Knope Knows

The New York Times ran a great piece on Children’s Hospital, a web series turned television show created by Daily Show alum Rob Corddry. In addition to Corddry, other web series cast members included Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Ken Marino, Ed Helms and Jason Sudeikis.

For the television show, new regulars like Malin Akerman, Henry Winkler and Kurtwood Smith were added.

Megan Mullally as the Chief

From The New York Times:

“The idea was born of child abuse, essentially,” Mr. Corddry said. At a hospital with his daughter, who had injured her arm, he was taken by the comic possibilities of the terrifying scene: “scared parents, crying mothers, tiny bodies on tiny gurneys.”

A result was an unsparing parody and, in its twisted way, a celebration of mainstream hospital shows, packed into 10 episodes of about five minutes each. The primary target was “Grey’s Anatomy,” with nods to “ER” and “Scrubs” and a subtext of deep affection for “M*A*S*H.”

[...]

“Megan Mullally, herself, green-lights a show,” he acknowledged. “I think that’s our main strength.”

Ms. Mullally plays the Chief, an oversexed chief surgeon who flails about on crutches and is an obvious take-off on Dr. Kerry Weaver, the character Laura Innes played for 15 seasons on “E.R.” She said she called Ms. Innes, a fellow Northwestern alumna, before shooting the Web series: “I was like, mmm, just in case. Just in case. But she thought it was great.”

The actors and writers have more room to breathe now that “Childrens Hospital” is a television series, but not much. The episodes for Adult Swim are 15 minutes long (11 ½ minutes after commercials); they will be shown in a half-hour slot at 10:30 p.m. with another 15-minute show, “Delocated.” The original Web episodes have been combined, two at a time, into television episodes that will be shown beginning Sunday. The new episodes will begin on Aug. 22.

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Nick Offerman participated in a Q&A with TV.com. Below are a few of his answers. Click the link for the full version!

From TV.com:

Your real-life experience has informed not only your character, but storylines and whole episodes. I read somewhere that “Hunting Trip” came about because you had a discussion with the producers about shaving your head. And a few episodes ago, you used your very real carpentry skills to build a canoe. What else on the show has come straight out of your personal life?
It’s funny, there’s a real simpatico with the writers and myself. I’ve played saxophone my whole life, and they didn’t know that when they wrote the story about Duke Silver. And they turned in that script and I said, “Well, did you guys know that I actually play saxophone?” And they didn’t, so there’s a lot of serendipity taking place. I grew up in a small town in Illinois, and my Dad was a basketball coach. Thanks to him, I have excellent fundamentals in both basketball and baseball. And sometime in the near future, I may be putting my basketball fundamentals to good use. But I think, you know, it’s true of any room of writers having to crank out 20 scripts a year, anything that’s interesting about you—if I happen to juggle fire, they’re going to try and stick that in there somewhere.

I recently looked at some of the furniture on your website; it’s really impressive. I can’t believe you’ve even gone as far as building a wooden case for a document shredder!
Oh, thank you. That was a special piece. My wife [actress Megan Mullally] loves to shred documents. It’s a passion of hers.

Oh yeah?
She loves nothing more—there’s something really gratifying about destroying personal evidence. And early on—gosh, eight or nine years ago, early on in our relationship, I got her a shredder for Christmas, which in light of her passion was a very romantic gift. And I was flabbergasted that you could not get a good-looking shredder. And, you know, she’s very stylish, and she designs our house to the nines. And I was mortified that you could only get, like, white, black, gray, or silver shredders. And so I built a lacewood shredder holder. And if I was more aspiring—and I’ll give this idea away—I think if somebody mass-marketed one of those and put it in the SkyMall catalog available in walnut, oak, maple, or mahogany, I think it would be a big seller.

Are you working on anything else right now?
Yeah, I have a little part in a new series that’s coming out in July on Adult Swim. It’s called Children’s Hospital, and it’s really the funniest damn thing going, I think. It’s written and directed by Rob Corddry. And Megan is, actually, one of the leads on the show. It’s a satire of all the hospital procedurals, which just are never-ending. So, you know, imagine any [inaudible] broad comedies in a children’s hospital, and like every off-colored joke you can imagine. It’s so hilarious. Megan plays the chief of surgery, a la, Laura Innes on ER. So, I have a little part on that that’s a lot of fun. Beyond that, you know, I’ll probably pick up some film work here and there. But I’ve been looking for the role of Ron Swanson for a very long time. And if that’s all I do for, hopefully, some years, I’ll be a very happy boy.

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