By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Thursday, January 7, 2016
Atlanta native David Cross knows about old franchises coming back from the dead, including "Mr. Show" and "Arrested Development." Netflix brought both back after breaks of 17 years and seven years, respectively.
But given how IFC's "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" ended four years ago, there appeared to be no way to revive that show. (SPOILER ALERT: The world ends!)
And Cross himself had moved on once the show ended. "It sort of came and went, " he said in an interview earlier this week. "I don't think it made much of an impression."
Then Netflix picked up the show. "It created a cult following," he said. So when IFC approached him to do it again, he said no. "How could we?" he said. "The world is over!"
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
But once the thought was planted into the heads of some of his writers, one of them Mark Chappell came up with a workable concept.
Todd Margaret, a bald, well-meaning doofus in the first two seasons, tried his darndest to lie his way to success but failed miserably. But the Todd Margaret we meet in the opening minutes of season three is a successful, self-assured businessman with a full head of hair to boot. ("He wears much better fitting clothes," Cross said. "It was nice to wear a suit.") But he's also a wee bit prickly and obnoxious.
Cross said he is not at all like the original Todd Margaret but acknowledges that the "new" version has some elements of his cynical self. There is a scene at the office "dreamatorium," "where I'm giving people s***. My wife was there when we were shooting that. I was riffing, improvising sarcastic comments. My wife said, 'Welcome to my world!' "
At the same time, he hopes he isn't exactly like this Margaret. "That guy," he said, "is a d**k."
In the opening moments of season three, the "improved" Margaret describes a dream he just had with his girlfriend that sounds suspiciously like the first two seasons of the show. But as he goes to London, he feels an odd sense of deja vu. "People are unsure what the reality truly is until the very last second," Cross said, once the six episodes are up.
The show was able to bring several of the major actors back with a couple of exceptions: notably Spike Jonze and Jon Hamm.
"We just sort of made it work," he said. He enjoyed the challenge of piecing this show together in this twisted, new way.
They also added fellow former metro Atlantan Jack McBrayer ("30 Rock") to the mix, playing Jonze's character. Cross and McBrayer ran into each other going to Atlanta for Thanksgiving in 2014 and Cross posed the idea of McBrayer's character to him. McBrayer said yes.
"He is a f***ing pleasure to work with," Cross said. "He might be the single most positive presence on the set. You can't dislike him. Just a pleasure!"
When the two characters meet in the first episode, things turn meta very quickly:
“What has it been, three years?" McBrayer's character Doug says. "I’m surprised to see you after that last episode."
“You look different,” Margaret responds, vaguely perplexed.
If you want to see Cross in person, he'll be doing a stand-up show in Atlanta for the first time in six years at Atlanta Symphony Hall on Feb. 28. It's part of a six-month tour he is facetiously calling "Making America Great Again!" No doubt, Donald Trump will be mentioned. (Buy tickets here starting January 8 at 10 a.m.. with price range $35 to $52.50)
He said he's been guilty of staying on stage too long and plans to keep the show to a more manageable 75 minutes. He doesn't have any specific theme in mind. "It won't be a half hour of Jesus bashing," he said. "They'll be anecdotal and personal stuff. And knowing myself, I'll dip my toes in politics and religion and current events."
TV PREVIEW
"Todd Margaret," 10 p.m. Thursdays, three 30-minute episodes January 7, three more on January 14, IFC
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