Jill Kargman Reflects on the Time She Fired Her Kids (Yes, There Were Tears)
The #OddMomOut star opens up about Season 2 of her hilarious series.
Jill Kargman and her team certainly didn't hold back when it came to upping the comedic ante for Season 2 of Odd Mom Out. If viewers thought that watching Jill poke fun at the momzilla antics of the posh Upper East Side set was hilarious the first time around, then they were likely delighted to see what was in store for the sophomore run — including having some fun at the expense of feminism and Broadway show of the moment, Hamilton. Not that Jill had any doubts that Odd Mom Out would be able to keep viewers in stitches the second time around.
"Because I'm new in the TV world, I wasn't at all daunted by sophomore slump. A lot of the veteran TV writers were like, 'We've got to make sure we don't have sophomore slump.' I was like, 'What the f*** are you talking about? Of course we're not. I have so many ideas, we're good to go,'" Jill told The Daily Dish. "Once we started talking about it, their ideas were all flowing out too, [we] just had a bevy of episode ideas that we could have done. And we actually had to whittle it down to 10, so I mean, as I've said before, I feel like I could do this until I'm odd grandma out."
Jill certainly had a wishlist when it came to story ideas. She really wanted to include the doorman strike episode this season after it came up during the planning stages of Season 1, and also wanted to have a little fun at her own real-life experience of learning to drive as an adult, as we saw this season as well. However the idea to have a hunky driving instructor (played by John Behlmann) teach her the rules of the road does not reflect her own experience. "[That was] so much fun and that [idea to have a good-looking teacher] actually came up later in the evolution of the episode," she recalled. "Originally we had it as it happened in real life, with like a Ving Rhames[-type] and we were kind of stuck on it because it's so funny when you actually describe the actual story that happened to you with an intimidating teacher. And then we just thought it would be more fun if we had it be a crush. It just makes it more of a let down when you find out there's bribery involved [in order for her to get her license]."
Jill also called on her family to make appearances this season. Her daughter, Sadie, played a bad-girl teen blogger who forces Brooke to buy her drugs. And she couldn't be any prouder of the 13-year-old. "It was really great. I feel like when we were writing a part for a 13-year-old, I'm like I have a 13-year-old who loves doing voices and performing stuff. I'm like there's no way I can't have her try and do this," she said. Sadie auditioned and eventually won the part. The gig also gave her the chance to hang with her pal, Abby Elliott.
"[Sadie] loved it and a really special relationship that I'm so happy about is Abby with Sadie because Abby's come to dinner a number of times and I consider her a friend, also in addition to a colleague. She's also the age right in the middle of Sadie and me, and what's great about it is Sadie really looks up to her and I think she's a great role model, as a strong funny comedienne for my daughter," she said. "'Cause even if you have a cool mom —[and] I think Sadie looks up to me in her way — it's so much cooler to have someone in their late 20s who is doing this. And she's planning a wedding and my kids are all coming to the wedding and they just worship her. I think it's really lucky to have that relationship for Sadie, for them to spend the day acting together was a huge thrill for Sadie cause she really admires Abby."
Sadie from her appearance on Odd Mom Out this season.
But, it's not the first time she appeared on the show. She and her two siblings had played Jill's kids in the pilot. But that all changed after Jill found out they'd have to focus full-time on acting and less on their education. "That was never gonna happen," she said. "I fired them at my kitchen table, all three at the same time, and they burst into tears. It's the only time I've had all three sobbing at the same time. But it's the best thing I ever did, not just for their education — which is obviously the most important, but I could never have dealt with being a stage mom with all the other hats that I'm wearing there. There's no way that that would have worked."
There was definitely a lot of family on set, including an episode featuring Jill's real-life sister-in-law, Drew Barrymore. "With Drew, it was so much fun. We had really kind of daunting pile of scripts that morning," she said. "I think we did 12 pages that day, which is pretty demanding, with a s***load of lines to memorize. I wasn't stressed because I was having so much fun watching her performing with John Hodgman. They had such great comedic rapport, but I definitely was a little stressed that day because I wanted to get her out at a reasonable hour. She was so chill, anti-diva. She's such a good sport and everyone on our crew was blown away by her."
For Jill, Season 2 wasn't just about expanding the Odd Mom Out universe she had created, it was also about finding a balance between her work and home lives. And that includes having her kids come to set to visit her on alternating nights of the week.
"I feel like Season 1, it was really hard on my marriage and my kids because I was home for 11 years and then I kind of vanished for four months shooting," she said. "And they were, all four of them, my husband and my kids, like, 'Whoa, this isn't what we signed up for. This isn't what we're used to.' And I had to really have talks with my husband and my kids saying I was home for 11 years and I'm so glad I did it and I have no regrets, but it's Mommy's turn. So they understood. By Season 2, once they saw the show and once it was on the air and they saw how happy I was with it, and how much of an expression it was for me, they totally got why it was important to me. And they became the biggest cheerleaders and totally didn't care about their needs and fully supported me on Season 2. I think Season 1 was just like feast or famine, and by Season 2 we knew how to ration my energy. And I spent the whole weekends with them, obviously, but I made it up to them afterwards, a lot before and after."
Clearly all that hard work paid off. Check out a preview of what's to come this season on Odd Mom Out, below.
