Peacock made the most of the Olympics buzz earlier in August with the premiere of Mr. Throwback, a new comedy from the former Happy Endings team that starred basketball legend Steph Curry himself. The executive producers said that it was both “a total dream” and “annoying” (for a fun reason) to work with Curry on the sitcom, and already were hoping for a second season when I spoke with them ahead of the first season premiere earlier in the 2024 TV schedule. The show is still waiting on renewal news, so I looked back at their thoughts on Season 2 and that running joke about Michael Jordan.
That Michael Jordan Joke
While Steph Curry starred in the sitcom, Adam Pally carried most of the action while playing the childhood best friend of Steph who gets in over his head while trying to use the Golden State Warrior to make a quick buck. The six-episode season also packed in a bunch of fun cameos, including former Chicago Bulls point guard and current Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. When I spoke with writers and executive producers David Caspe, Matthew Libman, and Daniel Libman, Caspe shared:
We’re huge Steve Kerr fans. We’re from Chicago, so we grew up loving him. That was incredible to get him in the show, and to get him joking about Michael Jordan is the dream come true for us. That was great.
Kerr and the other Season 1 guest stars were a lot of fun, but do they have a wish list for a second season? Daniel Libman named some dream picks:
Michael Jordan, Anthony Edwards, Draymond Green.
Normally those names would seem a little too big to fit into a streaming sitcom, but nothing truly feels off the table after who was packed into Season 1.
What About Season 2?
The wait has been on for word on a future for Mr. Throwback since it’s premiere. All three executive producers opened up about what it would take for a renewal:
- Daniel Libman: “Just a yes from the people who are in charge, and possibly a huge blast from Cinema Blend, telling everyone to watch.”
- David Capse: “Please tell people to watch it, and that’s how we get another season. “
- Matthew Libman: “Hopefully people watch it and love it and talk about it. Steph would love to do more. We would love to do more. Hopefully, people feel the same way.
While it still remains to be seen what the future holds (or doesn’t hold) for the Mr. Throwback team, it’s worth checking out whether you’re a basketball fan or not. With only six episodes , the series also doesn’t take long to binge-watch.
What Was It Like Working With Steph Curry As An Actor?
Steph Curry was obviously a huge name before Mr. Throwback, but not because of his work in television, and not all superstar athletes can also hold their own in a medium like scripted comedy. According to the EPs, Curry simply discovered another thing he’s good at. When I asked if there was any surprise that he could deliver laughs alongside stars like Adam Pally and SNL‘s Ego Nwodim, David Caspe said:
He was just incredible. I don’t know that ‘surprise’ is the right word, because we, we definitely just sort of were like, ‘Well, this guy’s good at everything he’s ever done, so he’ll probably be good at this.’ But then he was even better than we could have imagined. From the first second, including the table read that he came to, he was just as good as any of the other actors. We just acted as if on our end, and just threw him lines, threw him changes, threw him tons of dialog, and he just continually knocked it out of the park, to use a sports metaphor.
Matthew Libman agreed with Caspe, and added his own insight on what Curry was able to bring to the show that weren’t even scripted:
I would just add to that that we cast the show with almost exclusively, unbelievably gifted, high-level improvisers, and he was not only able to improvise at their level, but probably has a dozen or so of his own improvs that made it into the cut. For a guy who’s that good of a basketball player, like once in a gazillion year basketball player, to then also be funny enough to hang with the legends of comedy is pretty remarkable. And we didn’t do it just to do it. They were truly hilarious things that we kept in that were his.
Of course, Mr. Throwback was also able to feature real NBA clips from Steph Curry’s career with the Golden State Warriors.
What About The NBA Access?
From the moment that the first trailer for Mr. Throwback hit the web, it was clear that the Peacock series had access to and was able to incorporate footage from real NBA games. I asked the producers if there were any challenges in getting to use so much NBA footage, and Matthew Libman explained:
No, not really. Thankfully, Stephen Curry is very well liked by the NBA. Having him around, whether it’s that type of thing or being able to shoot on certain locations in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, when you’re working with Steph Curry, doors fly open that normally wouldn’t open at all. So it was great. That being said, the studio and the network have a relationship with the NBA. It was great.
Daniel Libman spoke up to add that “the NBA was very generous,” and I think any viewers can vouch that having that real NBA footage really helped the mockumentary feel like a documentary. With the access they got, did they write to what they could count on having? David Capse explained:
Not really. It was all sort of happening as we were going. We made the show very, very quickly. We actually just wrapped June 30, and we’re airing in three days. That’s very quick turnaround, and we had a great writers room and a great director, DP, production designer, costume designer. Everyone was so talented and great, and we all just hit the ground running and working, mach speed. We would write things and try to get them, and sometimes we’d get them, or we’d get someone else, and then we’d switch it to that. It was a very fluid production, but a blast.
You can find the full first season of Mr. Throwback streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription now.
