"The League," FX's hilarious comedy about friends competing in the same fantasy football league, had to push back its production cycle due to the threat of a potential NFL lockout, said co-creator and show-runner Jeff Schaffer on Saturday afternoon at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
But once the lockout ended last week, he said, production ramped up quickly. So quickly, in fact, that the series has already cast Seth Rogen to fill a guest role in its third-season premiere on October 6 at 10 p.m. ET.
Rogen will play Dirty Randy, an infamous friend of season-two recurring character Rafi's who "preys on the weak."
Schaffer explained that they had a contingency plan if there had, in fact, been a lockout.
"We had a Plan A, which was to do the show (as-is]," he said. "And we had Plan B, which is what happens if there's no football. Plan B involed [the characters] losing their minds. The CFL would have been very happy."
Schaffer, who is also an executive producer on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," created the series with his wife Jackie Marcus Schaffer, and they are both in a fantasy football league with the show's six cast members, who also appeared on the panel — Mark Duplass, Nick Kroll, Katie Aselton, Paul Scheer, Stephen Rannazzisi and Jon LaJoie.
They call it the League Behind the League.
While the vast majority of people who play fantasy sports are men, Jackie Marcus Schaffer was more than happy to announce that she and Aselton have been the only winners in their league's two years of existence.
"I think the point you’re trying to make here is that this show has done a lot for women’s rights in this country," joked Duplass.
"You see what a push-up bra can do for you?" she added.
