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Home , Broadcast network, Chrissy Metz, Dan Fogelman, Fred Claus, Galavant, Jon Huertas

Is His Long before he created last season’s top-rated new TV show, got his start listening to his Penn housemates’ stories and making them laugh with his.

BY ALYSON KRUEGER

the evening of March 7, 2017, fi fth most popular program overall for This Is Us tells the story of the Pearson Hollywood and producer the 2016-17 season, according to Nielsen family—biological twins Kate and Kevin; Dan Fogelman C’97 had a ques- ratings. But from the start of his career, adopted son Randall, born on the same ON tion for his 24,500 Twitter fol- Fogelman’s fi lm and TV work has always day; and parents Jack and Rebecca. Some lowers: “Everyone okay?” tried to reach viewers by giving them of the story is set in the present, as the was one week before the season fi - everyday stories to which they can relate, siblings are turning 36 years old, but there nale of his show This Is Us was then turning things up a notch (or more) are also extended fl ashbacks to their child- scheduled to on NBC. There from real life so they can’t look away. hoods and to Jack and Rebecca’s early many plot lines still unresolved on the His entrée to writing for fi lms was an relationship and the day of the kids’ breakout-hit show—the rare broadcast early mining the real-life emo- birth—when, in the big emotional moment network program to capture the zeitgeist tional upheaval of a teenager— that sets the series action in motion, Jack in the current era of prestige cable and with more than a passing resemblance to and Rebecca decide to adopt Randall, an streaming sites—and the show’s loyal the author—going through his Bar Mitzvah. African American infant abandoned at a viewers were an emotional mess. One of his most successful movies—Crazy, nearby fi re station, after the third of their “Um … no … not even close,” respond- Stupid, Love, from 2011—is rooted in the expected triplets dies at birth. ed @sassycrazygal. “Gonna have to watch misadventures of a long-married couple The adult siblings all have their diffi cul- next week in a corner somewhere.” (played by Julianne Moore and Steve ties: Kate () hates herself “MY HEART IS ON FIRE!” posted @ Carell) trying to rekindle a romantic spark for being overweight. Kevin (Justin iAMgaither. “Why must you do this to in their relationship. Another, 2012’s The Hartley) stars in a hit TV-show—whose me?!?!?!?!!” Guilt Trip, starring Barbara Streisand and punning title, The Manny, tells all you This Is Us struck a special chord with , involves a mother and son need to know about it—but can’t focus —Variety reported in May that bickering and bonding their way through on his serious acting ambitions or a re- it was the number one new show and a cross-country road trip. lationship. In addition to struggling gen-

54 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Sep|Oct 2017 ILLUSTRATION BY JONATHAN BARTLETT Sep|OctSep|Sepp|OctOcO t 20170177 THEHEE PENPEPPENNSYLVANIAEENNNNNSYSYYLVYLLVLVANIAAANINIANINIAA GAGAZETTEAZEETTTTETTTTEE 5555 erally with his position in the family a lot of it is really, really good. Any program about how much the show aff ected them. because of his race and adopted status, that breaks through that is a big deal.” Weekly called This Is Us over the course of the season, Randall The response on social media was even “a bear hug for a culture desperate for a (Sterling K. Brown)—a successful trader bigger. On the day of the show’s fi nale, little bit of that human touch.” The Atlan- in “weather commodities”—has to come March 14, 2017, #thisisus was the number tic headlined its analysis with, “This Show to terms with fi nally meeting his bio- two trending topic on Twitter. Will Make You Cry.” Singer-songwriter logical father, who is dying. Meanwhile, “When a show breaks out like this, John Mayer tweeted while watching: “Not in the past segments Rebecca (Mandy where people are watching it when it airs even wiping away tears for the next epi- Moore) is torn between motherhood and and live tweeting it, that’s exceptionally sodes. Just gonna let the fi rst ones create pursuing a singing career and Jack (Milo rare in our age,” says Birnbaum. “People tracks for a more even, effi cient fl ow.” Ventimiglia) struggles with an inherited don’t want to miss this because they want Comedian Sarah Silverman said it more drinking problem. (He appears to have to be part of the conversation.” simply with, “I’m a puddle of tears.” died before the story’s present, in which Count me in, too. Critics speculated on why the show was Rebecca is married to his best friend, I am a triplet, and for my family, the getting the reaction it did. Was Fogelman’s Miguel, played by .) show has been a form of therapy, giving writing that good, or was it just fortunate Family stories have been a staple of TV us a glimpse into how another family with timing that he created an emotionally ca- from the beginning and have been set multiple births operates. My parents and thartic show at a moment when Americans everywhere from the suburbs of two sisters all watched it every week, and needed an outlet for their feelings? Another Ozzie and Harriet and The Brady Bunch then we would analyze it together over theory proposes that the acting is the key— to the Cartwrights’ wild west, the Rob- text or the phone. When we have family the cast is so good, no one can turn away. insons’ outer space, and the Depression- drama, we’ve started saying, “This is us.” Whatever the reason for the hold This Is era mountain country of The Waltons. Us had on audiences, the network took —still going strong after ince the show appears on NBC rath- notice. In January, NBC announced it was eight seasons—is a more, well, modern than, say, HBO or Netfl ix, this renewing the show for two more seasons, example of the phenomenon. enthusiasm fueled media which hardly ever happens in this era of “We had Parenthood, we had thirtysome- Sreports hailing it as a sign that broad- fi ckle viewers and generally declining TV thing,” says Debra Birnbaum, executive cast television could still hold its own in audiences. (Empire, the big new network editor for TV at Variety, naming two more the face of the rising popularity of cable hit of 2015-16, is still popular, holding the standouts. “It’s not like [Fogelman] dis- and streaming services. A Times number six slot in 18-49 viewership, but covered this new genre or pot of gold that article carried the headline: “‘This Is Us’: saw a 33 percent drop in 2016-17.) Which no one has thought about.” Why TV Networks Are Hopeful.” leads to another question: Can This Is Us But the extent to which This Is Us took The program also ended the drought of keep up and retain its devoted following? hold across the country surprised near- industry recognition for network shows, Fogelman is certainly thankful for the ly everyone. which have been largely shut out from show’s success—“I’m blessed,” he says re- The for the show amassed 50 consideration at the big awards programs peatedly—but he’s not much interested in million views on Facebook—as compared by cable and streaming entries. This Is Us the speculation around why it’s become to 15 million for Star Wars Episode VII: won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite such a phenomenon. (Pitch, meanwhile, The Force Awakens. Since premiering on New TV Drama last January, and was the the other Fogelman-created TV show that September 20, 2016, This Is Us averaged only show nominated debuted last season, about the fi rst female 15 million viewers each week, close to the in its category, Best Television Series, pitcher in Major League Baseball, strug- numbers reached by perennial audience Drama, at the 2017 Golden Globes (Netfl ix’s gled to fi nd its audience despite positive favorite The Big Bang Theory, and trailing won). And in July the show was critical response and was cancelled after only that show and various iterations of nominated as Best Drama Series—again one season by the Fox Network.) primetime NFL broadcasts for viewers in as the only broadcast network entry—and “I just write,” Fogelman says. “And I’m the sought-after 18-49 age demographic Sterling K. Brown and trying to get really, really good.” to earn the fi fth spot overall. were among the contenders for Best Throughout the fi rst season of This Is “That’s huge for a scripted drama,” says at the , scheduled to be Us Fogelman checked on his viewers Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier broadcast on September 17. through Twitter. Randall’s learning about Center for Television & at Besides the love from regular viewers, and coming to terms with his biological Syracuse University. “There are around celebrity fans and critics alike couldn’t father was a major dramatic arc. During 460 scripted shows currently active, and stop themselves from publicly talking the episode in which the father died, he

56 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Sep|Oct 2017 “I just write. And I’m trying to get really, really good.” wrote: “I know. Everyone breathe.” After the show was over, he sent another mes- sage: “Are we on speaking terms yet, or do you need more time?” While such comments might easily seem teasing or patronizing, Fogelman insists they were sincere and that he has always been overly concerned about those around him. “It isn’t because I’m some great per- Fogelman accepting a 2017 Television Academy Honors Award for This Is Us. son,” he clarifi es, laughing.“It’s a degree of an illness that creates a hyperawareness The house threw such large parties, they Mandel Show and went from there to of what is going on around me.” got away with charging an entry fee. After stints as a on The As a kid he would go to movies and get one party, no one could fi nd the pot of Man Show, the 1999-2004 beer-and-boobs so involved in worrying whether the per- money, and a fi ght broke out. Everyone Comedy Central program that Jimmy son behind him could see that he couldn’t went to bed and Fogelman—wanting to Kimmel co-hosted, and writing blurbs for pay attention to what was happening on make people laugh and feel happy again the TV Guide Network. the screen. He remembers thinking some- after the fi ght—stayed up all night writing He also grew his local network, making thing was wrong with him. a newsletter with funny articles about all with fellow 20-somethings trying At Penn he would spend hours at night the people in the house and posted it on to make it. “We’ve always said we were talking to his roommates about their their doors in the morning. like Entourage without the movie star,” lives and what was going on with them, “Everyone read it—and it, because he says. “We were all the hangers-on.” remembers Siddhartha Khosla C’98, a it was so funny,” says Khosla. “He started By the early 2000s, Fogelman had ad- musician and composer, whose credits doing it all the time, and [that’s] when vanced far enough in the industry that a include writing the music for This Is Us Dan became a comedy writer.” series he created—, about and E’s The Royals. “At least once a week Fogelman agrees: “It was the closest black and white families sharing the same we would hang out in our kitchen at two direct education I got, writing things and house—made it to air. It ran for a season or three o’clock in the morning, very making people laugh.” (He also studied on the WB network in 2003-2004. But his inebriated. We would talk about what English literature and spent his junior real turning point as a writer came when we wanted to accomplish in our lives and year abroad studying the Victorian nov- he gave a script he had been working on what we wanted to do and who we want- el at Oxford.) in his free time to another Penn friend, ed to be,” he says. “Dan would give us a Senior year he got some maps from AAA Jess Rosenthal C’97, then an underling at pep talk. He pumped us up.” and drove out to California to “take my a management company, who now runs Sophomore year Fogelman convinced crack at the industry,” he says. It was such Fogelman’s . 12 of these friends to move into a gigantic a spontaneous decision he hadn’t even It was a true-ish story, titled Becoming house at 4012 Spruce Street. “It was the lined up a place to stay. Halfway through a Man, about what he went through most motley crew,” he remembers. “There the road trip, he realized he would be leading up to his Bar Mitzvah. It even was a star basketball player and two foot- homeless in LA and asked a friend’s girl- included a scene based on his father— ball players, an Indian guy from New friend if he could crash with her. Soon he Marty Fogelman, who helped start Jersey, and a black guy from .” secured an assistant gig on the Howie Babies “R” Us—getting into a fi stfi ght

Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP Sep|Oct 2017 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 57 with relatives at a golf game the day be- sibling rivalry (Mom always liked Santa deal. When they asked him what he was fore the ceremony. best)—and —a clever, girl-power working on, he showed them a script he “I remember going to his house in Santa reworking of the Rapunzel fairy tale for had been sitting on about three siblings Monica and there being hundreds of Disney—came next. with the same birthday. pages of this script,” says Khosla. “That In 2009 he hammered out a story about Khosla immediately sensed its power. was the same Dan. Nothing has changed. a group of family members and friends “Dan has always understood who peo- He has his head down, and he’s working, whose crushes and love stories overlap. It ple are and where we come from,” he and that is how it is.” caught the attention of Steve Carell, who says. “He understands we aren’t just who The fi lm was never made, but the script helped convince Warner Brothers to buy we are today but the sum of so many was good enough to secure Fogelman a it for $2.5 million. Crazy, Stupid, Love diff erent things, and there is a story be- gig writing for a computer-animated fi lm gained praise from critics who liked its hind every person that explains who we about a good-hearted but egocentric rac- unexpected turns and pleasant conclusions. are and why we behave the way we do. ing car and his companions, which “What makes it worth watching, and This was a perfect example of that.” turned out to be the 2006 hit Cars. It was worth liking, is the sense that it arrives a watershed moment. “You go back to at its warm and comforting view of things his Is Us emerged in a challenging LA, and you are the kid who wrote the not by default but by choice,” wrote New environment for broadcast television. next movie, and suddenly the world York Times fi lm critic A. O. Scott. (It also Because the major networks still face is at your fi ngertips.” had a real-life happy ending for Fogelman. Tregulations about what they can show In 2015, he married one of the actresses in the way of sex, violence, and strong oglelman’s current goal is to get into in the fi lm, Caitlin Thompson.) language, viewers have been migrating darker spaces with his writing. “I’m Next came The Guilt Trip in 2012, to grittier, more provocative shows on challenging myself to explore stuff which pairs and Seth cable channels like HBO, AMC, and Fthat is less pleasant,” he says. “The Rogen as mother-and-son road-trip com- Showtime, or streaming services like last episode of This Is Us [was] a lot panions. The writer drove from New Amazon and Netfl ix. darker than anything we’ve done.” Jersey to Las Vegas with his beloved “The fact that there have not been The episode alternates between telling mother, Joyce Fogelman, to research the many edge, zeitgeist-y shows on broad- the fateful story of how Rebecca and Jack fi lm. Many of the scenes in the movie— cast networks has not encouraged others fi rst met—she is singing at a bar’s open including one in which Streisand scarfs to go there,” says Feinberg. “We’ve seen mic night, while he is contemplating steal- down a Texas-sized steak at a stop in the a mass exodus to cable and streaming.” ing money from the same bar to open an Lone Star State—are based on events that He points out that the last time a broad- auto body shop—and a gigantic fi ght be- really happened. Fogelman’s recent fi lm cast television network series was nomi- tween the couple that leads Jack to move credits also include , in which nated for an Emmy was 2010, with CBS’s out of the house and for the two to pos- a group of old friends—played by Michael The Good Wife; no broadcast network show sibly divorce. The fact that the episode Douglas, , Morgan has won an Emmy since 2006, when Fox’s ended without revealing how Jack died Freeman, and —go away for 24 took home the prize. So when This Is or what exactly happened to their relation- a bachelor party, and Danny Collins, Us took off , the entire broadcast television ship or even if they had made amends which he directed as well as wrote, about industry cheered—and then immediately before he died divided critics and left an aging rock-star (Al Pacino) who fi nds commenced trying to fi gure out why it some viewers emotional but unsatisfi ed: it hard to change his life. worked, so they could imitate it. “This Is Us season fi nale pulls off the While those fi lms moved toward the “It’s the idea that if you can build it show’s cruelest twist yet,” the headline more complicated emotional mix of This they will come,” says Birnbaum. “If light- from Diane Gordon’s review for Mashable, Is Us, Fogelman’s previous TV work was ning strikes once, it can strike twice.” sums up this reaction nicely. more broadly comic and off beat, including Some observers inside and outside of Until now, Fogelman’s creative ventures the Princess Bride-ish musical-fairy-tale, the show have said it was the right pro- have been light and comedic. Cars is about , and The Neighbors (about a New gram for the Trump era. In an interview, an adorable vehicle who gets lost on the Jersey family that moves into a gated com- Moore told , “The way to a racing championship and learns munity otherwise populated by aliens), uncertainty is in the air, and nobody valuable lessons about how friendships which each had two-season runs on ABC. knows what to expect in the next couple are more important than trophies. Scripts In the summer of 2015, 20th Century months, coming weeks, and year ahead.” for family-friendly —a saving- Fox lured Fogelman from ABC For that reason people were looking for Christmas story leavened with a dash of to its writing stable with an eight-fi gure “cathartic entertainment.”

58 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Sep|Oct 2017 “I think it’s a little bit about the right place May, is an exercise in meta-marketing in for the show’s staying power—starting and the right time,” says Birnbaum. “When which the interrupt fans who are with the fact that it managed to grab and things are very complicated in the country in the process of being fi lmed for a com- hold an audience in one of the toughest right now, when things are dark, it’s about mercial about how much the show has seasons for entertainment television in fi nding a show you can watch an hour of meant to them. One fan reveals to Chrissy memory, when the real world was provid- and have a good, cathartic cry. That is some- Metz that she named her daughter “after ing plenty of drama all on its own. thing people are really responding to.” you”—meaning her , Kate. “What made This Is Us’s success more Syracuse University’s Thompson dis- But neither fortunate timing nor top- impressive is that it happened in the face agrees: “People are always temped to say fl ight acting would be suffi cient if the show of one of the most widely covered presi- because Z is happening in the world, Y itself wasn’t fi rst-class, says Thompson. dential elections in the TV age,” says is successful, but you can “The number one factor to a show’s success Feinberg. “It happened in the face of a usually make the opposite arguments as is whether the show is good, whether it World Series that everyone cared about well. During a Depression people might has characters we are interested in, wheth- because it went to seven games and in- relate to shows about serious issues and er it has stories we fi nd compelling.” And volved the Chicago Cubs. It happened at a hardships, but they also might want to all of that comes down to the writing. time when it didn’t have a regular schedule live in a fantasy world of wealth and Only time will tell if the show can sus- because there were some weeks it was off .” conspicuous consumption.” tain its popularity. “This Is Us has already It also has a story line that a wide range He believes This Is Us is benefi tting made history because it did a really fi ne of viewers can relate to, upping the odds from the fact that so many shows have fi rst season,” says Feinberg. “Whether or on their staying engaged. become about technology, science fi ction, not it goes down in history as one of the “The funny thing about the show is or the kind of fantasy realms depicted great television shows of all time will everybody thinks it’s about them,” says in a show like . This Is require a few more of those.” Birnbaum. “For me, it’s about my father Us is one of the only shows out there that That fi rst season introduced the main passing away. For other people, it’s about is sincere, warm, and earnest. characters and slowly showed how they the weight issues. For somebody else it’s “We are attracted to This is Us because relate to one another and became the about being adopted into a transracial it is a really good show of the type there people they are. There are still looming family. I think for everyone else it just isn’t a lot of,” Thompson adds, “so when questions—how did Jack die? Why does taps into something.” we had a desire for that type of program- Rebecca marry his best friend? Main- As a triplet, it’s been a powerful show ming, that is the go-to.” taining the intrigue after those situa- for me. The other day when I was talking Pressed to speculate on his success, tions are resolved will be hard, acknowl- to a mentor about a particularly diffi cult Fogelman laughs and puts out an argu- edges Birnbaum. childhood memory, I found myself ref- ment: “It might all be bullshit, and I have “There is a lot of pressure on Dan,” she erencing the show. these great actors who crush it every says. “But he has a good head on his “Remember in the fourth episode when week.” Metz, Brown, and Moore were all shoulders, he has a plan for the second the family was at the pool, and Randall nominated for best actor at numerous season, and it’s already planned out. I’m went to hang out with the black kids, awards shows from the Golden Globes not concerned about it, but he does have and Kate was getting made fun of by her to the . a lot of work to do.” friends for being fat, and Kevin almost “I will say this is an exceptional cast,” Fogelman will also have to nail down drowned in the swimming pool?” I asked. Birnbaum concurs. “There is camarade- the next two seasons while working on (For the uninitiated, Rebecca was off rie, there is professionalism, there is a other projects. He’s currently in post- trying to fi nd Randall, and Jack was com- support system. This is a cast that has production on Life Itself, a multi-genera- forting Kate, so nobody was paying at- been in the business for a long time, and tional love story he wrote and directed tention to Kevin.) they appreciate the success. They know that is set in New York and the Spanish “Of course,” she said. “I couldn’t stop it doesn’t happen all the time.” countryside and stars Wilde, Oscar crying.” The cast has put out behind-the-scenes Isaac, Annette Bening, and Samuel L. “Well, in that moment I defi nitely felt of them celebrating the show’s Jackson. (In June a story on Entertainment like Kevin,” I said. renewal or playing pranks on fans. (They Tonight’s website quoted Fogelman on the Her response: “Yeah, we all do .” once knocked on a man’s door when they “bizarre” experience, while fi lming in New saw through the window he was watch- York, of having people “run past the mov- Alyson Krueger C’06 is a New York-based ing This Is Us.) All have gone viral. The ie stars to come ask me how Jack died.”) freelance writer and frequent contributor to trailer for the second season, posted in There are some other promising signs the Gazette.

Sep|Oct 2017 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 59