Greg Daniels on afterlife comedy and Upload's long gestation

When Greg Daniels first had the idea for Upload, he was still working at Saturday Night Live. It was the mid ‘90s, and Daniels was walking past a store advertising its new delivery of CD players. He immediately thought of Upload’s basic concept—What if the afterlife was virtual?—but didn’t think it was right for, as he says in the interview above, a 4-minute sketch starring Dana Carvey. Fast forward several decades, several hit TV shows, and about a billion advances in relevant technology, and the show is about to make its streaming debut on Amazon Prime Video—a company that’s not too dissimilar from the megaconglomerates Upload makes fun of quite a bit. It’s an irony that’s not lost on Daniel, and something he talked to us about for the interview you can watch up above. We shot it over the internet, but neither of us is calling from the great virtual beyond. At least, we’re pretty sure…