August 13, 2015
In The Mix

Buddy Meets Baby

The creators of Playing House adapt their comedy for season two.

Sarah Hirsch

Last summer, in season one of USA’s Playing House, Lennon Parham was a mom-to-be who’d dumped her cheating husband and Jessica St. Clair was the friend who came to her rescue.

In season two, the stars — also creator–executive producers of the series — have returned, not surprisingly, with a baby added to the permanent cast, but also some surprising guest stars.

“Lennon and I are both new mothers in real life, too,” St. Clair explains. “But we’re not going to write baby-centric stories. They do inform the decisions you make, but there aren’t a whole lot of shenanigans that go on with a baby that I necessarily want to see on television.”

Keeping the buddy comedy fresh in their sophomore season, Parham and St. Clair tell emmy’s Sarah Hirsch all about their second act.

Is there anything you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of season one?

Lennon Parham: Yeah, probably, but I don’t think we would have listened to ourselves.

Jessica St. Clair: Lennon and I used to feel like we had to do everything. We’re better at that now. We have to be, because we can’t do it all.

Are there any stories in particular that you’re excited for this season?

St. Clair: When we found out we were getting a second season, we went to the writers’ room and asked everyone what their dreams were. Was there an actor they had always wanted to write for, or meet? We told them, “We will make these dreams come true.” And we did.

Lennon’s dream was to sing with Kenny Loggins, and that happened.

Parham: I didn’t even know that was an attainable dream. When he said yes, it was so exciting — I punched a wall

St Clair: Yeah, she almost hit the drywall. We wrote an episode where Lennon’s character has her first post-baby sex dream, with both of the Property Brothers. I remember saying, “It would be so funny if we shot that dream.” We wrote [to invite] them, and they were like, “Yeah, we’ll be there next week.”

Do you have arguments in real life that are too raw or emotional to bring to the screen?

Parham: We definitely steal from our own lives, but we’ve come to a really good place in our relationship, which isn’t great for drama. So every once in a while we’ll stir it up.

St. Clair: The love between two best friends is a really intense relationship, but whenever we pitch stories where one of us doesn’t have the other’s back, that feels really false.

Do you remember the first time you were funny?

Parham: In the fifth grade, I got called a “large-mouth bass” by my teacher because I was mouthing off and trying to be funny. In the sixth grade, I decided to stand up in the middle of the class and sing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It brought the house down.

St. Clair: When I was in kindergarten, I made people laugh by holding my breath so long that I turned purple. They called my mother in, who was like, “Jessica, why do you keep doing this?” And I said, “Well, people seem to enjoy it.” And then I gave myself a hernia from doing it.

Parham: You did not give yourself a baby hernia!

St. Clair: I gave myself a hernia when I was five! Ask my mother!

Parham: I don’t believe you. Do you actually remember that? Or is that something your mother told you?

St. Clair: I remember it! She didn’t like my brand of humor…

Playing House airs Tuesdays 10/9c on USA.

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