be talking to you and she’ll just go, “Excuse me” [pick up the phone] and walk away. It’s carved in wood. She’s a joy on the set.
John, you had a voice role in Transformers: Age of Extinction this summer. Was that fun for you?
Goodman: It was short. I just did a Skype session with Michael Bay for a couple hours.
Skype is good enough to record for a movie?
Goodman: Oh no, they didn’t record on Skype. I was in New Orleans and he was in Los Angeles but we communicated over Skype and he told me what he wanted, which was make it lower and scratchier.
Did you put something in your mouth for the cigar?
Goodman: I did, I put a pen in my mouth. I took three things out and just left one thing.
Did you think it was weird when he just shot that alien on the prison ship?
Goodman: Yes, yes, I did. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t remember. No, because you do a bunch of stuff.
With the success of Monsters University, are there going to be more shorts?
Goodman: I hope so because the shorts that Pixar does are great. I just love working for those guys.
Party Central was brilliant.
Goodman: Yeah. They’re so creative.
Is there any talk of a third Monsters feature?
Goodman: Not yet. There wasn’t going to be a second one unless they came up with a good reason and I thought they came up with a great story.
Garry, are you totally dark on the comic strips now?
Trudeau: No, I have to do the Sundays. In fact, I’m kind of thinking about that right now.
Goodman: He’ll knock it out tonight. He’s gonna pull an all-nighter, get it to the printer.
Trudeau: I got to. I gotta think of a Sunday today.
Why did I think Doonesbury was on repeats?
Trudeau: Just on the dailies.
