SPLITTING HEADACHE

Five years ago, Dan Erickson sent a script for a pilot episode of a new show to Ben Stiller’s production company, Red Hour Films. Creative executive Jackie Cohn was so impressed she passed it straight to Stiller.

“I said, ‘We have to make it,). “The framework reminded me of a specific kind of office–comedy genre that I’d credit to Mike Judge with , and obviously Ricky Gervais and the original , and the American , and . It’s an amazingly funny genre that is very specific. But then Dan had this other layer, surreal, almost absurdist. I was like, ‘Oh, this is really unique. It could be funny but also weird.’”