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Lets talk aboutTed Lassos second season.
I mean, there is a sense that the show is inspiring and positive.
But people have always been going through shit on the show.
Weve referred toThe Smurfs, but were not actually doingThe Smurfs.
Were not doing anything that we werent already doing, were just exploring it a little more.
I presume youve watched eight episodes [that were provided to critics in advance]?
I have, yeah.For me, a big thing was, Okay, this guy has panic attacks.
Like, you have an episode and then you kind of forget about it for a while.
But we cant leave it alone forever.
In fact, it would be borderline irresponsible if we did not get into that a little bit.
So part of that was just my thinking in a room full of people who all think different things.
So if were exploring things more deeply, it starts from exploring Ted more deeply.
Which is kind of odd given how much we are doing with the supporting characters this season.
When you first introduce the therapist and the concept of therapy, Ted is so against it.
I remember the first time sorry, this is a tangent.
Someone brings up a dare of, you cant drink a whole gallon of milk.
And like,I was raised on milk.
It was good for my teeth.
It was good for my bones.
Id dip my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in it.The full-on vitamin D whole milk.
Someone had actually tried it and they couldnt get all the way through it.
They wanted to die, and they loved milk, too.
Now we have a slightly more nuanced view of milk, so milk isnt necessarily purely good.
Obviously, we know this, but at the time I thought so.
Even love and, as many European films featured on such networks as Cinemax have told us, sex!
As good as that is, you’re able to overdo it!
So kindness is not immune to that sense.
Was there any conversation about whether the dog dying was pushing things too far?
Im also wondering where the inspiration for that came from.
We had that in our heads.
Somehow we got it in our head to combine those two.
The Greyhounds have an owl mascot, and that mascot gets free, Dani will kill that bird accidentally.
But then eventually Jason was like, I think theres gotta be a dog.
But at least its a Greyhound, so that at least is organic.
Having this owl, Jason was like, Well, thats just not organic.
So looking back on it, we werent like, Hey, lets kill a dog.
Can you talk about the origin of Ted becoming Led Tasso inepisode three?
Where did the idea stem from?Well, that is the root of the whole thing.
That is us taking the chance to bring back the Ted Lasso from the original commercial.
I think that was 100 percent the right choice.
Having said that, it was so fuckin fun to do.
The outtakes alone are just killer, theyre so, so fucking funny.
As before, its fucking hilarious.
I think it might just look like regular Ted.It might look like Mick Fleetwood, roughly 1978.
Fully, crazy-eyed lunatic with testicle necklace hanging from his belt.
Final answer: Mick Fleetwood.
But a very chatty Mick Fleetwood, right?
Im mostly trying to draw similarities in my own life.
Like, I dont think hes from Kansas, I think hes from Central Illinois.
I went to school in Central Illinois, so I can get with that.
Like me, I think he had some adventure in Europe for a while.
I lived in Amsterdam for five years doing comedy out there.
I think he was a roadie for the Dave Matthews Band or something.
Fleetwood Mac.Something more in the jam-band variety.
Something that was more in acid culture than coke culture.
But not Phish.I think maybe Phish!
You think Phish?Phish!
But then, yeah, he went to Europe and he met a gal.
He got cleaned up and then he became Teds assistant coach.
How much of that do you think will come out at some point?Thats a great question.
B: We have options.
But we dont know.
We dont know if well ever say.
208 is, I think, our longest-ever episode and theres just so much happening in it.
But the first cut of episode eight was like 54 minutes or something.
Is that the longest that youve ever had?Thats crazy long.
When somethings that long, youre looking to cut scenes, basically.
But watching that was like, Oh no.
Theres a lot of good shit in this episode.
Im not quite sure what were going to do.
I think we got it down to 44 or 45, but its a pretty tight 45.
Whats up with the 45 minutes?!
Im always waiting for the backlash anyway.
I was just going to ask: Are you worried about that?
Or not worried, but just expecting it?No, more worried than expecting.
But it seems like nowadays, anything thats good has to pay for it at some point.
Pretty much everything but Marvel.
Theres been Marvel backlash.Oh, great.
But nothing can go well forever, is how I was raised.
Were not actually worrying about it.
Just got to go do our thing.
So its kind of like, Oh, shoot.
Everyone loves the show and we love doing it, but ohhhh,Fleabagended pretty great.
Six episodes: Its special.
Thats what was in our head when we were seeing three chunks.
This show looks for the English way of doing things all the time.
All the way back to at leastFawlty Towers, in terms of the great English shows.
