With a track record that includes The Wonder Years, Monk, and some of the best episodes of The Simpsons, TV writer David M. Stern has quite the comedy cachet. (Yes, The Wonder Years was pretty damn funny at times.) And after taking a few years off, he's banking hard on Ugly Americans, a new Comedy Central animated sitcom based on the popular 5ON web series by Devin Clark, Nick Kroll, and John Mulaney. Premiering tomorrow, the show takes place in an alternate universe where mythical beings like wizards roam the mean streets of Manhattan, and require the services of a social worker to get acclimated to city life. I called Stern (brother of actor Daniel Stern) to chat about The Simpsons, his embarrassing turn as a production assistant on Mystic Pizza, and, of course, the new show.
TV.com: The last credit on your IMDB page is Monk, in 2002. What drew you to Ugly Americans, of all things?
David M. Stern: Dan Powell, who had put together the 5ON thing, contacted me because he liked a particular Simpsons script I wrote ["Duffless"]. I saw how I could keep the show grounded, but still make it expansive enough through this crazy world that I wouldn't get freaked out on episode three that I was out of stories. That's my biggest nightmare. If you're trying to create 100 episodes, you need to know you can go forever.
Does The Simpsons today feel like a very different show than the one you worked on?
The Simpsons still rocks, but I do think people tend to remember the first four or five seasons of any show, when people are paying the most attention. I'm always thrilled and shocked when people know these episodes I wrote 15 years ago. What surprised me [when I came back in 1999] was how consistent the show had been. The third acts [of episodes] had gotten bigger in scope, but other than that, it was the same show.
What have you borrowed from your Simpsons experience for Ugly Americans?
When I went from The Wonder Years to The Simpsons, I could not believe how much story they were packing into each episode. It taught me not to hold onto story—get the fun out of it and move on. I'm bringing that pace and density to Ugly Americans because that's why people watch repeats of animated shows. There's always something else to see in the background that went by so quick you couldn't have caught it the first time. The Treehouse Of Horror episodes were always my favorite, and now I get a chance to explore those areas every episode.
Is there a certain sensibility to pitching an animated show versus a live-action show?
Well, I try to stay away from "current event" jokes; there's no way you're going to be on it ten months after you think of it. Occasionally you can get it: I was really impressed with a recent Simpsons about curling in the Olympics. It aired the week curling was exploding—I don't know how the hell they saw that coming. The theory is, it's okay to comment on social trends—American obesity, say, or reality programming—that you can be sure isn't going anywhere. Just stay off proper noun jokes.
So you must have been banking hard that, in 2010, people would still be struggling with adjusting to New York City.
Yeah, and have a decent interest in zombies. I read an article recently that said we were trying to capitalize on the current phenomenon of zombies, werewolves, and vampires, and it's kinda like, "I defy anybody to name a time when those weren't interesting characters." They never go away, like '70s music.
If it's longevity you're seeking, what drew you to Comedy Central, where most shows come and go so quickly?
In my opinion, Comedy Central has three of the strongest comedies of any network in South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. If you can prove to them with cold-hard numbers that people are interested, I do think they'll stick around.
You were brought on to The Wonder Years as the executive story consultant, which is an impressive title; but just before that, you were a production assistant on Mystic Pizza, which is, like, the low man on the totem pole. What was that dichotomy like?
That was one of my first gigs in LA. I was shocked they gave me a credit because I lasted a week and then got canned. I was a runner, and they told me to go pick up this producer at San Vicente and something, and it turns out there are two San Vicentes in Los Angeles, and I had gone to the wrong one. They gave the assignment of picking up the most important producer on the movie to a guy who had just arrived in LA two weeks before.
I was struggling when I got my break on The Wonder Years; I like to remember it all happening like, "Cut to the next scene." There's an awful lot of blood and sweat in there, me doing massive rewrites on drafts of Wonder Years scripts on a typewriter, with less time than I've ever had in my life. I conveniently forget all that. It must be how women feel when they give birth.
Ugly Americans premieres Wednesday, March 17 (tomorrow!) at 10:30pm on Comedy Central.
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