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Ben Wexler - Arrested Development, The Grinder, Community, The Comedians - Ep. 27
06/05/2016
Ben Wexler - Arrested Development, The Grinder, Community, The Comedians - Ep. 27
This week my guest is tv comedy writer/show runner Ben Wexler, whose illustrious credits include - among others - Arrested Development, Community, and most recently two sadly canceled shows - The Comedians starring Billy Crystal and Josh Gad - as well as the Rob Lowe vehicle The Grinder. Though both shows were brilliantly executed and critically acclaimed, neither found a big enough audience to fill the network coffers and thus, were unceremoniously axed. Such is the business of show. It seems few comedies are working anywhere on television these days, and Wexler is right in the trenches of battling that weird and often unwarranted war. Though I was dying to pick his brain about the current state of our industry, the craft of writing (because who doesn’t love listening to two writers talk about their process) and other such self-indulgent, insider baseball-y, type fare, we talked about pretty much everything but. OK there’s a little industry stuff but it’s appetizer size so suck it. Fresh off a breakfast with Crystal (his friends call him Bill, PS, FYI and BTW), I sat down with Wexler to discuss everything from Bulletproof coffee (and the amazing brain boners it produces), the best joke from the movie Airplane according to his 9 year old son, leaky heart valves, the glorification of busy in our culture, Maya Angelou, Broadcast News, blow job parties for 12 year olds, whether George Washington was really all that, the genius of Maria Bamford, how to effectively Eat Pray Love one’s life should one have the urge to sabbatical their shit up and when conversation got too life affirming and Pinterest board-y, dick jokes. And of course I couldn’t resist getting the goss on working with such tv luminaries as Larry Charles, Mitchell Hurwitz, Rob Lowe and the man himself, Mr. Billy Crystal because I love tv and comedy and the people who make that shit happen in a way I thoroughly enjoy. This episode is sponsored by . The official Whistling In the Dark app is now . Finally - if you enjoyed the show or even if you didn’t, we’d like to know. Please rate and review the show in iTunes or Stitcher. It helps us to grow the show.
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