Sam Hodges and Michael Killen are commercial directors turned TV showrunners whose debut series “Downward Dog" premieres tonight on ABC; Playwright Anna Ziegler puts a microscope on the issue of consent and sexual assault on college campuses in her provocative new play, "Actually."
'Downward Dog' puts an angsty talking dog inside a millennial rom-com
The new ABC comedy starring Allison Tolman ("Fargo") may feature a talking dog named Martin, but it's not what you might think.
Martin is, in the words Samm Hodges who voices the dog, "the social, justice warrior millennial character as a dog." You can almost imagine him reading self-help books and talking about his needs.
Hodges co-created the show first as a web series with Michael Killen. The two men were commercial directors in Pittsburgh who had carved out a niche making ads with talking animals, like Taco Bell’s chihuahua.
Then they pitched their web series to Hollywood, there was a bidding war that ABC won and now "Downward Dog" premieres May 17th.
The show is about a neurotic, angst-ridden, philosophical dog and his relationship with the woman who owns him– Allison Tolman's character, Nan.
When Killen and Hodges joined us at The Frame studios, they talked about how they defied clichés of talking animals and why they took the show to the Sundance Film Festival in January well ahead of its network debut.
Interview Highlights
On what it meant for the show to be featured at Sundance
Killen: It meant a lot to have tastemakers say that this is a show worth watching, because it's a genre that gets made fun of constantly — a talking dog is considered the worst idea in the world. I think it was the AV Club that said that this was the end of ABC, once they saw that they'd picked up our pilot about a talking dog. So we really did need someone to give it a validation that it's worth watching.
Hodges: You make this whole thing in the dark and you hope that someone gets what you're doing, because we're trying to do something with the talking dog genre that's so much more artful and careful. There's a history of commercials with talking dogs, Mr. Ed and all that, so when we were talking to John Cooper at Sundance about how excited he was, it at least felt like someone got what we were going for and there was a chance we could cut through the noise.
On writing monologues for a dog
Hodges: We always wrote by taking very personal experiences we've had in our relationships, friendships, marriages, etc., and finding a Venn diagram between those feelings and how a dog might experience them. For almost every monologue you see, it mirrors a very real feeling we've had in our lives, and it's amazing how much overlap there are actually is being human and dog experiences.
We got very into dog psychology, we read a lot of books about this stuff, and dogs are these beautifully complex animals that feel and dream. We're not trying to say, "Oh, here's what your dog's thinking," but we're asking, "What would it be like if your dog had human anxieties and insecurities?"
On their approach to pitching and marketing the show
Hodges: What's really great about the marketing right now is that they've really leaned into some of our jokes that are more angsty. It's important for people to know that this isn't a show about a dog that's anything like "Dog with a Blog." So they've done some really good things to separate that, but this is kind of the little show that could — on paper, it sounds so awful, it sounds so stupid, but then people watch it and they're surprised by it. That's how we've gone from web series to TV show, and we've got to hope it keeps going forward.
What 'Actually' is sexual assault? A provocative new play explores the question of consent
The new play "Actually" seeks to address a serious social issue: sexual assault on college campuses.
A new study from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Justice Department finds that reported sexual assaults on American college campuses more than tripled from 2,200 in 2001 to 6,700 in 2014.
It’s not clear if more assaults are actually occurring, if victims now feel safer to report assaults or something else is happening behind the numbers. No matter the factors, there is no question that the issue is important and demands inquiry.
That's where a play like "Actually," from playwright Anna Ziegler comes in.
The two-character play, out now at the Geffen Playhouse, delves deeply into the uncomfortable, murky territory that often surrounds the he-said, she-said accounts of a reported sexual assault, especially when memory and consent are blurred by excessive drinking.
The play centers on the aftermath of a sexual encounter between Amber and Tom, two college freshmen at Princeton. Rather than answering the question of whether or not a sexual assault actually occurred, Ziegler says her aim was to challenge assumptions:
The challenge of the play, the challenge I've set myself, is to present two sides that are both sympathetic and that both feel true, and to present that to the audience for their assessment... I was really interested in these kinds of cases that fall in the grey because I think that they probably represent the bulk of these kinds of cases. And my goal really is to challenge the kind of liberal, theater-going audiences' biases that they bring in with them.
To hear the full interview with Anna Ziegler, click the blue player above.
"Actually" is playing at the Geffen Playhouse through June 11.