John Mulaney’s 2014 Sitcom Was Originally Titled ‘Mulaney Don’t Drink’ and Centered on Him Getting Sober at 23
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"There was really something lost ... I lost this thread that made it something," Mulaney said of changes he made to the series
John Mulaney’s 2014 sitcom Mulaney almost had a very different tone.
In a recent Hollywood Reporter roundtable with Jason Segel, Steven Yeun, Tyler James Williams and Mohammed Amer, the 40-year-old comedian and former Saturday Night Live writer revealed that the semi-autobiographical sitcom was originally about him getting sober at 23 years old.
“There was another version at NBC called Mulaney Don't Drink, which was about me getting sober,” he said. “It was based on the time in my life when I got sober at 23 and had two roommates and was just trying to figure out: What does a good person do? That was an actual part of my life, or a pointless gauntlet I threw down in front of myself.”
Looking back, Mulaney now regrets the creative decision. “There was really something lost when I, on the advice of others higher up, took that out,” he explained. “But also, I take full responsibility. I lost this thread that made it something.”
Related: John Mulaney Announces New Comedy Tour' From Scratch' One Year After Relapse
Mulaney was canceled by Fox in 2015 after just 13 episodes, suffering from low ratings and poor reviews during its short run.
The comedian told THR that the sitcom was filled with “a lot of challenges.” He elaborated, “I think I thought that I was bringing a sensibility that was, I don’t know, more widely appreciated. And then I was also trying to turn that on its head by doing a multi-cam, which had all these hokey or sometimes hacky, but ‘look, we can really make this form weird and interesting again.’”
When asked if he would ever consider attempting a similar project today through streaming, Mulaney didn’t have a definite answer. “I’m not sure,” he said. “One thing I learned doing it was that I wasn’t sure what my story was. You know, What exactly am I bringing to everyone and why? And do they need it?”
“And I wanna be clear: I have no idea what I’m doing,” he continued, “I’m as open to everything, naive about everything, and confused about everything.”
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In 2020, Mulaney checked into rehab to seek treatment for addiction after relapsing. In his recent Netflix special Baby J, he took the opportunity to thank all of his friends who organized and attended his intervention. This included Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Nick Kroll, among others.
“Do you know what it's like for 12 people to save your life? It's too many people,” Mulaney joked during the special. "There are 12 separate people out there who, if I'm at dinner with them, I have to be like, 'No, I got that. Come on. You saved my life — over Zoom.’”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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