The improv is the thing on NBC’S ‘American Auto’
Television history is full of comedies that relied on the improvisational skill of its actors for the laughs that would bring the house down. In fact, the writers on “Mork & Mindy” used to flag entire sections of script with the stage direction of “Robin goes off here.”
And while NBC’S “American Auto” doesn’t have the manic comedic genius of Robin Williams as its centerpiece, it does have such accomplished improv performers of Ana Gasteyer, Jon Barinholtz and Harvey Ker to take things off script if they happen to get a good idea.
In fact, series showrunner, creator and executive producer Justin Spitzer has considered just giving his actors a scene set-up and no dialogue and letting them do their thing.
“We always say ... that the script is there as a safety net,” explains Spitzer, who also employed the same strategy on “Superstore.” “It’s a backbone for story and the jokes there should be at least good that if you don’t want to improv, you don’t have to but we absolutely encourage that. And we have a few amazing improvisers, we have Ana, we have Jon Barinholtz. You know, a lot of our staff are great improvisers.”
The second season of the workplace comedy opens Tuesday, Jan. 24, and picks up with a continuation of a storyline from last season, when Payne Motors was caught in a recall scandal over a defective part that company CEO Katherine Hastings (Gasteyer) tried to cover up.
As she fights for her job, there are also stock issues, comeback attempts and staffers coping with complicated personal lives in the new season, which will bring back Season 1 cast Barinholtz (as Wesley Payne), Ker (as Payne chief counsel Elliot), Harriet Dyer (as COO Sadie Ryan), Michael B. Washington (as chief designer Cyrus Knight), Tye White (as Katherine’s adviser Jack Fortin) and X Mayo (as Katherine’s assistant Dori).
The new season will also cast Katherine in a new light. Where in Season 1 she appeared inept in her lack of knowledge about cars – in fact, she didn’t even know how to drive – the Season 2 story arc will put her on more familiar ground as a seasoned leader and crisis manager.
“This is why she’s good at her job,” Spitzer says. “And this is sort of what we’ve talked about with her character, is yeah, she doesn’t know about cars, she probably didn’t know very much about pharmaceuticals when she was CEO of a pharmaceutical company.
“But that’s fine,” he continues. “Her job is not development; her job’s to be a leader, her job’s to be sometimes mainly political and figure out a way to make money for the corporation and its stockholders and to put a lid on scandals like this.”