Kevin (Probably) Saves the World is one of my absolute favorite shows on television right now. I have a lot of shows that I like but this is one that I have to watch the very next morning after it airs- and Justin, who doesn’t even care for TV that much, wants to watch it right away too! We like it because it’s our favorite kind of humor- witty, self-deprecating, and physical all rolled into one. The storyline is unique and isn’t like anything that’s been done before- it’s actually hard to describe the show because you can’t reference other similar shows that came before it because there aren’t any!
Last week at the #PixarCocoEvent I had the chance to interview Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, Creators and Executive Producers of Kevin (Probably) Saves the World. Read on to see what they had to say about how the show came to be, their true feelings about star Jason Ritter, and more!
There’s reference in a couple of the episodes that there’s someone working against them. Will we get to see more of that this season?
Michele Fazekas: We sort of explore that with Will Sasso a little bit more and talking about what that means. So, yes. Will Sasso plays Dave, who will actually be around for more than one episode. As things move toward them figuring out how to find the first righteous person, we will see more [warriors for God].
Some of the funniest scenes are when you can’t see Yvette and you see Kevin talking to himself. Is that what the town sees?
Michele Fazekas: Yes.
Tara Butters: In last week’s episode, we had what we called the puppet fight. Watching those dailies was absolutely insane, because we shot it all with Kimberly doing all the moves with him and then we shot it without her. And Jason’s ability at physical comedy… I grew up on Three’s Company. I think that Jason is his own person, and I think what he brings- I wanna say he’s better than his father [John Ritter]. But I think he brings everything that his father had but even a grounded realness to his performance. But you see his dad in him and it’s crazy.
Michele Fazekas: The director of the pilot had him do a scene. It was a scene when they were talking in the diner, and usually when you do a scene where somebody’s invisible, you would shoot the scene and the person is just off camera saying the lines to him. So, somebody is saying the lines with him even though you don’t see that person. Well, the Director, Paul McGuigan, goes, “Can you just do it without hearing the lines?” So, basically just doing the lines in your head. And Jason’s like, “Yeah, I think I can do it.” He did it so well that the crew like gave him an standing ovation, because he’s so good.
He knows his lines and the other person’s lines, and so they do that a lot. But I also don’t wanna go to that well so much, because then I think it gets kind of old.
I’m curious where the idea for the show came from.
Tara Butters: What was weird is, we have a deal at ABC Studios. So, we’ve been here for several years. We did Agent Carter for them and then a show called Resurrection before that. And we had had a different pilot, actually a pilot that was kind of more tied to Disney IP (Intellectual Property) and everything. And we had been working on that and because of various things that happened, we ended up having to shelve that pilot. And it was actually literally the day after the presidential election that our pilot went away.
Michele Fazekas: At the time we were like, well, let’s just rewrite something.
Tara Butters: Write something for ourselves.
Michele Fazekas: We’ll just write a spec (a speculative script) and maybe it’ll be a cable thing.
Tara Butters: But part of it was like, whether you’re on the right or the left politically, one of the thing we walked away from this past year was, there’s just a lot of people who are unhappy and don’t feel good about where they are in their life, and that they don’t feel heard. And I think we kinda took that as something as inspiration – it felt like people needed something that came from a good place and kind of reminded you that little acts actually do add up and that you can do one thing and that might inspire somebody else to do a good thing.
Michele Fazekas: Well, after that year of campaigning- it’s really easy to find ugliness in the world. You don’t have to work that hard. Go onto Twitter. Go onto a message board on a news website. So, that’s super easy to find. And so, I think part of us was like let’s just do something- and we were on Law and Order SVU for five years. That’s a dark show. I have nothing against that- but it’s like, I’ve done that. I don’t need to do that again.
And we always like sort of blending genres and sort of elements of wonder and mysticism. We met as assistants on the X Files, and even on Agent Carter we were blending comedy and drama and action and adventure all in the same show. And that’s not always an easy tone for people to understand. Even with this show, I think people didn’t know what this show was. And it was hard even for ABC to sort of package it. It’s just like, just watch it and you’ll get it when you watch it.
Michele Fazekas: There’s another concept that I’d heard about while we were breaking the pilot. And it’s a concept called metanoia, which is a theological term that literally means “to see the world through new eyes”. And the concept being one person can’t change the world, but there is a transformative thing that happens when you see the world through new eyes where it actually does change the world. It’s kind of a weird concept to think about, but I liked that that’s sort of what happens to Kevin. When he decides to see the world differently, the world is different. And I kind of like that as a way to approach life.
So how far have you thought the story out?
Michele Fazekas: I know who the last righteous person is. You do have to be somewhat fluid and flexible when you’re doing a TV show, I think. I don’t know if anybody here ever watched Battlestar Galactica, which always amazed me, because stuff from season seven is talking to stuff in season one. It was like is that how Ron Moore thinks, because that’s insane.
I also feel like when we pitch a show, we pitch the long, long arcs and then we pitch the shorter arcs. But you also have to sort of be flexible enough and go sometimes where the story takes you and where the characters take you and where the actors take you. A lot of times the actors will bring something to the character that you didn’t expect, and it’s like, “I love that! Let’s incorporate that into the character.”
We have a loose structure, and I know who the last righteous person is. We have sort of long arcs for the different characters. But you know, even then it’s like- unless we get a better idea.
What has been the biggest surprise collaborating with the actors and just writing?
Michele Fazekas: One of the things that I love about somebody like Jason, because he’s got all the tools, he will throw himself around and throw his body around at the drop of a hat. He told us a funny story about when he was seven, he and his buddy thought that the most awesome job obviously was Hollywood stuntman. So, that’s what they were gonna be. But they thought in order to do that, all you had to do was just build up your tolerance for pain. So, he and his buddy would just like, hurt themselves. And I’m like, oh, your poor mother. I didn’t know that about him that he really will just throw himself around. So, we’ve incorporated that into it.
Tara Butters: Also in next week’s episode, you get all these different people in different scenes and you go, “I love them together.” That’s the fun of coming up with weird combinations and ways stories twist. I think that we want these people to do weird, wacky things that you’re not expecting, and hopefully we can always have fun with it.
Kevin (Probably) Saves the World airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC. {Episodes are also available via streaming and on demand.} Tonight there’s a new episode- “Dave”!
Yvette has her reservations when Dave, another celestial being, pops up looking to join her and Kevin on their latest mission: Reconciling Kristin and her mother under the most challenging of circumstances. Elsewhere, Nate tries to work up the nerve to ask Amy out, completely unaware of her budding chemistry with a potential beau, on “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World,” TUESDAY, NOV. 14 (10:00-11:00 p.m. EST), on The ABC Television Network.
