Documentary Now‘s Rhys Thomas and Alex Buono Talk Taboo Subjects and the SNL Influence
On a Friday in the middle of production on Documentary Now’s second season last year, the minds behind IFC’s Emmy-nominated docu-comedy series realized something wasn’t working with the episode scheduled to shoot that Tuesday. Instead of bringing in an emergency script doctor or delaying production, the creatives called a mulligan and started over.
“There was a whole other episode planned,” says show co-creator and executive producer Rhys Thomas, who won’t describe the scrapped episode in case they revive it for season three. “The script was never quite getting to a place where we felt good about.”
Luckily, Documentary Now’s creators—Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Thomas—along with cinematographer/co-director/executive producer Alex Buono, all had years of experience working on Saturday Night Live. The venerable sketch series has served as a proving ground for comedians for decades, with overnight writing sessions and last-minute changes de rigeur.
Thomas says that the team went into full SNL mode. Comedian John Mulaney, another Saturday Night Live veteran writer, had an idea for one of Spalding Gray’s most well-known works. “Mulaney is such a Spalding Gray disciple that’s it’s easy to understand he kind of had something up his sleeve,” Buono recalls. Mulaney and Hader then proceeded to bang out a script over the weekend.
By Monday, Thomas, Buono and team were prepping for the new episode; some crew members were understandably—to use the technical term—freaking out. “I don’t think it’s ideal for anyone,” Thomas says, “but I think because of our experience on SNL, we weirdly also get a kick out of rolling the dice and going for it.”
The all-weekender writing session and production cram turned into the episode “Parker Gail’s Location is Everything,” a take on Gray’s one-man show Swimming to Cambodia (1987). Hader’s deadpan and monologues win the episode as he deftly channels the playwright/performance artist.
While the scenario isn’t typical for the series, it illustrates Saturday Night Live’s influence on Documentary Now. Thomas points out that Documentary Now emerged from one of SNL’s filmed sketches. “We did one particular short called, ‘The History of Punk,’” he says, “And it was a kind of template for what Documentary Now would become.
“I directed it, Alex shot it, Seth wrote it and Bill and Fred were in it—and Fred wrote music for it, too,” he says. “It was this faux profile on this band. Obviously, it’s a band with a twist: the only Thatcherized punk band. Fred’s character was really-pro Maggie Thatcher.”
So when it came time for Armisen and Hader to pitch their concept to IFC, Thomas says, they showed execs the punk short and got the go-ahead for the anthology series. But the gang didn’t get around to fleshing out the show until about a year later. Hader, Armisen, Meyers, Thomas and a few others borrowed the Mulaney show’s production offices for a week to nail down the episodes.
“A few things floated to the top,” Thomas recalls. “Seth identified Nanook of the North as a documentary he really liked and had a pretty clear idea of the character and the joke of it.” The group also discussed their affinity for Grey Gardens and The Thin Blue Line. “Quickly a few of these slots filled up as direct references to these documentaries.” The Documentary Now team created, “Kanuk Uncovered,” “Sandy Passage” and “The Eye Doesn’t Lie” as episodic homages to those classic titles.
As fans of the series know, the episodes range from straight parodies to more sublime takes on source material. Globesman is filled with pathos, as Armisen subtly portrays a globe salesman seemingly taken from Albert and David Maysles’ 1969 documentary Salesman. Juan Likes Rice & Chicken, one of both Thomas’ and Buono’s personal favorites, mirrors David Gelb’s 2012 film, Jiro Dreams of Sushi.