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HBO
You're the man who runs the show — along with Louis C.K. And you just came from working on the number one rated sitcom, "Everybody Loves Raymond," without taking much of a break. What drew you to "Lucky Louie"?
ROYCE
I knew Louis from long time ago doing stand-up, and I knew he was hilarious. "Everybody Loves Raymond" was ending, and I was searching around for what I was going to do next. He had called me about maybe running the show, and once I read the script, saw all the great characters and heard it would be on HBO, which has a reputation for letting you have a lot of artistic freedom, it just was sort of a no-brainer.
HBO
Coming from a long-time hit show that was on top at the networks, how do you keep it fresh and challenging for you?
ROYCE
Well, I was not there at the beginning of "Everybody Loves Raymond." The show was already up and running, I came on staff, and three months later they had Emmy's. You know, 'You're welcome.' Um, no. I mean, everything was a hit already, and I was very fortunate to climb aboard a speeding train and hang on for dear life. The best thing about it was that I was able to learn, I think, a lot of the right ways to do things.
Now, over here, it's a much different thing to be able to start at the beginning and wonder, 'Well, is this character going to be this way or this way?' You're making very important choices all the time that are going to effect the way the whole rest of the show works. It's just a very different feel. And since you don't have the benefit of the audience response in the beginning, you're sort of running by your own compass. Building it from the ground up is a whole different ball game. It's very exciting, very intense and nerve-wracking, and a lot of work. But, yeah, it's also fun.
HBO
How did you go about casting the show?
ROYCE
We went through a lot of people. With certain characters we knew what we wanted exactly and got what we wanted exactly. And with others, we had a vague idea of what the character would be, and then somebody walked in and we said, Oh yeah, that's what we want, we'll try to build the character around that person. Mike Hagerty's character is different than we had anticipated. Louis had a vision of Mike and Tina as being kind of like an aunt and uncle of his. But Mike really changed that idea. For Jim Norton's role of Rich, we had three very different people in mind — I mean completely different. One was really nerdy, one was just really off-beat, and then he was who he is. [LAUGHS] He just sort of owned the role, and the decision was made for us once he came in the room.
HBO
Where do the story lines come from?
ROYCE
Generally speaking, the stories come out of a lot of us talking. Phil Rosenthal, who was the creator of "Everybody Loves Raymond," subscribed to the Carl Reiner approach, which was: what happened in your house this weekend? We do some of that — this is what happened in my relationship, this is what happened in my family. And I would say that all of the story lines have some kind of tether to something that's actually happened. Some of them are uncomfortably close reproductions of things that have happened, and with some of them we've taken a little flight of fancy with a germ of an idea. But it's an interesting process, because I don't know if we've offended anyone's family yet, but we'll get there.
HBO
Given that you don't have the same audience as with network TV, and you don't have the network censors to worry about, how is the writing process different?
ROYCE
I think on most network sitcoms, generally what happens is a room full of very funny people sit around making each other laugh — usually with incredibly dirty material. And you try to insult each other and harm each other in a horribly funny way. And then you go, OK, we got to knock that off, let's go back to the script...what can we use? On this show, you do the same thing, and then you go, OK, I guess we're done with the script. [LAUGHS] Because you can use anything, so everything is fair game.
It becomes an interesting task to figure out. You really have to concentrate on what should make it in the script, and what shouldn't, instead of what can and can't we do.
HBO
Many of you also have stand-up backgrounds. Does that impact the writing and the story lines?
ROYCE
Yeah, and part of it is we have a stand-up comic who is the star of the show. I have to go back to what Phil Rosenthal, the man behind "Raymond," used to say. He had a lot of stand-up comics who were writers, and two stand-up comics — Ray and Brad Garrett — who were stars of the show. Phil subscribed to the theory that funny people are hard to find. I can teach them how to do the form — he wasn't a stand-up comic — but funny people are hard to find. What we've got is a collection of funny people, some of them are stand-ups, and some of them aren't.
HBO
Do the stand-up performers bring a different sensibility to the mix?
ROYCE
I think they know how to get laughs — stand-up comics always know how to get laughs. And they're very good actors. I think stand-up comics get a bad rap when it comes to acting, but it's unfair. They've spent years developing a character on stage, and the ones who rise to the top — and I think we've got some of them — are excellent. They're a sitcom character that comes to you fully formed. I mean, what more can you ask for?
HBO
Lastly, how do you go about collaborating with someone is who also the creator, star and writer of show?
ROYCE
Louis is everywhere. He's chosen the paint color for the set, he created the logo that's on our hats, he gives us life, and he can take it away. No, he's really intimately involved in the writing; it's very much a push/pull situation. Creatively it's working out. Sometimes we do things without him, and then he comes and gives his notes, and then we give our notes on his notes. The goal is really to do the show that he wants to do and help him do that. There's a good creative mix because he's an excellent writer and a good debater, he enjoys defending his position, but he also doesn't mind if you want to stand up and tell him 'You're full of it.' And it should be this way. He hasn't hired a bunch of people who are just going to say, 'Yeah, go ahead and do that.' And I think it's making the show better, because what gets out at the end is something that's been vigorously debated, and we all get to add to it creatively.
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NEW!
Get Your "One Night Stand" with Louis C.K. DVD. Available at the HBO Store.
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