Mandy Patinkin and Wife Kathryn Grody on their Insanely Intimate Family Dramedy That Showtime Shelved
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As Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody’s son, Gideon, tells it, his parents’ social media stardom began rather innocently. Grody-Patinkin had moved in with his actor parents early in the pandemic and began interviewing them for what would be a family archive. “I thought they might die from COVID maybe soon-ish, so I was getting them to tell me some stories,” he says via Zoom, to which his father jokes from another square (albeit from the same upstate New York property that they still share): “We’re big on positive thinking here.”
Before long, Grody-Patinkin started uploading videos to social media of Mom and Dad bickering, snuggling, joking and genuinely obsessing over politics. They struck a chord. The couple of 45 years became unlikely social media stars, with more than 2 million followers on TikTok alone. “Suddenly, everyone was asking, ‘What are they going to do next?’” recalls Ewen Wright, the young filmmaker enlisted to help as their online following grew.
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The answer, it turns out, was that they’d star in a scripted dramedy based on their marriage, created by Wright and their son. They shot a pilot for Showtime in summer 2022, then readied the remaining scripts before the strike hit. But by June, the network reversed course, calling on Grody-Patinkin’s 37th birthday to say that Seasoned, as they’d titled it, would no longer move forward. The trio, plus Wright, discuss what could have been and — if they have their way — might still be.
Let’s start easy. Why did you decide to do this?
KATHRYN GRODY He and I had not worked together since we met in 1978, basically. And we thought that was a good idea, but the material was just so delicious and fun — and if there’s anything one needs in their third act, it’s more friggin’ fun. And I’ll tell you, it’s been this surprising joy of my life that I actually loved working with him. We work totally differently, but we support each other.
MANDY PATINKIN (Leans toward camera.) I personally need to make sure that this thing has a life because she’s much nicer to me when the camera’s on. That’s the truth. And so, I don’t care what the fuck it takes, I’m going to make sure I get that. (Laughs.)
EWEN WRIGHT After the election, there were all of these calls and questions about what they were going to do next, and Mandy just kept saying, “I don’t have things. I’m a hired gun. If a script is good and I’m interested, I’ll try it.” But he very generously called me one day and he said, “Ewen, if you have any ideas, I’d love to keep working with you.” So, I put together this pitch packet and I sent it to Gid, and there was this one idea, which was basically Mandy and Kathryn playing themselves, and each episode would take on a different slice of life moment. Gid was like, “All of these are great, and power to you if you make any of them, but if you do this one, I’ll join you.” I think all of us just inherently knew that that one had potency because, quite frankly, it had Mandy and Kathryn. There was something very exciting about that and also intimidating because it takes them and their real life and the fact that they have this wonderful, amazing, ridiculous, infectious love story and it allows us to exploit it a bit.
Mandy and Kathryn, how much of you — the real you — is in the show?
PATINKIN In the meetings they’d have with Showtime, which were going very well, there would be elements in almost every script where someone in the room would go, “I mean, we can’t have Mandy do that. He would never do that.” And in every single instance, Gideon or Ewen would go, “Actually, Mandy did do that.” It just proved to me that I’m out of my fucking mind.
Have you really quoted Princess Bride to try to get a table at a restaurant, as you do in the pilot?
PATINKIN Oh, I’ll do anything to get a table at a restaurant! I’ll give you an hour-and-a-half concert. I’ll quote any movie.
GIDEON GRODY-PATINKIN He goes through all the quotes from anything that he’s been in.
GRODY I just walk away.
And neither of you were in the writers room, correct?
PATINKIN No, they’d send me the scripts like a hired-hand actor and I’d read them, and I’m an emotional fella, but there was one off the bat, which I was a basket case after I read. And then others, I was hysterical. The last time I had reactions like that to scripts was that first year of Homeland. I never imagined that they’d capture our 45 years of life in a comedic, poetic form that we could pass on. If for any reason we don’t get to be here, our grandchildren could watch this and they’d absolutely know us.
GRODY I’ve been pissed off since my 50s that anybody who looked like this (points to herself) isn’t seen in the culture, unless you’re lying on the floor asking for help or selling Depends or something horrible. There’s nothing that isn’t scary. And what touched me so much and what continues to touch me from the social media stuff and from the reactions from young people who’ve seen this pilot is that there is something about the dynamic that makes it look maybe not so horrific to stick around and grow older. Although I’m looking at myself right now and I’m distracted. (Grody starts pulling at her face.)
GRODY-PATINKIN What are you doing, Mom?
PATINKIN Do you want me to hold you up like this? (He gently pulls her cheeks taut from behind.)
GRODY OK, that’s better.
PATINKIN Now you look like everyone else in Hollywood!
Gideon, what is it like to loosely dramatize your parents’ marriage?
GRODY-PATINKIN It’s very complicated. (Laughs.) I do feel very protective of these two and of this project. And for me, the writing was really fun and also overwhelming because a lot of it was processing what we haven’t been able to talk about as a family. For example, one of our episodes deals with death in a humorous way, and that was a conversation I’d been trying to have with my parents for 10, 15 years, and it kept not happening. And then the other writers were like, “Well, can you try now?”
GRODY That’s why you came to us?!
GRODY-PATINKIN Yeah, I ran over to their place, and I was like, “Can we fucking talk about this?” And in part because they knew we were writing about it, it made everything a little easier to come to the surface.
WRIGHT Gid has ended up with one of the weirder jobs. He has to sit there as we’re pitching out ideas about his parents’ death or their sex lives. The line between his personal life and his professional life is totally blurred.
GRODY-PATINKIN It is, but one of the really joyful parts of this experience is, as we get older, we see our parents age. And for most people, they’re just living these kind of cyclical patterns and it gets rarer and rarer to have new experiences with each other the longer that we remain together. So it’s very special to be a part of giving your parents a new experience. And then with the edgier stuff, I mean, I spent a lot of time working on this episode that dealt with sex in a big, funny, weird, emotional way. And I think for a lot of people that would be weird or troubling or disturbing with their parents, but I just thought it was really interesting. And yes, they’re my parents, but they’re also my friends.
You all seem to speak about the project as though it will continue.
PATINKIN Oh, I’m quite confident we’re going to find a new home. I’m pretty seasoned in this game, forgive the use of the show title, and I know when something is this unique. And now I want to tell you a story, which will sound like what it is: a selling point. She and I went on a leaf-peeping trip up the East Coast with our dear friends in early October. And this was nothing new to me, but our friends couldn’t get over it. Wherever we’d go, people would recognize Kathryn, no matter how we were bundled up or whatever, the white hair would stick out and the black glasses. I mean, for young people and, really, women of all ages, she’s like a fucking rock star. And I’ve wanted the world to know my wife for 40-some years, and whatever I’d do to suggest a larger venue than off-off-Broadway, where she writes her wonderful plays and does other people’s wonderful plays, she’d cut my balls off. And so my son made the one wish I could never make happen happen, which was to get the world to know this amazing person.
GRODY That’s very kind. Listen, I was shocked at first [that Showtime pulled it]. But I really believe … what is that saying? Oh my God, I can’t remember it, this is terrible …
GRODY-PATINKIN Nothing so bad that good can’t come from it.
GRODY Yes! Nothing so bad that good can’t come from it.
A version of this story first appeared in the Dec. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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