If you’ve heard that Tacoma FD is a Broken Lizard production, and got excited because of it, then we want to warn you that only two members of the troupe — Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme — are involved in this show. But if you like BL’s brand of easygoing gross-out comedy, then Tacoma FD should be right up your alley.
Jun 15, 2019 From awkward moments to being silly, the cast of Tacoma FD always has fun on set. #truTV #TacomaFD SUBSCRIBE to get the latest truTV content: http://bit.ly/t.
Read on for more: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?Opening Shot: Two guys sit in a Tacoma FD command car in a raging downpour, challenging each other to eat as many saltines as he can in 45 seconds. One says six is impossible, while the other does it easily, citing his “wet mouth.”The Gist: The two men are Chief Terry McKonky (Kevin Heffernan) and his old friend, Captain Eddie Penisi (Steve Lemme). Terry has just been promoted to chief, and he still feels like he can hang out with the guys at his squad and still be a good leader.
And, because they’re firefighters in very rainy Tacoma, there’s a lot of downtime.After the squad rescues an alpaca who got stuck in a backyard play gym — lots of “gastric goo” was spit at the firefighters trying to rescue him — they’re offered a $500 gift certificate for “sawft” alpaca-fleece goods. So the squad has a tournament to determine who will get the certificate. McKonky is right in there with the guys — medic Granny Smith (Marcus Robinson) and firefighters Andy Myawani (Eugene Cordero) and Ike Crystal (Gabriel Hogan) — trying to see who holds their arm in ice water the longest or pees the most into a water jug.But when councilwoman Linda Price (Suzy Nakamura) comes around, she’s appalled at how silly Terry is being. She tells him that he has to be serious about his job ahead of an inspection.
He tries to get serious, but Eddie isn’t buying it; the squad is ready for the inspection, and they think that Terry can be his old funny self and still be a good leader. So Eddie pranks Terry by putting shrimp in the shaft of his office chair, leading the chief to destroy his office looking for the source of the smell.The councilwoman is still unconvinced, until she sees the squad rescue a profane kid from the bottom of a well, where the kid went to escape his overbearing, healthy-food wielding mother.Our Take: Lots and lots of people love the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, mainly because of their 2001 cult classic. Then again, a lot of people hate them because of they may consider their humor juvenile. We’ve always been on the fence about them, but here’s one thing we can say about Tacoma FD: It might not change anyone’s minds but it sure shows what you can do when you’ve been performing together for almost 30 years, as Heffernan and Lemme (who also co-created the show) have. Despite the fact that Heffernan and Lemme are the only members of Broken Lizard to have any extensive input on the show, the vibe of the Super Troopers movies and the other BL projects is apparent in Tacoma FD, and that’s a good thing.Yes, some of the jokes, like the spitting alpaca or the cursing kid, are a bit on the juvenile side. But the entire cast has an easygoing chemistry that leads to good extended jokes like the dim Crystal (get it?) thinking that alpacas are killed for their fleece.
It also helps some of the more gross jokes, like the peeing contest, make sense because the characters have been set up well from the outset.Right now, the show is a bit of a sausage-fest, but in episode three, a female firefighter named Lucy (Hassie Harrison) will join the squad, likely shaking up the boys’ club that we see in the first episode. But so far, so good, mainly because the gags are intermixed with more than enough character development to make the jokes work. Photo: Beth Dubber/truTVSex and Skin: Nothing here, but it’s a good place to discuss the fact that Crystal has a jug of purple pee because of all the supplements he takes.
Parting Shot: After Terry figures out where the smell is coming from, he gets a new chair, but his office still smells. He tells Eddie, “You got me.” Eddie tells him where the shrimp is now: the curtain rod. “You sneaky bastard,” Terry says. As Terry empties what looks like dozens of shrimp from that curtain rod, Eddie says, “Fun, right?”Sleeper Star: We always like seeing Nakamura, because we think she’s a pretty funny character actor.
So let’s hope we see her in at least a few more episodes down the lineMost Pilot-y Line: This isn’t actually a criticism, but the “sawft” joke got a little old after a while, then it got funny again near the end of the episode.Our Call: STREAM IT, mainly because the cast of Tacoma FD, and Heffernan and Lemme in particular, aren’t trying hard to make the audience laugh, which is all you want from a good comedy.Joel Keller writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere. Trending Now.This story has been shared 14,213 times. 14,213.This story has been shared 6,442 times. 6,442.This story has been shared 5,346 times. 5,346.This story has been shared 4,760 times. 4,760.This story has been shared 4,029 times.
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Tacoma, Washington, is one of the rainiest cities in the country, and fires tend to take care of themselves. This leaves the Tacoma Fire Department with a lot of time on their hands. Sometimes they are called to handle other emergency matters best left to other first responders. Fighting fires doesn’t necessarily translate to solving crimes, for example. But that doesn’t stop them from clearing an innocent ventriloquist dummy from an obvious frameup. But most of the time the brave men and women of Tacoma FD are used to idling their hours on a weight bench, playing elaborate pranks or tossing balls at each other’s balls.In an upcoming episode, the Tacoma squad will be tossing balls directly at the cops during a rec league softball game. The timing for the episode couldn’t be better considering series co-creators Kevin Heffernan, who plays Chief Terry McConky, and Steve Lemme, who plays Captain Eddie Penisi, joined this week to proudly show off their softball championship hardware, fill out a Major League BeerFest roster, and figure out if their Tacoma FD squad could beat the Super Troopers in a pickup game.
You can watch the hilarious segment below and read on for the full interview on Tacoma FD season 2. KEVIN HEFFERNAN: Yeah, it’s been kind of weird. I mean we were lucky enough to get all our episodes shot before this happened. We shot 13, got them in the can. And then we got through about episode five when things started shutting down so we closed down our editing room about three weeks ago and sent all the editors home. Everyone’s working remotely.
We’re learning all this new software, and a lot of Zoom meetings, and stuff like that.And then we took another hit when the other post production facilities started shutting down the labs, the sound places and whatever. Everyone’s gone home and everyone’s working remotely and we’re figuring it out.
We’ve got another episode done that way. And we have a seven more to do, we’re just going to push through and get them done.Is there a quarantine episode planned for season three yet?STEVE LEMME: It’s so funny that you say that because, yes. I mean first we have to get a season three ordered, but yeah. We’re friends with a lot of the Tacoma firefighters who are up there and pretty early on we are chatting with them and they were like, yeah already one shift got quarantined in the house, they were exposed. And so back at the station they had to quarantine the entire shift, and one of them tested positive.And then of course we can’t help but start thinking about episode ideas because that’s just what we do. And so we’re like, that would be a pretty funny episode, these guys just locked together for 14 days.
And then we got a couple of, I don’t want to give any way, but we got a couple of true stories already coming from those quarantined firefighters and games that they play while they’re all stuck together for two weeks at a time. Hopefully we can get something positive out of this. Lemme: I think one of the fun things for us in making TV is that there is a new episode each week.
Whether you’re writing or acting or directing, it stays fresh that way. I think the nice thing about wearing all those hats is that we’re in charge. What we say goes. And it’s very intoxicating, Chris, I’ll tell you that much. LaughsBut no, I think the first season was our first season ever of doing a TV show and we realized just how much goes into it. And essentially, this season we’re doing 13 episodes. We’re making three movies total, back to back.
I think it’s just a lot of time management, a lot of preparation, but you have to enjoy what you do. We have a great time, we love the people we work with, our cast and our crew are all awesome. Much like real firefighter life, it becomes a family. And the family keeps growing so it’s just been a blast. SubscribeWhen you’re casting a workplace comedy or a buddy comedy on TV, it’s absolutely pivotal for the cast to have a strong chemistry together. What were you guys looking for in terms of casting going into season one to make sure that that firefighter unit really feels like a family, but also a really, really funny one?Heffernan: Part of it was we needed some younger people, because you know, Lemme and I are getting a little long in the tooth. But that was part of it.
Because now we’re the captain and the chief, it’s like we get the young guys in there. I think another thing for us was comedy skill.
We’ve learned over the years it’s really great to put people in who are comedy generators. Guys who can do improv, and actors and actresses who can do improv. So the idea was to search for those people who can help create the comedy. And then you’ll know that you’ll get more jokes than you have on the page that way. And you know that you’ll have people who are creating funny scenarios. I think that was the big thing.
The friendship between your two characters is the heartbeat of the show. How does that evolve in season two?
And how does the real life friendship and working relationship that you guys have factor in writing the show?Lemme: Well, it’s funny because a lot of the personal stories between us are things that happen between us in real life. We’ve been friends for 30 years, and Kevin and I even went on the road for 10 years. We have a lot of these conversations that we have in the show are based on real conversations that we have and our attitudes towards each other. And I think particularly around episodes 10 and 11, we really dive into all the things that bother us about the other guy.Like for instance, Kevin, it drives him crazy how loud I chew my gum. It just drives him bananas.
And when he comes at me about it, I’ll be like, “Well, have you ever heard yourself drinking a Diet Coke? Because it sounds like there’s a hydraulic vacuum cleaner sucking liquid out of a tight space.” And then we just go from there. He’s like, “What’s that fragrance you’re wearing that cologne?” I’m like, “It’s not cologne, it’s body spray. And why don’t you stop turning around and showing me your butt crack.” And we can just go. So we channel that into some episodes.Heffernan: Like a married couple.It’s Ball Busters, the TV show. Set the scene for us.
What was that first day of practice like with a choreographer from Dancing With the Stars?Heffernan: Well we went to this dance studio here in Burbank and I was so nervous, I brought my kids with me. I have two daughters and I brought them with me so that they would calm the situation. But it was very intimidating. They’re very professional. We had two dance instructors, and one of them was my dance partner, who were incredibly intimidating.
And the skills and the physical abilities that they had compared to a fat guy like me.Are we going to see any of the other Broken Lizard guys pop up in season two maybe?Lemme: Well one of the guys, Paul Soter, is on our writing staff and he was in season one in one episode. And in this season he’s in four episodes.Heffernan: He really worked his way in.