Ever since “DMV” co-showrunners Dana Klein and Matt Kuhn got the green light to make a workplace sitcom set at the DMV, they’ve received an influx of horror stories, with members of their writing staff alone experiencing an injury after rushing to get their correct documents to avoid losing their place in line, as well as the bureaucratic runaround for an internship rejection after being told any application would have to go up through Sacramento.
“It’s nice to have a show where, when people ask you what it is, and you just say the one-sentence logline, it brings up so much for so many people,” Klein told TheWrap, noting that she, herself, was quite well-versed in all things DMV after taking her three kids to the East Hollywood location (where the CBS series is set) for their drivers’ test — two of whom didn’t pass on their first nor second try. “I spent a lot of time in those rooms,” she recalled.
“It is the great equalizer,” Kuhn said. “If you drive a vehicle, everybody needs to go and register, get a license, renew things … everybody has that shared experience on one side of the Plexiglas.”
What was particularly intriguing to Klein and Kuhn, however, was the perhaps mundane shenanigans between the employees at the DMV, who keep coming back to work in spite of the minimum wage salary and consistently disgruntled customers.
“When you go in there, the average person is wanting to get in and out as quickly as possible. But the employees, they’re just trying to do their job and do it well and earn a living,” Klein said. “They’re caught between both the customer side of it — where probably people are not in the best moods — and then their own bosses and the bureaucracy and all the rules that they have to follow.”
While the specificity of the DMV and bureaucratic red tape — which forces the East Hollywood DMV to go up the chain to Sacramento for even the smallest asks, like turning on the A.C. — might resonate with government workers, the showrunners feel confident viewers will relate characters’ mixed feelings towards work and their colleagues.
“People either want to get to the end of the day or take pride in what they’re doing,” Kuhn said, adding that the team dove deep on what keeps each character “in a job where people are walking in through the door annoyed.” “It is a little bit of leaning on each other, that found family piece … ‘We’re a work family, we can get through this together.’”
“DMV” is based on Katherine Heiny’s short story, which EP Aaron Kaplan sent to Klein and centers on DMV employee Collette, who has a sudden realization that Ted Bundy had a driver’s license and must’ve completed a road test.
Klein and Kuhn adapted Colette into their main character, played by “Colin from Accounts” creator and star Harriet Dyer, who, alongside star Tim Meadows, became the “prototypes” for two essential characters in the ensemble cast: Colette, driving examiner whose positivity is akin to Leslie Knope, and Gregg, whose constant negativity couldn’t be a better foil to Colette. “He’s the opposite of Colette in terms of expecting good things to happen, but you’re left wondering a lot, does he secretly care?” Kuhn said. “He finds himself in conflict, I think, in that work family mode.”
“DMV” finds the rest of its ensemble in Molly Kearney (“Saturday Night Live”) as boss branch Barbara, who struggles with the existential pressure of the potential closure of their branch; Alex Tarrant (“NCIS: Hawai’i”) as Noa, the newcomer who quickly charms Colette; and Tony Cavalero (“The Righteous Gemstones”) as the lovable scumbag Vic and Gigi Zumbado (“Heart Eyes”) as sassy drivers license photo taker Ceci.
Last month, “DMV” received a vote of confidence from CBS with an additional seven-episode order that brought up Season 1’s episode count to 20 episodes. The news was a cause for celebration for Klein and Kuhn, with Kuhn saying “we’re very, very fortunate in this day and age to be making a television show at all, and then to have the confidence from the studio and the network to keep doing it.”
And there’s no shortage of ideas on set at the “DMV” either, with Kuhn noting the team keeps on discovering new dynamics within the set itself. “Our set itself is expansive, so … even walking around, between scenes, it’s like ‘is this a story? Why is this here? Why is there so much flair at this person’s desk and not?’” Kuhn said. “We have such an amazing production team … that we do find inspiration constantly as we’re shooting.”
Beyond delving into the dynamics between the East Hollywood DMV, Season 1 will see Randall Park play the head of the rival North Hollywood location, and Klein and Kuhn teased they will also have some interesting customers, including “someone coming in and playing herself that leads to a super fun, athletic story.”
“We have the threat of branch survival and the threat of being closed to automation is something that is an engine for the entire season,” Klein said.
“DMV” debuts new episodes at 8:30 p.m. on Mondays on CBS.
