Samantha Bee and Jason Jones: The case for mixing business with pleasure
They are a comedy power couple: Jason Jones and Samantha Bee. Together, they created the hilarious and subversive TBS series, “The Detour,” which stars Jones and just started its fourth season this week. And they are both executive producers of “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” the award-winning news satire program that also airs on TBS. As a happily married couple and parents to three children, they are true ambassadors for mixing business with pleasure.
But how?
“I have to be honest, I don't see how you don't work with your wife,” Jones told Yahoo Finance’s Jen Rogers in this week’s episode of My Three Cents. “Couples that have just these separate lives are so disconnected in so many ways. We can't escape each other, which is kind of great because I think when you escape each other, you grow apart. So, it's kind of been a success secret to our relationship, really. We're always together.”
Jones and Bee have been together for decades: They met in Canada working in children’s theater, married, and later became household names as correspondents on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. They’re so comfortable working together that Bee even took what could have been an uncomfortable role for a less gutsy wife and actress: playing the mother of Jones’ character on The Detour.
“Is it some deep-seated Oedipal complex? No,” says Jones. “She had the biggest balls to play that part. She only plays my mom in flashbacks and then my son plays me. So it felt right because, you know, she knows my mom.”
It’s an all-in-the-family formula that works for Jones: “I love my kids. I love my wife. I love my job. So, it makes for an easy life. It makes for an easy balance.”
“The Detour” airs Tuesdays 10:30/9:30c on TBS; “Full Frontal” airs Wednesdays 10:30/9:30c on TBS.
My Three Cents is a weekly interview series that explores celebrities’ history with — and relationship to — money. Find it exclusively on Yahoo Finance.
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