Music star lives with suburban couple in ‘Happy Together’
If not for Harry Styles, there might not be “Happy Together.”
Part of the music star’s background has inspired the CBS sitcom premiering tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. He’s an executive producer of the show, in which his doppelganger Cooper (played by Australian actor Felix Mallard) is a rising musician who moves in with married couple Jake and Claire (Damon Wayans Jr., Amber Stevens West). They’re inspired by him to think young again, while their rather ordinary, suburban lifestyle away from fame’s glare appeals to him.
Fellow executive producer Ben Winston — also a runner of CBS’ “The Late Late Show With James Corden” — explained, “Maybe seven or eight years ago, I was making a film with One Direction, directing a few of their music videos. I had just moved into my very modest, quiet house in the most suburban area of London you could possibly imagine, and a young man who I was working with at the time — with the name of Harry Styles — asked me if he could live in our attic for what would only be a couple weeks.
“I went home and I said to my wife, Meredith, ‘It’s a bit of an odd request. Harry, this guy from the band, would like to stay in our attic for a couple weeks. How would you feel about that?’ She said, ‘As long as it’s only for two weeks, I’m fine with it.’ Eighteen months later, Harry moved out of our attic ... and nobody ever knew that he was living there.”
Winston admitted the situ ation has been beefed up for “Happy Together,” noting that “if we actually put what happened on the television, it wouldn’t be that exciting.” Meanwhile, Mallard reasoned of his alter ego in the show, “When he’s with these people living an ordinary, quite calm, normal life, he’s loving it and he’s so happy to be there. He gives them a bit of excitement and gets them out of their nor mality, because they’re settling into a (pattern) of watching Netflix until 10 and then going to bed.”
Corden turns up in the “Happy Together” pilot, giving the fictional Cooper a “Late Late Show” spot ... something he also has done for Styles, and for an entire week last year when Styles had a nightly “residency” on the program to introduce his thennew solo debut album.
Especially since they share a producer in Winston, it’s possible Corden could reappear on “Happy Together” later.
“He’ll always happily take part in the show if we need him,” Winston said, “but it might be a bit odd. It might feel like Damon and Amber are just obsessed with ‘James Corden,’ that that’s all they watch.”