In the early days of “Chelsea Lately” (10 p.m. Central Mondays through Thursdays, E!), the show started with the roundtable, then had a comedy sketch, then wrapped with the guest. Today, it does two sessions of the roundtable before the guest interview. Someone at “Chelsea” recognized two things: 1, the roundtable was funnier than you’d think; and 2, the sketches were not as funny as you’d hope.
The evolution of Chelsea Handler’s popular late-night talk show — both ridiculous (as host Handler often calls it on air) and groundbreaking in the “friends shooting the breeze and making fun of each other” tone set by Handler — recently resulted in a spinoff: the sitcom “After Lately” (10 p.m. Central Sundays, E!), which purports to show what goes on in the writers’ offices between installments of “Chelsea.”
“After Lately” takes advantage of the success of the roundtable, which has seen the emergence of writers/roundtable regulars Sarah Colonna, Brad Wollack, Heather McDonald and Chris Franjola — no to mention the goofily awkward asides by Chuy (whose lines are penned by the writing team and then delivered not quite correctly by the lovable little person). “After Lately” fully embraces everyone’s personality while also freeing them from the burden of actually writing the sitcom.
Still, Sarah, Brad and the gang have plenty of input into the show. As Colonna told me in a phone interview for her upcoming gigs in Sedalia, the “Chelsea Lately” writers pitch ideas to the “After Lately” writers based on things that actually happened around the offices. Those writers then come up with a few funny lines but mainly create a foundation for the gang to be themselves while the cameras roll. It’s pretty much the same method Larry David uses on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
With only three episodes down (and five more to go in this first season, Colonna told me), it’s too early to say “After Lately” is as good as “Curb.” But it is worthy of the comparison, at least. “After Lately” has delivered some great moments of universal awkwardness that David would appreciate: A security guard buys Heather lunch, and when she tries to return the favor, she can’t find her credit card, and thus he buys her lunch again. When she tries yet again to buy him lunch, he (of course) assumes she is trying to date him.
Also, it has a knack for taking a good joke to ridiculous lengths, like when Reese Witherspoon starts hanging around the office. Chelsea — blissfully oblivious to the neurotic angst of her staff — doesn’t realize that Witherspoon is driving them nuts, like when Sarah is trying to write jokes with the movie star hovering over her shoulder. In that sense, Chelsea stands in for the world at large on “Curb,” and the staffers are a bunch of Larry Davids.
There’s arguably more timeliness to “After.” “Curb” imagines various entertainment functions for Larry, like an HBO special or a role in “The Producers” or a “Seinfeld” reunion. But in reality, David’s energy is going into “Curb” itself.
“After Lately,” however, goes behind the scenes of a show that’s on the air right now. The only way things could get more meta is if they next did a show about the writers of “After Lately” and called it “After After Lately.” That wouldn’t work, of course, because we don’t know those writers. We do know the “Chelsea” gang, we like them, and I for one don’t mind spending another half-hour with them every week. It’s like hanging out with your funniest friends, and “After Lately” is able to create that illusion because the “Chelsea” gang literally is a group of funny friends.
And Handler might be the most realistic portrayal of a boss (at least at an enjoyable job) on TV. Michael Scott on “The Office” is humorously incompetent. Leslie Knope on “Parks and Recreation” is humorously competent. The way the employees relate to their bosses is specific to those characters, but “After Lately” comes up with something more universal: Chelsea isn’t a bad boss by any means, but she is quite unaware of the stress she causes, like when she off-handedly fills out the seats for a plane trip to Cabo, thus creating competition among the gang. She’s above it all, benevolent but ignorant, with books and comedy dates to prepare for while her writers come up with this silly show about pop culture and celebrities four days a week.
The neatest twist of “After Lately” is that Chelsea (who has ironically become a celebrity herself) doesn’t steal the show; the bickering, petty, ridiculous, utterly human and quite funny little writers do.
Any other “After Lately” fans out there? Share your thoughts on the episodes so far in the comment thread below.
Main image: E! publicity photo