There's a new show on NBC called Penn 1600, about an average family just living in the White House. President Dale Gilchrist, played by Bill Pullman, and wife Emily, played by Jenna Elfman lead the family, which includes son Skip, played by Josh Gad, who is also the series producer.
Pullman is no stranger to playing a president with the movie Independence Day and television where he was recently on Torchwood. Elfman broke into TV on the hit Dharma and Greg. She was recently on the cable show Shameless and the final season of Damages.
Gad's television credits include ABC's Modern Family and Fox's New Girl. He took Broadway by storm as Elder Cunningham in Book of Mormon, and was nominated for a Tony.
Windy City Times talked with the trio as they were wrapping up filming.
Windy City Times: Hello, everyone. Was this family modeled after someone?
Jenna Elfman: Well, thank God I have so many first ladies on my speed dial. It was just like I closed my eyes and I scrolled and just pick anywhere my finger landed.
I wish. Unfortunately, I couldn't ring up any current or former first ladies so I used the old-fashioned way of a bookstore and books about first ladies. I really just tried to get a sense of what their reality is landing into such a heightened existence from their life prior to that, what obstacles they faced and what goals they had as first ladies just to get myself oriented.
Bill Pullman: It was a surreal time to be making this because of the campaign going on. So every time I read in the newspaper any account of either candidate going through something I could really kind of zero in like empathetically about what it must be like to be in private moments with the family about different issues and then ways in which that could be kind of tweaked in a comic way.
WCT: Were you able to bring in your own take to some of the characters?
Jenna Elfman: What was wonderful from my experience: We shot the pilot and then when we got picked up and we were getting ready to go into production to film all the episodes; the writers had asked me to come in and meet with them and hear stories of my life. [They heard] things that are specific to me that they may be able to incorporate—whether it's actual technical things like the fact that I'm a classically trained dancer, which they did bring into an episode, or just tonally with my sensibility in terms of my own humor, my voice, my rhythm, my timing so they could really write specifically towards me in their incorporation of the character.
Bill Pullman: I was out of town so I didn't meet with the writers but they all seemed intrigued by the fact that I've had a ranch in Montana for a long time. It ended up being the state was Nevada for a while; there was some talk it could've been Montana which would've been really an exact parallel. We actually used that in an episode too, which was a whole lot of fun to make that.
Jenna Elfman: You got to chop down some serious trees.
Bill Pullman: Josh and I had to split wood.
Josh Gad: No, Bill had to split wood. I had to act like I did.
Bill Pullman: True.
WCT: With gay marriage being such a big political hot topic, is that discussed on the show? Are there any gay characters?
Bill Pullman: Well, in the pilot one of the characters expresses an interest in the same sex. But it's like all of the issues that we address on the show—the show itself is not very politically motivated.
That's not our intention. Our intention is to do a story about a dysfunctional family that happens to be in the most famous address in the United States of America.
And while it touches on politics it's sort of backdrop and not at the forefront of any of the story lines.
WCT: Josh, how did you come up for the idea of the show?
Josh Gad: Essentially, what it was it was an opportunity for Jason Winer to exploit me. He saw my character in Book of Mormon and loved it and wanted to take that kind of thing and bring it to television.
Interestingly enough, when we were first discussing this project what intrigued me so much about it was the idea of this family like my own family or like a lot of dysfunctional families who has their warts and all under the constant scrutiny of being under this microscope.
I originally didn't want to play Skip because I was afraid there was a broadness on the page for the character that I was genuinely afraid of—that this is a character who can come across as annoying. It's a dangerous thing to play.
It was only after I realized that if anyone else played the role I would be very upset with myself because I would be jealous every week that I decided that I really wanted to dig into it. And when I could find that humanity and bring it to the character it felt like it came to life.
That's how it all started; we really wanted to dissect what it meant to be a family in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
WCT: Did you write this while you were in Book of Mormon?
Josh Gad: Yeah, what happened was [that] Jason Winer, the director of Modern Family, and I had met around the time that Modern Family was casting for one of the roles. I had passed on it, which is probably stupid considering my bank account is a lot smaller now than it could've been.
Jason and I met up again around the time of Book of Mormon and we hatched this idea. We knew that we wanted to work together. We knew that this was kind of the perfect vehicle to do that. That missing ingredient was getting the person who could ground it into the reality that we wanted to set it against which was the White House. And we came across Jon Lovett, who is not be confused with the former Saturday Night Live comedian, but [was] a young kid who was working for the president's administration as a speechwriter. Once that happened it started firing on all cylinders. The process began around my final five months in Book of Mormon and then went from there. When I finished I went to shoot the show.
WCT: Were you going to up for the role of Cam or Mitchell on Modern Family?
Bill Pullman: No comment, but I think you can look at the archetype of both of those characters and figure out which one I was up for.
WCT: What's it like Bill going from shooting movies to television?
Bill Pullman: It proceeds at a pace but it's still a lot like an independent film in that you've got to get your day's work done. I think also in this multicamera, single-camera thing it's been great to be involved in a story with heartfelt things. It's nice not to have that live audience going "aww" every time.
WCT: Is it difficult to make a first family not seem perfect?
Josh Gad: Yes. It was interesting because when we set out to do this one of the first decisions that we had to make was kind of figuring out who our president and first lady were going to be. When Bill and Jenna fell into our laps it set the rest of the show afloat because we knew that this president and first lady couldn't be goofy. If they were in any way goofy nobody would buy them in the office and therefore we wouldn't have a show.
Because the axis is so wobbly when it comes to the children the centrifuge, which is the president and first lady needs to be as strong as possible. I think that that's what gives us the freedom to sometimes go a little crazy with some of the other characters.
There's an absolute necessity for people to relate to this family. If they don't relate to the family, then what are they really tuning in for? I think especially as the episodes go on you'll find most of the characters relatable if not all of the characters relatable to you or somebody that you know I think it's safe to say.
Jenna Elfman: What I love—with my character, specifically—is just that she does have these moments where she's a fully capable lawyer and political consultant, and she does have a sharp wit.
But when it comes to the family as the stepmother, that's her Achilles heel. That's where she falls off balance and is grasping for straws and gets a little bit nutty.
When the two worlds collide ... it gets a little crazy for her. I'm having fun having those moments where I get to play like I know how this is supposed to go but not when there's a family involved.
That's when there's an inner conflict within my character and I get to fall off balance and find a comedy.
The show 1600 Penn airs Thursdays on NBC.
