"Super Fun Night" at TCA 2013: "We're Better Off at ABC over CBS"

[JamesG]

TCA: "Super Fun Night" Better Off on ABC Says Exec Producer Conan O’Brien
by LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
Sunday August 4, 2013


"Super Fun Night", originally conceived as a multi-cam sitcom for CBS for the 2012-13 TV season, is much better suited as a single-cam on ABC one season later, exec producer Conan O’Brien insisted this afternoon at Summer TV Press Tour 2013.

Yes, CBS has maybe the best comedy-hit-per-season records in the business, but single-cam is the best way to showcase star Rebel Wilson’s talents, like “vulnerability,” “range,” and all those “little faces” you’ve seen her do in her feature film work (Wilson’s maybe best known for playing Brynn in Bridesmaids).

Plus, single cam is better for improv, said Wilson, who estimates she averages 80% improv on the big screen, but only 20% in the "Super Fun Night" pilot. And, of course, "Super Fun Night" has been given the plum post-"Modern Family" timeslot in the fall.







Earlier today, ABC programming chief Paul Lee insisted the decision to have Aussie Rebel’s character, Kimmie use an American accent was hers, and had nothing to do with the natural reluctance of media-conglom-owned U.S. broadcast TV networks to have stars of their primetime series speak in anything but flat mid-Atlantic accents – Southern on rare occasion, but only if absolutely necessary.

During the "Super Fun Night" session, Wilson confirmed the show, while based on the weekly super-fun nights she used to have with her sister eating candy and watching DVRs, was conceived as a show about three young women in Manhattan who have known each other since they were kids, so “I had to make this character American.”

In addition to being the show’s star, Wilson is a writer. The show, she said, is intended “to really inspire girls who think they aren’t cool or popular or pretty, or all that, to get out there, and that they and that they can have fun and exciting lives too,” she told TV critics.

“In order to do that, you need to present a very realistic presentation of girls who look like me, and are not the coolest. That often involves Kimmie getting broken up with by a dude who says Kimmie is too fat.”

For that reason, she said, “I’m always pitching the sadder storylines, like where I get punched in the face.”







Asked what is his role on the series, O’Brien said:

“I see my job as being to do everything in my power to let Rebel be Rebel. I said to her, 'Anything interfering with your ability to be you, call me and I’ll be ineffective.'”

http://www.deadline.com/2013/08/tca-...-conan-obrien/