Launching A Hit TV Show Must Be So Easy, Even A Caveman Can Do It...

At least, that's what we gather from ABC's Cavemen (which, as everybody knows at this point, is a half-hour sitcom spin-off of those one-joke Geico commercials). Entertainment Weekly has a Q&A with executive producers/creators Josh Gordon, Joe Lawson, and Will Speck, and star Bill English. It's all the fluff you'd expect from EW, but here are a few highlights:

Creator Josh Gordon on the show's "controversial" position as an "allegory" to minorities:

It's not our primary focus. I don't think any of us set out to make it an issue-oriented show. More than that, we just wanted to sit with these characters and explore the things that they face day to day. And we just thought it was funny that there is no association with this group of people, they just happen to be angry.

Actor Bill English, on his role as caveman Joel:

...But at the same time — and he needs to be reminded of it a little bit — he is a caveman and there are certain elements of being a caveman. So I feel like he's not a pushover, but he's definitely a guy who wants to make a difference and make a name for cavemen with hard work with all these things.... Yeah, the American dream.

Creators Josh Gordon and Will Speck on, well, parallels with religious communities:

GORDON: What we decided when we sort of sat around [working on] this whole idea was that cavemen are like Hassidic Jews and they tend to acclimate in these small communities.
SPECK: Or Amish, or anyone who lives away from society.

Joe Lawson and Bill English on the themes of Cavemen:

LAWSON: They're fairly universal. The fact that they're cavemen, after a while, I think people will just kind of forget that they're cavemen.
ENGLISH: Concept-wise, what I thought was great about it is that you can take these guys and put them anywhere. Mundane places like the grocery store, wherever, the beach, whatever normal place. You don't have to punch it with some kind of a bonus. What we noticed during the pilot — the three of us — was that just walking outside or even in front of our own crew, people that hadn't seen us, every morning at five in the morning we'd appear in our full get-up and instantly, Boom! You just look at somebody and they kind of stop in their tracks.

You mean three actors in full cavemen makeup get weird stares on the street? You don't say. These guys are really pushing TV in a new direction, one that we haven't seen since Alf.

Any final words?

EW: What about the fact that ABC is loaded with pretty people? Do you worry that the stars won't be recognizable?
GORDON: I think there were a few moments during the pilot where everyone was in the learning curve and we definitely got a note here or there, like, ''Can we get a t-shirt that makes him look more attractive?''
LAWSON: Yeah, you either find cavemen attractive or you don't.
SPECK: ABC needed to round out their portfolio. We'll just round it out with ugly people.

And there you have it. Read the full, sincere and world-changing interview here. Cavemen airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC, for no good reason whatsoever.

-- Daniel  Lehman

Comments

[b]

Cavemen looks funny. Is it a Geico show, somehow? Anyway, here is a show that should be on right after Cavemen...
It is called The Blue Brother.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UPUwfXawL6k