This is part 1 of a 2-part interview.
How long have you been writing and what inspired you to go into a writing career?
Jane Espenson: I've been writing professionally
as a TV writer since 1992, but I always knew I wanted to write for TV. I
grew up watching great shows like Mary Tyler Moore, The Odd Couple, Barney
Miller, M*A*S*H, and I wanted to be a part of something like that. I feel
really fortunate that shows like Buffy and Battlestar are on their way to
having that same classic reputation – amazingly, I think I got my dream.
But you can tell from that list of titles that my first love was comedy, so Husbands is part of coming back to that original interest.
Cheeks (co-writer and star of Husbands) is such an engaging, free-spirited individual that truly lights up the screen. How did you meet him and begin working with him?
Espenson: I discovered his comedy on line. He has a YouTube channel at GoCheeksGo, and I was impressed by his sense of humor. Once we started writing together I realized why – we have ridiculously similar joke-writing instincts. That made working on Husbands really easy and natural. Sometimes he was writing to match my voice and vice versa. You really can't tell who wrote which lines.
You are an absolute wiz at social media. How did you go about learning those skills and how have they influenced you in marketing for Husbands?
Espenson: Oh, I am so not a wiz at social media. That's Cheeks's department. I can tweet, but that's about it. He secured the web page where people can see the episodes (HusbandsTheSeries.com) and made a lot of the decisions about how to best make the material available to people. For example, he decided that the format would be to create a pilot-length story and then carve it into tiny 2-minute pieces for web consumption – a decision that's really paid off.
Did you write Husbands with the express purpose of creating role-models for marriage equality or was it just an aspect of a story you wanted to tell?
Espenson: Actually not. We actually added that
part of the story after we'd already started work on the script. But once
we realized that we wanted to create a romantic comedy, it became
obvious. And perfect. If we can help make a case for marriage
equality by putting faces on this young fictional couple, then that's amazing
and very satisfying.
Anything coming up on the season of Husbands we should be especially looking forward to? Are there plans for future seasons?
Espenson: Oh yes. As I'm writing this,
episode five is prepping to go up. 5, 6 and 7 are very funny episodes
with
To watch Husbands, please click here.
Be sure to check back with IAR soon for part 2 of our interview with Jane Espenson.
