The Last Man on Earth is No Hero

(funky music)

Hey, I'm Peter Ruben.

And I'm Kelly Ruben.

And this is Crosby.

And this is Split Screen.

Because we know there's always more than one side

to every story.

And every movie.

Every game.

And every TV show.

TV shows like?

Last Man on Earth.

Which had a season one finale this Sunday night on Fox.

It's already been renewed,

so we know we'll see it next year.

[Kelly] Yay.

It's also the product of the creative partnership

of Phil Lord and Chris Miller,

who made the Jump Street movies and Lego movies,

and Will Forte, who we love from SNL.

And you guys just interviewed them recently.

Yeah, we interviewed Phil Lord and Chris Miller

before the show premiered in February.

Yes.

And in talking to them they told us

that the germ for the show really came from this idea,

of, obviously, it's a time-worn, sci-fi trope, you know--

Yes.

Apocalypse wipes out humanity, one person is left--

It gives me the feeling of the Stand sometimes.

Oh yeah, I can see that. Yeah.

There motto was like, Instead of Charlton Heston,

at the end of Planet of the Apes,

what if it was someone who was completely ill-equipped

to handle getting back into society,

in whatever rudimentary form.

And that made, he's such a jerk,

he's such a selfish guy, Will Forte's character.

Yes.

Who's name is Phil Miller.

Phil Lord, Chris Miller, very funny.

I see what they did there.

But it just like it got so tough for me to watch at times.

Yes, but I think that that kind of ill-equipped character

is like a recipe for comedy.

Like it reminds me of Neil LaBute plays,

and it just kind of, with like, watching a nature show,

you can just see these other people acting

in these horrible ways,

that kind of recall your real life, but not.

So I just kind of think that forced proximity

equals comedy and that you just kind of get to see them

grow week after week.

I think you've got a higher threshold,

definitely for that, then I do.

I mean-- Yes.

I certainly recognize it's a funny show, eventually.

Yes, and you have to admit,

it got better as they added more and more characters.

That's true. Like Phil

got more tolerable, yes?

It did, he's being forced to evolve,

which is why you're kind of seeing the growth

of civilization at this vastly accelerated pace

in the confines of a very strange sitcom.

That's deep, I like that.

Yeah!

Yeah. Yeah!

But while he is not even the last man on Earth,

as we know now,

Last Man on Earth is not the last show on Earth,

so we're gonna have plenty more TV to talk about

in weeks to come, as well as lots of other stuff.

Yeah.

So we hope you'll come back and join us, on Split Screen.

Bye.

(funky music)