HUSBANDS THE SERIES has made all kinds of news since its first season premiered last year. The Web series about two men, performer Cheeks (Brad “Cheeks” Bell) and baseball player Brady (Sean Hemion), who get legally married while drunk in Vegas and decide to try to make things work, was written up in the New Yorker and Time Magazine, and became the first ongoing Internet show to be honored with its own panel by the Los Angeles branch of the Paley Center for Media.

The first season of HUSBANDS THE SERIES, also starring Alessandra Torresani as Cheeks’ inebriated best friend Haley, consisted of eleven two-minute segments. When executive producer Jane Espenson and her star/co-creator/co-writer Cheeks, along with director Jeff Greenstein, decided to do a second season, they turned to KickStarter. To their amazement, they not only reached but surpassed their goal of $50,000 in approximately one week.

With guest stars including Joss Whedon, Jon Cryer, Felicia Day, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, Dichen Lachman, Tricia Helfer, John Hodgman, Mekhi Phifer and more, the second season of HUSBANDS consists of three eight-minute segments, the first two of which were screened at the Paley Center event in August. These two episodes, along with making-of footage, are now available at lovehusbands.com – a new making-of will debut on Wednesday, September 5, with the final episode going up on Wednesday, September 12.

Giving interviews on the PaleyCenterred carpet for HUSBANDS, Espenson – one of the writers/producers on ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME – took time to give ASSIGNMENT X an exclusive on her Internet phenomenon.

JANE ESPENSON: We were shooting in the little house in North Hollywood for Season 1 …

ASSIGNMENT X: Did you use a bigger house for Season 2?

ESPENSON: We’re in a much bigger house. When you see [the opening] episode, you will see we’re in a much bigger house.

AX: At what point in the life of HUSBANDS Season 1 did you realize there was going to be a Season 2?

ESPENSON: We didn’t realize it until we put the KickStarter up, and we looked at the fan response. When we had fifty thousand dollars in a week, we were like, “All right, I guess we’re doing a Season 2!”

AX: Are you already thinking of Season 3?

ESPENSON: It’s hard not to. [Earlier in August], I spent the weekend in Seattle with Cheeks and Sean, our two stars, and of course, I co-created it with Cheeks and co-wrote it with Cheeks. We spent this weekend in Seattle at a convention called Geek Girl Con. Every time I’m together with these two guys, I’m seeing all the stories that we could tell with these two young men and the vibrant life they lead – how can you not start thinking about Season 3?

AX: Is Season 1 out now on DVD?

ESPENSON: We have made DVDs that we gave to the fans who donated to KickStarter. We have not yet got it available on Amazon or anything, but I could see that happening.

AX: Can you talk a little bit about how Season 2 is different from Season 1?

ESPENSON: Season 2 is Season 1 amped up to the rafters. It’s bigger, deeper, more beautiful – more guest stars – not bigger guest stars, you can’t get bigger than Nathan FIllion [who appeared as a newscaster in Season 1], but more guest stars and better film quality, better sound quality. It’s just more professional. We had a bigger crew, we made a script that is more unified. It’s just bigger and better in every way.

AX: Did you ask Joss Whedon to be in Season 2, or did he come to you and say, “Can I be in HUSBANDS”?

ESPENSON: Joss came to us and said, “I love Season 1, I love this, these are jokes I wish I’d written,” is something like the quote. So when we asked him to do Season 2, he looked at the material and quickly agreed, which made us very, very happy.

AX: Your guest cast has a lot of people from the Whedonverse – Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, Felicia Day …

ESPENSON: Well, we’ve got Dichen Lachman from DOLLHOUSE, we’ve got Tricia Helfer from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, actually Sasha Roiz, who I worked with on CAPRICA – we love him so much. It actually spreads around over the Whedonverse and beyond. Aasha Davis from FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, no connection to the Whedonverse. We found that anyone we approached, when they saw the material, they were eager to be involved.

AX: Did you give yourselves any challenges this time around, like having to work on a strange downtown street around the muggers as you did on Season 1?

ESPENSON: [laughs] Season 1 was our big challenge, where we went and shot at L.A. Live downtown here in L.A. Season 2, we stayed very close to our base camp, but still, we had green-screen stuff outside, we were shooting as we were losing the light, we had plenty of risky moves. Including just, “Is everyone going to be here?” When you’re trying to coordinate a much larger cast, if any one person doesn’t show up, everything is higgledy-piggledy.

AX: Was the writing schedule about the same as this first time around, or did Season 2 take longer or shorter?

ESPENSON: I think we took more time to write the script, but I’d have to back and look at my old-fashioned paper date book to see.

AX: Right now, what would you most like people to know about HUSBANDS Season 2?

ESPENSON: That they can watch it at LoveHusbands.com.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. COMMENT BELOW!

Related: Exclusive Interview with Brad “Cheeks” Bell on HUSBANDS THE SERIES – Season 2

Related: Exclusive – Jane Espenson gives the scoop on Season 2 of HUSBANDS THE SERIES

Related: Exclusive – Set Visit to new comedic web series HUSBANDS – Part 2

Related: Exclusive – Set Visit to new comedic web series HUSBANDS – PART 1

Related: For HUSBANDS sneak peak trailer

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Fan us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENTX

Article Source:Assignment X 
Article: Exclusive Interview with Jane Espenson on HUSBANDS THE SERIES – Season 2

Related Posts: