There are two things Raising Hope has done exceptionally well this season: utilize guest stars and supporting players to the best of their comedic ability and breathe new life into the idea of flashbacks as a story-telling device. And before the season is over, series showrunner Greg Garcia promises much more of both of those things!
First and foremost, Jaime Pressly and Ethan Suplee (two more My Name is Earl alumns!) will guest star as a couple down the street from the Chances whom Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and Virginia (Martha Plimpton) decide to offer counseling.
"They have a little bit of problems, and we decide to help them out. Not that they ask or maybe even need us!" Dillahunt laughed.
Dillahunt spent a lot of time with us on the PaleyFest pressline talking about how Pressly would not stop kissing him-- which maybe wasn’t even in the script-- but when after he got all the giddiness of working with her out of his system, he added that working with her was really great because she’s “really classy and really funny.”
“I don’t want to say she’s underrated as an actress, but underappreciated maybe,” he continued. “She’s really, really good.”
And of course we will see the returns of such beloved characters like Cousin Mike (Skyler Stone), Dancin’ Dan (Dan Coscino), Shelley (Kate Micucci), and even Lucy (Bijou Phillips)-- all in one episode! The season finale is set to be super star-studded as it takes a look back at some very special events of five years prior, spending almost all twenty-two moments in flashback. We even get to see the origins of Dan's roller blading, Lucy's homicidal tendencies, and Shelley's dead tooth.
“It’s a lot of fun…I’m glad they let us do it, and I’m glad they let the audience in on the joke that it’s ridiculous that I look the same when I was seventeen,” Dillahunt shared.
Well, the same except with some crazy hair!
But in the season finale, it will actually be Jimmy (Lucas Neff) who has the crazy look as a teenager his parents had become somewhat afraid of because of the “phase” through which he was going. We won’t ruin it for you, but let’s just say those Goth kids on South Park have nothing on Jimmy Chance!
There will be some revelations in the Jimmy/Sabrina relationship, as well. We asked Neff if Jimmy would ever put his feelings for her aside and try to get out there in the dating game, and though he played a bit coy, he said that we would have that answer by the end of season one.
“Does it ever go well for Jimmy, [though]?” He laughed.
Well, if only he was willing to regress a bit and pull out his old “look” of five years ago because it turns out it was something Sabrina was really into! Then again she was going through a phase of her own: one that included a deep lisp because of wearing braces.
“It was kind of ridiculous,” Shannon Woodward laughed. “They put these fake braces in my mouth, and the lisp was just automatic. I became someone else.”
Clearly that was a season highlight for Woodward, but for Dillahunt? One of his favorite moments was working with an alpaca with which he got into a spitting contest. Well, watching the scene was a highlight, but working on it wasn’t exactly as fun. You know, considering he was having an animal spit on his face continuously.
And for Neff, watching the relationship with Jimmy and his on-screen parents get explored has been his favorite discovery: “Learning Jimmy’s real relationship to his parents Burt and Virginia and learning, I think, what upsets him and where he can have fun was a big part. A good part of a show is when you can have fun with a character. Jimmy is such a big ball of nerves, it’s fun to ease up and have fun in some episodes and not be the guy who’s freaking out and eating his own eyebrow.”
In the beginning, after all, Jimmy was just a kid in over his head, but he has really grown and evolved, and at some points even matured past the points his parents were. He is coming into his own, much like Neff has a new Hollywood citizen!
You can hear more from Neff talking, including his impassioned plea for a very special lady to appear on the show, in the video interview to the left.
Raising Hope airs every Tuesday night on FOX at 9pm.
Want more news and updates from this show or so many others? Be sure to subscribe to this page and follow LA TV Insider Examiner on Twitter!
Comments