Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Joe Lo Truglio and Stephanie Beatriz pitch Watched Pot: Will It Boyle?
Before our intrepid TV Club correspondents traveled to this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, we asked readers to submit questions that we could pose to the TV pros attending the event. (And we made one up ourselves.) With those questions and the answers they prompted, we bring you the TV Club Questionnaire.
If there’s any question that the camaraderie between the cast members of Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine extends beyond the reach of the camera’s eye, it was answered by Joe Lo Truglio and Stephanie Beatriz while they attended their network’s evening event during the TCA press tour.
When approached about the TV Club Questionnaire, Lo Truglio—who made his comedy bones as a cast member of The State—cheerily consented to answer our questions in what can only be described as a very Boyle-like fashion. After wrapping up his responses, Lo Truglio spotted Beatriz and immediately called her over, saying, “C’mon, you’ve gotta answer these, too,” which she did without hesitation, peppering her answers with very un-Diaz-like smiles and laughter.
The onscreen chemistry between the two actors will be on display again this Sunday, when Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns for its third season.
If you could be working on any other television series currently on the air, which one would it be, and why?
Joe Lo Truglio: The Walking Dead, because I’m a huge horror fan. And I’d just be a zombie. I’d be happy with that. [Laughs.] I love the show.
What are your earliest memories of TV, and did they have any bearing on you wanting to have a career in TV?
JL: My earliest memory of TV was probably The Little Rascals, when I was getting ready to go to school. And I guess it did have a bearing, in that I’m working with about six or seven rascals now. [Laughs.]
What efforts do you take to promote diverse viewpoints, and how do you think that has affected storytelling, either on your show or the television medium as a whole?
JL: We’re getting heavy. Now you’re laying the big ones on me! [Laughs.] Well, I write, and I’m working on a script now where I feel like a lot of the heroes of the stories that I’m trying to write are more representative of youth culture and the kind of wonderful diversity that is starting to appear in television now. I think it’s important, because I think a lot of people that watch television want to relate to people that are like them, and I think it’s important to have those people realize that they’re part of pop culture and part of the culture in general and should be represented. It’s a very serious answer, I realize, but it’s a serious question!
If you could add something to the show you’re working on, without anyone knowing about it beforehand and free from any consequences from upset coworkers/networks/viewers, what would it be?
JL: An element to introduce to Brooklyn Nine-Nine… and secretly? I’d want everyone to have a weird tic that gradually overcomes their character for one episode, whether that’s a physical tic or… You know what? Let’s make it Tourette’s syndrome. [Laughs.] Tourette’s is the element I’d like to introduce to Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
If any character from your show could be given a spin-off, who would it be and what would be the premise of the new show?
JL: I think it’d be a combo of Hitchcock and Scully, and they would end up being private eyes in a town that only has about between 10 and 20 people. [Laughs.] Someplace where they know everyone very well enough already, so—once again—they don’t really have to do much work at all.
If you could be working on any other television series currently on the air, which one would it be, and why?
Stephanie Beatriz: Wow, currently on the air? I would say it’s going to be a mix of—and, I mean, I’m not trying to suck up, but the Fox shows are really good—Empire and Last Man On Earth. Let’s be real. Also, Bob’s Burgers. I am obsessed with Bob’s Burgers. I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter or not, but I am obsessed with it. Like, I am genuinely jealous of Joe when he’s, like, “Oh, I did this voice on Bob’s Burgers.” I’m, like, “What episode was it? What are you doing? What are you doing?”
JL: I plug her every time I go in. They know.
SB: Oh, they know.
JL: They’re, like, “We get it!”
SB: They’re, like, “We get it, we get it, we don’t think she’s talented enough.”
JL: Not true. At all.
SB: Bob’s Burgers. Truly.
The A.V. Club: So if you could indeed make the cut for Bob’s Burgers, what sort of character would you play?
SB: Oh, God, I mean, honestly, I’d do anything they wanted. I’d be, like, a dog. [Laughs.] I mean, I’d make bird sounds in the background. Whatever they wanted.
JL: Background bird. [Laughs.]
SB: Background bird!
AVC: Birds by Beatrice.
SB: That’s it. That’s it, right there.
What are your earliest memories of TV, and did they have any bearing on you wanting to have a career in TV?
SB: Of course! Some of my strongest—I don’t know if they’re my earliest—were watching Seinfeld with my father and having him explain why things were funny. [Laughs.] Breaking down, like, the comedic moments. And those were genius moments to me, not only because Seinfeld made it so sort of wonderful and amazing, but it was just the sort of show that you could share between generations, because they were just dealing with human insanity. And my father breaking it down for me was so wonderful, because it was a chance for us to—I mean, teenage girls and their fathers don’t have a lot in common, but when you add something like comedy into the mix, it just opens up all sorts of doors for them to bond. I kind of hope that’s what’s happening with our show.
AVC: I have a 10-year-old daughter, and we bond over The Simpsons and Futurama.
SB: Yes! That’s it, right? You’re able to sit there with her and sort of laugh and enjoy the same story, whereas most of the time you’re sort of like— [Growls and mimes a tantrum.] And my dad’s, like, “Your body’s changing, I don’t know what’s happening with you, it feels weird.” [Laughs.] But then you bond over this thing that makes you both laugh. And it’s wonderful.
What efforts do you take to promote diverse viewpoints, and how do you think that has affected storytelling, either on your show or the television medium as a whole?
SB: I have to say, actually, one of the most inspiring people to me that sort of projects a diverse viewpoint is Andy [Samberg]. Often he is the most feminist person I’ve ever met. Much of the time he guides story in a way so that the female characters have as much weight and equality as the male characters. I wrote about this in a blog that I did for Latina magazine, and I called them “feminist dude friends.” [Laughs.] There was a Halloween episode where I was in this sort of pleather cat suit, and Andy and Andre [Braugher] were dealing with me in the scenes, and neither of them ever said anything about the cat suit. They both treated me with utter respect during the scenes and wanted to know my ideas about the comedy in the scenes and… that part of the scene was not an issue to them. And I really felt so happy when I went home that day, thinking, “These men treated me as an equal. They see me as a complete equal to them.” That meant a lot to me. I think Andy does that in all of his work. He respects women greatly, and it’s really inspiring to see that. Deep answer!
JL: See? [Laughs.] That caught me up, too.
SB: Yeah, but it’s a really great question.
If you could add something to the show you’re working on, without anyone knowing about it beforehand and free from any consequences from upset coworkers/networks/viewers, what would it be?
SB: [Instantly.] Dance team. Rosa would be on Floorgasm. Rosa would be on the Dancy Reagans. Because I personally am part of a dance team—the L.A. Municipal Dance Squad—and we dance for women’s basketball in L.A. And I would have Rosa be a part of Gina’s dance team. Like, in some weird way. Someone falls sick, gets ill, they’re in a pinch, and Rosa has to pull out her ballet moves or whatever.
JL: Awesome pitch. That’s a great idea.
SB: That would be my dream: Rosa dancing. She’d be uncomfortable, but she’d be really great at it.
If any character from your show could be given a spin-off, who would it be and what would be the premise of the new show?
SB: It would clearly be Boyle.
JL: [Uncomfortably.] Oh, I wish I wasn’t standing here…
SB: It would be, like, The Boyle-erette or something. It’d be like The Bachelor, but it’d be with Boyle and lots of different crazy ladies. All different ages and types. It would be so great. [Laughs.] It would be so great. It would be so great.
JL: Yeah. It’s called Watched Pot.
SB: Watched Pot: Will It Boyle? [Laughs.] I love that.
AVC: Now, see, if you hadn’t been standing here, the show wouldn’t have a title.
JL: Yeah, yeah. [Laughs.]
SB: That would be it. Honestly, that would be it: Watched Pot: Will It Boyle? Like, a web series of that would be so great. It’d be just enough.