When a Hollywood project films in Detroit, it tends toಞ do so to capitalize on the “ruin porn” of the Michigan city — all abandoned buildings and urban blight.
So when best friends and Detroit natives Sam Richardson (“Veep”) and Tim Robinson 🍸(“Saturday Night Live”) decided to return to their hometown to make a TV show, they wanted to make it a lighthearted comedy.
“It was just al❀ways our dream because that’s where we started,” says Robinson, who first met his co-star as members of the sketch group Second City in Detroit and Chicago in the early 2000s.
Adds Richardson, “We’ve always repped Detroit so hard [that] it got ඣto the point where it was annoying backstage in [Second City] Chicago because we’d be like, ‘Well, in Detroit, we do this.’ [Our colleagues] got so sick of it.”
In “” (airing Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central), the real-life pals star as fictional best friends (also named Tim and Sam) who work together at a local advertising agency, whose tactics — and decor — are a bit behind the times. Several of the commercials their characters make are paro✃dies of re🐓al local ads that aired in the Detroit market in the ’80s and ’90s (DOC Optical’s “,” , “Mel Farr, Superstar” for Ford dealerships), which both men loved for their cheesiness.
“We found them so endearing growing up; that was somet𝔍hing that we bonded over early in our friendship,” says Richardson. “These guys who make these ads also parallel comedy writing. The idea of pitching, spending all💦 of this time writing something and thinking your stuff is gold.”
The 10-episode series was filmed on location in Detroit, and beyond the commercials, Richardson, who grew up in the Boston Edison neighborhood, and Robinson — who’s from the suburb of Clarkston — pack their episodes with inside jokes that prove their Motor City cr🍌ed.
Their characters drink pop, dip their appetizers in ranch dressing and serve coney dogs for dinner. A bag of Better Made potato chips (a local brand) wreaks havoc on the guys’ plan to pitch a Chrysler ad executive (guest star Jason Sudeikis, who is also an executive produ🌱cer) in the premiere episode. The cure for Tim’s stomachache? Vernor’s ginger ale, of course.
“Detroiters” also employed a local crew, and even some of its guest stars (Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Nash) have ties to the city. Several Detroit personalities — TV anchors Mort Crim and Glenda Lewis, pop band JR JR, former Piston Rick 🌳Mahorn — also make appearances.
And while the co-crea🐬tors/stars say they didn’t have a broader goal beyond making 10 funny episodes that could stand on their own, their alter egos do share a spirit of persistence with the city they love.
“Definitely that⛄ drive never goes away for them,” says Robinson, “to try and overreach a little bit, get some🍸thing better than they’re doing now and bring the company back to what it used to be.”
“Detroiters” 10:30 p.m. Tuesday on Comedy Central
Warning: Graphic content