The series inspired by the Wondery podcast about Marty Markowitz and Ike Herschkopf.

It’s like Marty was under Ike’s trance for decades.

You’ve gotta listen to it."

I’m going to double down on this whole thing."

And then it was the point of no return.

PAUL RUDD:Same for me.

It made me think ofBrian Wilson and Eugene Landywhen I heard the podcast.

They just kind of get caught up in it.

And I just think our brains are pretty malleable.

It’s easy to be convinced of something.

So it seemed to me that the micro story was a really interesting story.

RUDD:They are two guys that need each other for different reasons.

It’s interesting because you hear the podcasts.

and then there’s the story between the real people, and then there’s our story.

It’s a friendship and a patient-and-doctor relationship that just got out of control.

RUDD:With just a little sprinkling of the Sunshine Boys on top.

Kind of like powdered sugar on top of the pancake.

So between those four, you’ll find the bullseye.

RUDD:We knew.

When this came about, Showalter, Will, and I all went in on it together.

And it was always with the intention that we were going to be playing the parts that were playing.

That was part of the fun.

I just totally pictured Paul as Ike and vice versa.

So it’s funny; we didn’t really even have a powwow of, “Hold on.

Let’s think out loud here.

How would it work the other way?”

We were just kinda like, “Oh, no, that seems like the right fit.”

[They laugh.]

FERRELL:Yeah, and Bonnie… [Ferrell suddenly drops off the call.]

Maybe he fell in a hole?

[Ferrell reconnects.]

I think you were saying: Would Kathryn and Casey switch off, too?

FERRELL:They would switch off, too.

That was my really funny joke.

RUDD:Ah, man!

I totallyknewthat’s what you were going.

FERRELL:We actually flew out to the Hamptons, to his actual house.

He was nice enough to have Paul and I and Showalter spend the day with him and his sister.

And then Joe Nocero joined us later for lunch.

What allowed you to be so open about it?"

And he just said, “I’ve been through so much that I just didn’t care.

I thought, ‘What the heck?

I’ll tell my story?

Why not?'”

He was just very open to answering any and every question that we had for him.

It’s directed by Michael and written by [Veep/Successionproducer] Georgia Pritchett.

What was the common thread you were looking for in the mix of comedic people that you brought in?

When you spend time with Marty, he’s a real character himself.

It’s very heightened the way he moves, the way he talks.

And then there’s obviously elements in the storytelling that are deadly serious.

You filmed this show during the pandemic.

What challenges did that pose?

For one thing, we moved the production from New York to L.A. We had more space.

We were able to do more things in L.A., even though it’s set in New York.

We had to rewrite scenes.

A Broadway theater can’t be what it is originally in the script.

We had to rethink that.

There were certain examples like that.

It added a whole extra layer, as you might imagine to what we had to do.

Did you have to update the ending, based onrecent events in the real-life story?

Honestly, we weren’t really thinking about it too much.

And then we found out everything went down near the end of production.

We talked about it, but we didn’t dwell on it, weirdly.

I guess the final episode is where it would have changed things the most.

But I think they’ll figure out a way to comment on what eventually happened between the two.

I lean to Marty having to pop in Ike’s novels.

Or Ike taking over the textile company.

I’m still amazed that Ike just brazenly put his name on the mailbox of the Hamptons house.

RUDD:That’s the one that popped into my head too!

That’s always just a phenomenal one to me.

RUDD:There’s something very simple in that, that you think, “Really?”

That’s startling if you think about it.

[Laughs] And there’s moving in.

What do you think Ike would say if he watched this show?

I don’t know.

FERRELL:Marty really kept very detailed records of all their interactions for the most part.

I don’t think there’ll be any reason that he’ll want to watch it.

But maybe the narcissism in him will not allow him not to watch it in a way.

I don’t know if he’d ever cop to any of the behavior.

RUDD:I’d imagine he has a different perspective on things.

RUDD:Well, I’m having a tough time remembering what the hell I’ve done!

[They laugh.]

FERRELL:I feel like I’ve played a lot of people who would refuse to go to therapy.

I would say it would be fun to watch Ron Burgundy and Brian Fantana in a joint therapy session.

Like a couples’ therapist!

FERRELL:They think two buddies can go do therapy together.

RUDD:Do you think they would even understand what was going on?

And they would think it’s like a massage.

They would request a female therapist.

RUDD:“Do we get robes for this?”

FERRELL:Ron would probably say, “Hold on letmeask the questions.”