‘The alternate version did not involve horse death.’
ENTERTAINMENT WEELY: Congratulations on 100 episodes!
But you dont let yourself believe something like that.
Credit: Beth Dubber/Fox; Jordin Althaus/Hulu
Youre not allowed to.
It would be arrogant to do that!
And by season 2, that was down to two.
Its almost Darwinianits crazy.
We just somehow did it!
The Fox thing, the Hulu thing happened, and its just…were unkillable.
What were the biggest disruptions?
Getting past that was our first big chapter, to use your phrasing.
Where we do 26 episodes and everythings fine?
I cant even imagine.Mindy-ed with Children, I guess?
We needed something as big as messing up the Danny-Mindy relationship to keep us going.
And it was so interesting… Also, the fact that Hulu gave us a firm number of episodes ahead of time was great.
Did that also affect what you thought your series finale endgame might look like?
I would say every season our idea for it evolves, and it gets narrowed down.
The photo album goes from 10 possible final pictures to four.
We also attempt to be responsive, and there are certain things were trying out this season.
We want to see if the audience is responding to it.
We dont let that dictate what we do, but we are curious.
Apparently, if they tend to like stuff too much, we mess it up.
Every week in the first season, the cold open skewered a different rom-com trope.
Youve sort of moved past that, right?
I actually would love to bring them back.
B) Am I really going to sacrifice three minutes of the actual story for a joke?
A three-panel cartoon, basically?
Did you have a favorite skewer?
Or, theoretically, least favorite?
My personal favorite was in season 1, where theyre taking the romantic buggy ride and the horse dies.
The alternate version did not involve horse death.
Do you think Im going to do that right here?!
It was funny, although the horse version, I was always rooting for.
Franco, for sure.
I thought Timothy Olyphant was a really great brief guest appearance.
He played this crazy skater guy who refused to grow up.
So we made Seth Rogen a soldier.
We made Timothy Olyphant not a cop, but this skater idiot.
Shonda Rhimes playing beer pong… And then sometimes like, Ken Burns just wants to do it.
Character-wise, I know that in season 3, Jenny OHaras Dot was a beloved supporting character for you.
Yeah, shes definitely a writers room favorite.
Which characters did you add that you think helped change the show the most?
[Dannys mom] Annette really helped flesh Danny out, which was really important.
I wish Jody was in this scene, hed have had something really funny to say!
It seems like a more honest way to handle casting on our show.
Anyone you really miss whos not there anymore?
We got him back for one episode last seasonI really miss Dr. Shulman.
It was actually more fun if the doctors had no one to turn to.
But I was sad to leave Stephen Tobolowsky, and then Adam Pally, of course.
We knew when we got him that he was going places.
But hes coming back this season for an episode.
And youll see B.J.
Novaks back and Anders Holm is back and Tommy Deweys back.
Especially with the 100th episode, we wanted to build it into sort of a greatest hits album.
Whats your favorite insane thing Morgan has said, done, or revealed about himself?
If you add up every weird thing about him, hes like a Shrek-bang out monster.
Hes not a human being.
What does the shows title mean to you now?
Do you feel like it still reflects the show five years later?
Its the one thing that weve always been able to focus on.
And weve actually tracked it!
The fact that weve been able to focus on, okay, she takes work more seriously.
She actually has stable relationships.
She is a good mom.
Thats a good point.
I think thats literally what it was… Fox came up with that.
What were the other ones you tossed around?
Some of them were so bad.
Like, oh God.
Someone once pitchedThe OMG OBGYN.
Yeah, it got really stupid.
Weird question: You said 17 comedies were on when you guys started, and two were left.
Theyre all pretty serioustheAtlantas, theBetter Things, theCatastrophesandYoure The Worsts.
IfMindycame on now, would it be developed differently?
Thats a really good question.
Were all just a product of the shows we came from.
I think that any version of the show at least would have that.
As many comedies as there are right now, there arent that many that still bother to do it.
How many punchlines do you get on a page?
Are you an X-in-the-margins guy?
Personally, I dont really count.
Unless its literally a scene where someone is dying.
What are some high-concept episodes youre looking toward?
We have a couple of high-concept fantasy episodes in the second half of the season.
One isthe white man episode.
The other one is our midseason premiere, but I will leave you in suspense about that one.
Some pretty big stuff happens that were going to follow through to the end.
Alternatively, in the next 100 episodes, what will NEVER happen?
Morgan will never stop sweating.
New episodes of The Mindy Project drop on Tuesdays on Hulu.
