Vince Vaughn's 'Sullivan & Son' Returns Despite the Odds
The gang hanging at "Sullivan & Son" on TBS – which includes executive producer Vince Vaughn – certainly has plenty to toast when their second season premieres on Thursday.
For starters, they may want to do a shot in honor of the fact that they're even getting a shot at a second season. And then there are the big guest stars.
In fact, Ken Jeong plays prominently in the season premiere, and "Big Bang Theory" star Kunal Nayyar is also set to appear.
The first season had to contend in the ratings with such television behemoths as the Summer Olympics and the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, but still managed to squeak by well enough to earn a round two. Then, just as the gang was gearing up to return to the set, creator Steve Byrne's jaw was broken by another person and had to be wired shut.
While the actor couldn't say much about what actually happened for legal reasons, we do know the incident caused production to shut down for six weeks while he healed.
"Having your jaw wired shut … made it very difficult to not be able to communicate on a daily basis," he admitted to Yahoo! TV. "You take things for granted like sneezing, yawning. That's very painful … It's odd that when your jaw's wired shut, people speak louder to you for some reason."
The day we spoke to Byrne was only four days after finally having the wires removed.
"I was supposed to do some rehab … but my jaw just popped right open," he joked. "I guess it was just ready to talk."
Unfortunately, that didn't happen in time for the show's promo shoots – the actor admitted that you can sense the injuries from his smile in the images.
While the show's biggest star, Vaughn, has only appeared in the credits so far, the cast confirms he's active on set every week.
"Vince is on set probably at the beginning and the end of the development process," actor Roy Wood Jr. told us. "Off set, he's a cool, happy, fun-loving dude … but, on set, when we're working, when he has those headphones on, it's go time. And you can literally see the wheels turning in his head of trying to create comedy.
"Instead of watching tapes, it's like having a coach on the sidelines going, 'Move this, do that, change this, change that.' He's a good enough producer to know when to get out of our way and let us do our thing."
That "thing" he's talking about is a half-hour comedy set in a bar with a crazy cast of characters spending time there at all hours of the day and night. And if that sounds a little bit like "Cheers," well, you're not wrong.
"Sullivan & Son" airs on Thursdays at 10 PM on TBS.
