The starry cast of TBS’ new comedy “Angie Tribeca” was upstaged by a four-legged co-star Thursday during the panel for the show at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.
Steve Carell and Nancy Carell, who executive produce the series, were joined by cast members including Rashida Jones, Jere Burns, Hayes MacArthur, Deon Cole and Andree Vermeulen. But the group gladly ceded attention to Jagger, the German shepherd.
After Jagger hopped up on a chair on his own, the first question was inevitably about what it was like to work with an animal who had such a prominent role.
“Jagger is great and a fantastic actor in his own right,” Steve Carell said. “But in the pilot all he had to do was run around a desk and sit on a chair, and that day he didn’t feel like doing it. So it has its challenges.”
“When I was directing him we put him behind the wheel of a car and he had no problem,” showrunner Ira Ungerleider retorted.
The panel also addressed TBS’ decision to launch the half-hour show with a 25-hour binge marathon, running all 10 of the first-season episodes back-to-back on repeat.
“We were taken aback, we’d never heard of such a thing before,” admitted Ungerleider. “Then we tossed it around in our brains and thought this is actually a pretty cool way to inroduce a show. We’ve seen all different ways of rolling out a show from the tease to the double cross to the triple play, it’s hard to say which way is the best way to get your show to emerge from the clutter.
“When we finally embraced this idea of the 24-hour binge marathon, we thought, let’s go out there and put the show out there. The way we consume entertainment today is binging. I watched 20 hours of ‘Game of Thrones,’ much to the chagrin of my family. We’re kind of excited about the binge-a-thon.”
“The show really lends itself to that kind of release,” added Jones. “There’s wall-to-wall attempted jokes in every episode. If you like that, you’re going to want more of that. I think it’s a good way to watch the show.”
“Angie Tribeca” has already been renewed for a second season. Season 1 will premiere on Jan. 17 on TBS.