'Angel From Hell': Star Jane Lynch and Creator Tad Quill Preview Their Heavenly New Comedy

Jane Lynch is finally flying back into primetime. After a delayed premiere date, CBS is ready to unveil the Glee alum’s long-awaited new sitcom Angel From Hell. Lynch has ditched the tracksuit to play an unlikely guardian angel on the midseason comedy, but her crème de menthe drinking character is far from angelic — and seems to be more homeless than heavenly. In fact, we’re pretty sure she’s not getting any wings no matter how many times a bell rings.

Yahoo TV talked to Lynch and Angel From Hell creator/executive producer Tad Quill to get the scoop on the upcoming single-camera fantasy sitcom, which also stars Maggie Lawson, Kevin Pollak, and Kyle Bornheimer. Quill tells us up front that while Angel Amy (Lynch) claims she’s a guardian angel to stressed-out dermatologist Allison (Lawson), that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the case. “We’re not sure whether she’s her guardian angel or if she’s crazy,” he says. “But we know that no matter what, Amy has Allison’s back, which is a rare thing in this world.”

How did you come up with the idea for the show?
Tad Quill: I was thinking about a father-daughter show, and I’ve just always been interested in comedies with a supernatural or a spiritual angel aspect. And I thought, there’s all these old shows like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, they don’t really exist anymore. Well, what would be the 2015 version of that? Well, to me it’s to have a very edgy character to play the realness of it. If someone was to truly come into your life and say [they were an angel] to you, you would probably think they were crazy and it would really ultimately come down to whether you believe it or not, and there would be evidence to indicate both cases. I just thought that was a really different and interesting area for a show.

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How would you describe Amy in one word?
Jane Lynch: Compassionate.

What drew you to this pilot?
JL: Well, I laughed out loud. I thought it was really funny. And I love Amy because not only is she compassionate, she’s flawed. She kind of really just has the back of one person instead of humanity, but she’s so dedicated to this girl Allison, to her living a great life, that she’s made it her mission for this life. And I also love the idea that this is a person who really has no shame, has no self-doubt, kind of makes her mistakes and makes them big, and will feel badly about them, especially if she hurts somebody, because she doesn’t want to hurt anybody. She’s probably a big drinker and not really an alcoholic because she doesn’t see that there’s a problem with the fact that she drinks all day long. I think she’s free from a lot of the guilt and a lot of the heavy burdens that we carry around as human beings, like insecurities, and she’s free of a lot of that. She doesn’t have much of a critical voice going on in her head.

Amy is unlike any other guardian angel we’ve ever seen, but were you inspired by any past TV or movie angels? Maybe John Travolta’s Michael?
TQ: [Laughs.] No, not really. It just seemed like a very funny idea to have this deeply flawed person be an angel. It just seemed funny to me.

Watch a preview:

Will you be focusing on the father-daughter dynamic (Lawson, Pollak) a lot in the first season? There’s definitely some issues between them in the first episode.
TQ: Everything. Honestly, it’s all the characters who will interact in a variety of different ways. And really, we’ll certainly be focusing up front on Amy and Allison and sort of the lessons that Amy is teaching Allison. And also we see how Amy can get into trouble on things and mess up as an angel, which is funny. And we also get to get a glimpse of the angel world, and does someone else have a guardian angel, is there actually a demon? There’s this other sort of magical world that we’ll hint at as well.

You compared Angel From Hell to a modern day Betwitched or I Dream of Jeannie. Both of those shows were hugely successful back in the day. Why do you think people are so drawn to fantasy comedies?
TQ: I think what’s resonant to me about this show more than anything is that in a crazy world, the thought that someone has your back unconditionally, I think is very aspirational. It hits at the core of something people would like to believe in, they’d like to think they’d have in their own life.

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Jane, after just wrapping Glee, were you planning to go back to a TV series? Or did this just sort of fall into place?
JL: It all just fell into place. I don’t have plans anymore. I stopped making plans years ago. Because what happens in my life if I just remain open turns out to be pretty damn good. And that’s exactly how this came into my life, it found its way to me and I loved it and before we knew it we were working together. It was a pretty magical process.

What has it been like working with Maggie Lawson again? You worked with her before on Psych. Did you know when you signed on to Angel that she was going to be in the role of Allison?
JL: I didn’t. We actually sought her out. And I loved her, I love working with her on Psych. I thought she was great. So I got on board and we sought her out.

Will we see Amy do any singing on the show?
JL: I don’t know, you can ask Tad that, but I tend to find a way to sing in everything.

TQ: We actually do have a little singing in one of the first few episodes.

JL: I would imagine she’s pretty good at karaoke; I just want to put that out there too.

Jane, this might not be a fair question, but who do you think is more fun to play, Amy or Sue Sylvester?
JL: Well, of course right now, Amy, of course. I did Sue for seven years, but Sue Sylvester was a blast to do and it certainly exercised a part of my own psyche that didn’t have a place to roam freely. And I found it just a joy to do that for six-and-a-half years. But now I’m really thrilled about this because I’m playing somebody who’s really, really flawed, but she has such a big compassionate heart. And somebody who doesn’t have that critical voice, who’s not fighting any battles, which Sue was all about that. It’s really nice to be free in that way and just walk around with a big open heart.

Angel From Hell premieres Thursday, Jan. 7 at 9:30 p.m. on CBS.