Q&A: Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, creators of TBS's Search Party

On Tuesday, Oct. 18, Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, co-creators, co-writers, and co-directors of new TBS mystery-comedy television show ‘Search Party,’ premiering Nov. 21, visited the University for a pre-screening of the pilot. The Daily Princetonian sat down with the pair, whose previous credits include directing the feature film ‘Fort Tilden’ and writing credits on the shows ‘Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp’ and ‘Mozart In The Jungle,’ and TBS publicist Angela Char to discuss feeling lost after college and the current television landscape.

The Daily Princetonian: What inspired the show ‘Search Party?’

Sarah-Violet Bliss: We made a movie together called ‘Fort Tilden,’ and after that we were deciding what we wanted to do, and we knew that we had wanted to work in television and were trying to figure out what the right project would be for that. Michael Showalter was our teacher at New York University [where the pair met in graduate school], and we met with him and he said he wanted to work with us. We all started figuring out what that would be. Once we got connected with [production company] Jax Media, which Michael introduced us to because he’s worked with them a lot before, we came up with the idea of a mystery comedy, which was kind of in the same world as our movie, but had a genre element to it, which was really exciting for everyone. We wrote the pilot and Jax financed us, and then we pitched the pilot and that’s how it all came to be.

DP: You’re at Princeton for the pre-screening. Are you trying to appeal to a college audience? What’s the marketing strategy?

SVB: We’re definitely trying to appeal to college kids based on the release of the show. The week of Thanksgiving, two episodes will run per night for five days. The idea is that college kids will be home and binge-watch it, and then the marathon will be repeated over Christmas. All 10 episodes will also be released online on the premiere date. The demographic is 16-35.

Angela Char: TBS is going through a rebrand right now, and this is definitely a show that we hope will appeal to younger audiences, which is part of the reason we’re doing a college tour.

Charles Rogers: Overall, a big part of the theme of the show is about finding yourself and about feeling lost in life, and I think those are some themes that a younger audience, especially one in their 20s, can relate to. And so I think a big part of us coming to colleges is hoping that people will relate to that part of the show. It’s kind of at the forefront, as the reason the main character becomes so obsessed with the mystery [the disappearance of her college acquaintance] is to find herself.

DP: Do you see yourselves in any of the characters? I know they are imperfect, and kind of crazy.

CR: We really drew from ourselves, and we have a lot of the same friends, so we pulled from a lot of people. Even when we’re thinking of ideas now, we keep meeting people and saying [a character] could be just like that person. We end up drawing from what we know.

DP: What was it like switching from directing a movie and working on TV shows to creating your own TV show? Was that a big adjustment?

CR: It was in terms of having to do everything – in a lot of ways it felt like when we made our movie, because we are responsible for so much of it, and it’s something that we are creating. It’s different from writing on TV shows because you really only serve a specific purpose as a writer. Being in this position, the biggest thing that’s different about it is that we have the support of a few other people who are also responsible for making the show, and a lot more money behind it, so we feel a lot more supported. There’s a larger conversation you can have with more people, and all of that is really comforting.

DP: So was the marathon strategy TBS’s idea, or did you have any say in it?

SVB: Not really, other than that they ran it by us and we were like ‘Great, whatever you think is good!’

CR: I think it’s TBS’s way of joining the binge culture that’s at large right now.

DP: What do you think of the current TV landscape? Do you think ‘Search Party’ is filling any sort of void in it?

SVB: I think that ‘Search Party’ has this really special tone that I haven’t seen before, the mix of two really popular things: the lost young person, and mystery. It’s got a real drive to it the whole time, which I think is what some people find lacking in the lost young person genre. And then with the mystery, it’s got this comedic element, which is not usually how mysteries are portrayed – they’re usually much more dark and sinister. And this does go there for sure, but it’s a comedy.

DP: Have you always been intrigued by mysteries?

SVB: We’ve both always been really interested in mystery, and we’ve both had weird things that’s happened in our families.

CR: We love Woody Allen, too.

SV: The idea of a mystery just sparked something in us. Yeah, Woody Allen is great, ‘Manhattan Murder Mystery’ is a good comparison to our show.

CR: We were trying to think of a hook to put on a millennial satire, and it was hard to think of anything we wanted to run with, and then when the idea of a mystery came up, it was so easy to get excited about. It was an easy thing to run with, because it’s really fun to play with mysteries.

DP: How would you describe your creative partnership?

SVB: When we were writing our movie, we just literally sat at the computer together and wrote next to each other, and then in a writer’s room it works much differently in that it’s not just us, there are other people as well, and so there’s lots of ideas and outlining. We start in big broad strokes and get narrower and narrower. You don’t really start putting fingers to keyboard until you have all of the beats down, especially with this type of show, which is very serialized and kind of complex. Then you assign episodes and everyone writes them.

DP: So did you direct each episode together?

SVB: Yes, except for three, which another director directed while we were still on set. Basically, the way the structure of the production worked, it was helpful to have another director.

DP: What was working with TBS like? Did they give you suggestions?

SVB: They did, they’d give us notes, but they’d be really standard, good notes. It’s all a collaboration – I don’t see getting notes from other people as a bad thing. It’s more helpful so everyone is on the same page. And then if we ever have a disagreement we can just explain where each side is coming from, and it gets resolved pretty quickly.

DP: What was it like working with the actors?

SVB: Great, they’re all dreams. They add so much to the show.

CR: They’re all comedians to some varying levels, so there’s so much improve. They give a lot of themselves to the characters. We really started to write for them once we knew them. When we made the pilot we had ideas about the characters, and then we knew where to go from there because the actors are all so distinct and have huge personalities.

DP: What do you ultimately hope viewers will get from the show?

SVB: It’s hard to answer without giving away plot points.

CR: I think satirically, one thing that we’re really interested in is commenting on the cringier aspects of culture. I like daring people to look at the things about themselves that they might find uncomfortable or not want to admit, and that’s a big part of where the humor comes from on our show. These characters, for better or for worse, you’ll see yourself in, even if you don’t want to. They’re also very funny and lovable.

DP: How were these colleges chosen?

AC: A lot of it was what made sense geographically, but we were also looking for student bodies that we thought would appreciate the tone of the voice. Your [Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students]Thomas Dunne was just so enthusiastic when we talked to him about it, so when it came down to choosing, we wanted to work with someone who was really excited. We also have TBS interns who work with us, and we screen shows for the interns to get their honest feedback on what they do and don’t like, and a lot of the interns end up getting us in contact with people who program events.

DP: Are you nervous and excited about the premiere?

CR: Yeah for sure, we’ve been working on it for so long. We need to figure out what we’re going to wear to the premiere.