Running Point stars Drew Tarver, Scott MacArthur, and Jay Ellis believe their new Netflix comedy series has the right ingredients to be a bonafide hit. They just need everyone else to see it as the slam dunk it is.
**Spoilers ahead for Season 1 of Running Point**
Sitting down with DECIDER to chat about the TV series co-created by Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen, the trio of actors said that there are so many reasons they think Running Point will appeal to the masses. Chief among those reasons is Kate Hudson, who stars in the family-centric sports comedy as Isla Gordon. MacArthur and Tarver play Ness and Sandy Gordon, two of Isla’s three brothers, while Ellis portrays Jay Brown, the team’s head coach.
The series begins as the Gordon siblings’ oldest brother, Cam (Justin Theroux), experiences a personal crisis that requires him to step down and appoint an interim president. Enter Isla, who has been undervalued and underestimated within the organization since she was a kid and her father was running the team. What follows is 10 episodes of silly and heartfelt fish-out-of-water fun that will appeal to anyone with a heart or a funny bone.
“I think this is a workplace comedy set inside a family,” said MacArthur, whose character holds the job of GM for the Los Angeles Waves. Tarver’s Sandy is the team’s CFO while Isla, pre-promotion, worked as the Waves’ coordinator of charitable endeavors. It’s a family business!
The Righteous Gemstones alum added of the series, “For me, this is kind of the show that when I’m scrolling through Netflix, I would completely stop because it genuinely has something for everybody in your household. You have sports, you have family, you have romance — that’s really a testament to Mindy [Kaling] being able to corral that entire world into one show.”
Tarver — who previously worked on The Other Two, another comedy centered around a fictional famous family — agreed with his on-screen brother and said that the concept of the show is what really drew him in. He said that anyone and everyone who tunes in and has a family will find something in this new series that they can relate to.
“I think there’s a lot of family dynamic comedy in this show that I have pitched to my family to tune in and be like, ‘Hey, it’s kind of how we act sometimes towards each other,’” Tarver joked.
The show has also changed the actors’ perceptions of the world and the women around them, the group said. As for how they view things differently, what moment they consider to be one of the funniest in the show, and whether or not they are in for a second season, keep reading for Decider’s full interview with Ellis, MacArthur, and Tarver.
DECIDER: I’m going to just jump right in and start with the fact that I’ve seen some people comparing Running Point to Ted Lasso. I think that’s kind of an unfair juxtaposition. How have you been pitching this show to the people who don’t know anything about it?
DREW TARVER: I think there’s a lot of family dynamic comedy in this show that I have pitched to my family to tune in and be like, “Hey, it’s kind of how we act sometimes towards each other.” And I think there’s a lot of relatability there with the siblings and the birth order and how that affects the comedy within and how they interact with each other.
SCOTT MACARTHUR: I think this is a workplace comedy set inside a family. For me, this is kind of the show that when I’m scrolling through Netflix, I would completely stop because it genuinely has something for everybody in your household. You have sports, you have family, you have romance — that’s really a testament to Mindy [Kaling] being able to corral that entire world into one show. And hopefully, it’s a blast to watch because it was a lot of fun to make.
Speaking of the family dynamics, Drew, Scott, your characters are kind of — for lack of a better word — a-holes to Isla at the start of the season. Did this show make you examine relationships with the women in your own lives at all?
MacArthur: Yes, I recently tried to get my wife removed from the board of our household.
Tarver: You went the other way.
JAY ELLIS: And I went the other way, I realized that I have no control at all whatsoever.
MacArthur: You just realized that? I’ve known that for a very long time.
Ellis: I think I was just grasping at it for a very long time.
MacArthur: I did go home early on, and both Mindy and Kate [Hudson] had a tremendous amount going on in life outside of the show. I remember thinking — it was like maybe the end of the first week — I was like, “This is wildly impressive,” because both were ever present and joyful and fun to be around. That takes a lot. And I’m not ignorant. I do think there’s a difference. I think we do handle people differently and we handle the sexes differently. And it was it was wildly impressive, but not surprising, truthfully, because they’re pretty dynamic.
Tarver: I’m the oldest so I can fall into telling everybody what to do and trying to control. I think I’ve tried to get better at that. But also, all of my younger siblings are way smarter than me. A lot of time, it’s me being like, “Okay, the youngest is right, that’s it. That’s the way we should go.”
MacArthur: When I saw your sister, I was like, “How’s it going?” and he goes, “Good, other than the fact that Drew keeps calling me ‘Isla.’” I said, “Well, he’s kind of doing a Daniel Day-Lewis thing.”
Drew, you’re really carving out a niche in the famous family comedy genre. Between Brooke Dubek (Heléne Yorke) in The Other Two and Isla Gordon in this, whose bad side would you rather never be on?
Tarver: Well, I don’t think Brooke Dubek could have fired me in The Other Two. I don’t think I ever worked for her, so I think I would be more scared of Isla, especially after her monologue from Casino. I don’t want to be on her bad side because it seems like she could maybe, possibly pull off what that monologue was saying.
I love talking with comedy actors because there’s always a scene or some part of the making of a project that makes you laugh just thinking about it. What is that for you?
MacArthur: The paintball stuff was a lot of fun.
Tarver: Yeah.
MacArthur: I don’t want to spoil too much of that but there’s so much physical comedy in the series, and that stuff is a blast to do. And it’s also a blast when you have to watch one of your classmates do it. Because there’s always a little bit of a risk, even the smallest little pratfall has some stakes to it. And I think that stuff was awesome. Specifically to watch Kate do it.
Tarver: Yeah, screaming at the top of your lungs like you’re being shot with paintballs. That’s one of my favorite jokes too in the series, [when my character says], “This is Bonobos by Troye Sivan.” Watching Scott scream and trying to keep a straight face was very difficult.
MacArthur: I remember when you said that line because when they called cut, I turned to you and I was like, “I don’t know what any of those words mean.” I knew none of them.
Is there any hope for a Season 2? Would you guys want to come back and do it? And what would you hope to see your character go through in a second season?
Ellis: We all hope there’s a Season 2, for sure. We’d be excited to work together again.
MacArthur: Does anyone ever say no?
Tarver: Some probably say “one and done.”
MacArthur: I think this world is built to run. It’s big, it’s expansive. For that reason, I think there’s a lot of storylines and emotional arcs that we get to follow in Season 1. And I think if there were more stories to tell, we’ll just keep exploring these relationships because each time the characters are in different combinations, there are new colors in new light. I think that would be just a lot of fun because there’s a lot there.
Ellis: And it reflects the world, the real world of a sports franchise and an NBA franchise. It’s ever-changing, right? It’s constantly ever-changing and the dynamics are constantly changing and how these characters react to those dynamics and and each other as they’re growing and stumbling their way through this. It’s such a fun thing to explore. So to Scott’s point, I think it could go as long as Netflix is willing to write the check.
The complete first season of Running Point is now streaming on Netflix.
