Three ‘Nobodies’ from the Groundlings get their shot
“You want to take that phone call?” Rachel Ramras is midway through explaining how the idea for the new TV Land comedy “Nobodies” sprang out of a failed movie pitch to fellow Groundlings alums (and series executive producers) Melissa McCarthy and husband Ben Falcone when she catches cast mate and series co-creator Larry Dorf checking his phone.
“No, I’m good,” Dorf insists, grinning sheepishly as the room — which includes McCarthy, Falcone and fellow “Nobodies” costar Hugh Davidson — lights up with laughter. The cast has been together for only a few minutes before it feels as if an episode of the show has broken out into real life.
Fresh from an appearance on “Ellen” and gathered in a khaki-colored conference room on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, the five comics and longtime friends recount a journey that began a few years ago in a way that sounds, well, a lot like the series.
Ramras, Dorf and Davidson are the “Nobodies” of the title — three veteran improv comics and writers who exist in the shadows of more familiar Groundlings grads, including McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Jim Rash, who all also appear as themselves.
Though working on what’s depicted as a showbiz purgatory of a children’s animated program, the three longtime partners connive their way, through multiple schemes, to get their script, “Mr. First Lady,” into the hands of McCarthy and Falcone and into production. Complications, of the cringingly self-sabotaging and often very funny variety, ensue.
In a case of art imitating life, the trio really did pitch “Mr. First Lady” to Falcone over lunch with the idea for McCarthy to star as the president, but they passed.
“In the show, we have a script,” Dorf said, explaining some of the artistic license taken in the series. “In real life, we were too lazy to do that. So we just had a vague idea.”
But six months later, there was another meeting. “I believe it was Larry who said, ‘We’d like to meet for a lunch,’” Falcone recalls, dipping his voice to emphasize the seriousness of the approach. “And I was
like, oh, jeez.”
“Way to make it weird, Larry,” McCarthy says dryly.
The idea, however, had shifted to what would become “Nobodies,” which premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. McCarthy and Falcone brought it to TV Land with the stipulation that the series had to feature these three leads to work.
“I do think Natalie Portman would have played me well,” the petite Ramras says. “For the record.”
“You have 20 years of chemistry,” McCarthy says, gesturing at the group. “They were all at our wedding.”
“I was a groomsman in Larry's wedding,” Falcone adds.
“Is that when Larry gave away all those pocket watches?” Davidson asks.
“That your cat had urinated on,” Ramras says to Dorf.
“These (terrible) pocket watches,” Davidson remembers, his voice rising. “Like who wanted a pocket watch? They were all so affected … “
Soon the conversation good-naturedly devolves into the three of them arguing about the details of the story on opposite sides of the table.
McCarthy beams and shakes her head: “None of it's fake,” she says.
“Nobodies” has already been renewed by TV Land for a second season, and the series goes a little further as a slice-of-life comedy by building on the intimacy that comes with years of friendship and collaboration.
While McCarthy said the end result stretches the cast's true selves “by a whisper,” she and her husband were able to broadly lampoon themselves and their celebrity, which in McCarthy's case has seen her become one of the biggest comedy stars on the planet.
“Playing monsters is super fun,” she says of her “character” on “Nobodies.” “I always think it's a good sign if after some of the lines that they had me say, I was literally like, ‘Oh, my God!' Like, can you bounce back after being that gross?”