The Last Man on Earth : Den of Geek: Season 3 Writer's-Room Walkthrough

Part 1 of a "walkthrough" of LMOE season 3 with writer/co-showrunner Andy Bobrow:

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/last-man-on-earth/259275/the-last-man-on-earth-season-3-writers-room-walkthrough

3x1, "General Breast Theme With Cobras"

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DEN OF GEEK: Were there any other actors in consideration for Darryl other than Jon Hamm? He's really the perfect choice for that role, but what was the story there?

ANDY BOBROW: Some of the names I can remember were Barbra Streisand, Matthew McConaughey, Jenifer Aniston, Jack Nicholson, Melissa McCarthy, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep.

Jon Hamm was actually a name we batted around early in the process and dismissed it because we worried it would be too cutesy or too self-referential. Boy, were we wrong. A few weeks after we dismissed it, and we had hit a few dead-ends, we reconsidered it and it started to feel like the coolest thing we could do. January texted him and got an immediate yes. We were so lucky to have him.

Did you have any other trajectories planned for this premiere or attempt to go down alternative routes before abandoning the idea?

We had made our bed with the finale last season. We had Pat and two people in hazmats coming up the beach. So we always knew that this episode would be continuous action from there. But we had no idea who the other two hazmat people would be or what the story would be. Most of us were assuming wed do a battle One plan we had was that the two other hazmat people would get killed or scared off, and that Pat would remain in the show as a weird neighbor But we werent quite sure we could commit to having Pat as a regular. Hes such an intense character, we wouldnt want to neuter him by making him a familiar sight. So we decided to exit the character in a way that would allow us to bring him back at some point if we had the story to support it. I love Tandy falling for Pat and being so wrong about it. Its a perfect Last Man story.

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With how past premieres have gone, I half expected this episode to follow Pat, Louis, and Darryl on their trip up to Malibu before they meet everyone

We definitely considered it. But we felt the cliffhanger was in immediate need of addressing. We had way too many conversations about the logic of that boat appearing in the Pacific when we last saw it in the Atlantic. We wrote plenty of lines about the Panama Canal and global warming. Maybe the whole isthmus of Panama was flooded over. Or maybe Pat put the boat on a trailer and hauled it across land. We decided they came across the Northwest Passage. Pat says that in a line somewhere, but it may have got cut.

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Nope, I'm pretty sure it was left in, Andy.

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Was this always a situation where you wanted the gang on the road by the end of the episode? Did you consider Pat learning about Mike in episode two or three?

We considered it for a minute, but we were probably leaning against it when we had the option taken away by Mark Boones schedule. We couldnt have him for 302, so that was that.

Talk about Lewis a little bit and the casting process there. Did you know what you wanted for that character?

We had some vague notions. We liked Lewis being kind of mousy, kind of the opposite of Phil 2 and Mike. We thought maybe its a guy who looks up to Tandy, like how Tandy looked up to Phil 2. But our immediate need for Lewis was we needed a guy who could play fear of Pat, like intense PTSD from being around Pat. And when we saw Kenny Choi, he was perfect at that So the Lewis who evolves moving forward is someone weve created based on who Kenny is and how we see him

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I truly thought you had run out of ways to mess with Will Fortes face and hair but those eyebrows are an inspired idea.

It just popped into Wills head one day and its awesome. We didnt think we were doing a running gag with his appearance, but now we definitely are.

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There's a real energy that drives this episode, especially in its ending. Was there a lot of talk on what sort of show you wanted to make this year in its third season?

Yes, definitely. Were trying to adhere to the ground rule that whatever we do in season three, it shouldnt be anything that we could have done in the first two seasons. Im not sure if weve hit that target all the time, but its been our general goal.

Is there anything from last season that you wanted to try to avoid this year, or not fall into again?

Not really, but there are stories that come up where we realize thats season one Tandy. Like where hes being inconsiderate of Carol. We avoid that stuff now. We have talked a lot about his impending fatherhood though. The episode where he found out Carol was pregnant, that was really moving to watch, so weve talked a lot about making sure we continue from there. Impending fatherhood is a factor for Tandy this season.

As far as the other aspects of the show, the only thing we talked about adjusting was the look. We have this awesome Malibu location and this open breezy modern house, and I think we made the mistake of assuming that the show would feel vast and spacious because of our big house and the big ocean. But as season 2 started winding down, we all started to notice that it wasnt feeling as vast as we thought it would. What we realized is when were in the house or on the beach, there arent enough reminders that the whole world is empty. The beach and the ocean after the apocalypse dont look any different than the beach and ocean do today. You need empty highways and crumbling buildings to really establish the end of the world. So the biggest change were making this year is we are venturing into the big empty world a lot more.

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3x2, "The Wild Guess Express"

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DEN OF GEEK: What was the sort of idea behind breaking this second episode?

ANDY BOBROW: [W]e have some specific things we want to accomplish with the season, but once the story starts, we often just follow the characters and go what would they do next? Im finding that with a serialized show, the whats next of it all starts taking precedence over the how should people change? of it all

Was there ever a second episode that was headed in a different trajectory for the season regarding Pat and his death?

No, to be honest, this was a situation where we had a very strong idea for episode 3 and 4, so we had to make sure episode 2 put us in the right position to do the next ones. The celebrity house idea was a good idea, and it also solved a production problem for us that I cant talk about without spoiling something

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Was Cher always the owner of the house that they end up invading? Why is she the right personality for this sort of thing?

We actually considered Barbra Streisand as well. Mary Steenburgen knows her and she knows that Barbra and James Brolin are fans of the show. Our lawyers told us that we could refer to a celebrity without permission as long as we didnt show any pictures. But we knew that if Barbra saw this and we hadnt asked for permission, it would come off as weird and dishonorable, given that Mary is an acquaintance of hers.

So we asked for permission and Barbra was very sweet. She made sure to let us know that she loves the show, but that she just wasnt comfortable with the idea. Shes very private about her home (Google Barbra Streisand Effect), and I guess that extends to fictional depictions of her home too. Having said that, I want to make sure I tell you that Cher was not a compromise by any stretch. She was an equally great choice. I hope she saw it and enjoyed it.

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Todd is very transparent about his grief and pain over murder, but Melissa is much more of a locked box of repression. Did you intentionally want to show two different coping mechanisms for this big act?

Yes, definitely. Between the first two episodes, there was some material that got cut along those lines but the way it works now, its more subtle. Its going to become bigger as the season moves forward. Its a nice thread.

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Talk a little bit about the dynamic of having Lewis around so far. I love that due to him being an outsider he kind of undercuts the typical Last Man structure by forcing Tandy to get real with everyone.

It is kind of different, right? Melissa was our judgmental character in season one, but as time wore on, she just naturally became part of the weirdness, part of the family. I think with Lewis, like I said, it has a lot to do with who Kenny is. I mean, we didnt give him much to work with. Just the first script because thats all we had figured out at that point.

But Kenny came in with this intelligent look, this studied manner. Hes kind of quiet and serious in person, so you could assume its his natural self coming through, but its also a matter of him doing his homework on the character, taking very little and building something very real. All he really knew was that his character is an academic, and hes giving us a very strong take on that idea.

We werent that sure how Lewis was going to interact with Tandy, but it became very natural Weve seen Tandy react to true Alpha males Phil 2, and Mike But Lewis is different. Hes not a physical threat to Tandy, and hes never going to punch him. Hes just demonstrably smarter and doesnt have anything to prove.

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There have already been some great production elements to this season, but I just love that these twisted faux death threats are just a part of their home now.

When we were breaking the story, for a long time we were kind of stuck on the problem of how to extend it. If everyone knows that Pat is dead, theyll just want to go home. And if everyone thinks hes alive, theyll get the hell out of Malibu in a hurry.

So as soon as Tandy told Todd that Pat was alive, we had ourselves a problem. Todd would want to tell everyone immediately. Why doesnt he? How can we delay it, and how can the delay be funny? The death threats were a real relief when we came up with them, and Will added all that stuff about the incense and the jeans. It just gave us that Last Man thing we really needed.

That ending is classic Last Man. Talk on that a little bit and how Todd gets redemption from his murder status just when he finally accepts it.

[T]his was not a layer that we designed from the start. Maybe smarter storytellers would sit down and say, how can I tell a story where Todd gets redemption just when he finally accepts that he wont get it? But us, we go, We need another twist. Would it be too much to have Pat be missing after all this? Ah f it, lets just go for it. Then a couple hours later, You know what? This works out pretty cool because its almost like Todd gets to grow, even though he ultimately didnt need to.

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"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

Part 2 3x3 ("You're All Going to Diet") and 3x4 ("Five Hoda Kotbs"):

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-last-man-on-earth/259852/how-last-man-on-earth-pulled-off-a-post-apocalyptic-roadtrip

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DEN OF GEEK: You mentioned before that a lot of what went on in the first two episodes was to build to a certain gag in episode three. What was that payoff?

LMOE Executive Producer ANDY BOBROW: Maybe I phrased it wrong. I didn't mean to imply it was a specific gag, but rather the whole idea of them spending episode three back in the house, trying to make it safe from Pat. I was also talking about using episode three to show Melissa really starting to slide off the edge The ending of episode two was specifically to set up the fun we wanted to have with the fish and the bombs and stuff. We could have had them on the road in episode three, but we really wanted to do an episode about fear before putting them on the road.

That Big Mouth Billy Bass alarm system gag is so glorious. From now on Im going to think of Last Man instead of The Sopranos when it comes to that toy, which is high praise.

I think that just came out of the room. I don't remember who pitched it. And until now I had forgotten it was in The Sopranos. We wanted to use "Don't Worry Be Happy," but it was cost prohibitive.

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I loved the addition of the death threats to the walls last episode, but Carol dressing them up as niceties this week is even better and perfect characterization on her end.

Yeah, that kind of stuff is easy. We've had some discussions this year about how dumb is too dumb. And I'm sure we've crossed the line a bit, but Carol is Carol.

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Digging deeper into Melissa is continually interesting, as is her decision to turn to land mines in the end. They lead to some really great visuals. Explosions have happened plenty on the show, but this is the first time that this sort of power has been so up close to everyone.

Yeah, this is Melissa's year and we are really excited. In any sitcom writers room, you find the writers getting stuck in quicksand with at least one character. I mean, not knowing how to make them funny or where to push them or what else to do with them. I know on Community there was a time in season one when Britta was a frustrating character for the writers just the uptight ingenue, the icy object of desire Then we discovered just how fun it was to see Gillian [Jacobs] be awkward and the character grew a huge dimension overnight. Suddenly she became this helpless ruiner of things. I don't think you can create a character like that out of whole cloth. You have to experiment once you've established a couple traits. And I think the same happened with Melissa this year.

January is awesome and she's always played Melissa very stingy, very withholding. When we put a gun in her hand last season, it was kind of cool and funny and it looked right. This year, we just kind of followed that energy and discovered this awesome new level. The combination of the military thing with that casual disaffection that January does so well it's just funny and cool and interesting.

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The note that the episode goes out on is a rather big one. Was it exciting for you guys to be hitting the road and moving into a new, uncharted chapter for the show?

Big yes on that. When we sat down in May to figure out the season, we started immediately talking about a move. We changed locations at the start of season two, so the discussion was, "Is this our thing? Do we change locations each season?" I mean, story-wise, there's no reason not to. Money-wise it's a different answer.

We had to beg our studio for the overage, and it kind of came down to the wire. It's way outside the norm for a TV show to build new sets every season. And it's hard to justify. I mean we're not a huge hit. Just a solid little show with a small devoted audience. But creatively it was exciting for everyone, including the studio. The promise of the pilot episode was a huge empty world. So road trip!

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This episode spends a bunch of time thinking about bigger topics like rebuilding society and the future in general. Tandy compares himself to Noah a number of times here. Is it nice when you can touch on these larger themes of the show?

Yeah, we've been stingy with that kind of talk, for the simple reason that it doesn't yield big laughs or deep emotions. I mean our laughs come from stupidity and petty acts of selfishness and small dumb sh. And our emotion comes from personal experiences of loss or loneliness. So we have this discussion periodically - "when do we do the society stuff?"

In theory we like them talking about building stuff and preparing for the future, but in reality, they could live out their lives just breaking into stores and living off of dead people's sh, which is more entertaining. So with this episode, we indulged some of that Noah talk and it feels organic. It fits with Tandy's pathological need to be considered the hero by everyone. I guess what I'm saying is, if you're watching the show and saying "why aren't they farming?" the answer is we've considered it a million times and we can't figure out how to make it funny.

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This show has had an interesting relationship regarding flashbacks and restraint on the matter. We sort of get our first one this week, but I love that its almost just a non-sequitur of Tandy screwing around. Why did you want Tandy to be responsible for San Francisco?

Ha. I think any time we discuss having anything break or go wrong on this show, we immediately ask ourselves if it could be Tandy's fault. I mean, it just feels right You're right that this flashback is way outside of our pattern I think if we made a habit of it, we'd be jumping the shark a little. But this one was fun.

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The look of this episode with everyone on the road is some really beautiful stuff. I know that it might have been a nightmare logistically, but was there any thought on structuring the entire season as a road trip?

Oh believe me, I would love that. I think we would do it in a heartbeat if we could afford it. I mentioned before that while we loved Malibu, we realized after a while that we were missing the post-apocalyptic feel in those episodes. Just a really nice house on a secluded beach. So we knew we wanted to open up the world, and when you see episode 5, you'll see how we hopefully solved the problem of showing an empty world on a budget.

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This is certainly an interesting episode for Tandys character. Hes a lot to take and is even wearing Carol down. Talk a little on where you push Tandy this episode and if his regression of sorts is a necessary move?

I'm not sure if was necessary or not, and we may have pushed it a little too far in this one. But the story definitely demanded that everyone get on everyone else's nerves. As Lewis says, road trips are stressful. Tandy is trying to be the leader and he's trying to make everyone happy and of course he's accomplishing the opposite. The looks he gets from Lewis really make me happy.

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Gail nearly getting up and leaving felt like a very natural move for the character. Was this a move that you were actually considering, or a bluff until the discovery at the end of the episode?

Originally the pitch was everyone fights so much that they all agree to part ways but it felt like too much. And we tried to dial it back and say, "well, what if they talk about splitting up, but they don't get that far, just more of a philosophical discussion. Like 'What makes us a family?'" And we got there in Gail's dialogue Gail is very unhappy, and we explore the crap out of that in the next several episodes

We did talk early on about Gail and Erica just going, "f these idiots" and going to live somewhere else. Which is certainly believable, and kind of funny, but the idea really scared me for the simple reason that I learned in improv classes: Characters who don't want to be there are kind of a bummer for the audience I mean, characters can hate something, but wanting to leave is different. The audience doesn't want anyone to leave. They want them to stay there, suffer, struggle, fight, make up, whatever. Just not leave.

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Gails speech towards Tandy and his ideals really stands out. Is it important to inject some cynicism into something when dealing with rebuilding and starting over?

Yes, great point It was cathartic for us to write it and make fun of Tandy's dumbass patter. It was a fun way to really challenge the conventions of the show too. Like on a lot of shows, an emotionally wise person will make a speech towards the end that tugs at the heartstrings and creates that warm feeling sitcoms do (except Seinfeld, of course). And on our show, that person is Tandy, and he's not smart at all and his speeches are horsesh. So it was definitely fun for Gail to say "why should we put up with all your blah blah?"

I'm just thinking philosophically now, since I'm at my computer typing answers to your questions, and I'm thinking that I'm a cynical person like Gail. And my cynicism, probably like many people, comes from a feeling of vulnerability. Hard on the outside to protect something scared on the inside. Most funny people are like that. So that's probably Gail too.

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"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

I love these. :)

Me too. So glad they're doing them for this season.

It's a bit odd that they're already doing them two airings at a time rather than waiting at least until after the midseason finale (there's a little less big-picture perspective, and lot more concern about spoilers than the s.2 interviews had); but one thing I really appreciate is how, considering the sheer amount of complaining people on here and other sites (especially the sub-reddit and the FB page) do about different aspects of the show, Andy and writers do seem to have put a lot more thought into the show and have a better idea of what they're doing than they're given credit for.


"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

Yeah, agreed. I still have my worries about a few aspects, but this is reassuring me that they know what they're doing, even if what they do isn't necessarily what I would have done.

Whilst there's almost no, for lack of a better word, fandom for TLMOE at all beyond the one small sub-reddit, I'm actually kinda glad people are complaining about it 'cos at least that means they're watching it, and I really want a fourth series. I really dearly love this show.

Ditto, and I love sharing them. Expect the next one after this coming weekend's episode


"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

Part 3 3x5 ("The Power of Power") and 3x6 ("The Open-Ended Nature of Unwitnessed Deaths"):

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-last-man-on-earth/260292/how-last-man-on-earth-ended-up-in-silicon-valley

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DEN OF GEEK: So how did this huge office building become the place where everyone ended up?

MATT MARSHALL: There was a lot of discussion in the writers' room for a long time of where the group should live this season. We always wanted to do something different than just picking another house to live in. A Silicon Valley self-sustaining office building seemed like a fun wish fulfillment-type of place to call home. It's basically an adult playground.

ANDY BOBROW: We really waited until the last possible minute on this decision. We knew we wanted to move, and we wanted it to be dramatically different. The options on the table were 1. Some sort of Little House on the Prairie situation, like where we could really get serious about frontier hardship; 2. An urban look, like Portland or Seattle, where we could show empty city streets; and 3. This weird idea of a self-sustaining office. We keep reading about the new Apple campus and the new Facebook campus, and this Amazon building thats going up in Seattle. Its intriguing to think that those buildings have their own electrical grid and indoor gardens and can pretty much function like bio-domes.

We threw out the Little House idea pretty quickly because it just didnt make enough sense. They dont have to live in nature when they can still break into any grocery store and pick up canned goods. We resisted the office idea for the longest time, because many of us, me included, were nervous about having things working too well.

Weve all started using the word janky all the time. The world is janky, Tandys inventions are janky. So the idea of placing things in the Apple headquarters, it just didnt seem janky enough. So we killed the office idea. We decided on a big Victorian bed and breakfast in Portland. We found a mansion in Piru, CA (the Piru Mansion, look it up) where we could shoot

Then one day we all took a field trip to this Piru mansion and we all got bummed out in the van on the way up, just realizing what our work life would be like if we shot there. Longer commute, ungodly hot, and no place to relax. Each of us, quietly to ourselves, was thinking I dont want to work in this friggin house for six months. That afternoon, our producer Steve Burgess said if were still open to the office idea, theres a place down the street thats empty. It used to be DeVry University. I think theyre also using it in that Netflix show Goliath. Steve took Will there and Will fell in love. Just looking at the huge empty floors. He realized a self-sustaining office building could still be janky if its not finished yet, which made it so much more fun to him. Wills first question to the location guy was, could I drive a go-kart in here? The guy said, you can do anything you want. Will was sold.

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Youve touched on it a bit before, but its crazy how just showing a normally crowded area being so empty can effectively reflect the end of the world.

ANDY BOBROW: Yeah, it was the lesson we learned last season. An empty beach is not post-apocalyptic. An empty downtown is. Of course shooting an empty downtown is tricky. You either have to block off city streets or paint out any signs of life in post. But a big empty office building gets us a real nice unique look.

That visual of having a little home with a picket fence an a neighborhood within a run-down office building is such a perfect, surreal Last Man visual!

MATT MARSHALL: It definitely fits into the mold of the show of what Tandy's reaction would be to Carol wanting a real home. He literally brought one to her. Even if it's not much bigger than a kids' playhouse, Carol loves it.

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Conflict is obviously necessary, especially in a show like this, so how do you go about this sort of housing situation? Do you know that this new housing scenario is only going to be temporary for everyone, or do you set up shop and then establish a problem later when it feels appropriate to start moving on?

ANDY BOBROW: For this episode, we found conflict that centered on the building, but we dont think the housing situation needs to serve that purpose all the time. Last year we had plenty of conflict with interpersonal relationships. People getting hot and cold with one another, and lets be honest, we just dove into the boy/girl issues with Todd, Melissa and Gail. It was almost Friends, except for the apocalyptic twist of polyamory being a truly practical choice in this world. But weve got some real serious drama coming up, and its coming from places that I dont think sitcoms have been before. I think the next several episodes will be a Rorschach for the audience.

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Theres a skull on a table in one of the introduction scenes. Foreboding symbol or just a fun throwaway prop?

ANDY BOBROW: Ooh, I actually hadnt seen that. Good eye. Well, I guess you could say its foreboding in the sense that we have some real dark sh coming up. But honestly, its just our frigging awesome set decorators. Shout out to Erin Boyd and Zach Kramer. Their marching orders were just do a douchy Silicon Valley startup, like a videogame company, or Snapchat or something. Like one of those places you have no idea what they do there, but you know they drink Red Bull and bro out. Erin and Zach found a million little details that didnt cost a fortune but looked perfect.

That giant squid/Cthulu-esque mural is gorgeous. Same with the whole sort of Tetris motif thats present through the building. Whats the story there?

ANDY BOBROW: While Im doing shout-outs, our production designer Bruce Hill and art director Bryan Langer designed the office and it is huge and awesome. We like the idea that since the place is unfinished, we dont know the name of the company or what they did there. Bryan designed that perfectly ambiguous four-cube Tetris-y logo, which tells you nothing and everything. I swear, some startup would have paid $500,000 to some hot design firm to come up with that precise level of corporate ambiguity.

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The last few episodes have shown a lot of struggle on the Todd/Gail/Melissa front, especially on the Gail side of things. We finally move towards Gail stepping aside, this week. Did this have a lot to do with just feeling the characters out this season and seeing if big relationship stories made sense?

MATT MARSHALL: We put them in this unconventional three-way relationship last season knowing that it would provide some complicated off-beat relationship stories. It felt time to break off Gail and focus more on her own journey this season.

ANDY BOBROW: Yeah, we loved the three-way last year, but I think we probably played out all the stuff we wanted to do. It seems natural that a relationship like that is hard to sustain, and we just didnt want to get repetitive.

The year has been a little too busy so far to get into its relationships that deeply, but that moment when Todd and Melissa hug holds a lot of weight behind it and is a nice remember of all of that.

MATT MARSHALL: That was a great moment. Mel Rodriguez is such an underrated actor. He's brilliant and doesn't get enough credit. I think it was a great reminder to show just how much Todd loves Melissa.

ANDY BOBROW: Yes and January too. When she hugs him, its like this drink of water and you didnt realize how thirsty you were. Melissa has gotten funnier this year, but we really want to lean into the reality now. Theres a difference between a goofy character on a sitcom and a legitimately damaged person. Were going to explore that.

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It might seem kind of superficial to consider leaving a perfectly good living situation like this just because it doesnt feel like a home. How do you weigh decisions like this as a writer versus the characters actually living in this situation?

ANDY BOBROW: You have this ability to expose our cracks and this may well be one of them. The question you just asked is exactly the discussion we had in the room. Is it going to seem like Carols concern is coming out of nowhere? Would she really feel this? Wouldnt everyone just love that building? Well, youre right, Carols concern is a little hard to buy wholesale. There really doesnt seem to be a logical reason why she would reject the building. But what you always have on your side when youre telling a story is that people arent logical. Usually its the illogical stuff that creates the feeling of depth. Hopefully, the way Carol articulates herself in the end, it buys the illogic of it. But its also possible that people watched this one and said, eh, not buying it. For those people, hopefully we at least made them laugh with the brain freeze.

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There's a real Shining vibe at times in their new home. Is that feeling intentional at all?

ANDY BOBROW: It was not intentional, but Ill just credit that to John Solomon working with our fantastic set. Phil Lord said something in one of his famous 3am text messages last year. He and Chris Miller had shot the first two episodes of season one, and they set the look for the show [A]nd he wanted to remind us about the look. He sent us a note saying basically, This show plays in wide shots. Tell every director who comes in. This show plays in wides. Now I know that.

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Seeing Todd and Melissa's Shawshank love evolving into roleplay is another beautiful touch here.

ANDY BOBROW: Liz [Cackowski] wrote this script, and I think it was her idea to do Shawshank roleplay, but she wasnt that familiar with the movie. She sent out a text one night (technically it was a Slack) asking for the right Shawshank dialogue to throw into this scene. Tim McAuliffe had it nailed. We werent even picturing the actors going for it like that. But Mel wanted to get it right, so he studied that performance and really refined it. I love what January did too she came up with a real take on Tim Robbins. I think she pulled out something really interesting and perfect.

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Damn, Gail is never going to get a break, is she? That piece of backstory on her son is rough but explains a lot, too.

ANDY BOBROW: Yeah, Ill confess, this was never something that we designed from the start. Gail drinks and does quips. She was just brought in to be someone who could call Tandy an idiot Now, on a 1970s sitcom or 1980s sitcom, thats all youd ever need to know. But today people want more realism, so you go, okay, why does Gail drink and do quips? I mean, whats the reality? Why would someone be like that? Probably because shes got some sh she doesnt like to think about.

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I'm really glad to see Mike's livelihood get addressed. It was a dangling thread from last season that itched me and was hoping a note would get left or there would be some resolution there.

ANDY BOBROW: Yeah, its been on Wills mind for a while. We almost did that scene in the road trip episode ["Five Hoda Kotbs"]. In the first outline of that episode, they all argue about where to live and then Tandy gets up and says Were going to [Seattle] (Lewiss hometown). Ive got an errand I need to do, and then Im heading up there. Anyone wants to follow me, fine. Otherwise, its been nice knowing you. And then he goes to Tucson to leave a note. And when he comes out of the house, everyone is there waiting for him. It would have been very teary in that episode. Maybe too teary. Either way, Will always knew that Tandy would have to go leave a note for Mike.

The return of "Gary" is certainly nice, but it should be viewed as a step backwards for Tandy at all, or just a memento?

ANDY BOBROW: Its got that feel to it, but we just thought people love the balls so much, we wanted to get that back into the show.

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"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

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ANDY BOBROW: Its got that feel to it, but we just thought people love the balls so much,

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Heh.. He said people love balls.

"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

I wish they'd stuck with that original Mike/Tuscon ending to be honest. That makes my heart hurt.

Agreed. I don't think it was "too teary". It would be right on par for this show.

Tug my heart strings!

(they need the exercise)

Part 4 3x7 ("Mama's Hideaway"), 3x8 ("Whitney Houston, We Have a Problem") and 3x9 ("If You're Happy and You Know It"):

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-last-man-on-earth/261147/last-man-on-earth-inside-its-shocking-vanishing-act

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Family has always been such a huge part of the show, but its an overwhelming theme this season. Why did now feel like the right time to really start highlighting that idea?

KIRA KALUSH: We end season two with Carol and Tandy finding out they're going to be parents. So now with two babies on the way, we're starting to see this makeshift family literally expand. What I love about the adoption storyline is that we've gradually seen this group act like a family, but now we get to see them officially become one.

ANDY BOBROW: I'm glad we didn't do it earlier than this, actually. Any ensemble show is about a family or an ersatz family. I've seen lots of shows make the mistake of calling themselves a family before the audience really believes it. Our show is unique because we spent the whole first season introducing characters. And last year, rather than have them act like a family, we spent the time to make Tandy earn his spot, and we spent the time to navigate the weirdness of Todd/Gail/Melissa. For me, they really got solidified as a family when Phil died.

There's a lot going on in this episode. Did any of these plotslike the photo one, for instancehappen to be longer originally? Were plots getting pushed together in this one?

KIRA KALUSH: This episode is definitely a doozey. What makes it both wonderful and difficult is that it's setting up storylines that lead us to the midseason finale and even into the second half of the season. Every story is important so it was tough to whittle everything down. We actually had a whole arc for Lewis and Erica that ended up getting cut.

ANDY BOBROW: It was about Lewis and Erica bonding over the flight simulator. She gets caught up in the idea of one day going back to Australia. I'll admit, this show isn't well suited for C stories. We typically take our sweet time watching Tandy scheme and overthink everything. In this one, we wanted to do the double disappearance story, which took a fair amount of plotting, and then we also wanted to start Lewis on this flight thing, which is very important for upcoming stories. The Erica piece of that was good color, but not as crucial, unfortunately.

Lewis trying to teach himself how to fly is some significant stuff. Its nice to see someone actually using this time to better themselves in some way.

KIRA KALUSH: Thank God for sensible Lewis! He's the only one who is smart enough to do something useful and has the drive to do it. Although, if I were stuck in a house with Tandy I'd probably try to find a way to get away from him too.

The disappearance of either Gail or Melissa on their own would make for a big cliffhanger. Why double down on this and have them both up in the air?

KIRA KALUSH: Well, I think it's safe to say this is a show that likes to double down on almost everything. (Example: Melissa proposes to Todd/Phil 2 gets sick, Mike has the virus/some scary dudes show up, or just look at Tandy's facial hair at any point in the show.) Beyond that, as I mentioned before, we're putting a lot of pieces into play in preparation for some exciting and dramatic episodes.

ANDY BOBROW: Kira's lying. The reason we doubled down was because we're friggin idiots. Seriously, I think the only rational way to do those two stories would have been one at a time. Do a Gail elevator arc, and then do a Melissa missing arc. We were like, "What would a smart person do? Let's do the opposite."

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Its surely just a coincidence, but Im loving the now-running joke of the sound of gunfire being foiled by unfortunate timing.

ANDY BOBROW: Not a coincidence! We do a lot of things by accident but that is not one of them.

This nonsense going on with Tandy's dinosaur suit is so ridiculous. Whats the story there?

ANDY BOBROW: We had seen it on YouTube. A Japanese show had a hidden camera gag where a dinosaur was walking through an office building scaring the crap out of people. We were looking for some wish-fulfillment stuff, something physical for Tandy to do. In an episode where the main activity needed to be a lengthy search, we needed Tandy to search in a weird way. We showed the YouTube to Will and he was way into it. There was a brief discussion with our producer as to whether we should buy the dinosaur or rent it. Our default response is always: "Well, we're probably gonna want to destroy it at some point." So we own this thing now.

Theres a very interesting structure to this episode where ostensibly nothing happens. Youve done a few episodes at this point about trying to find someone. Why did this one seem to be more about not getting anything done?

ANDY BOBROW: I suppose you could say we're attracted to the futility of their existence. That's certainly part of it. But there's also just the sort of mathematical storytelling reason, which is that we really liked the idea of building the fourth act around the mislead. They think they're on the trail of Melissa, but the audience knows they're on the trail of Gail, and that gives us this bit ending. It's possible some people will say it was too slow until that point. The Todd/Carol story is the main thing driving the first three acts, and that was necessarily a story about two people arguing about how to do something. So it's tricky to tell stories like that, and hopefully it wasn't a negative for people.

Theres a really beautiful Todd and Carol story at the core of this episode. Theyre not a pair that usually get to share a storyline. Was it nice to get to play the two against each other here?

ANDY BOBROW: Yes, absolutely. The last two people who would ever have harsh words for anyone. But Mel and Kristen are both so good at playing fights in a lovable way. It's really fun to watch them build it and especially to watch Mel blow up. I think we're always a little worried about taking a nice character and making them angry. It has to be earned, and you worry it will stick out in a bad way. I think in Todd's case, his anger was completely appropriate. I was watching that episode with some friends and there was a feeling of, "Yeah, Todd, preach!

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This is the first episode that Will Forte has his name on writing since the pilot. Was it a conscious effort that he wanted to be responsible for this one, or just how writers room duties came together in the end?

ERIK DURBIN: Will came up with the elevator storyline soon after we decided the group would go to a building with power. It made sense that he write the episode that capped it off. He wanted to do it.

The honeymoon storyline very much feels up Fortes angle.

ERIK DURBIN: The honeymoon story came about as an effort to give the episode something a little less trapped-in-a-box-y.

ANDY BOBROW: Yeah, that entered the story after the first outline I think. We had been focusing on the dramatic storylines, the Gail and Melissa stuff, and we were all very excited about the power of those. But we knew we would need something to balance it out. When we pitched the dramatic stories to Fox, those guys have been great about letting the show have its dark moments. But when they heard the drama stuff, they were like "but what's gonna be funny in this episode?" We were like, "What? A ton of sh! Duh! Of course, we would you even ask that?" But we hadn't figured that out yet ourselves. Our first version of the honeymoon story was Tandy building other countries on their empty floors and taking Carol all around. It felt a little familiar, maybe because we had already done Tandy building a house on a floor.

When you got Gail in that elevator, did you know what the conclusion would be there?

ERIK DURBIN: Yes, that was always the plan.

ANDY BOBROW: Some things, Will gets an image in his head and it does not waiver. That final moment was in his head and I don't think we ever considered anything else. We were scared of it, that's for sure. But as writers, you rarely get a chance to do stuff that scares you, so we kind of had to go for it.

Its a really impossible situation and you guys have been really great about not cheating your way out of things. Was that an important factor here, too?

ERIK DURBIN: Yeah, there's always the desire to be honest about how heavy their situation is. Tandy acts like a complete buffoon, but it's a way of coping with the harsh realities of their world. It's important not to cut corners on that stuff

Was there was any actual danger of Melissa jumping off the roof, or was she just collecting her thoughts up there?

ERIK DURBIN: Who knows, really, but I don't think there was danger of her jumping. I think she was just doing some absentminded climbing (as she's been wont to do) and didn't really consider the potential consequences.

ANDY BOBROW: We had her up in a tree at Cher's house, and then we kind of decided she liked high places. She got up on those hay bales in the road trip episode, and then the roof. So it's a little Easter egg. The crazier she gets, the higher she gets.

It's pretty poignant for Tandy and Carol to be having a funeral for Fish Gail as the real one gives up on being found. Especially when Fish Gail finds a second life.

ERIK DURBIN: Glad you liked that. We had wanted them to eat Gail the fish then bury the fish skeleton, but it felt too dark at the table read.

Last season of the show had a "Fall Finale" as well. At this point in the series, do you think about this sort of thing while in the writing stage? Did you block this season out as two halves or have a specific cliffhanger in mind for this moment? Or do those touches come later?

ERIK DURBIN: Yeah, we think of the season in two halves.

ANDY BOBROW: When we started to write last season, Fox had told us their air plan, that we would be off the air for a couple months after Christmas. So we took advantage of that by doing the fall finale. We knew people would view the Christmas episode as a finale of sorts no matter what. And for marketing, it made sense to do a big cliff-hanger, to hopefully get people talking about the show during the two months we were off. The famous example was "Who shot JR?" which kept the whole country talking about Dallas for an entire summer

Similarly, when starting out the season, how much of this climax had you figured out?

ERIK DURBIN: None.

ANDY BOBROW: Zip. Nada. I mean, we knew we wanted a climax. Does that count as having a climax? (If so, I've had several today, boom). But to clarify, when we started writing the season, we had nothing. But I think by the time we started shooting the season, we had a few possibilities. It was probably around the time we were shooting episode 303 when we decided on episode 309.

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"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

Boy that sure makes me think Gail is dead.

I'm hoping they just meant the image of that fifth-floor window lighting up as the gun goes off one last time (which leaves open the possibility that she was trying to shoot at the window but maybe hit the wall or something, in a last-ditch effort to get the group's attention), but yeah, you're probably right.


"I know I'm not normal but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding

We can hope, but..

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When you got Gail in that elevator, did you know what the conclusion would be there?

ERIK DURBIN: Yes, that was always the plan.

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Sure that might mean they always planned on getting her stuck but I felt like the interviewer was talking specifically about the end.

This was so interesting to read. It's upsetting, knowing Gail's fate but on a more upbeat note, the dinosaur costume will make a comeback! Huzzah!