Months ago at the New York Comic-Con, I sat at the press room tables when Rashida Jones occupied the empty seat next to mine. A known millennial icon for her role as the beautifully ambiguous ethnic blend that represents the dream of the American melting pot Ann Perkins in NBC’s Parks & Recreation, I shook as I took on the first question. It was simple: Just what is Angie Tribeca?
“You should know that it is very silly in a way that’s great,” Jones said. “It’s a procedural. It’s kind of in the tradition of Airplane! and Police Squad! It’s slapstick.”
Slapstick doesn’t begin to cover it. Angie Tribeca, premiering January 17 on TBS, is channeling a wackier brand of comedy that marks a left turn from the subtle deliveries of Parks & Recreation or the adult juvenilia in other millennial comedies (Archer, It’s Always Sunny, The League, take your pick). I suspect few my age, early to mid-20s, didn’t have an upbringing in Hot Shots! or Leslie Nielsen movies, but that’s Angie Tribeca. It’s Hot Shots! for the Law & Order: SVU college kids.
“It’s very different, and way more difficult than I would have expected,” recalls Jones. “Because this kind of comedy is so easy to enjoy, there’s something about the contrast of how serious everybody is with how ridiculous the jokes are that make it really fun to watch. Doing it, it’s hard to figure out when you should be totally straight, when you should break and let the audience realize that you know that things are stupid. It’s definitely been a learning curve for me, but challenging and fun at the same time.”
“I feel like that is my favorite kind of comedy,” Jones adds. “It’s what I grew up on. It’s made me want to be in comedy, and I feel like there’s a dearth of that now in TV.”
She’s right. Passé in 2016, slapstick is on an extended coffee break ever since its modern incarnations, such as the Scary Movie franchise, failed to click after the mid-aughts. But the comedic lessons of Buster Keaton still reson
The series is produced by comedy duo Steve and Nancy Carrell, best known for their work on The Office. Shortly after her stint in Parks & Recreation ended, the Carrells wanted Rashida almost immediately. “They approached me, which it’s a miracle that Steve knew my name. I still found that hard to believe,” Jones recalls. “I was going to take a little acting break after Parks and then they sent me this script, and I was like, ‘Oh, no, I have to do this. I can’t not do this.’ It was so, so funny. Obviously their comedy instincts are unbeatable, so I knew I was in good hands.”
Considering the action premise of Angie Tribeca, I asked if Jones had any stunts that took the gags steps too far. Turns out, slapstick allowed cut corners in the goofiest ways. “Because it’s slapstick, you can be okay with your stunt person not being you. There’s a time in the pilot when Geils is doing this crazy chase through a college, and then you cut to him at one point, and it’s very clearly not him doing parkour off the side of a building. So it’s something that we lean into.”
Shortly after Jones finishes, Angie Tribeca producer Ira Ungerleider joins our table. He lists off every kind of influence that went into the series. If you’re a fan of British comedy, you may want Angie Tribeca on your radar.
“I was just very, very influenced by the Zucker Brothers, Airplane!, Top Secret, Kentucky Fried Movie, Monty Python, Black Adder, The Young Ones, Police Squad, the Naked Gun movies. I’m also very into the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope’s early movies, early Woody Allen.”
“I just love word play, silliness, absurdity, satirical takes of very specific genres,” Ungerleider explains. “When I got a call asking, ‘Do you want to meet Steve and Nancy Carell to maybe executive produce this show?’ and then I saw the show I just said, ‘Holy shit.’ If I didn’t believe in God before, I do now. I feel like there is people out there that love this kind of humor and there is finally an outlet for it.”
As I did with Jones, I asked how and why Angie Tribeca opted for a different style of comedy than its contemporaries.
“I think against the grain is the best possible thing you can do right now,” Ungerleider explains. “I have a lot of experience in network half hour and I love that world, and when it’s done well it’s fantastic. Seinfeld was my favorite show of all time. There is such an opportunity now. People talk about the giant landscape and the numbers of channels and the web series and streaming, but as a creator and an artist it’s such an opportunity to be able to do stuff that’s weirder and darker and absurd. I think you have to figure out a way to get your little thing that you are doing out into the people so that they can check it out.”
I reiterate these interviews happened months ago at the New York Comic-Con. In the time since, TBS announced they would air all of Angie Tribeca as a marathon, the entire season in one swoop. Ungerleider talks of letting people find it and allow it to grow organically — I interviewed Slate‘s Andy Bowers regarding the popular sci-fi podcast The Message and he discussed similar sentiments. I wonder if Angie Tribeca still poses a chance.
Perhaps it will. Angie Tribeca is already greenlit for a second season, which will air just a week after its initial premiere on January 25.
Angie Tribeca — the whole thing — premieres January 17 on TBS.
P.S. While getting images and video for this article, I stumbled upon videos from First Slice. Because I’m right next to the subjects, you get two full minutes of me awkwardly nodding to Rashida Jones, co-star Andree Vermeulen, and the other EPs of Angie Tribeca. Enjoy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8airMXrOg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpGWd5fquvM