By Alicia Rancilio
NEW YORK (AP) --"Schitt's Creek" star Annie Murphy's new AMC series "Kevin Can F Himself" presents itself as one of those traditional multicamera comedies with a laugh track and corny jokes. Viewers will quickly learn it's actually much darker.
Murphy stars as Allison, an overwhelmed wife who does all the work at home and puts up with her husband's immature antics. When she's alone, the show changes to a single camera formula, the lighting goes dark, and Allison isn't just exhausted, but furious. She's deeply unfulfilled in her life and marriage and desperate for a way out.
Murphy, who already won the acting gig lottery with "Schitt's Creek" and earned herself an Emmy Award, says she would have never said yes to "Kevin" if it were a straight sitcom.
Those bright, multicam scenes serve a purpose. They illustrate how so many of the sitcoms we've all loved over the years about a haggard wife with a lazy husband have not only said something about our culture, but a lack of opportunities in showbiz for women.
Murphy sees many of those shows now as missed opportunities. "They do not give a thought to the women involved, so many of whom are spectacular comedic actresses," says Murphy. "And they give them very, very, very little to work with."
The 34-year-old wasn't always this enlightened and it's something she's "deeply ashamed" about.
"I'd watch a sitcom no problem with the rest of them, and that's just the way it was," says Murphy. "I didn't really overthink it, and now I can do nothing but overthink it. There is no going back to watching a sitcom the way that I used to because now I have a completely different lens on when I watch. Just to see the amount of misogyny and homophobia and racism that we are being kind of coached to laugh at in these these sitcoms is really jaw-dropping. You can't unsee it."
Eric Petersen, who plays Kevin, is more measured, saying he's worked in multicam formats before and is appreciative of those opportunities. Before accepting the role, he wanted to clarify the show wasn't simply a campaign against the multicam comedy.
"I was like, 'I just want to make sure we're not making a show that's like, "We hate multicam.'' It was more taking the multicam, putting it on its head, shaking it a little bit and then putting it back to say something about the world, about the industry and about current events."
The show title is a play on the Kevin James sitcom "Kevin Can Wait" which aired on CBS from 2016-18. After a lackluster first season, Erin Hayes, who played James' wife, was killed off the show and replaced by Leah Remini as a potential love interest. Remini and James co-starred on "The King of Queens" for nine season.
Creator Valerie Armstrong says she hasn't heard any feedback regarding the title but she's not waiting by the phone either.
"The title stopped being some reference to anything else so long ago," she says. There were reminders on set of its origin, however. Some of the "Kevin Can F Himself" crew also worked on "Kevin Can Wait."
"They would wear their 'Kevin Can Wait' merch, like their show jackets while they were filming, which always made me laugh," said Petersen.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More