Be sure to check out our most recent interview with Bryan Cranston, the star of “Breaking Bad,” where he discusses “The Handlers” and a host of other topics!

The absurdity of political maneuvering is ripe for comedic satire, and the Comedy Central original web series “The Handlers” takes full advantage of this. our most recent interview with Bryan Cranston, star of TV’s best show, “Breaking Bad,” plays Jack Power, a state senate hopeful with a team of spin doctors (or “handlers”) watching his every move in order to spin his blunders to the campaign’s advantage. Sarah (Andrea Cansler), Miles (Matt Braunger), Tim (Josh Dean) and Goodman (Gary Anthony Williams) are experts in the field of bullshit, and when they’re not busy covering Jack’s ass, they’re twice as hard at work covering their own.

The series starts strong with its first episode, “The Focus Group,” in which Jack’s boring speech delivery style is hurting his poll numbers as well as his team of handlers watching the speech from campaign headquarters. However, when Jack experiences a slip of the tongue pronouncing a certain state name, his polls soar, and the handlers land on a brilliant strategy for the campaign. Ending with a jaunty theme song briefly introduced at the beginning, this episode nicely sets the tone for what’s to come, and the series continues strongly with a similar idea in its second episode, “Prostitute.” An innocent mistake in which Jack tries to help a woman in need, only to be railroaded by the media when she turns out to be a hooker. Perhaps the best moment of the episode comes when Jack asks his handlers, “Is a good person helping out a stranger so hard to believe?” and the answers comes back as a resounding “Yes!”

After the third episode, “Poster,” which features a really well-done sight gag at the end, the series takes a slight dip in quality. The fourth episode, “Mustache,” is well-played but basically just builds to a very predictable joke, and the same could be said of the fifth episode, “The Announcement,” which is even weaker. This is sort of the problem with the web series format, at least for this series; the characters and situation are strong enough to build an actual, full-length sitcom from, but the two-to-four minute episode format of the web series only leaves room for essentially one joke per episode. Some of the jokes work better than others, but Cranston and company always give it their best, and “The Handlers” is worth a look, especially in its first three episodes.

Eh. Either way, Maurice LaMarche kinda sorta knew who I was when I got on the phone. I’m chalking it up as a win.

Maurice LaMarche: Now, I’m looking here on your Facebook page, and…who are your likes? Because I see you’ve got “The Newsroom,” and then you’ve got this guy with really tightly cropped hair, but then when I go into your page, you’ve got something like 1,200 “likes,” so I can’t tell who he is. Do you know who I’m talking about?

Bullz-Eye: Yeah, he’s…I’m blanking on his name right this second, but he’s part of the cast of USA’s “Suits.”

MLM: Hmmm. Because he looks like a guy who used to be on a show that I loved that got cancelled, a show called “Jake In Progress.” He played a magician, I think, but…God, that’s gonna drive me nuts now. I’ve got to look up “Suits” now! [Laughs.] Sorry! Then we can start. I’m a little compulsive…

BE: Well, look, I’ll help you out: that’s the same guy. His name is Rick Hoffman.

MLM: Yes! I love him! He’s so good. So funny. I love that guy.

BE: Yeah, I think I first saw him on “Samantha Who?”

MLM: Okay, so you never saw him on “Jake in Progress,” then…? Oh, “Jake in Progress” was my favorite show, and it just was treated so… [Puffs up his voice.]  …ignominiously by ABC. Reminiscent of the way they treated a certain futuristic cartoon show, one might say.

BE: I’m sure I don’t know what you’re referring to.

MLM: I’m sure I don’t, either. [Laughs, then puffs up voice again.] But Comedy Central has treated us much better.

BE: Yes, “Futurama” continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. It’s like a zombie: Fox tried to kill it, but they couldn’t get rid of it.

MLM: That’s right. We just keep coming back at you. And we’ll try not to do any zombie storylines, so…thank you for your patronage. [Laughs.]

BE: So when you first came into the mix for “Futurama” way back when, was it as an all-purpose player, or did they envision you for a particular part from the beginning?

MLM: No, I was really supposed to be the utility voice guy. Billy (West) was actually supposed to be that. They had a different Fry in an unaired pilot, and they just felt both the Fry and Leela they had hired weren’t working. So they got Katey (Sagal), and they thought, “Well, Billy’s default voice, if he just talked a little higher, would be good for Fry.” So with him being all through the show, not only as the Professor and Zoidberg, which were parts that he already had, but as Fry, they just felt that they needed another guy, because maybe Billy’s superpowers might be stretched a little thin. [Laughs.] So I came onboard in Episode 2, and…I had done a good audition, but when I heard they went ahead with the pilot, I kind of shrugged and just went, “Okay, I guess I didn’t get this one.” And so when I came onboard in Episode 2, they said, “Okay, so you’re the utility voice guy, and just do everything we tell you. Just be there and be ready to create a whole mess of characters.” So I was just ready to be that guy.

But then round about the fourth episode or so, along came this character, Kif, that Matt (Groening) seemed to have a particular interest in. He came to the session and just directed me and really wanted this dynamic between Zapp (Brannigan) and Kif to really work, to really be kind of another story in the show. Kind of a duo: the bumbling blowhard who doesn’t know he’s a blowhard, and the meek little guy who probably knows more but can’t do anything about it. An impotent little fellow. So it was good. He told me he wanted something that had some of the arrogance of Jon Lovitz… [Laughs.] You know, when Lovitz gets a little pissy. But, y’know, something that also sounded weaker. I thought, “Weaker than Jon Lovitz? You want a weaker voice than Jon Lovitz…?” So I folded in that Truman Capote little flavor, and that’s where Kif came from.

BE: So what does it say in the script when Kif offers up his shuddering sigh?

MLM: Actually, this is nice – it’s actually become a trademark – but it actually just says, “Kif sigh.” It says Kif’s name, and then underneath it’ll say “Kif sigh.” So I know that’s when it’s time to do the patented Kif sigh. [Laughs.] At one point, in the initial scripts, it said something like “sigh of resignation,” and I just…I knew that sound, because I’d been married, so I just went… [Offers a Kif sigh.] And for some reason, they really just clung onto that and the way I sighed, because that became a trademark. They’d actually say, “I just love the way you sigh. It just sounds so…downtrodden.” [Laughs.] So it became a thing. The sigh became a thing.

BE: One of your other regular contributions to the show is the voice of Calculon, which I admit is one of my personal favorites.

MLM: [Launches into his Calculon voice.] I thank you. You know, normally I’m programmed to be very, very busy, Will, but today I’ve made time for you. Anybody who would post on their Facebook that they’re interviewing me, Calculon, and my alter-ego, Maurice LaMarche, deserves my time.

BE: [Laughs.] That’s very kind of you. I should also add that my daughter has become an equally obsessive “Futurama” fan.

MLM: Nice.

BE: Although I have to admit that, when we sat down to watch the season premiere together, I…well, actually, I tagged John DiMaggio on this status update, but the questions about how Bender managed to impregnate the soda machine, I deferred to him.

MLM: [Laughs.] I think you must. Oh, but as far as Calculon goes, he’s a favorite of mine, too. And I say that at the risk of sounding like Calculon. But as far as the stable I’ve gotten to build up over the years on “Futurama,” he’s the most fun, because he’s got all this bombastic, but he’s…unlike Zapp, he’s harmless. He doesn’t command a space fleet with laser beams that can slice planets in half. He’s just an actor. So, you know, we can laugh at the huge ego and realize that the worst he can do is yell at a production assistant. [Laughs.] That’s the most harm he can do. So I have a lot of fun with him, and this season…I think it’s the first half of Season 7. Or Season 7A, as we’re now calling it. I think it’s in Season 7A, as opposed to 7B, in which he faces his greatest acting challenge ever. So we’re gonna have fun with that.

BE: Yes, as soon as I told my daughter I was talking to you and tried to clarify which characters you play, I described Calculon, and she hesitated for a second, but then she asked, “Is he the one who made the movie with Zoidberg’s uncle?”

MLM: [Laughs.] “If I don’t win this Oscar, you’re cat food!”

BE: One of the greatest things about “Futurama” is that it has the ability to be incredibly dumb and smart at the same time, I guess is the best way to phrase it.

MLM: Just like Fry. I mean, that’s…the dichotomy of Fry. The why of Fry, which they explored in the episode “The Why of Fry,” is part of the appeal. He’s this incredibly dumbed-down character who occasionally says incredibly insightful things or figures out exactly the right thing to do. And, y’know, it’s apparently to do with being his own grandfather…which I hope you haven’t had to explain to your daughter yet, but…

BE: Actually, we watched the episode the other night, and I basically shrugged it off by saying, “Let’s just say that this could only happen because of time travel and move on.”

MLM: [Laughs.] There you go. So, yeah, we’ve got some of the smartest writers in the business. We’ve got PhDs on our writing staff, MAs, MSCs…half the writing staff is Harvard-educated science geeks, and the other half are from a stable of real seasoned sitcom writers or have written for stand-up comics. And those two coming together…you’ve really got something funny. So it’s great.

BE: The standard reply is that they’re all like your children, I know, but are there any particular episodes that really stand out for you as favorites?

MLM: Hmmm. Over the course of the entire series, or just this upcoming season?

BE: I guess over the course of the entire series, since it gives you more to work with.

MLM: Well, I’ll tell you, my standard line has become, “How can you not love an episode that won you an Emmy?” So “Lrrreconcilable Differences” really stands out, first of all because I had no idea going in that day that it was going to be anything other than a lot of fun and that I was going to meet Katey Sackhoff. But it ended up being a really hilarious script, and then seeing it animated and showing it at Comic-Con…the first time anyone ever laid eyes on it was at Comic-Con, and here the very first shot was this perfect rendering of the San Diego Convention Center in the year 3010. Well, perfect except it’s future-y, so things are floating where they shouldn’t be able to float, because of all the anti-gravity devices. [Laughs.] But there are so many little things, like when he tromps down that ramp and takes the microphone and it’s not close enough. I mean, how many times has that happened at Comic-Con, you know? You’ve seen it. There are so many nice moments in there.

Lrrr is like Kif. Kif, Calculon, and Lrrr are my favorites, in terms of my stable of characters. Lrrr is so…he’s just so messed up. [Laughs.] He’s supposed to be this ruler of planet Omicron Persei VIII, and yet he gets nothing right in his personal life. And I think a lot of people can relate to that. They have a professional face that makes it seem as though they’ve got it all together, and then they get it home and their face hit them in the face with a skillet. [Laughs.] Or yells at them for never taking them anywhere. He’s impotent, you know? He’s facing all these things that certainly the older segment of our audience can relate to. This season, we’ve got…again, I don’t know if it’s 7A or 7B, but there’s a nice Lrrr episode where we explore his relationship with his teenage son, which is exactly where I am in life. I’ve got a teenage son, and sometimes we connect and sometimes we’re on completely different levels. So that one’s a favorite script coming up.

You know, just a comment on the writing, it’s always smart, but I’d have to say that in the first couple of seasons, the shows weren’t…they were a little snarkier and not terribly deep, at least to my mind. I don’t mean this as a slight on the writers. But as all of us have gone on in life…there’s  a core group that’s stayed with the show…the show’s developed a real heart and a real moral center, and I just think the shows keep getting better and better. I’m sure David (X.) Cohen could talk to you more about that, but…you know, there are just different ways that we love our fellows, and we can explore those things by taking them to other places, other planets, other times. But at the core of at all, the message of “Futurama” is that technology may change, the face of the world may change, but people are still flawed. I think that, although they have these eccentricities, these foibles, whatever travails they may go through, that’s what the message will always be. But I feel like it’s sometimes even more effective to tell those stories the way we tell them, in that science-fiction-y way.

BE: I wanted to ask you about a couple of non-“Futurama” things as well. I’ve always been curious: I know that you did the voice of Orson Welles for that scene in “Ed Wood,” but what did Vincent D’Onofrio think of the fact that they had you do that?

MLM: Um…I don’ t know. I’ve never, ever met the man. The word through the grapevine was that he wasn’t terribly pleased at having his voice replaced. I don’t think he has anything against me. I don’t even think he knows I exist. But it spurred him to actually do his own Orson Welles short, which can be found on YouTube. It’s called “Five Minutes, Mr. Welles,” it’s a 30-minute long short where he reprises the role of Welles, and he does an excellent job of it. He actually does try to make the voice right in this one. When he did “Ed Wood,” and I’m one of the handful of people who saw the dailies, ‘cause they sent them to me so I could learn the timing, he chose to do this kind of high-pitched, reedy read. And it was kind of… [Imitates voice.] “How do you do? I’m Orson Welles.” And it almost sounded effeminate. And it was just wrong coming out of that perfect face, the way they’d lit him, the way he…he got down the way Welles pursed his lips before and after taking a puff on his cigar! I mean, it was just…he had every physicality down. And then there was this jarring departure where he did this [Imitates voice again.] “How do you do? Follow your dreams, Ed!” So Burton being, of course, an animator as his background, he still kept his eyes on all things animation and was aware of “Pinky & The Brain,” and just said… [Bellowing.] “Get me the guy that does The Brain!” Oh, yeah, and he sounded like he was in a ‘30s madcap comedy about a newsroom, obviously. [Laughs.] But that was the feeler that went out, and when he found out it was me, they put me on a plane to San Francisco, and I recorded it up there with him in the room.

BE: What are your recollections of working with Rodney Dangerfield and Sam Kinison when you were doing “The 9th Annual Young Comedians Special” for HBO?

MLM: [Hesitates.] Well…okay, first of all, no one’s ever been as supportive or kinder to me than Rodney Dangerfield. That said, I don’t know if you’ve heard the podcast where I told the real story of how Sam Kinison got on the Young Comedians…

BE: I have not.

MLM: Oh, okay. Well… [Starts to laugh.] Basically, I talked Rodney into putting Sam on the show. Now, this is gonna come off all bitter, but the truth is the truth: in Rodney’s book, he tells the story as he had to talk Sam into going on the show, but if you read the conversation in the book, every line he gives himself is a line I said to him, and every line he gives to Sam, where Sam’s, like, “I don’t know if I’m ready, Rodney, I can’t cook in five minutes,” is actually what Rodney said to me. And I’m sitting there on the tour bus, coming back from a gig with him, ‘cause I used to be his opening act, saying, “I’m telling you, Rodney, he can cook in five minutes, he’s got a hugely hilarious opening bit…” So I actually…I didn’t twist his arm, but I got him to take another look. And ultimately the decision was his to put Sam on “The Young Comedians,” which was the most meteoric rise I’ve ever seen since Howie Mandel did the “Make Me Laugh” show.

Kinison was a friend for years. I knew Sam when he was managing the Weston Comedy Store and sleeping in the club, ‘cause he didn’t have money for an apartment. And I’d take him out for food. I was only nominally making a living, but I was doing better than him, so I’d take him to Art’s Delicatessen, and we’d eat and talk about, “Someday it won’t be like this…” And then, y’know, VOOM! “Hey, what was that whoosh?” “Oh, that’s Sam passing me on the fame-and-fortune superhighway.” [Laughs.] But it was great. I couldn’t have been happier for him. And, of course, I couldn’t have been more saddened by his death. Y’know, that’s…that to me was a huge tragedy. And I did try to help Sam to get sober. It was just…he managed to do so for about 88 days, and then I guess something about it being the same number as the number of keys on a piano…? He decided he already owned a keychain and didn’t want to get any more of those chips, and he started up again. But I loved him, he was a dear friend, and I remember him fondly. Every April 10^th, I take a moment to think about him. That was the day he died, in 1992. Yeah, he was a dear friend. And an amazing talent. Changed the face of the game, as they say.

BE: Do you have a favorite project you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved? Excluding “Futurama,” I guess, since Fox obviously didn’t respect that quite as much as they should’ve.

MLM: Oh, we got our love, though. [Laughs.] And, listen, 20^th Century Fox Television is incredibly supportive of the show. It’s the network that didn’t see its potential. But 20^th Century TV and Gary and Dana have been champions of the show, along with Doug Herzog over at Comedy Central. So, yeah, we’ve definitely gotten the love. [Does Hedonism Bot voice.] It’s merely taken awhile for the cream of “Futurama” to rise to the top!

I’ll tell you a show that I thought, “Wow, that really should’ve gone longer,” which was a show I did back in the early ‘90s called “Taz-Mania.” That was sort of the brainchild of Art Vitello, the idea of taking Taz – a three-shot character, really, when all was said and done with the classic Looney Tunes – and giving him a home life, showing that he has this sort of Bing Crosby dad… [Adopts Bing Crosby voice.] “Well, what are you doing there, son? Blah, blah, blah, yakity smakity. That’s a dog…? Well, he’s got stinky breath, that’s normal for a dog, but it looks like a turtle!” So I got to play the dad, and we even brought in an uncle character who sounded like Bob Hope. And I did an entire episode as Hope and Crosby doing this “Road” picture where basically the whole script was me, except for, like, five lines. [Laughs.] And it was really clever, and we had so much fun making the show. And it just kind of did nothing on television. I don’t know why it never garnered a following. I think it was sandwiched between “Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toons” and “Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs,” and “Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky & The Brain.” All shows that I had the extreme pleasure of working on, but…right in the middle was this thing that was just, y’know, “Warner Brothers Presents Taz-Mania.” It had no “Steven Spielberg Presents.” So I don’t know if they didn’t push it hard enough or it didn’t have that Spielbergian flavor, but…I always felt it never got its due. I thought it was a great show.

BE: Over the course of your career, you’ve stepped into roles that were obviously established by other voice actors. Do you get intimidated by that, or do you just see it as a challenge?

MLM: Oh, no, no, it’s very intimidating. I mean, when I had the temerity to read for Popeye back in the 1980s, I just thought, “How do you step into this iconic role?” I’d been watching it since I was a little kid, y’know? Jack Mercer was Popeye for 52 years. There was a guy named Red Pepper Sam – Bill Costello was his name, Red Pepper Sam was his stage name – and he…oh, God, Billy West knows this. He’s much more of a cartoon historian than I am, and Tom Kenny is even more of one than Billy West. I’m pretty bad at this stuff. But…I think he only did a handful of episodes, but he was the established voice of Popeye, and then he left for some reason. I can’t remember if it was for the war effort or for more money, but Mercer stepped in. He was an animator, but when he pitched a story, he did the voice pretty damned good, so they got him in there, and he was the voice for 52 years. And I just thought, “How am I supposed to take over for this guy that passed away? They created the show ‘Popeye and Son’ for him!” So when I got it…I thought for sure somebody else would get it…I was stunned. And I think I was intimidated all through that, thinking…I had that voice in my head, saying, “Who are you, thinking you can play an icon like Popeye?” And you know what? It only lasted a season. [Laughs.] So maybe I sucked at the damned thing! Or it could’ve been the fact that Olive Oyl wore legwarmers and an aerobics outfit. [Laughs.] Hey, it was the ‘80s…

BE: Lastly, I saw on Wikipedia that, during your stand-up days, you actually served as the opening act for people like Donna Summer and David Sanborn. First of all, this immediately reminded me of Albert Brooks’ routine about opening for Richie Havens, but I was just wondering what your experiences were like as a stand-up opening for a musical act.

MLM: Well, first of all, I wish I knew the Richie Havens bit. I love Albert Brooks! [Laughs.] But I really only had great experiences opening for people. I never had a negative one. Donna Summer was lovely to me, God rest her soul. She had me to her dressing room to say “hello” and “thanks for the great job” about midway through my time with her. Sanborn was great. First of all, he was a jazz hero of mine, so…he actually took me on tour with him. I only did a few dates with Donna in Atlantic City, but David took me on tour with him. And when we were off-tour, he called me at my house just to see how I was doing. It was great. And I remember going backstage for another concert…it was Al Jarreau…and David was there, and he came up and just gave me the hugest hug. It impressed the hell out of my date. [Laughs.] It was great.

I’ve really only had great experiences. (George) Carlin was great. A nice, nice guy. But Rodney really, of all of them, was the most generous. I’ll never forget a time where we pulled into Latham, New York, and my name was not on the billboard. He always insisted that I get 50% billing. In Las Vegas, you have to fight for 25% billing, but here I was generously being given 50% letters. My letters were half as tall as his. I have a picture with my father standing in front of my billboard. He couldn’t have been prouder. But we pulled up to Latham and my name wasn’t on the billboard, and he refused to go on until someone got on a cherry picker. [Laughs.] And the billboard was up on one of these Jetsons-like poles that just shot up as far as you could go, so the guy got up there and did it. Rodney’s road manager pulled me out there and said, “Take a look at this,” and, sure enough, there as this guy risking his life to put “Maurice LeMarche” on there. I said, “Ah, I wish he hadn’t done that. It’s okay.” He said, “Hey, Rodney knows what it’s like to work shit joints all of his career. He’s not going on ‘til you get what he asked for, because he doesn’t want it to be so tough for you.” So, y’know, those were my opening-act experiences. I look back it as a very fond time in my life.

BE: And clearly things have gone well for you in the voice acting business as well.

MLM: Yes, that is true. [Laughs.] I do miss stand-up, but I’ve found this wonderful second career in voiceover, and, y’know, it’s been a wonderful ride. And I hope it keeps going on.

So…where were we?

Oh, fine, let’s go ahead and deal with the elephant in the room: it’s been nine months since Bullz-Eye doled out its last TV Power Rankings. What can we say? There were a lot of good shows on the air between May 2011 and February 2012, and somewhere around late October, it just kind of reached a point where we said, “You know what? It’s way more fun to watch TV than it is to write about it.” Eventually, though, the powers that be pried us off the couch (there’s still an indentation where we were sitting), set us back in front of the computer, and said, “Look, the readers demand to know Bullz-Eye’s take on the best shows of the past year* and, frankly, they’re starting to get a little belligerent about it.”

(*Rounded up for statistical purposes.)

So here we are, ready to offer up our list of the 25 best shows on television** as well as several shows bubbling just under our list, plus a new section called “Still Too New to Call,” where we praise shows that seem pretty damned good after their first few episodes but simply haven’t been around long enough for us to feel comfortable including them in the other two lists.

(**Okay, technically, it’s the 24 best shows on television plus one show that hasn’t been on since 2010, but we’re so excited about that particular show coming back that we included it, anyway.)

All told, we hope you’ll walk away from this piece either nodding your head in agreement or wondering why you haven’t been watching some of these shows. If not, however, there’s a perfectly good Comments section that’s just waiting for your opinions about what’s good on TV.

Everybody ready? Then let’s get this thing started…

No, it’s not quite the same show it used to be, owing to the fact that the cast now consists of almost as many women as it does men, but with the series now in its fifth season, the trio of Kaley Cuouo, Melissa Rauch, and Mayim Bialik have probably infused “The Big Bang Theory” with more laughs than the it would’ve had at this point if it had stuck strictly to the original four geeks. The only question now is how much longer we’ll have to wait for Raj to come out of the closet…because, seriously, you don’t need to possess gay-dar to see that that’s what they’re leading up to.

When we first picked back up with Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) for the seventh season of “Weeds,” she’d spent three years cooling her heels in the clink while the rest of the Botwin clan had been chillin’ in Copenhagen, but with Nancy being shifted to a halfway house in New York City, a family reunion was only inevitable. Big shock: Nancy started selling pot again. Possibly bigger shock: even going into its eighth season, “Weeds” is still reliably entertaining.

When it comes to watching “New Girl,” one’s level of appreciation is directly proportionate to how one feels about the concept of “adorkability,” which Zooey Deschanel brings to the small screen in seemingly limitless quantities as Jess, a too-cute twentysomething who moves in with a trio of guys on the heels of an excruciatingly bad breakup. As with most ensemble comedies, it’s taken time for the chemistry of the cast to find its feet, but it’s coming along nicely.

Some shows are perfect fare for guys and gals to kick back and enjoy together, but, guys, unless you have one of the most awesome girlfriends ever, then “Archer” probably doesn’t quality as one of those shows. Sterling Archer has the libido of James Bond and Austin Powers put together but without any of the charm, and not only is he unfailingly uncouth, but he’s a mama’s boy to boot. Damned if he isn’t funny, though, and Season 3 has started off just as funny as its predecessors…but, then, what would you expect when you’ve got Burt Reynolds playing himself?

As long as the beautiful ménage à trois between stupid people, video cameras, and the internet continues to flourish, Daniel Tosh’s career will stay in full bloom. Now in its fourth season, “Tosh.0″ may not be the most highbrow series on the air, but it’s never at a loss for material and still offers a solid number of laughs per episode.

Jordan Peele: We’ve done a couple of these so far, Will, and I’ll just go ahead and pre-empt your request to have us announce our names…

Bullz-Eye: I don’t know what you’re talking about. It never would’ve occurred to me to ask you to identify yourselves before speaking.

JP: [Laughs.] Well, this is Jordan speaking, and…I guess I’m the one that sounds more like Bert. And he’s the one that sounds more like Ernie.

BE: I’ll try to remember that during transcription.

Keegan-Michael Key: [Laughs.] Yeah, just put B for one, E for the other. That shouldn’t be too confusing.

BE: Yeah, especially not when “BE” is the abbreviation for Bullz-Eye.

JP: [Laughs.] Well, just to be safe, we’ll keep announcing ourselves, anyway. You can also identify me as the tired one. I’m Jordan.

BE: Right. If someone’s slurring, it’s probably Jordan.

KMK: He’s Eeyore, I’m Piglet.

JP: Piglet? Oh, come on. You’re Tigger.

KMK: Oh, God, what am I talking about? Of course I’m Tigger. [Laughs.]

BE: So you guys obviously worked together for many years on “Mad TV,” but did you know each other at all prior to that series?

KMK: We did. Yeah, we met in Chicago when Jordan was at Boom Chicago, which is an improv theater in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. [Laughs.] As opposed to Amsterdam in New Mexico or something, right?

JP: Hey, there’s also an Amsterdam in New York.

KMK: All right, all right. [Laughs.] Anyway, I was at The Second City, and our casts had a swap. There’s two theaters at the Second City, so one of our casts went to Amsterdam, and Jordan’s cast from Boom Chicago – which is just a really incredible theater – they came to Chicago. So they flipped, and that’s where we met: I was performing on the second stage at Second City, and Jordan’s cast had come in to visit us for a week.

JP: This was back in the day when…I had lived in Chicago for a couple of years but then had left, and in that time, Keegan had moved to Chicago and pretty quickly become the most talked-about, exciting improviser in Chicago. He won a couple of Jeff Awards just for his work on the Second City reviews, and I remember seeing that and…it was really inspiring, Key.

KMK: I didn’t know that.

JP: Yeah, it was so awesome. I saw a couple of characters that…

KMK: …that I subsequently used at “Mad TV,” yeah.

JP: So, yeah, we met each other, and we got along famously from the very get-go.

BE: So when you got to “Mad TV,” did you instantly forge a bond based on already knowing what each other’s strengths were?

KMK: Yeah, I think that’s true. Well, actually, not immediately, because we did a lot of…I mean, we improvised together in Chicago a couple of times and watched each other’s performances, but I had no idea what a consummate idea-man Jordan was until about a year into “Mad TV.” And then, if I wasn’t in a scene that he was in that he had written, I would just sometimes sit on the sidelines and go, “What…? How did he think of that?” Just really tremendous stuff.

JP: In both of our first years, towards the end, we collaborated on a scene where we played these two superstitious high-school or college basketball players who end up doing sort of fully-choreographed step dancing.

KMK: Yeah, anytime something “unlucky” would happen to them… Every scene would take place during an event in their lives, so the first scene was the regional championship for their basketball team, so, y’know, a black cat walks through, a mirror breaks, people speak at the same time, and they’re so superstitious that they’ve got to do a little dance every time to break the hex of whatever said superstition was. It was a fricking blast.

JP: In the old days, with Keegan and I, he was the guy that I knew… We both had the interest in sort of over-rehearsing before the table read, so I think we kind of bonded on the amount of work we were willing to put in. Everybody was hard workers there, but, you know ,we were just birds of a feather who had the same work ethic and everything.

BE: When “Mad TV” wrapped, did you leave with the agreement that you’d be ready to work together again whenever the opportunity arose?

KMK: I don’t think we’d formally spoken about it. We just knew that it was going to happen at some point in time.

JP: It was a given.

KMK: That’s a good way of putting it, Jordan: it was an unspoken given.

BE: So how did the series for Comedy Central come up, then? Was it something that was pitched to one of you and they brought in the other, or…

KMK: We were both working on separate projects at the time, and, um, both of the projects fell through. [Laughs.] Jordan was in a pilot that didn’t get picked up, and I was on a TV series that got canceled. And we have the same manager, so our manager said, “Would you guys like to do something together?” ‘Cause there was interest from Comedy Central and from…

JP: …from lots of different places. We were real fortunate to have had a couple of interested parties and be able to really be able to essentially pick Comedy Central as the perfect home for us.

KMK: Amen.

JP: And I think it really is perfect, too, because we like to sort of push things a little bit to a slightly irreverent point, but we also like making comedy for comedy nerds. [Laughs.]

KMK: And, also, we’re both comedy nerds, too. [Laughs.]

JP: Yes. I use the term “comedy nerds” very lovingly, because that’s what we are.

KMK: We would never say “comedy nerd” in a pejorative way. [Laughs.] But we’re also big lovers of…like, I’m a big lover of the classics, so I love silent comedy, physical comedy, pratfalls and slapstick and stuff like that. So the perfect comedy sandwich is to have a scene that has some nice and silly stuff in it that still might have some social bite to it.

BE: So what can we expect from the series as far as its content? I’ve seen the first episode, which is great, but since you guys have built a pretty decent stable of impressions over the years, will it be heavy on those, or will you be doing more original characters?

KMK: Um…that’s a good question.

JP: That’s a very good question. We’ve sort of developed a unique style. One thing that does sort of overarch our work is…we’ve got what we like to think of in comedy as a slightly unique point of view, being biracial and kind of living in between different worlds, sort of growing up and having to adapt to our surroundings. Well, not having to adapt, but choosing to adapt. And we sort of explore that. So we do a lot of racial humor, partly because, y’know, race is such an absurd concept in itself, and there are some aspects to it that we can tap that haven’t been overdone.

KMK: Or done. [Laughs.]

JP: Right. Or done at all.

KMK: I think, Will, to answer your question…I guess the best and most vague way to answer your question is that there will be a smattering of impressions. [Laughs.] There will be character work, definitely. The interesting thing about our job, especially in sketches, is that you have to wait a season before you have any idea whether or not a character catches on in the kind of “Saturday Night Live” or “Mad TV” vein. We’re not even really going for that. There are places where there are characters…where characters feed the conceit of the scene, and the conceit of the scene fuels the characters. But seldom have we done scenes in this season of the show where we were, like, “This is an outright character, and I just want to play it in a scenario.” Unlike something like Coach Hines on “Mad TV,” or Stuart on “Mad TV,” or something like that. I think the character of the show…there’s an overriding character to the show, as opposed to a bunch of well-recognized characters in the show. But you will get – and correct me if I’m wrong, Jordan – but you will get a healthy dose of Obama.

JP: Yeah, we do a good amount of Obama. Just enough. [Laughs.]

BE: I have to say, a show that is not necessarily a precise point of reference but which did leap to mind at times when I was watching the first episode was “Mr. Show.”

KMK: Oh, God, you just gave us the greatest compliment you ever could.

JP: Yeah. Thank you!

KMK: If a television critic wrote the words “a black ‘Mr. Show,’” I might quit my job. [Laughs.] Because we’d be done.

BE: And I’m not saying it’s precise – based on the episode I saw, it seems like it might be a bit more relationship-driven than “Mr. Show” was – but there are certainly some similar elements. Or, at least, I think there are, anyway.

KMK: Yeah, and you’ll see that, too, Will, that there will be episodes where – and I’ll use the word “smattering” again – there are callbacks, where characters will kind of appear and overlap a little bit. That’s an accurate depiction, wouldn’t you say?

JP: Mmm-hmm.

KMK: Not every show. But you’ll see that. It’s something that’s part of our pedigree.

JP: I think one of the things we really admire about “Mr. Show”…I mean, we’re fans of the great sketch shows in general – “In Living Color,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “SNL,” “Mr. Show” – but since you bring up “Mr. Show,” yeah, they do the heightening thing, where they’ll sort of latch onto a comedic game, and then they’ll heighten it through the roof in a way that I think no one had ever seen before. Or since.

KMK: You saw, Will, a good example of it in the first sketch of the show. Not the phone call, but after the live segment, where the two guys are afraid of their wives. I think that’s almost directly influenced by them. When I think of “Mr. Show,” I think of the scene where David Cross goes into the party store and asks Bob Odenkirk for change. Same thing. Like, I would say that this scene was influenced in my brain by that scene.

JP: The chef scene has that element as well, almost like David Cross’s famous audition sketch. The game doesn’t get past the first sentence without having to evolve. But, yeah, thank you for saying that.

KMK: We take that as a high, high compliment.

BE: Given that there are a fair amount of sketch comedy shows out there, what are your hopes for Key & Peele? From your perspective, what do you think will make this show stand out?

JP: Well, I think this show’s going to have a real new, fresh feel to it. It’s unlike any sketch show that I’ve ever seen before, and part of that is because we’ve hired some amazing people. Our director, Peter Atencio, has really made everything look very filmic and, uh, expensive. [Laughs.] We don’t have a lot of money, so we’ve done some really great sleight of hand. Also, our writing process has been so amazing. We’ve got amazing writers. So my hope, ultimately, would just be that people enjoy it, and that, at the very least, it becomes a cult classic. I mean, of course, the real hope is that we get hugely rich and famous. [Laughs.] If the comedy nerds approve, I’ll be a happy man.

KMK: I guess my hope would be that… I just hope that we’ve created a show – and I really do hope this – that we can be proud of, in the tradition of Godfrey Cambridge and Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor. I would really like… I want it to provide belly laughs and also be socially relevant. And I feel like we have an ability to do that, based on something that Jordan had mentioned prior, which is that we are representing a segment of the population that is new and is not going to stop growing. And not only is not going to stop growing, it’s not going to stop evolving. And that’s the biracial American, and, y’know, where do we fit in the fabric of the society?

JP: I’ve got another point that I’ve just realized. We’ve noticed something about black comedy, namely that most of our heroes as black comedians are stand-ups. Both Keegan and I were trained in improvisation and sketch comedy, so I think being so inspired by “In Living Color” myself when I was a kid, it would just be such an honor to be able to inspire young black comedians to go the sketch-improv route instead of stand-up, or to do it as well and just branch out. Because there really is just a wonderful world of comedy there. So that would be lovely.

KMK: That would be lovely. That would be a really lovely thing if that were to happen, yeah.

BE: You cited “Chappelle’s Show” and “In Living Color.” Would you say that your show is still going to be multifaceted enough as far as its comedy that it won’t just be black audiences who are enjoying it? Is it going to be across the board as far as the type of comedy goes?

KMK: I guess the answer to that question would be, “Absolutely.” It’s for a multicultural audience, definitely. I think there’s a few scenes that happen later in the season. Well, also, another example…like, we used as an example before the “bitch” scene – that’s what we call the sketch where the guys are afraid of their lives – and I think wherever they have wives they’ll enjoy that scene. [Laughs.] It’s just a very cross-cultural…well, that’s not even a cultural scene. That’s a human scene. And I think our show is populated with human scenes as well as specifically-targeted cultural scenes.

BE: And that’s the perception that I had from the first episode – even the first scene, with you guys on your respective phone calls, speaks to more than just a black audience – but it’s so hard to tell from just one episode.

KMK: Yeah, I know what you mean. But don’t you think, Jordan, that we tier things? It’s about…oh, God, this makes me want to talk about “Auction Block,” but I don’t want to tell him. I want him to see it. But…

JP: But you can guess with a name like “Auction Block.”

KMK: [Laughs.] And there was something about that first scene you mentioned that we really enjoyed, which is that it’s about putting on a façade. Humans put on facades. It’s just being filtered through a particular cultural filter.

JP: I think we give everybody a little bit of a jab at some point during the season. I think one of our comedy rules is, “You don’t make fun of the underdog.” There’s not a lot of comedy to be had by being a bully. You want to sort of…you want to take the rug out from under the people that have some sort of status in their community, or who are boastful or are bullies themselves.

KMK: Also, another thing is that…I mean, Will, I have to say that my partner, Jordan, is just extraordinary at this, to the point where it’s uncanny, but…there could be 100 people in a room, and 99 people would say, “Oh, look at the bloom on that rose,” and Jordan would say, “Oh, look at that leaf with that brown spot on it.” Do you know what I mean? He always sees something different than anybody else sees. And you’ll see that. It’s like he’s reading a defense in football, and he always sees the crack. And in our process, it has been invaluable. Just invaluable.

JP: That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. [Laughs.]

KMK: So I say that to say that there’s going to be, I think, some situations where you’ll go, “Oh, my God, I’ve never, ever thought of it that way.” Whatever “it” happens to be. [Laughs.]

Bullz-Eye: To start off by kind of stating the obvious, I’m sure you’re psyched about your show returning for a second season.

Nick Swardson: Yeah, I am. I’m really excited, ‘cause I feel like, no matter what happens, this is the show I wanted to make.

BE: So what are the origins of “Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time,” anyway? Did you pitch them the idea, or did they come to you with the idea?

NS: My friend Tom (Gianas) actually pitched me the idea. He created “Human Giant” and ran that show on MTV, and he did “Tenacious D” on HBO. He’s an old friend of mine. He directed “Gay Robot,” this original pilot that I did years ago. He’s really, really brilliant, and he came to me with this idea. I’ve always wanted to do sketch comedy, and I trust Tom a lot, so I was, like, “All right, let’s do it.” And we just jumped into the show. We pitched it to the network, and they bought it off the pitch. We didn’t even get a pilot. They ordered six episodes. Which was kind of good and bad. I kind of wish we had a pilot, because it was kind of a tricky show to make. (Laughs) We didn’t really have that trial by fire. We were just kind of thrown into the volcano.

BE: You have a pretty vocal fanbase. I presume you’ve gotten some advice, either helpful or otherwise, as far as where to take the show in its second season.

NS: Yeah, it’s been interesting, because people didn’t really know what to expect from the show. My fans were kind of, like, “Well, wait, what is it? Is it stand-up? I don’t understand what it is.” They were kind of confused. Obviously, comedy’s subjective, and people either bought the show or they didn’t. (Laughs) But the people who got it, they loved it.

BE: So is Season 2 along the same lines as Season 1, or do you think you’ve kind of fleshed it out a bit more as far as what you want from the show?

NS: Um… (Long pause) I mean, it’s more aggressive. Like, there’s some really crazy stuff. (Laughs) It’s really aggressive. But we’ve kind of counterbalanced this season with doing more of a live element and more storytelling than stand-up.

BE: How much flexibility do you have with Comedy Central as far as your vision for the show? Has there been any point when they were, like, “Uh, can you dial it back a bit?”

NS: Uh, yeah. (Laughs) At the beginning, they were, like, “This is way too aggressive.” But that’s the whole point of having and doing a show. Why not make it the most aggressive thing you can do? I just didn’t want to play it safe. I wanted to just throw it against the wall, and hopefully it works. Hopefully people will dig it.

BE: Do you have a particular favorite sketch from Season 1?

NS: Yeah, I’ve done a lot of sketches I really love. There’s one that we kind of leaked early that I think is the craziest sketch ever, and it’s basically an ab infomercial, but to get great abs, it’s all about trying to suck your own dick. (Laughs) So it’s a cord that you buy that you wrap around your knees and your neck, and this infomercial guy is hosting it, and he’s just super-sincere. It’s, like, it’s not about being anything gay. It’s, like, “What better way to get a six pack than by trying to suck your own dick?” (Laughs)

BE: Would that be one of the things that Comedy Central was hesitant about?

NS: Uh, yeah, I think they were just kind of, like, “Holy fuck, how are we even going to try to pull this off?” (Laughs) But we did. And the sketch came out amazing. (Laughs) I’m so happy with it.

BE: You had a lot of guest stars, many of whom came from a sketch-comedy background. It looks like you were working from a wish list of your favorite comedians.

NS: Yeah, I got people who were really great sketch performers, and…you know, I didn’t want a lot of celebrity, ‘cause I didn’t want the show to be, like, a celebrity calling card, where you’re going, “Hey, look who I put in this sketch!” I wanted the sketches to come off on their own. I didn’t want people to just be, like, “Oh, this guy’s in this sketch ‘cause he’s friends with Nick.” I got lot of no-name people. I wanted to kind of discover more people. I thought that’d be more fun.

BE: That being the case, do you have any guests lined up for Season 2?

NS: Not a ton, no. But we’ve got Ron Perlman, who’s pretty incredible. And he’s really, really funny in it.

BE: Are there any characters that’ll be recurring from Season 1?

NS: Yeah, Gary Gaga. (Laughs) And Wheelchair Cat. Both of them are coming back. Oh, and this one called Creepy-O.

BE: I’d guess it’s easy to fall back on recurring characters. Was there any hesitancy on your part as far as doing that?

NS: No, because I don’t feel like…I wouldn’t have done them if we hadn’t found a really funny or good new context for them, you know? I mean, it wasn’t like a mandate where it’s, like, “Well, you’ve gotta have four Gary Gaga sketches,” and you have no choice. (Laughs) It wasn’t like that. We found a really funny context for these old characters, and it’s really solid. So we’re pretty psyched.

BE: Your comedy is…I guess you’d call it somewhat critic-proof. The critics may not get it, but, as I said, you’ve got a pretty ravenous fanbase. Was that weird for you, or did you always kind of foresee that was going to be the case?

NS: Oh, I always foresaw that. (Laughs) Critics hate me. I mean, they really hate me. Especially on the film side. But, you know, it’s, like…I don’t know what it is that spawns that kind of disdain. I mean, I’m just making comedies and trying to make people laugh, and I’m doing my best at doing that. It’s all subjective. I think it’s kind of bizarre that these critics will review Academy Award-nominated movies, and then they’ll review these other movies, these comedies, like “Bucky Larson,” and they’ll pile on it to make themselves feel better. If that’s what they want to do, that’s fine, but I don’t make movies for them.

BE: On a related note, I have to ask you if you saw on the Onion AV Club where they took on “Bucky Larson.”

NS: (Uncertainly) No. What do you mean?

BE: Nathan Rabin does a column called “My Year of Flops,” and he dedicated one of them to “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.”

NS: (Excitedly) Did he? It’s weird, ‘cause the Onion can be hit and miss. They’ve actually been more cool to me.

BE: Well, I don’t know if you’ll find it as funny as some might, but Rabin’s really good about taking people to task no matter who they are. At the very least, I think you can go into it with an awareness that you’re not getting it any worse than anyone else.

NS: Yeah, I mean, the Onion makes me laugh, and I don’t take myself fucking seriously, you know what I mean? So I’m definitely not going to be offended, by any means. I’ll laugh just as much as anybody.

BE: I’m sure this story has been told elsewhere, but since I don’t know the answer to the question, I’ll ask it: how did you first fall into Adam Sandler’s camp?

NS: Adam was a fan of my stand-up. He saw my first special on Comedy Central, and he called me up and said, “Hey, I really like your voice, I like your style, would you want to work together?” And they had a script that they wanted me to rewrite, and I rewrote it, they loved it, and the rest is kind of history.

BE: What were your thoughts on “Grandma’s Boy”? Certainly that’s one that wasn’t exactly critical adored, either, but did you think it turned out pretty well for what it was?

NS: Yeah! I loved “Grandma’s Boy”! That’s one of my favorite movies in the world. In fact, that was the first script that they brought me in on. They’re, like, “We have this movie ‘Grandma’s Boy,’ and we want you to rewrite it and make it crazy and make it rated-R.” And I did, and they loved it. And I love it. And, yeah, that was another one where critics came after us, but we don’t really care. I mean, they’re not really on our radar. Adam doesn’t read any reviews, ever. But “Grandma’s Boy” was one where I was really proud of it. It was kind of the first time I really put my stamp on something and put a lot into it. And I did read the reviews, and I was kind of surprised that it met with such hate, but it spawned such an amazing cult following. I mean, really amazing. But, you know, I’ve had a lot of critics who reviewed it off the commercial, and they emailed me a year or two later and were, like, “Hey, man, I’m really sorry. I gave ‘Grandma’s Boy’ a shitty review because I thought the commercial looked stupid, but I finally just saw it, and it was really funny.” So that was kind of interesting.

BE: It’s also interesting that, in the midst of these films that we’ve been discussing, you’ve also turned up in two films that were highly acclaimed. First of all, you were in “Almost Famous” for a moment or two. How did that come about? Was it a “right place, right time,” or did you actually audition?

NS: That was really a pivotal moment, actually, ‘cause I’d moved to Los Angeles, I was in the grind of auditioning, and, you know, there’s just so much rejection that comes with that. I mean, you’re constantly getting close to pilots, getting close to movies, but ultimately it’s just tricky, as one can imagine. So I got this audition for Cameron Crowe, and I was so excited. I’m such a huge fan of his. And the casting director is, like, “Hey, you’re really, really funny. I want you to meet Cameron.” So I’m, like, “Okay!” And I met with Cameron, and he was, like, “Fuck, dude, you are really, really funny, and I love what you do, but you’re not right for the part that you’re going in for. But I want you in this movie. You have to be in this movie somehow.” So we just kind of created this part and improv’ed it on the day. But it was really validating to have somebody like that go, “Hey, man, you’re really, really funny.” I was just a kid, auditioning and getting rejected, so for somebody like that to validate why I was out there in L.A…? It was really big.

BE: You also turned up in “Art School Confidential.”

NS: (Laughs) Yeah, that one was really bizarre. I auditioned for it, and then maybe six, eight months later, they called me and said, “Hey, you got that part.” I’m, like, “What part?” They’re, like, “‘Art School Confidential.’” “That was six, nine months ago I auditioned for that!” “Yeah, yeah, we’ve just been trying to get it off the ground.” Yeah, that one was a trip. I love Terry Zwigoff. He’s a sweetheart.

BE: What are your favorite recollections from working on “Reno 911”?

NS: “Reno” was amazing. That was one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever had. Those guys, all the police on the show, are old friends of mine, and they called me up and they’re, like, “Hey, we have this show, let’s make it crazy, it’s all going to be improvised.” And my favorite thing about it was that they kept telling me that the show was going to get canceled right away, so to just fuck around and do something crazy. So I created the character of Terry…and the show did not get canceled. (Laughs) It was on for six years. And I was a gay roller-skating prostitute. But it was great, man. To improvise like that every day at work…I mean, I love improvising, so it was kind of a dream.

BE: I’m curious: do you think there’s ever been a comedy album that so succinctly summed up its contents the way your record Seriously, Who Farted? did?

NS: (Laughs) No. No, I do not. I mean, when I first thought of that as an album title, it made me so happy, because it’s, like, I know it’s stupid. It’s funny: I would read stuff about it, and people were, like, “Oh, it’s such a stupid album title” Uh, yeah, I know. I’m not taking myself seriously. It’s supposed to be stupid. I was just hoping that the album would even just get nominated for something, just so someone would seriously have to say, “And now, Seriously, Who Farted?” (Laughs)

BE: Of your films, is there a particular one that stands out to you as being your best work?

NS: (Sighs) Oh, fuck.

BE: (Laughs) No pressure.

NS: (Long pause) I don’t know. I mean, I love “Grandma’s Boy,” ‘cause I just put so much into that, but I also love “Bucky Larson,” which just came out. I really love it. I mean, it was tricky and it was a really thick character, but it was fun to do a character that thick and that strong and not have to swear. He was, like, this G-rated, sweet character. So that was pretty fun.

BE: So is your focus going to be on the TV series for right now, or do you have any other films in the works?

NS: I’m developing more films. I don’t really want to do any more character-based stuff. I’m just trying to write some stuff so I can develop my own voice and be more myself. So that’s kind of the direction, hopefully, that I’m going in.