Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Another Periodreturns to Comedy Central for its third seasontomorrow night.
What interested you in putting them in the center of something theyre actually opposed to?
Natasha Leggero:Its funny, because the womens movement has progressed so much since we wrote the show.
Riki Lindhome:We wrote it the fall before last, in 2016.
But we were actually writing episodes during the Clinton-Trump campaign.
So we thought, Hows that gonna affect society?
We figured thered be a lot of backlash against women because wed have a woman president.
Then Trump won about three-quarters of the way through writing our season.
So Comedy Central gave us more time and we reworked a lot of stuff.
NL:I think we were just lucky in a lot of ways.
So weve just been lucky with how relevant it feels.
So its like: Things are still the same.
It always strikes me when you see anything from that time period how little things have changed.
They were still afraid of immigrants then.
We have an episode this season where an Italian family moves in next door.
And now we just think of Italians as….
I dont know what.
I get what you mean.
My familys Italian and Ive definitely never suffered because of that.
Were just considered assimilated now.
RL:Things are stupid now and theyve always been stupid.
How do you approach satirizing current issues through the lens of the past?
RL:We sort of take aColbert Reporttactic, where we take the wrong side.
Like we lobby Congress for women not to have the right to vote.
We take a hardline point of view just to show the absurdity of it.
But she was still like, We still need hatchets everywhere, it doesnt matter how many people die!
I really love how the show messes with historical figures from the past and makes them all terrible.
Are there any that youve really want to write into the show but had trouble working in?
We really attempt to make everything as accurate as possible.
RL:These are just flawed people.
Even if they did amazing things later, theyre still just people.
Ghandi was a lawyer before he wasGhandi, so we had him be our lawyer.
What are you most excited about in season 3?
NL:Im trying to think of what we did.
I watched it thinking, This argument sounds familiar.
NL:Its about a lot of things.
RL:And that was the first time women could compete and it was only in archery.
And there were only six competitors in the Olympics.
So we definitely werent taking liberties.
If we just do research, we can find storylines.
Probably the same as now or the first time women were in anything.
Theres that famous photograph of the first woman to run a marathon in the 80s and someone tackling her.
So that sort of makes it more palatable.
So theres some striking parallels this season.
Whats the process like in your writers room?
We had to take a lot of breaks from writing.
RL:We did have to reframe and go, Whats funny now?
It was a trauma in a way.
We had to rethink how we were gonna formulate the rest of the season.
And we basically just did it through Jasons character.
NL:Hes so amazing in the show.
Hes just endlessly funny.
When we edit it, its like, we could just watch him.
RL:And theres definitely light episodes where Beatrice and Lillian find out theyre mortal.
We still have silly storylines woven in with the political.
Trump is so hard to satirize because hes so out there in terms of ridiculousness.
And also because we wrote it over a year ago.
Every day its like, whatd he saynow?
You cant really make fun of that because hes done like five thousand things since then.
Every day is a fresh thing.
So its almost better that [the show] takes place in the past because its not so literal.
RL:I think its because if they did, theyd have no one to talk to.
[laughs]
NL:Right.
Theyre not that popular.
RL:They dont love their husbands.
Theyre not loved by their parents.
They dont have any viable love interests.
They have no friends.
NL:Theyre not interested in their children.
RL:Maybe theyre just afraid of the boredom.
NL:And really in the aristocracy or those trying to be aristocracy it really is all about family.
you’re free to see it in the Kardashians.
The people who love to watch the Kardashians, thats what keeps people coming back.
They do seem to love each other.
So [Lillian and Beatrice] have one redeeming quality.
And Lillian and Beatrice definitely read that way.
They grew up together.
Its like, we find the same things funny.
We both like to mistreat servants.
You guys also really go for some great dumb bits on the show.
How do you balance those with moving your storyline forward?
RL:What we do is see to it the storyline is in place first.
So we have those scenes, those lines, and then we have room to play.
But we definitely have a go at lay that foundation first and then we have room for the idiocy.
NL:And some of the most classicAnother Periodstorylines are already pretty dumb.
That stuff is all from going to Newport and hearing real stories.
Eccentric rich people are definitely the gift that keeps on giving.
Erica Liesis a writer and comedian.
