“Hey, we just got this email: Meryl Streep wants to talk to us on Zoom about working together. Should we say, 'Well, you know, we have this TV show'?
“Um, yes, of course, absolutely, yes, of course??!”
This was an exchange between Steve Martin, Martin Short and myself. A few days later the text came: “Hey, we just Zoomed with Meryl. She's inside. Do you have something good for her?
I really hope Meryl knows what can happen to people when they say they want to do your project. For me, it was a flash of excitement followed by pure abject terror that we might disappoint her or “not have something good for her.”
What I held on to was that a few days before Meryl's first approach, I had spent a day with [executive producers] Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal exchange general ideas for season 3. We talk about starting a new character, a potential love interest for Oliver Putnam, and how we could show the life of a New York City actress who is so talented. But she spent decades waiting for something that never came: a break that would change her career. I remember saying to Dan and Jess, “Well, you know who the perfect person is to pick here, right? The most famous actress of our time playing this role. I mean… right? The guys looked at me and said, “Yes, John, that's right. Let me know how it works.”
Meryl Streep plays Loretta Durkin, an actress who finds a career boost and love interest in Martin Short's Oliver Putnam in the third season of “Only Murders in the Building.”
(Patrick Harbron/Hulu)
Like most of us who have worked in this business (and like Loretta Durkin, this new character we were now going to design for Meryl), I've had a career filled with many disappointments. Reaching out after years (writing, researching, pouring my heart into a script or pilot) only to end up with “No, it's not going to happen.” I am by no means “foot in the sky” about these realities, but I also recognize and truly rely on the belief that sometimes good things happen in ways that seem predetermined and fateful. With this third season of our half-hour comedy, that seemed to keep happening over and over again. No matter how many times we push (well, maybe I did) towards potential, it too could all fall off the cliff.
We were given the gift of a dream cast for a half-hour television comedy with mysterious twists and turns, and we decided that if Oliver Putnam's character was at the helm of the ship, as he had to be this season, to save his beloved return to Broadway: we had to swing like Oliver would, turning his take into a musical. We decided to triple the opportunity they gave us.
With the all-star cast of “Only Murders in the Building,” how can it not pack a punch? says showrunner John Hoffman.
(Evelyn Freja / For The Times)
“Yes, you're going to sing too, Meryl. And Steve. And Marti. and selena [Gomez], you are not going to get out of this; We have a fantasy number for Mabel. And Paul Rudd. I remember Paul's face when I told him that he was going to have a great climactic duet with Meryl even though his character was dead. “Does that sound too crazy?” I held my breath, hoping he wouldn't run out of the room. Instead, he had that twinkle we all love in his eye: “Am I going to sing with Meryl Streep? It may be the best phrase I have ever said out loud.”
In another twist of fate, Sas Goldberg, with whom I would co-write our first episode of the season, was close friends with my big wishes for the composers of our show's musical, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. They came on board via a text message from Sas. Then they brought along their own row of Broadway killer friends to help, in Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Michael R. Jackson and Sara Bareilles. Are you kidding me?
At one point, while filming at the stunning United Palace theater in New York's Washington Heights, I was sitting in the middle of the orchestra when Meryl approached with a ridiculously charming little headliner (her nanny costume for the musical), and sat down next to me. my side. and she said, “Wow, you really like a big swing, don't you?” I think I laughed and then said what may seem like the point of this essay: “Well, what's the point of having you and this crazy group of super talents in one season if you're just going to find a base?” hit?”
Buoyed by a strong touch of fate and a colossal collection of incredibly talented support, we all took a step together, and that “something good for her” became “something we will never forget and that we loved doing as much as we did.” she sings “.
