Extended Family Stars Donald Faison and Jon Cryer Talk Sitcom Writing and Inspiration Behind Characters
In Extended Family, Jim (Jon Cryer) and Julia (Abigail Spencer) split in an amicable divorce. The ex-couple continues to raise their children at the family home, while the parents take turns staying with them. Navigating divorce and raising children gets more complicated when Trey (Donald Faison), the owner of the Boston Celtics, steals Julia’s heart. Pop Culture Planet’s Jordan Bohan spoke with Jon Cryer and Donald Faison about the new NBC sitcom.
After decades long success in sitcoms, Jon Cryer and Donald Faison finally team up in a new laugh out loud series. “This story has never been told before,” Faison told me. “There's fantasy versions of it like Three's Company and I guess that's realistic but this is not only a great way to get through divorce but I've never seen anything like this on television where there's still obvious love and caring between two ex partners. I can't recall a show like this.”
When posed the same question, Cryer revealed it was a certain writer’s talents that caught his attention. “For me, it was Mike O’Malley’s kind of loopy writing. He has a very interesting circuitous writing style and it's got this very fast paced screw ball pace to it. That is unusual in sitcoms,” he said. “All these shows kind of set their own vibe and Two and a Half Men was very slow and that was just the best way the show worked. This show is very fast and full of words and ideas and that was really a fun idea for me. I thought, ‘hey I haven't seen that show. I'd love to see it.’”
The series is loosely based on the real life owner of the Boston Celtics and his involvement with his wife’s ex-husband and children, which allowed Faison to pull some inspiration from the real life millionaire. “We've hung out during basketball games and stuff like that. At first I was like I don't think I'm doing him justice and then I watched him for a little bit and I was like, ‘Oh wow, Trey and Wick are a lot alike,’” shared Faison. “Trey's love for Julia is like Wick's love for Amelia. He's very good at his business and everything like that, but he falls apart in front of her. That's something that I think Trey does too because Trey's really good at his business, but to be able to handle what's going on in his life with his fiancé is pretty incredible.”
Cryer’s character is also based on a real person, who happens to be on the writing staff for the series. “I get to hear the way he talks and his attitude about things and it's very helpful because he's just 100% wise ass. 100%. I actually have to tone that down a little for Jim but it is fascinating watching him and Amelia, his ex-wife, seeing how they relate because they just constantly give each other shit and it's great because you can still see the love,” Cryer shared. “That's really the trick, the reason that we cast Abigail Spencer was that when she and I argued you could still see the love. It takes being very precise to get that.”
Working on a set with such comedic legends, it can be difficult to keep from laughing through scenes. “It's usually frustration that we start laughing. Mike O’Malley is a very unique writer and writes like poetry and if you mess it up the joke doesn't make sense, like most jokes. If one word is off or anything like that, it's kind of messy so you get frustrated because you want to give him the best and you want his words to shine through but sometimes you miss ‘the’ or ‘and’ and it didn't work the way I wanted it to,” said Faison, with Cryer adding: “The whole whole thing falls apart. It's like a Jenga Tower. We crack up all the time mostly just because we're foolish, foolish people and we can't believe we get paid for this.”
In the first episode, the parents are plagued with a problem most families go through at one point or another: the death of a pet. “One of the reasons that I love the pilot is because I had recently experienced the death of my child's guinea pig and the absolute wave of adrenaline soaked terror that went through me when I realized my child's pet was dead was something I had never experienced. The utter panic,” Cryer revealed that the pilot hit close to home. “Had I had access to a similarly colored guinea pig at the time I would have 100% tried to swap it out, but unfortunately it had very distinctive markings so I had no choice but to be honest about the situation. Our pilot was a bit of a fantasy for me.”
Faison chimed in: “I fear that moment. We have a bearded dragon in the house and we have a tortoise. I think the tortoise is going to outlive us but the bearded dragon there's a possibility that it doesn't and I worry the day we come home and the bearded dragon isn't moving. The tortoise is not only going to outlive us, the tortoise is probably going to outlive the next people that live in this house too. They live forever.”
Catch new episodes of Extended Family on Tuesdays on NBC and next day on Peacock.
