‘Primo’ EP Mike Schur on Crafting an Authentic Family Comedy With Shea Serrano

You may know Mike Schur for his TV creations such as Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, but as of late, the creative has been branching out beyond his own shows by lending a helping hand to up-and-coming comedic voices, in the case of Primo on Amazon Freevee.

Created by Shea Serrano, the coming-of-age single-camera comedy is inspired by his life growing up in San Antonio, Texas. In this series, the action revolves around 16-year-old Rafa (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) who is being raised by his single mother Drea (Christina Vidal), and her five brothers, Rafa’s uncles Rollie (Johnny Rey Diaz), Mike (Henri Esteve), Ryan (Carlos Santos), Jay (Jonathan Medina), and Mondo (Efráin Villa).

When it becomes clear that the high-schooler has the kind of potential to make him one of the first family members to head off to college (see the results of Rafa’s smarts in the exclusive sneak peek clip, above), he’s pulled in various directions by their advice, as well as the advice of his friends, old and new, particularly Maya (Stakiah Washington), who is the girl of Rafa’s dreams. While Schur, whose other credits include The Office, Rutherford Falls, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, didn’t have a hand in creating the series itself, Primo offers the hallmark warmth his shows often deliver.

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Below, Schur opens up about collaborating with Serrano, crafting Rafa’s uncles for the screen, and the balance of tackling family comedy over workplace shenanigans for this sweet series.

What will fans of your other shows like Parks and Recreation or The Good Place enjoy about Primo?

Mike Schur: Well, I hope it has the same sort of general vibe. I think that’s why Shea kind of picked me to work with because he liked the other stuff I’ve done. He said he wanted to make Parks and Recreation but as a family show. And I was like, “Well, good news for you, I created Parks and Recreation [Laughs].” He had never written a TV before. He is a remarkably talented dude and a very quick learner. So I felt like my job was to guide him a little bit. I was in the room the whole first season, and he just studied and listened.

We hired a bunch of good senior writers, Peter Murrieta and Lisa Muse Bryant who’ve been on a bunch of other shows, and we just established a system. He also hired a bunch of people to be writers who weren’t TV writers, which I think was kind of great like Alex Zaragoza who’s a journalist who wrote for Vice, and Jason Concepcion, his friend who the character of Harris is loosely based on [is] a writer and a podcaster, but had never written in TV before. [Shea] had the same exact kind of philosophy that I have, which is I know these people are funny, let’s just hire them, and he was totally right.

(Credit: Amazon Freevee)

It was a good mix of established veteran people and brand-new people who were just happy to have a fun project to work on. So, I was like a booster rocket. It’s [Shea]’s show, it’s his story, it’s his life, his world. So I contributed the fuel to launch it and then he can now take over and kind of go do it himself, which is always the goal. Whenever I executive produce something that isn’t my idea or my story the goal is to get to the point where you have the final say about how everything looks and feels.

You’re best known for workplace comedies. Is there a different approach to a family comedy like Primo where you have this wealth of uncles?

That’s the key to me. It doesn’t matter what the setting is or whether it’s a family show or workplace show, the key is, are the characters three-dimensional? Do you get the sense that they’re fully realized people? Do you find the right actors to play those rules who bring something new and interesting and fresh to the concept? You can create on paper the best possible character in any kind of show, but if you don’t find the right actor to portray that character, it doesn’t work. There’s never been a writer who can outwrite an actor who doesn’t fit the role.

Shea had a very good approach for the show, which was it’s a guy who has no dad but also has five dads. And then the key became, “let’s make sure each one of these dads is as specific as possible. And it has the most three-dimensional, fully realized, well-drawn personality. I thought of this as live-action Inside Out. It’s a person with five very specific voices in his brain at all times. You want to know instantly what kind of person they are, what they want out of life, what they want out of Primo, and what they think Primo should do with his life. If we can really clearly define all those voices and [Rafa]’s mom. Then every scene ought to be funny.

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Meet Teen & His Overbearing Uncles in Trailer for Michael Schur's 'Primo'

As you mentioned, this is Shae’s vision. Does he have five uncles or is this just a story he wanted to tell?

His dad is in the picture, but his mom, his five uncles, the character of Maya is based on his wife who he met freshman year of college, Harris is based on his friend Jason who wrote on the show, Miguel’s based on a real friend of his, I think named Miguel. So the names aren’t all the same. A lot of them are the same first initial, but many of them are based on real folks in his life. It was the case that he found out he might be the first guy in his family to go to college. A lot of it is autobiographical. And I think that is part of why it feels really authentic. These are real people at their core. They’re real people in a real place, which I think is a huge part of why it works.

Primo, Series Premiere, Friday, May 19, Amazon Freevee