Stars Danson, Hunter instantly clicked as rivals in ‘Mr. Mayor’
NEW YORK — There’s a government office right there in the very title of Ted Danson’s new series, but the new NBC comedy “Mr. Mayor” is anything but political.
“If you consider politics the headlines in the papers and the breaking news on CNN, that ain’t us,” said Danson, who stars as Los Angeles’ mayor, Neil Bremer. “We point out the foibles and silliness, and wonderfully lovable, pathetic, lame side of humanity, but we don’t stop and preach. We never are preaching.”
The show is from Emmy Award winners Robert Carlock and Tina Fey, the brains behind “30 Rock” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” The 30-minute comedy has taken over the 8 p.m. anchor slot in NBC’s Thursday comedy block.
Danson considers the show more an office or family comedy. Danson plays a businessman who made a fortune on billboards and then retired. He ran for mayor just to impress his daughter, a sophomore in high school played by Kyla Kenedy from “The Walking Dead.”
The new mayor is not a very polished political figure, prone to mangling Spanish and saying things like “I’m very open to a robot police force.”
He’s got a dubious staff behind him — the trio of comedians Bobby Moynihan, Vella Lovell and Mike Cabellon — and a chief rival in Holly Hunter, who plays an ultraliberal council member.
“Like underwear bought in a drugstore, you’re not going to last two months,” she warns the mayor.
In the first episode, the mayor, hoping for a winning issue, steals the idea of a plastic drinking straw ban from his daughter, and it blows up in his face.
Hunter’s character offers to help — but only if he will rename coyotes as “mini-wolves.” There is satire, but nothing that might pit red states against blue ones.
“Immediately, I think the audience is alerted to the fact that we’re not going to be dissecting the Trump administration,” said Hunter. “This is not some new angle on a political conversation.”
Danson — a veteran TV star of such shows as “Cheers,” “Becker” and “The Good Place” — hadn’t worked with Hunter, the Oscar winner for “The Piano” and star of the
TNT drama series “Saving Grace.” The two instantly clicked, a pair of show biz pros.
“There are some benefits to having been around for a while, which is there is a relaxation and a recognition of, ‘Oh, I’m in good hands. This other person’s got me,’ ” Danson said.
The cast and crew have endured a lot during the pandemic. They shot three episodes until production had to shut down for nine months. The cast kept in contact during the hiatus, even going over scripts virtually.
The time off might actually have helped the show, giving the cast time to digest the rat-a-tat scripts, which are stocked with Carlock and Fey’s astute cultural observations and sometimes absurdist flights of fancy.
“It’s practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice before you show up so that those words can come trippingly off your tongue,” said Danson.
“You have to play the music,” he said, “and you have to play Tina and Robert’s music.”