In conjunction with our 2007 Fall TV Guide, BuddyTV will be publishing exclusive interviews with the stars of some of the hottest new shows this fall throughout the week. Check back all this week for interviews with the actors and actresses of the new shows.
Jerry Minor is one of those comedians who you'll certainly recognize even if you don't remember the name. Getting his start in the famed Second City of Chicago, his comedic resume includes roles on
Mr. Show,
The Daily Show,
Arrested Development and most notably as a cast member on
Saturday Night Live. Now he can be seen on
Carpoolers as Aubrey, an uptight working husband who is emasculated at home and who uses his daily carpool to the office as a respite from the constant conflict. Jerry spoke to BuddyTV about his role in the new show, his co-stars, and
Jerry O'Connell's wedding. Below you will find the transcript as well as the mp3 audio file of the interview.
Hi, this is John from Buddy TV, and we're with Jerry Minor from the new ABC series Carpoolers. How you doing, Jerry?
I'm very good, how are you?
I'm doing fine. Now, why don't you start with telling our readers a little bit about your new show?
Let's see, what should I say… it is a single-camera comedy about four guys who ride to work together, thus the name Carpoolers. Completely different guys, some have families, some don't. Their private lives, they're completely different, and what else can I say about…
How much of the show is just set in the car?
I'd say a lot of it. I mean, a good portion's in the car, but we don't sit a lot of the time in there. A lot of what spurs our stories on, our private lives, is what we discuss in the car. So you may see a quick flash of some discussion that we have in the car, and then you'll see how it plays out in our personal lives outside the carpool. So it's hard for me to say what percent, the time they stood in the car or in the show? But there's a lot of scenes in the car, but there's not a lot time in the car, if that makes any sense to you.
Yeah, I think it does. And then does that become claustrophobic, just acting in a confined space with three other guys?
It really wasn't, because we do a lot of it. Maybe I shouldn't say this to reveal the magic of television, but we do a lot of it with green screen. So that makes it one day where we do everything that's inside the car, all the interior stuff.
For that day it may seem a little claustrophobic, but for us we have a great time, because we can sit down in one place. Don't have to move around, and also the four of us in the car is a lot of fun. It's a lot of talk, just like the Carpoolers, except our talk while we're waiting to shoot is a lot dirtier.
Now, some of the other cast members, is there a lot of… because one of them is Fred Goss, whom I remember from creating shows like Significant Others and Sons and Daughters. Very improv kind of oriented. Is there any of that improv natural stuff in the show?
Sure. They've been pretty loose with us, and letting us improvise and come up with things. The way the show was written and the writers are great, but they're pretty free with us improvising. I mean, I come from an improv background, Second City, so does Fred.
He's done an improvised show, Sons and Daughters, he's from Second City also. So they gave us a lot of room, but it's not like Sons and Daughters where they're working totally improvised. We just have the script, so we're expected to stay somewhat close to that.
And the show is created by Bruce McCulloch, correct?
That's right.
And people remember him as one of the Kids in the Hall. I'm just wondering, what is it like to work with someone who's famous for being in front of the screen as well?
It's great, I was a big fan of theirs. I did a lot of sketch comedy, so I was a big fan of Kids in the Hall. You can see with his writing the same sort of things and style that went into Kids in the Hall, he's such a, he's really a visual writer.
I don't know how to explain that, but a lot of things which he's written on the page, they seem good. But then they're so much better when I see it after a shot. He has a really keen imagination for how things are going to look.
Now one of the things that I was most fascinated when doing research on the show, is that the show premieres October 2. Two days later it's your birthday, October 4, and you share that with one of your co-stars. Tim Peper also on October 4, and I'm wondering if you've talked about that, is there gonna be a giant celebration?
We actually did talk about that, me and Tim, I had a dinner with him a couple of nights ago. We were talking about my birthday, and I forgot that we'd had a long discussion about us sharing the same birthday while we were shooting.
So I actually asked him, “When's your birthday?” And he said, “We talked about this! You know, the really long discussion that we share the same birthday.” We have talked about doing something as far as the birthday. The premiere, that's something that obviously we'll get together and watch the show when it comes on. So yeah, we talked about doing something together.
You mentioned your background in Second City, and people also remember you. You've done a lot of really cool comedy work: Mr. Show, SNL, The Daily Show, you were on Arrested Development. I'm wondering if there's one particular job or acting experience that you had, that you remember more fondly than the others?
More fondly, well yeah. (laughter) Mtr. Show was really good, because it was the first television show that I ever did, I got to watch people creating the show themselves. I mean, as an actor, you don't get to see that process a lot. This show was such a small community of guys who got together, a lot of friends, they've been friends for a long time.
It wasn't the way a television show is usually done, and it was almost like watching our gang put together a show. So that was to me, that has a special place for me, just because it was the first thing. It also it taught me a lot about how people put together television shows.
Yeah. And do you have a chance to watch a lot of television? Do you have any favorite shows on right now?
I do. My favorite show I think that I like right now, summer's been pretty dry with entertainment for me. I really like Mad Men on AMC. I think it's a really good show, it's just something that struck me because it just came on, and I like that show. I like what everybody else likes, I love The Sopranos, and then it's gone. I love anything that I've ever done. (laughter) So Saturday Night Live when it comes back on, I watch that every week. There's things that I keep that I haven't watched for years, that I still watch.
One of your other co-stars has been in the news lately. Jerry O'Connell's on your show, and he just got married to Rebecca Romijn. Have you had a chance to talk to him since the wedding?
Oh yeah, he was really nervous right beforehand, and he seems really calm and happy right now. I think he was so nervous that he didn't recognize how nervous he was. At one point he came in, and brought a whole bunch of sweatsuits for everybody on the show, for the whole cast.
This was like a couple of days before the wedding, and I was like, “Why did you do that?” I think it was one of those nervous things that he didn't know what to do, so he just went to do something for everybody, but the top of his head was not in the right place, if that makes any sense. But yeah, he seems really happy and cool now.
Check out our exclusive interviews with other stars of the new Fall 2007 TV season:
Tawny Cypress, from K-Ville
Bill English, from Cavemen
Joshua Malina, from Big Shots
Crystal Lowe, from Bionic Woman
Oscar Torres, from Cane
-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of ABC)