“Getting On” did not get a heck of a lot of promotion from its pay-TV network — HBO — but that was somewhat by design, the comedy’s creators told journalists Thursday at the Television Critics Association panel.
While Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer didn’t request their channel not provide them a strong lead-in, they quickly adopted the mentality of a small, indie project.
“The show premiering late in the year, Nov. 26 — being a short season — created the narrative that we were being dumped there,” Scheffer told critics at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “This show was never planned to get a great promotional push. We’re a small, tiny show — unlike anything on HBO or on television right now I think.”
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Olsen agreed, and described sitting down with HBO and BBC brass, as each party mutually decided that it would have been against the spirit of the original show to do a big promotional blowout. This is all according to plan, one that “has kind of paid off,” he said.
“People found it on their own and made it their … little engine that could,” Olsen added.
“It was scary, it was terrifying to be in that prime, untested time block,” Scheffer said. “Yes, as experienced showrunners, that was scary. It was scary to kind of talk about, ‘Well this is gonna be an under-the-radar show’ — that’s scary. But, we went along with it. Then we thought — when it was December, January — ‘That was crazy.’ Like, ‘We should have never went along with that.’”
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“This is a new world, with HBO Go, the show kept going,” he concluded. “We put our faith in our network. It’s a good network to put faith in — it paid off.”
Season 2 of “Getting On” will stay within the walls of the hospital, much like the first year, the creators promised. That said, there may be one scene on the roof, they teased.
“Getting On” returns in November.