ETMC joins the roundtable discussion for FX's The League

As I mentioned in my last post, FX sent me an advanced copy of the first two episodes of the The League's second season (premiering tonight on FX). Last week I was also invited to dial into a roundtable conference call discussion with Jeff and Jackie Marcus Schaffer, the husband and wife duo responsible for creating the show. I was contacted to join the call out of nowhere or without any knowledge of the event and as a fan of the show, I could not pass up the opportunity to speak with the show's creative minds, especially Jeff. I have the utmost respect for Jeff's work and award nominations from HBO's hit series Curb Your Enthusiasm and his work on Seinfeld. And of course the work he does with his wife on The League.

I could have posted the entire transcript, but decided to get right to the meat and bones of it with my question since I was representing ETMC and, well, this is ETMC. So here it is...


START transcript:


Moderator: Our next question comes from Geofree Capodanno with Enter the Man-Cave.

Geofree: Being that when FX first put the show on after It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is obviously a huge hit, and there had been previously shows put into that time slot that were there one minute and gone the next. One of them was Testees, I can't even remember the other ones off-hand. When you guys were first put into that time slot did you ever feel any kind of strange pressure because that time slot had such a high turnover?

Jackie: Not at all, as … with the Sunny billboard roars past. I think it's one of the dirty little secrets of why we wanted to be at FX. It was no secret around town that FX, the network, was just blowing up. Sons of Anarchy was kicking …. They had all these great shows and Sunny was in season four at the time—it just finished season four, on its way to season five. It was no secret that FX had been really trying to find a companion piece for Sunny to build up that hour and for all the people who love making half-hour comedy and are geeks about television scheduling, it was this hidden little gem of a time slot that everybody was excited about trying to fill.

Jeff and I, just not only creatively at FX, but the way that the network was growing, we thought, "God, if we could make a show that could be a good companion to Sunny and that could turn into a great comedy night for FX, what a terrific outcome for all of us this would be.” We just feel very happy to be partnered with them. I know we're even sharing our premiere with them this year. We're going to do a joint premiere together this year by next Tuesday. If I were to watch—I did watch Sunny and I do watch Sunny—I would be happy to see those two shows back-to-back. So we hope that's the experience that viewers have.

Jeff: For us, it's like when Jordan was on the Bulls and like Luc Longley could go to the bar and say, "Hey, Jordan and I scored 52 points." Luc, … got his 2 and Jordan got his 50, so yes they go 52 points. So, we're just happy to be part of Sunny and us scoring 52 points.


END transcript


I love sports analogies and Jeff's comment made me legitimately laugh out loud on the call. Some communication that was withheld from the transcript for space constraints (for everyone, not just me) concerned my starting off the conversation by thanking them for introducing my wife to "Fantastic Lady Day" in he second episode of season two. You will have to check out next week's episode to see what I am talking about and I promise it is hysterical. Jackie definitely supported my wife's request for Fantastic Lady Day being that she sees it from the female perspective, whereas Jeff asked me if I bought the handcuffs already. After confirming that I had the handcuffs in my drawer, I also told him I was going to the store immediately after the call to buy a blindfold in case I have to make any fantasy football transactions this weekend.

Finally, I finished by telling them how much I enjoyed the episodes, but if I had to make one negative critique, it was that I now had to wait two more weeks longer than the rest of the world to see new episodes. It was an honest compliment that I was glad to share with them and so sincere that I also used it in my review of the second season. They were both very down to Earth and gracious, but more importantly very good answering the many questions they fielded in both an intelligent and hilarious manner. You can really tell that they have the utmost confidence in their show, are proud of its rapis growth and have a great time delivering the goods to the fans.

The League season two premiere airs tonight on FX immediately following the season premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you are a fan of the show or interested in reading the whole transcript, please contract me and I will see if I can get you a copy.