Sean Hayes hit superstardom as sarcastic and hilarious Jack McFarland in NBC’s Will & Grace, which won an Emmy Award as best comedy in 2000.
Hayes already back with the NBC family as executive producer of acclaimed drama “Grimm”, and ‘Hollywood Game Night’, is now taking his first starring role in new sitcom ‘Sean Saves the World’ as a divorced dad struggling to juggle his career and family.
Where did the name ‘Sean Saves the World’ come from?
Via telephone said Hayes: “That was actually the first title that Victor came up with; Victor Fresco, the show runner. I hate coming up with titles and he just thought – he just loved the irony of my character thinking the weight of the world, quite literally, was on my shoulders, and balancing all of the crazy people in my life, in my own world, which feels like the entire world is on your shoulders. So I just think that’s just the thought of it. And it’s kind of fun for my name to be in the title. And it just speaks to – it just seemed that the title fit the show perfectly for what my character goes through every week.”
And Why this Show?
“When I met with Victor Fresco, the creator of this show, we were tossing around ideas and we landed on this one. And
I was like, “Yes, I’ve never seen that character on TV before, a single gay dad raising a family,” or raising his daughter
actually. And so to me, television is all about characters you haven’t seen and relationships you haven’t’ seen. And this one I
haven’t seen yet so I thought that was interesting.”
Also starring on the show is Megan Hilty previously from now cancelled ‘Smash’ opposite his ex co-star Debra Messing.
“She’s fantastic. I mean we were so fortunate to get her and to have her come on board to share her talent. And you know, I’m excited for our viewers who are fans of hers from either Smash or Broadway or anywhere, to see on a large scale her comedy chops which are brilliant.”
Had you known her prior to Smash or no?
“I did in certain circles, social situations and a couple – she actually auditioned for me when I produced another
show for the CW so I knew of her talent. But we didn’t know each other very well, but in-school friends, I would say.
But now we’re out-of-school friends as well.”
What exactly did you see in Sean Saves the World that gave you so much faith in it?
“I think when you’re making TV you always look for, as much as you can, you always look for new characters that
you haven’t seen before and new relationships that you haven’t seen before. And so to me I’ve never seen a single
gay father on TV dealing with these kinds of things that are very relatable to America, but also in a kind of different
way. I think I watched a lot of TV growing up. I watched a lot of SNL and Carol Burnett and all those 70’s sitcoms;
Three’s Company, Facts of Life, all those things. And then a lot of movies; Peter Sellers movies, a lot of Steve
Martin movies, a lot of Marty Short stuff. So I think I learned from observing.”
Who Inspires You?
“Well my comedy idols growing up were Marty Short and Steve Martin. And my music idols classically were Mozart,
for sure. And then in Pop music, Andy Bell which is a blast from the past. I just met him the other day and I was
like, “Oh I forgot what an influence you were on me as a singer,” for like Broadway and stuff.” “But as far as
comedy goes, definitely Marty Short, and anybody funny; anybody hilarious. I loved Carol Burnett and Tim Conway,
and I was a big fan of sketch comedy so any sketch artist I loved. Eddy Murphy, you know, when he was on SNL
and all those guys.”
Can You Talk About Linda Lavin?
She is a living legend. She is – a lot of people don’t know her extensive success on stage and on Broadway. We’ve got a lot
of theater folks on the show which I think is a huge factor in cultivating a hit sitcom.Sitcoms are multicams, I should say, are
the closest things related to theater. And so in that sense, we are so fortunate to get Linda on board. Tony Award-winning
Linda Lavin who you could give literally any line to and she would get a huge laugh.So aside from being incredibly talented
and gifted in zingers and playing the truth of scenes, she is also an incredibly warm, down-to-earth person and we’ve
developed this wonderful working relationship where I actually do feel like it’s my real mom, you know. Of course, nobody
can take the place of my real mom but she certainly comes close.”
Premieres Thursday, October 3 at 9pm ET.