Take one part civil rights, another part I Love Lucy, a pinch of drunken decisions mixed in with a self-aware sense of humor and emotional resonance where you least expect it, and you’ll get a wedding cake with two “Husbands” on top. Husbands is a webseries sitcom created by Brad Bell and Jane Espenson that stars two gay men, Brady and Cheeks (played by Sean Himeon and Brad Bell) who, in the aftermath of marriage equality, get accidentally married in Las Vegas. Season 3 just wrapped up and can now be found on Youtube.
We were able to talk to Jane, Brad, and director Eli Gonda at New York Comic Con.
The Quad: How’s NYCC going?
Jane Espenson: Good!
Brad Bell: So fun! It’s always really packed for us. The schedule is wall-to-wall, so we don’t really get to enjoy the more fan-oriented things, but we do get to meet as awesome fans as ours. And that’s always really fun.
Eli Gonda: Yeah, I’m seeing my first con and it is something that’s unreal.
JE: This is your first con?
EG: Yeah. I lost my con virginity [everyone laughs] at the Javitz Center and it’s been fantastic.
And how’s it been meeting with fans while you’ve been here?
JE: It’s great.
BB: Incredible. More and more, it’s more intense and they are bigger in numbers and their commitment, engagement, excitement–we just got fan gifts that were inspired by the show. People are making shirts and forming street teams and it’s all really cool.
Has it been fun seeing that grow?
BB: Yeah, it’s more than fun, it’s humbling and rewarding and it feels like that’s what we set out to do.
How does it feel that the final episode of Husbands’ most recent season is out?
BB: Great. It’s getting a really great response, and now we’re going to be able to put them on the CW’s Youtube, so that we can release them internationally. People around the world will be able to get to see them and enjoy them and it will start all over again for them. It’s really great just seeing the fanbase grow more energized and more excited. It feels more and more like the show has found it’s voice, you know? It feels the most now like the show we set out to make.
Eli, you directed the last three episodes, so how does it feel for you?
EG: Pride. Pride to be a part of something that’s as funny and as touching as it is. And as special. And the fact that now more audiences in more countries are going to be able to see it is wonderful.
With Husbands being translated into different languages, there may be some translation issues. Do you feel comfortable that the humor and story will still get across?
JE: Absolutely. And a whole lot of people speak and understand English, so the world domination of the United States is working in our favor [laughs].
BB: We are a part of the expansion of the totalitarian industrial complex [laughs].
JE: People are getting and loving it, a lot of the jokes are language-specific, but interestingly enough, in the most recent ones that Eli directed, there’s a whole lot of physical comedy. So this last one, I think, is extremely good for international viewers.
BB: It’s funny in any language!
JE: Brad falling on his ass, everyone likes that!
What were your goals when creating Husbands?
JE: Mostly, to be funny. The next priority was to say something important, and we were right in the middle of the marriage equality fight, and still are, and it seemed like what better way to the make the case than to say “here’s a couple, fall in love with them.”
BB: We wanted to make a show that we wanted to watch, and the shows I always loved to watch have been shows that do take into account the issues in society, real problems that you can relate to, and maybe even problems that we can’t, but that are also really entertaining and have great characters. Like the Golden Girls, All in the Family–the shows that weren’t afraid to be real, and at the same time, they were an escape.
JE: I think the fact that TV shows have been so accessible to people of Brad’s generation, even older shows, means that both Brad and I grew up watching the same shows, even if we grew up 20 years apart. We both grew up watching Norman Lear shows with a great social conscience, and you don’t see shows do that anymore, where they will take on an issue, make it funny and make you think, and we hope we’re a part of that tradition.
What are your goals now?
BB: To do that more, but bigger.
JE: Just to keep telling stories. We’ve got some in mind that would require more sets—
BB: Just a little more money, not a lot. Just a few more resources for it. Like being able to build a soundstage for a plane in an episode.
JE: Or a locker room, we’d love to go to Brady’s workplace and see his professional baseball life. And how does Cheeks fit into that?
How important for you is it to strike a balance between humor and having a social conscience?
BB: The goal is always to have a humorous show that is about something real. To say “strike a balance” is not really what it’s about, we want it to be 100% funny all the way.
JE: The “strike a balance” metaphor suggests that they work against each other, that if you have more social conscience that there’s less funny. And it’s not. Think of it as two wells that both fill up with water.
BB: Or like a recipe for a really funny, yummy cake.
JE: So if you add more of one, you gotta add more of the other, or your cake is going to come out all weird. The best jokes are about something real. The more that you make a show about something, the more it’s got the funny built in.
BB: Truth is one of the things in the triangle of comedy.
JE: And the other two are marijuana and heroin.
BB: Heroin doesn’t make things funny, Jane, it makes things swirly. I’ve got to refresh her on drugs and their effects. Mushrooms are the giggly ones.
What can you say about the future?
JE: Well, the CW has been very clear that they like the show very much and I think they are also interested in seeing more stories. We will see how that materializes.
BB: I think if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, they should make that known. So that the CW knows that those people exist.
EG: If you love the show, let them know.
Newlywed Game Round!
Between Brady and Cheeks, who is more likely to…?
Leave the stove on?
Both said Cheeks!
Leave the toilet seat up?
JE: “That’s Brady. Cheeks wouldn’t like that.”
Brad agreed!
Hog the bathroom?
JE: “Cheeks has a lot of products, but Brady’s unaware of his elbows.”
BB: “Hm, hogs it spatially. I didn’t interpret in that way.”
Both still ended up with Cheeks!
Secretly be a hoarder?
JE: “I can see Brady doing that. That he collects all of his souvenirs, I think Brady is a real sentimentalist. He probably has the ticket from the first movie they saw together, so I’d say Brady.”
BB: “I said Cheeks because it’d be a secret. He doesn’t want anyone to know how sentimental he is, so that’s why he’d secretly be a hoarder.”
JE: “Brady would be secretive about it because he wouldn’t want Cheeks to laugh at him.”
BB: “Maybe he secretly hoards things from their relationship. Really insignificant things.”
Different answers! Jane answering with Brady and Brad answering with Cheeks.
Give out Halloween candy?
Both said Brady!
Score: They matched 4 out 5 times!
To watch Husbands, check out these links to season 1, season 2, and season 3.
