Marti Noxon and Darren Star: A Conversation With the 'UnREAL' and 'Younger' Creators About Their Unexpected Hits
Remember those head-scratchers back in early 2014 when Lifetime announced it was teaming with Buffy the Vampire Slayer executive producer Marti Noxon for a dark comedy, and TV Land tapped Hilary Duff to star in a show by Sex and the City creator Darren Star? We couldn’t imagine such concepts working on networks known for their soapy dramas like Devious Maids or more mature-skewing comedies like Hot in Cleveland.
But they did. They worked. Really, really well.
Noxon’s UnREAL, a behind-the-scenes look at the dirty dealings of a Bachelor-like reality show, just picked up a handful of Critics Choice nominations, while Star’s Younger, about a 40-year-old woman (Sutton Foster) posing as a 26-year-old in order to land her dream job, already has people buzzing about its second season premiere this January. We spoke to the pair of them (who are friends, because sometimes the world is exactly as it should be) about creating two of 2015’s most unexpected breakout hits.
For those planning a holiday binge, the conversation is spoiler-free.
Yahoo TV: What have been some of the benefits of having shows that aren’t obvious fits for their networks?
Darren Star: The benefits have been having a network that has a lot of passion and support for what we’re doing and putting a lot of resources behind it. It’s an important show for the network. It’s nice to be at a network where they want to use the show to help change their identity, so they have been supportive from the beginning. … I think the best part of the experience for me — and it echoes my experience at HBO — is that the network is really supporting the creative side of the show and trusting the creative side.
Marti Noxon: We were so lucky with Lifetime. For many years, they were saying that they wanted a show that would really break out as unexpected for them. We just came at a really good time. We just had a tremendous amount of support and we were a priority for them, which was different than being one of eleventy billion high-profile shows on another prestige network.
Marti Noxon and Darren Star (Photos: Getty Images)
Does what network a show is on even matter anymore?
Star: For me, the network itself is less important than the network that’s going to support your show because people are consuming TV in so many different ways that they don’t even know sometimes where the show is originating.
Noxon: I would absolutely echo the same sentiment. I think we’re in a time when people are much more interested in a show than where you find it. And once you get a groundswell of chatter, people will seek it out regardless of where it is.
Was there a single moment where you realized chatter had reached that groundswell?
Noxon: It was probably about halfway through the run when I started hearing from people, just running into them. … I’d see people and they’d be like, “Oh my God, I can’t stop.” That kind of peer response started being mirrored on Twitter, and then critics started to review every episode. That was really exciting, to feel that the conversation started to be not about where the show was but what the show was.
Star: Definitely people were surprised to find Younger on TV Land because they haven’t done single-camera film shows and comedies without a laugh track. This is more of a premium cable kind of experience, and it’s been a real word-of-mouth phenomenon, which I think is the best way. Any show that I’ve been involved in that’s been successful has become successful over time. I think we’re still gathering that audience and looking forward to a second season where more people have heard about it and found it on the many runs on TV Land — which is another advantage to the show being on the network — and Hulu and iTunes and Amazon. People are still finding us.
Constance Zimmer leads her charge on UnREAL. (Photo: Lifetime)
Have there been any challenges to working with networks with less experience doing the kinds of shows you’ve produced?
Star: TV Land was a little bit nervous about doing a show in New York where they didn’t have a big presence, and it was their first single-camera show. But once we did the pilot and started shooting the series, they got comfortable really quickly. Marti, I’m sure you’ve had the same experience: When you’re working with a network that really prioritizes your show and also are fans of the show you’re doing, it’s a really nice ride.
Noxon: Yeah. More with Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce on Bravo — we were their first scripted show — we definitely had language issues. They spoke reality at first. At one point they said to me, “Gosh, you know, can we cut this shot? It looks so composed.” I said, “Uh, yeah, it is. Actually, all the shots are composed.” But we quickly got on the same page.
Hilary Duff talks life at 26 with Sutton Foster on Younger. (Photo: TV Land)
Can you pinpoint any one decision you think took the series to the next level and made it a hit?
Star: Getting Sutton Foster as the lead. I can’t think of another actress that could’ve pulled it off the way she does, and I think there was a little bit of getting TV Land comfortable with it. Their model previously was like, “Let’s take older, bigger TV stars and put them in a new show.” In this case, it was like, “Let’s go with someone who is really fresh, that a lot of America is not as familiar with but is going to be fantastic in the role.” They took that chance with me and they love her, but that was a very important casting choice.
Noxon: The same: Constance [Zimmer] and Shiri [Appleby] are just powerhouses, and they brought so much counterbalance to the roles because they’re both inherently likable people and the characters they play are not necessarily. I also think that bringing [Suicide Kings director] Peter O'Fallon in to direct was one of the best choices we made. He loves sort of loosely organized chaos. … It was very hard to tell when you were on the set and when you were not on the set. You constantly ask extras for directions to craft services and they’re like, “I don’t work — I’m an actor.” He had a template for the look and the feel of the show that I think was distinctly not what you’d associate with the network.
Social media wasn’t really a thing in the eras of Buffy and SATC. How has that added element affected Younger and UnREAL?
Star: TV Land has done an amazing job of creating and sustaining a social media campaign for Younger. … It’s been a huge asset to spreading the word of mouth of the show, and I see it happening on social media in terms of reading some of the Facebook comments, how people are connecting with each other and saying, “You have to watch this, let’s watch it together.” It’s like seeing word of mouth happen in real time. It’s kind of fascinating.
Noxon: We did have The Bronze, a very active website on Buffy where we got a lot of feedback and post-game discussion. But now it’s important to be engaged in the discussion while the show is airing and right after. Our cast will get together whenever we’re airing and live-tweet during the show, and we’ve done Periscope and Instagram. The more available talent is to their audience, the more that core group is really, really engaged. It feels now like it’s part of the job, whereas before, it was just sort of optional.
Do you think social media would have changed anything for those older shows?
Noxon: Back in the day, Buffy might have benefited, but we tried everything to get our numbers up. Now our ratings would be like the Super Bowl, but we were in the toilet. … We used to joke that we could have all-naked Buffy and the number would just stay the same.
Star: It’s hard to know. The show was successful without it, so I feel like you’re hearing more people telling you what they think of the show rather than seeing it. It was such a different world then. I think back to Sex and the City sometimes and think, “Wow, we did not have smartphones when we did that show. How did we communicate with each other? How did anybody get anything done?”
Noxon: It was kind of a gift though, because at least you’d have characters able to show up at each others’ houses. Now it feels like such a pretense, like, why did they drop by? Scenes on phones are really boring!
Season 2 of Younger premieres Jan. 13 at 10 p.m. on TV Land. UnREAL Season 2 will arrive on Lifetime later in 2016.
Read more Toast of 2015 interviews:
‘Better Call Saul’ Showrunner Peter Gould Shares the Key to the Show’s Season 1 Success
Christian Slater on the Moment He Knew 'Mr. Robot’ Was Different
Why 'Quantico’ Was Priyanka Chopra’s First Choice for a TV Role (and She Read a Lot of Scripts)
3 Ways Danny Strong Knew 'Empire’ Would Be a Hit: Twitter, TMZ, and Rhonda’s Bib
