Sitcom creators discuss boys, girls, pizza and TV

Courtesy of ABC The cast of "Two Guys, a Girl & a Pizza Place" recreates the antics of the writers.

By Michael Galloway
TV/New Media Editor

"Well, it was supposed to have been poetic."

That was how series creator Rick Wiener justified the cornball description on ABC's web page of how he and Kenny Schwartz came up with the idea for "Two Guys, a Girl & a Pizza Place." A mid-season replacement last year, this show about two college grads who work at a pizza place and their female neighbor enjoyed a mild success and was renewed for this season.

Although it wasn't far from the truth that these former writers for "Mad About You," as the Website says: "looked at each, looked at themselves, and the idea was born," Wiener and Schwartz explained how they came up with the ideas for Berg (played by Ryan Reynolds), Pete (Richard Ruccolo) and Sharon (Traylor Howard).

"We figured it would be easier if we were rewriting if (the show) was based on us. We'd know what we'd say," Wiener said.

"We'd come up with a Berg line," Schwartz said, "and say, 'OK, Rick, what would you say there, tough guy?' 'Uhh, I guess I'd say this.' 'Perfect.' We'd put it down. So on some level we did draw from our own lives, because you write what you know and we know ourselves."

The characters of Michael "Berg" Bergen, an arrogant student who never studies and still is at the top of his class, and his roommate Pete Dunville, an architecture student who stresses enough for both of them, are based on Wiener and Schwartz respectively. There's a great comic chemistry between the two of them, with Pete more the straight man and Berg giving the punchlines, which Reynolds does extremely well.

Wiener and Schwartz didn't meet in college like Pete and Berg, though.

"Actually, we met on 'Mad About You,'" Schwartz said. "That was our writing job before this ... We met first season, and we were both writing assistants working for our boss, Danny Jacobson. Then we both became staff writers, and we started hanging out. When Danny got a deal at 20th Century Fox, he just told Fox, 'You know, I got these two writers at "Mad About You" I wouldn't mind bringing over.' We're like, 'Alright, we'll go. We'll go for the ride. Why not?' We went over, and they made a little development deal for us. Then they kind of said, 'Okay, see you guys later,' and Rick and I wondered what the hell we were going to do now ... Rick has this fantastic place on Manhattan Beach, and we'd sit on his back stoop and try to figure (it) out. And we were thinking about it on the back stoop," Wiener said. "We said there had to be a stoop on the show, where people sit and talk."

"We threw a thousand ideas out," Schwartz said. "But then we asked ourselves what would be the easiest thing to do. The easiest thing to do would be to write about us. And Berg's very much ... Rick's very much Berg-like, and me, more Pete. We have a best friend out here whose name is Sharon."

The two still hang out with Sharon Strauss, who comes for every filming and upon whom Traylor Howard's character is based, the quick-tempered Sharon Carter, who loves the money she makes selling chemicals but has to live with the knowledge that her company is destroying the planet. So what do Schwartz and Wiener think of their fictional counterparts?

"The actors on the show are great, and we found out that in real life they're both similar to us," Wiener said. "It's really funny because Rich, who plays Pete, is so much like me. And Ryan is very Berg-like. They're both great guys, and we actually hang out with them when we're not shooting," Schwartz said.

Hanging out with Reynolds, Ruccolo and Howard also has given the two writers some prime material. "When you're out with your buddies, they screw up. And then we're like, 'That is so funny. We're going to put that in the show," Schwartz said. Now, last season had two characters in addition to Berg, Pete and Sharon. Bill, the owner of the Pizza Place, and the loveable Mr. Bauer, played by "M*A*S*H*" star David Ogden Stiers, a regular patron who believed he was living out a movie role each week. Stiers performance was a highlight of most every episode that'll be missed.

"Bill is basically vacationing in Florida. We're centering the show on the three (main characters)," Schwartz said.

"ABC wanted us to focus strictly on them. So that's what we did," Wiener said. Mr. Bauer also seemed to meet his end by the corporate axe.

"We miss Mr. Bauer as well, but it was thought that the character had run his course by the forces that be," Wiener said.

The cast has had a new addition, a love interest for Berg named Ashley (Suzanne Cryer, known for her "yada, yada" on "Seinfeld").

"We wanted to bring people into their lives and get them all into relationships," Wiener said. "So we thought for Berg, who's someone who has always been a real lady's man, that he should meet his match and get someone who was unacceptable to him. And that would keep things interesting."

"Cause Berg loves a challenge," Schwartz added. Both Schwartz and Wiener are happy with the creative freedom and opportunity they have with "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place," although they were both really thankful for their start on "Mad About You."

"'Mad About You' was our start," Schwartz said. "It was a great place to work. I mean, shit, you're working with Helen Hunt."

09-30-98