NBC took freshmen comedy Marry Me to PaleyFest on Wednesday as part of its buzz-building efforts ahead of the show’s launch on Oct. 14.
Show stars Casey Wilson, Ken Marino and Tim Meadows, along with creator/executive producer David Caspe and executive producer Seth Gordon were on hand to answer questions from fans and Entertainment Weekly’s Dan Snierson following a screening of the pilot.
Despite a painfully awkward opening scene, by the end of the pilot Marry Me settles the question of whether of not the couple played by Wilson and Marino will stay together—Spoiler: they will—which was an issue the cast and producers said they wanted to dispatch with rather quickly.
“I think it’s depressing to wonder whether this couple is going to make it,” Wilson, who is also married to creator Caspe said during the panel at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. “It’s more funny and relatable to know we are in this for the long haul and to get to come up against those challenges together.”
But in addition to assuring fans that this won’t be an endless string of “will-they-or-won’t-they” episodes, Caspe and Company took pains to stress that Marry Me is very much an ensemble romantic comedy, kind of—but not too much—in the spirit of his previous series Happy Endings (which also featured Wilson and Marino).
“It’s not about marriage at all,” Marino (sort of) joked. “I know the title is sort of misleading.”
Wilson pointed out that Marry Me has the same spirit and jokes as Happy Endings, but the show “is a little deepened by the fact that there’s a relationship at its core.”
While Wilson and Marino feature prominently in the pilot, the supporting case—including Meadows, Dan Bucatinsky, Sarah Wright Olsen and John Gemberling will also see their fair share of screen time in future episodes of the Tuesday comedy, Caspe promised.
Marry Me was just one of several freshmen series previewed for fans as the countdown to premiere week continues at NBC.
The Peacock Network also brought A to Z (Thursdays), Constantine (Fridays) and The Mysteries of Laura (Wednesdays) to the fan fest at the Paley Center. Technical issues with Bad Judge (also Thursdays) kept that show from being screened.
NBC is positioning Marry Me as a slightly edgier offering for those who might be put off by the sweetness of normal rom-coms.
“What I like is that it’s riddled with jokes and it still has a lot of heart, but it cuts saccharine sweetness with pretty subversive jokes at times,” Marino told the audience. “To create that balance—it’s a nice show to be working on.”
Photo: © Kevin Parry for The Paley Center for Media
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