Christopher Moynihan
Tags: abc, Christopher Moynihan, Man up
You haven’t heard of Christopher Moynihan yet, but I was sufficiently impressed when I met him at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. He created and wrote the pilot for Man Up, in which he also stars. That’s the kind of self-motivated upstart I can get behind.Man Up isn’t what it sounds like either. The testosterone heavy title is ironic. These men are 30-something suburbanites who play lots of video games and want healthy relationships with their wives and families. Craig (Moynihan) is the idealistic romantic who tries to stop a wedding to win the girl of his dreams.
Theresa (Teri Polo) and Will (Mather Zickel) are the happily married couple, but Theresa’s brother Kenny (Dan Fogler) still has woman troubles. Mainly that his ex-wife Brenda (Amanda Detmer) is still friends with his sister and brings her new boyfriend Grant (Henry Simmons) to make him crazy.Shot in the single camera style without a studio audience, Man Up will look familiar to fans of shows like 30 Rock and Modern Family. Man Up premieres October 18 on ABC and Moynihan tells us how he’s going to explore relationships, beautiful ladies and video games in the most product placement heavy interview I think I've ever done.
SuicideGirls: Were you always going to have a role on the show?
Christopher Moynihan: Yeah, I only started writing as a means to an end for an actor. I did a couple series back to back in 2001 and 2003 and just knew that I had to have some sort of control in my career and I knew the only way I could do that is start writing. So I started writing and I sold a pilot right away. I got to shoot it and I got to star in it. So the caveat when a network makes a deal with me is I want to star in this. I don’t put myself in the center of it because I don’t want to carry a show. I want to do the thing that I do well off to the right. I think my strength is knowing my weaknesses. I’m not writing a pilot about a strong-jawwed sheriff who saves a town from a group of aliens. I want to be the quirky guy that sings "Brown Eyed Girl" in a church.
SG:
What was the moment you decided to get up and do it? Do you have friends who sit around and wait for that break?
CM:
Well, I really am a huge advocate of taking as much control as you can. I encourage anybody who has any sort of inkling to be creative to write. For me, I was always playing music and writing songs and stuff, but it was 2002 that I bought a house and didn’t get a pilot that year. I forced myself to write a pilot. I treat it like a 9 to 5 job. The way you’d have to learn to build this thing, you have to go and go, “What kind of thread are they using? What kind of bulbs are they using?” For me it was the same. I’d watch every pilot and read every pilot and go, “How do I do this and do it well?” I do, I encourage all my friends who are acting and struggling, I say it every time I see them, “Just start writing. If nothing else, it’ll let you be creative and not feel like you’re sitting around waiting for something.”
SG:
Is it still a 9 to 5?
CM:
These days, tomorrow is going to be a 7 [AM] to 8 [PM]. It’s going to be a long day. These are the problems of a guy who got exactly what he wanted. I wanted to have a show on the air. I wanted to have a single camera show. I wanted to write it and I wanted to star in it. I have all those things. That means that the next 13 weeks I am going to be working 15-16 hours a day.
SG:
Have you made arrangements with your family?
CM:
Well, my girlfriend is an actress. Have you seen the show Episodes? She’s the development exec, Carol, who Merc is sleeping with. Her names is Kathleen Rose Perkins. She and I live in Eagle Rock. She goes to London 2-3 months at a time to shoot the show. We’re both pretty busy. We have this kind of ships passing in the night for the next three months but our goal is to manage to do this for a few years and then we’ll have the luxury of being people who are 40-years-old and have some breathing room.
SG:
Did you scrap anything else before you wrote this?
CM:
No. I had a show on the air at NBC called 100 Questions two years ago that I starred in and I created. Then I’d go into development season. Last year I went into ABC with a two script deal, I had to write two pilots for them. One of them I knew was Man Up and I knew I would star in Man Up. The other one I said, “I don’t know if I want to star in it. I’ll see what happens if we make it.” We wound up not shooting it but because I’m at the point where I can pitch and get paid to write, I don’t really write anything until I know I have a deal.
SG:
What does Man Up have to say about manning up?
CM:
I think it what it has to say is that we are a generation of men that are privileged to not forced to go off to war. All of our father and grandfathers got married and had babies and then started working. We are a generation that has slowed it. I think what’s funny is that what we have to offer is I think a unique point of view. If you hear a show called Man Up about three guys in their 30s, you expect strip clubs and Vegas and I’m just trying to get drunk and do my thing and fantasy football. What I like is that these guys aren’t those guys. They are a breed apart. They are more in touch with their sensitive sides. They enjoy the women in their lives. They’re not guys who have wives that are shrews. Will really likes his wife. He likes watching Dancing with the Stars on a Tuesday night with her and he likes spending time with his kids. But he also likes to play video games and live in that childish fantasy that his friends have.
SG:
Is Brenda the troublemaker?
CM:
Brenda’s very much a troublemaker because you know Grant is this tool, this token used to make Kenny insane and she brings him in. You can watch, Amanda does such great stuff in the pilot of just sitting there just loving every second of this torture. Our fun is that as we go on, she confesses, “I brought him in here to make you jealous but I’ve grown to really like the guy so he’s going to be part of this. He’s coming to Sunday dinner, he’s coming to family birthdays and Kenny’s going to have to deal with it. He’s going to have to get on board.”
SG:
Seriously, how can a sister put her brother in that situation?
CM:
I know, it’s funny when you’re writing. Theresa’s point of view on it is, “Listen, you brought her into this family, she was at the birth of our children, she’s the godmother to the children. The fact that you two can’t work it out is not my fault. I’m not extracting her from our lives because you can’t make it work and I’m not extracting you from our lives. If you’re going to be adults and get divorced, you’re going to have to deal with it.”
SG:
No, I’m sorry, no. When you get divorced, everyone picks sides. That’s the adult thing to do.
CM:
Well, not in this. What we do have in episode 5 is the conversation where Theresa says, “You make it so hard for me to do this because I will eventually have to choose between you if you keep riding him like this.” Brenda says, “Listen, there are things that Kenny and I did when we were married that I feel like I still have a right to. We drive each other crazy and I enjoy it but you’re right. I’ll back off.” We address that. We just address it later.
SG:
Did you ever consider doing this in front of an audience?
CM:
I did. I love multi-camera shows. I think they are something that when it’s done right, what CBS does really well, it can be [great]. As an actor, I love it because the schedule’s much better. I love the event of Friday night. The problem is going out in the world, especially in the pilot that I was breaking, I knew I wanted to do that "Brown Eyed Girl" church moment. If you set that in a multi-camera world, it doesn’t quite feel real. I think in order to go out with these guys and into the world and have these adventures, I wanted it to feel real so I had to make it single.
SG:
Is it time for someone to call people out on stopping the wedding?
CM:
What I like about it is that I said you see the Graduate moment where he gets the girl. They do it at the front of Happy Endings where the guy gets the girl. I wanted to see the real practical application of that. A guy who walks in and says, “I love her, I’m sorry” and the whole room is like, “What the fuck are you doing? We spent $50,000 on this wedding.” And the groom who’s like, “I’m going to kick his fucking ass.” We loved it going south. Greg believes up until that moment she’s going to say, “I’m sorry, Todd. I’ve got to be with this guy.” She doesn’t.
SG:
He gets bad advice though. The one person who tells him to go for it is Brenda, the person with the worst relationship skills.
CM:
Exactly and Greg’s asked everybody. “Should I do it?” “No.” “Should I do it?” “No.” “Should I do it?” “No.” “Should I do it?” “Yes.” See, someone said! And the first thing he says in the car is, “Brenda said it was a good ideas.”
SG:
And it’s always those people with bad relationships themselves that have all this hope for “I think it’ll work out.”
CM:
Exactly which is when I say to Will, “Need I remind you, this is a woman who married Kenny. She’s not somebody you listen to about relationships.”
SG:
What funny stuff is coming up?
CM:
We have Grant coming into the group and being ingratiated and being accepted by Kenny. You get Dan and Henry having a conversation and playing basketball, it’s so funny. We do episodes where instead of going camping in the woods the way our fathers would, we camp outside of Wal-Mart to get a videogame, complete with tents and Bunsen burners.
SG:
Wait, isn’t that equally valid?
CM:
I feel it is. I feel it’s the modern day equivalent. Plus, in the morning you get to be first in line for a video game. For them it’s win win.
SG:
It’s more social than going into the woods by yourselves.
CM:
That’s one of the justifications. In our episode, Grant, who actually gears up because he thinks we’re going camping shows up and goes, “We’re in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Why do you think I brought a crossbow? I thought we were going into the wilderness.” I say, “Look around, these people are enthusiastic about something.” Grant spends the entire episode trying to embrace the nerddom of you’re so excited about this video game, you’ll sleep on the pavement to get it.
SG:
What other games will make an appearance?
CM:
It’s a tough thing. Product integration is so, so dicey. If it were up to me, I would launch
Call of Dutys and any sort of launch game and I would show the footage, but it’s hard with licensing. We have a company like Disney and Sony makes the Playstation, it’s really hard to get those two products integrated. Ideally we’re hoping that they’ll time a launch of an actual game with an episode of ours where we can actually show it and talk about it and reference it. Product placement is so, so dicey, you can’t say the words Dr. Pepper in your show unless you get permission from the network to do it. It’s a very, very delicate thing. I would like to think we’ll be able to launch real games in the show. That would be my goal, but it’s hard.
Call of Dutys and any sort of launch game and I would show the footage, but it’s hard with licensing. We have a company like Disney and Sony makes the Playstation, it’s really hard to get those two products integrated. Ideally we’re hoping that they’ll time a launch of an actual game with an episode of ours where we can actually show it and talk about it and reference it. Product placement is so, so dicey, you can’t say the words Dr. Pepper in your show unless you get permission from the network to do it. It’s a very, very delicate thing. I would like to think we’ll be able to launch real games in the show. That would be my goal, but it’s hard.
SG:
Can we say Dr. Pepper in this interview?
CM:
I don’t know. When you air, we’ll see. They might have to cut it out. I love Dr. Pepper.
SG:
I love Diet Dr. Pepper.
CM:
Love Diet Dr. Pepper. I like caffeine free Diet Dr. Pepper because late at night, again I’m not my grandfather, I don’t drink whiskey sours and fall asleep whenever I want. If I have to get up, I don’t want my legs to be jittery. I’m cutting off caffeine at 6 p.m.
SG:
What happened to Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper?
CM:
That was a great one. I think it was too much of a good thing. You’re throwing so many things at the same target.
SG:
I never read anything about it being discontinued.
CM:
No, it just stopped. I’m a huge advocate of diet soda. I love that stuff. My favorite is IBC Root Beer at night. Diet IBC is caffeine free, very tasty, no calories.
SG:
Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper was the most flavor I have ever tasted.
CM:
In a diet drink.
SG:
No, in my LIFE.
CM:
Maybe that might’ve been a problem. People weren’t ready for that powerful a drink. I don’t know.
SG:
Do you expect to attract the Tim Allen type man crowd or stay at home dad crowd?
CM:
I don’t know. I think what I expect to attract, what I’d like to think, like I said, the guys who are Vegas, football, beer drinking, “my wife’s a pain in the ass” type of guys, I don’t know if they’re going to dig it. I’d like to think so because we all have this video game thing in common. Every 35-year-old guy in this room has a Playstation 3. He has to. I think it’s more of a family show. The women are a very, very big part of it. Will’s drive to be a good dad and be a good friend I think are the appealing things about it. The name kind of pigeonholes us. With Man Up people expect a certain thing. I hope they give it a shot to realize it’s more than just three guys in their 30s, could be tough.
SG:
The women so far are a sweet mom, and a troublemaker but still a blonde type. Is there room for more alternative types of women?
CM:
Yeah, there are. Craig, my character, because I play guitar and he fancies himself a bit of a singer-songwriter, he winds up developing a lesbian following at a coffee shop and then meets a very, very cute alternative lesbian girl. She makes a comment in passing like, “Boy, if I were still into men, I’d be all over you.” He thinks, “Maybe I can turn her.” Then he realizes lesbians are really lesbians. They’re not women who just haven’t found the right guy. So we’ll have girls like that. We go to Will’s office. In Will and Craig’s office there is a very, very powerful domineering beautiful black girl who basically makes their lives miserable.
SG:
Did you test alternate titles?
CM:
We didn’t. Tim Allen’s show, Last Man Standing, was originally called Man Up before they bought it on spec before Tim was involved. We thought they’re going to tell us we can’t have the title because Tim Allen would want it which of course, Tim gets what he wants. Tim’s Tim. But they went with Last Man Standing which is more key to what their show is. It’s a guy in a house full of women. Ours tracked well right from the beginning so we never really thought about another title.
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