As obnoxious as the phrase “cancel culture” might be, it’s not unreasonable to assume that some skits might not have passed the smell test when Hulu’s History of the World Part II was in development.
But David Stassen, who served as showrunner on the eight-episode series, said there wasn’t a single conversation where someone said, “We shouldn’t do this.”
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“Everyone thought of the best ideas, and we worked on them,” Stassen said Saturday during the show’s Contenders TV panel in Hollywood. “Hopefully, the best rose to the top.”
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Actually, there was one skit that didn’t make the final cut. Ike Barinholtz — who joined the panel Saturday with Stassen and star Wanda Sykes — said they wanted to show a couple having sex right as the volcano erupted in Pompeii, but they already had done something on Kama Sutra and had “a lot of sex sketches.”
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The series serves as the sequel to Mel Brooks’ seminal 1981 film History of the World, Part I. Brooks also EPs the series that also stars Nick Kroll, Barinholtz and Sykes.
“We just followed the model of the movie,” explained Barinholtz about how the series was structured. “We just went bigger with 20- to 30-minute stories. … There was a lot of shuffling around in post, how it was all going to fit together. The original plan was to do these four stories with Ike, Wanda and Nick, with random sketches all over.”
The comedians also got to pitch their own ideas. Sykes, for example, came in wanting to play Shirley Chisholm. They ended up writing something that had the longtime congresswoman appearing in a ’70s throwback sitcom.
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“The world is very heavy, there’s a lot of shit happening,” Barinholtz told the crowd. “This is a show where you can literally unplug and watch. It’s good to be silly sometimes. It’s good to watch some silly shit. I think we did our best to give you a nice portion of some silly shit.”
Check back Tuesday for the panel video.
Deadline Contenders Television is sponsored by Apple TV+, Coverfly, Eyepetizer, Final Draft, Los Siete Misterios, Michter’s, and Village Roadshow Entertainment. Partners include: Four Seasons Resort Maui, The American Pavilion, Julia Wong Designs and Pampring.
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