FX’s ‘Legit’ Creators on Season 2 Possibilities (Q&A)

FX has officially given freshman comedy Legit a second season order — and co-creators Jim Jefferies and Peter O’Fallon have plenty of ideas of where the season might take them.

The pair spoke to The Hollywood Reporter before the announcement of the renewal — on the recently announced FXX sister network. Jefferies and O’Fallon revealed they would like to include Jim’s (Jefferies) Australian parents in an episode, as well as expand the role of Cheers alum John Ratzenberger. Ratzenberger, who plays Steve and Billy’s (DJ Qualls) father may end up moving in with the guys for a few episodes next season.

“I love the idea of a 67-year-old man moving in with these three guys. He lives in a tent with a cooler and she gives him one six pack of beer. Just imagine if he had a case or two,” O’Fallon says.

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Find the interview below.

The Hollywood Reporter: What has been your favorite episode of this season

Jim Jefferies: The fatherhood episode, which hasn’t aired yet.

THR: Jim, you are a new father. I assume that experience informs this episode?

Jefferies:There’s a lot of dialogue that is directly taken from my life. A lot of times the story is taken from my life, but very little actual dialogue.

Peter O’Fallon: It’s the family’s response to having a baby. That kind of dialogue.

JJ: There’s a lot of things my mother said when I was having a baby that’s in there. Mindy Sterling [Who plays Billy an Steve’s mother] is very loosely based on my mother.

THR: Peter, as the director of these episodes, can you talk about what your vision is for the show?

O’Fallon: There’s no opening titles. There’s no music. There’s no bumpers. The idea was try to make little movies every week. They’re all a little unique and there are great characters between them. But the idea is you make little standalone movies, but have the continuing characters go through it.

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THR: You’ve previously talked about striking the balance between having the show having something resembling “heart” and it being abrasive at the same time. How does that work?

O’Fallon: In Jim’s comedy there’s this small little heart in it. Heart is a too strong a word, because it sound sappy. But in the big picture, Jim as a human being is a decent guy. We have [an episode] called “Cuckoo’s Nest” based on Jim going to a home for people with disabilities and him becoming a counselor. It’s funny and again — oddly touching. We’ve had an amazing response from the disabled community. They just love what we’re doing.

Jefferies: We were kind of nervous when we were making a lot of things, especially with Nick [Daley], the guy who plays Rodney. We know we’re not mean guys. We know we’re not being nasty, but maybe people won’t see it the same way we see it. I’ve now met on my tour probably more people with muscular dystrophy than anyone would meet in their life.

O’Fallon: It’s kind of a sad story, but this guy who had muscular dystrophy tweeted “watching Legit, loving it and then died.”

Jefferies: He died ten minutes later.

O’Fallon: I tweeted back, and found out he loved the show. It was heartbreaking. The thing that people have told us is they love that we don’t treat anybody special. That’s thing I love about Jim’s character. In an episode he sleeps with a married woman, and the next morning she holds up her wring. He says “I don’t pay attention.”  I love the idea that the reason Jim is so good with people with disabilities is that he doesn’t pay attention — in a really good way. If he likes you and thinks you’re a good person, he doesn’t give a f–k what’s wrong with you.

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Jefferies: Dr. Drew Loves it. He wants to be in the next season. He said we’re the best, most realistic depiction of disabled people on TV ever. I thought if anybody would come down on us it would be Dr. Drew.

O’Fallon: My dad died of ALS about a year and a half ago. I flew out to take care of him 24 weeks out of two years. The great thing about my father is he was f—ing hilarious, even though he didn’t move.

THR: So you and Jim both have experience with people going through hard times, physically.

O’Fallon: It’s understanding not only how difficult it is, but also how much work is involved. These guys make it like it’s no big deal.

THR: Unlike a lot of shows centering on single men, Jim has luck with women. Is that intentional to differentiate it?

Jefferies: Because we’re telling stories that are basically true stories, I’m not going to start saying I don’t have luck with women — I do. I’m a standup comedian. Most standup comedians, if you have any level of personality, can get women. It’s the keeping them for a long amount of time that’s the hard part. Anyone can get them for a short amount of hours. In the show that’s exactly what happens. I can get them and eventually they think I’m a dickhead, which is so close to really what happens.

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O’Fallon: The concept of the show is the bigger questions in life. I like to think the show is about more than just getting laid. Getting laid is the initial version, but in the bigger version it’s more about becoming — I hate to use the title — “legitimate” in life. We wall want to figure out how we can be better at who we are and what we do. Getting laid is part of that, but that’s not the whole thing.

THR: If there is a season two, will Jim’s family appear?

Jefferies: There are so many stories about my parents, that I’d like to have an episode that involves getting my mom and dad out [to L.A.]. Season 2, if we get it, will also involve John Ratzenberger a lot more. There should be a small part of the season where he and Mindy get divorced or separated for a while and he moves into the house with us.

O’Fallon: I love the idea of a 67-year-old man moving in with these three guys. He lives in a tent with a cooler and she gives him one six pack of beer. Just imagine if he had a case or two.

THR: What else would come in Season 2?

Jefferies: There are stories we wanted to do, but money was an issue and more importantly the machine wasn’t up and running. We didn’t know how fast we could make these episodes. A storyline from my standup routine — I went to Afghanistan and saw a guy shot from a helicopter– we didn’t think we’d have the time or money to make that happen. Maybe in season 2 we’ll have both.

Legit’s season finale airs at 10:30 p.m. Thursday on FX.

Email: aaron.couch@thr.com

Twitter: @AaronCouch