Parenthood premieres tomorrow night on NBC and in celebration of the show’s premiere, Executive Producers Ron Howard and Jason Katims and series star Lauren Graham took some time out to speak to the blogosphere about the drama. Also check out the newest promo for Parenthood below.
What is it about parenthood, the premise, the title, the franchise, that keeps you coming back?
Ron Howard: Well the interesting thing – and I’ve got to include Jason in this because, I mean, I’ll just say that, we – Brian Grazer and I are intensely proud of the film Parenthood. Our friends Ganz and Mandel did a brilliant job writing it. And it remains a movie that people compliment us on. We tried a television series a couple years after it and it couldn’t capture the sort of the – I don’t know the scope of the family; it was a half-hour sort of sitcom approach. And it was frustrating in that way. And we thought that was sort of the end of Parenthood.
We would even toy occasionally with trying to do a sequel. But we just felt like another two hours on the subject was not going to be particularly more informative. A series would have allowed the characters to develop but just another movie would probably not be a good creative idea. And then Jason came to Brian and I and of course we know Jason from Friday Night Lights where he does a spectacular job and said, I want to do a one-hour dramatic version of Parenthood. And we were thrilled, Brian and I, very open to the idea because of Jason and his talent but – and our experience with him.
But also we frankly said in that first meeting, “You know, you’re a pretty creative guy why don’t you just make up your own family?” … And lo and behold he has, he’s given every character its own contemporary voice and of course the actors are now going even further with it. But I’m just incredibly sort of gratified that those characters – that situation, the DNA of that family can evolve. And now I know it’ll continue to in the right way where you can really understand so much about what it is to be a family member or a parent.
What will be the attraction be for young kids or people that don’t have children to watch the show?
Jason Katims: The reason why I wanted to do this show is because it allows you to come at it from so many points of view. We have ages in the show covered from a four year old boy to grandparents in their 60s. And should the show go long enough I’d like to go to the next generation up from that.
On the Casting Process:
Jason Katims: It was an incredible experience casting the show because first of all it’s a very, very big cast. It’s unusually large ensemble for a TV show. So it was all about putting the pieces together and obviously you want to find great people who connect with the roles. You’re trying to create a family, you’re trying to create a group of people who when you put them together the sum will be greater than its parts. That was what was the complicated and challenging part…But I really wanted to feel, at the end of the day that when you saw these people together they felt like a family and they reminded you of your family and it felt familiar and real.
Then the other side of it is we – we got so much tremendous support. Luckily, the network believed in the show so much that they really supported us in putting together this incredible cast. If you look at the people we were lucky enough to be able to work with – with Lauren and Peter and Craig and on and on and on, it’s just – Bonnie Bedelia – this is for me, I feel so excited and humbled by having this, you know, sort of embarrassment of riches is really what it is. And that wouldn’t have happened had we not gotten the support from the network.
Is there a chance that Maura Tierney may appear on the show in the future as a guest spot?
Jason Katims: I have no idea whether that would happen. Obviously I love Maura, love the work that she does and right now she’s doing what she kind of needs to do to get healthy and get back to a place where we can have that conversation.
On Creating Fresh Characters Based on Characters from the Film:
Jason Katims: The gift that I was given by Ron and Brian when I set out to do the show was complete freedom. Whatever I wanted to do that I should do however closely or – I wanted to follow any of the characters or format of the movie or not, was really completely left in my hands.
And when I started to sit down to do the work I felt that I kept gravitating back toward a significant amount of the structure of the movie. It just was really a wonderful movie but in a weird way it was sort of the perfect model for a television show. I let the movie go after I saw it a couple times. And I didn’t watch it again while I wrote it at all…I didn’t want to become too enmeshed in the movie. I thought it was important that I be inspired by it but I not be bound by it. When I was first starting to do it I went with some sort of radically different ideas and came back around to the structure of a lot of it.
In terms of the Sarah character and really all of the characters – what I wanted to do was make sure that I was going to write a pilot that was not only going to be, entertaining and hopefully moving as the pilot, but to write something that was going to be setting up 100 stories for all of these characters and not just one.
On Balancing Drama & Comedy:
Jason Katims: Anytime you start a show you’re sort of trying to find that balance and figure out, sort of discover the tone of the show and what the show wants to be. And one of the things that I’m so excited about – the second version of the Pilot and then as we’ve gone into episodes is we’ve found more and more humor. But it’s really the humor of life, you know, it’s the humor that you find…when you’re dealing with parenthood and family – dealing with your kids but also in the context of being a son or a daughter as well. That’s what I like about the humor that we’re finding it just feels very relatable and real. To me it doesn’t feel like it’s too broad or going into a place that, you know, is in any way sort of not really relatable.
On Expanding on the Child’s Asperger’s Syndrome:
Jason Katims: Absolutely it’s what I want to. The idea of the show is to sort of try to explore as much about the experience of parenthood as we can. And that includes the joyous moments, the celebration of family, it includes the embarrassing funny moments, and it also includes some very dramatic stuff, which includes having a kid with special needs which is something that is very much a part of the show.
Having now shot the first handful of episodes and seeing a few cuts, what I’m very proud of is that I think not only are we dealing with that subject matter in a way that honors it and is real, but it’s also done in a way that is not self-pitying and depressing. Really knowing what that experience is like first hand I know that it’s as much of a blessing as it is a curse. And I feel that that is reflected in the work that we’re doing.
On the Differences Between Being Part of a Big Ensemble vs. Carrying the Show, Gilmore Girls:
Lauren Graham: Well it’s a more sane life for sure, to be part of an ensemble. And I find that the work can be more specific therefore. I have to really make sure I know where I am in the story because I’m not in every scene and I have to sort of think about it as an actor in terms of the arc of each episode in a more deep way instead of trusting that, since I’m in most of the scenes I can kind of gauge where I am.
So I’ve found this work really gratifying because it is more specific. You’re working with a smaller amount of material and therefore everything is really important. On Gilmore Girls, sometimes I’d be in a scene that was just there kind of for fun, you know. And here each scene really is an important part of where my character is. And so that’s been really interesting.
Things You Have Discovered About Your Character:
Lauren Graham: I think what I’ve discovered and what I’ve really enjoyed about sort – we’re in maybe Episodes like 5 and 6 right now – is just finding the ways in which this character just continues to sort of feel like – it’s too strong to say, like a failure.
As opposed to maybe Lorelai Gilmore who had a very sunny outlook on things, it’s been really interesting for me to play someone who has – is kind of shouldering a lot of baggage in terms of being disappointed about where she is in life, and the feeling of living in your parent’s house at 38 and how that informs everything, and doesn’t make you feel too great. And so it’s just trying to think about looking at life through the eyes of disappointment is kind of a thing I think about a lot with Sarah.
Do real moms ask you for advice?
Lauren Graham: They do. Well and that’s sort of one thing I said to Jason. I don’t know what the thing is because my dad essentially raised me and I think if there’s any sort of connection I have it’s that I don’t have an idea of what a mom is supposed to be. I just kind of, you know, look at who the person is.
And also I’ve been extremely fortunate to have kids who play my kids who are really easy to love. And even in this case, you know, with Mae Whitman who we have a very contentious relationship on the show but there’s a chemistry in that even, that you really have to have. And I’ve just been really lucky to have that.
Moms do ask me for advice and I say I don’t know how to help you. But I did say to Jason when we started this that, I’ve been in a place where people are like oh my mom is just like you and they mean that as a compliment. And that wasn’t so much my interest going forward, I was like, I don’t necessarily want anyone to want to be me as a mom on this show. That’s what I like about her is that she’s really kind of doing things in a more haphazard way and isn’t always noble and doesn’t always make the right choice.
On Taking Over for Maura Tierney:
Lauren Graham: Well it felt really difficult in ways. I mean, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to really do a great job. And I push anyway but then this just felt like I hoped that it would go well and I hoped that we would all gel. I hoped that actors wouldn’t mind doing a scene a second time with me. It didn’t feel so much like taking over or anything, it wasn’t like that. It was like we all together kind of started anew.
On Working on Parenthood the Film vs. the TV Show:
Ron Howard: Well I haven’t had to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning one single time. And really I’m an Exec Producer along with Brian Grazer and David Nevins and I really am on that side of it. If somebody has a question I answer it. Maybe once or twice I threw in an opinion from the distance but this is Jason’s show. He honestly doesn’t need my help. It’s there should he ever. So it’s been a very different experience. But the other nice thing is, I get to really enjoy those episodes. I read scripts and I have an idea where the show is going. But it’s going so well that – I’m just proud.
Parenthood premieres March 2 at 10/9c on NBC.