The Conners EPs On Latest Guest Stars Making Set An ‘Actors’ Paradise,’ And Darlene Being Called Out On Her Snarkiness
Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen the latest episode of The Connersso be warned!
The Conners‘ first post-Valentine’s Day episode certainly wasn’t interested in post-romantic glow, as Darlene struggled through job interviews while Becky took a legally questionable crash course in Workman’s comp scam with the goal of wanting to be more of Beverly Rose’s current mom. But there were certainly some cute guest stars who emerged as instant finalists for Lanford’s Best Smile – an unofficial competition (for now) – Mother‘s Jaime Pressly and 30 rocksis Jack McBrayerwho made for a fun week of filming, even as their characters set Darlene on the difficult path to self-actualization about how others perceive her.
Showrunner and Executive Producer Bruce Halford and fellow EP Dave Caplan shared some insights about episode 514, “Adding Insult to Injury,” with CinemaBlend via email, and I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone to learn that McBrayer and Pressly were pure bliss .
The Conners welcomed Jaime Pressly and Jack McBrayer to Lanford
Some The ConnersThe best guest stars come when the actors are given material that defies audience expectations, such as casting rock legend Joe Walsh as Aldo’s one-and-only father in Season 3. That wasn’t exactly the case with Jaime Pressly and Jack McBrayer, who both had to flash her pearly white while portraying genius characters. But both scenes depended on how Darlenes’ savagery managed to anger two of the brighter personalities that have emerged at Lanford. (I think any random people on the street, if asked to introduce themselves to the current manager of a family-owned candy factory, would introduce themselves to McBrayer at least 50% of the time, and maybe that’s not a good thing?)
When asked about bringing these two to Lanford’s Midwestern world in particular, here’s what Dave Caplan and Bruce Helford had to say about the landing hello jack! The Kindness Show star and The Not another teen movie vet.
- David Caplan: We’ve done interview scenes with Sara before and she’s always provided a really nice showcase for a co-star. Jaime and Jack were two names that we’d had on our list for a while and when the opportunity came up we thought we’d give it a try.
- Bruce Helford: We love Jack and Jaime and when we knew we were going to have multiple interviews we just took a shot and got lucky. You are always so busy. There are so many regular characters on our show that we don’t often have a few guest star spots available. It’s been pretty much an actor’s paradise this week.
The Conners lately gave the world William H. Macy’s latest killer mustache as one of Roseanne’s former friends, but while he was mainly used in group scenes, Adding Insult to Injury used his two guest stars for one-on-one scenes with Sara Gilbert. As is usual with the show’s interview scenes with Darlene, the emphasis was on the performances, so it’s easy to imagine it being fun to see those scenes come together on the day.
However, Jack McBrayer’s Mr.futterman made a second appearance in the final scene of the episode to deliver a quick battle of polite personalities with Nat Faxon’s Neville. I commented to the EPs how amazed I was to see that the episode managed to fulfill my wish, made minutes earlier, for Faxon and McBrayer to share the screen to see if they were a black hole of niceness could create in the universe . (Which might very well have happened if the latter hadn’t hilariously called Jackie a slut.) Here’s what Caplan and Helford had to say about that scene, while also addressing the possibility that Jaime Pressly’s character might show up in the Lunch Box one day :
- David Caplan: Yes, I think that was all Bruce’s idea. They just seem to have such complementary personalities. We knew we wanted to do something like Chip and Dale. . . . We’d love to have Jaime back if it worked out.
- Bruce Helford: We’d love to have Jaime back anytime, so yes, a visit to the Lunch Box would be right up her alley. As you saw in the tag, Jack found his way there because we really wanted him and Laurie and Nat to have some kind of scene together. comedy magician. We had the same wish as you 🙂
As much as I thought Jane Curtain as Katey Sagal’s fictional mother might be the best match in heaven, Nat Faxon and Jack McBrayer’s pie-anti argument might seal the deal.
Darlene realized that people don’t see her snark the way she does
After she derailed her two job interviews earlier in the episode by (perhaps rightly) pointing out what she perceived as issues with her potential bosses’ behavior during the interview. A bold approach, certainly, but one that obviously fell short of getting her a real job. Which led to her having a funny, albeit purposeful, conversation with Dan and Harris, in which they addressed directly how their grumpy attitude works against them in such situations. When I asked about the idea of ​​why Darlene went so far in life unaware of such things, Bruce Helford remarked that she is aware of some of the ways in which she affects her negatively, just not necessarily all of them. In his words:
Darlene is aware of her negativity — she worked hard last season to be more positive — but was unaware that she comes across as having a chip on her shoulder in interviews. What she found refreshingly candid and witty was actually perceived as derogatory and somewhat arrogant or, as Dan put it, “holding up the dukes”.
I’m sure we can all think of someone in our lives who is unaware of their most damaging instincts. The Darlene in our lives so to speak. Or weren’t. While her arguments may not have been objectively wrong, she only voiced them in the worst of contexts. And Dave Caplan pointed out that this isn’t a trait that’s limited to the worst of us.
We have found that even smart and thoughtful people can have blind spots of self-awareness. Darlene has always thought of herself as a straight person, so it was easy for her to write off people’s reactions to her as “not being able to handle the truth.” But the truth is, we all have things to work on or actually decide that we won’t change.
In the end, Darlene probably didn’t learn any hard lessons, and I don’t think Dan and Harris’ advice on faking your way to success is on the money either. Everything in moderation, be it snark sharing, drinking beer, smoking weed, or eating candy. I don’t know how to exaggerate anything about tires, so I can’t bring Jaime Pressly’s character into this analogy.
The Conners delivers new episodes on ABC every Wednesday night at 8 p.m., and fans can stream them the next day with a Hulu subscription. There are still a few episodes left in the season for even more guest stars to check out the sitcom clan, so stay tuned for more updates!