Fans of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend waited all season for Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) to finally get Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III), her childhood summer camp boyfriend. It was will they or won’t they, and they did, but when Rebecca told him she really did move to West Covina for him (knowing he was engaged at the time), that rightfully gave Josh pause. Now we’ve been waiting all summer to find out how Josh will react.
We’ve only got a few more days to wait, co-creator and executive producer of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Aline Brosh McKenna wouldn’t give away any spoilers. This summer I spoke with McKenna at CBS/Showtime/The CW’s party for the Television Critics Association. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns Friday, October 21 at 8PM on The CW.
Are we going to see the immediate aftermath of Rebecca telling Josh she moved to West Covina for him?
Aline Brosh McKenna: I’m not going to tell you that. That I’m not going to tell you. You’ll have to watch to see that.
Is it safe to say Rebecca is not in the same happy place when we see her in season two?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Well, she’s in a different place because now that they’ve spent the night together, her sense of romantic certainty increases. So whereas last season she was a bit in denial, she didn’t want to tell anybody how she really felt about Josh, this season she’s much more certain of her feelings.
What new music are you working on?
Aline Brosh McKenna: We’re doing every genre. Every character has a lot of new songs. We’re doing a big tap number. We are doing a lot of really sexy songs. Sexy genres.
Sexier than “Heavy Boobs?”
Aline Brosh McKenna: Did you think “Heavy Boobs” was sexy?
Does that surprise you?
Aline Brosh McKenna: It was slightly repellant, wasn’t it?
I know it’s supposed to be ridiculous and silly, but I like it.
Aline Brosh McKenna: But did you find it sexy?
Well, yes…
Aline Brosh McKenna: Little bit. It’s funny, we were debating that and the men in our room were like, “It’s boobs so it’s going to be sexy to men.”
Rachel said there’s a new theme song?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yes. It’s sort of the emotional diary, the emotional theme of the season.
Are you prepared to do that every year?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yes.
Did the irony of having an actual Disney prince sing “Settle for Me” occur to you
Aline Brosh McKenna: Why would a Disney prince be more ironic?
Because a Disney prince doesn’t have to settle for anyone. They always get the girl.
Aline Brosh McKenna: That’s interesting. I didn’t quite think of that but we are very tickled that we have a Disney prince on the show.
The choreography seems very high energy.
Aline Brosh McKenna: Amazing. There’s one choreographer who does all of our songs which is incredible. Did 49 things last year. She does everything we do so she’s incredible. She got nominated for the Emmy this year.
When you get closer to episode 20 is it hard to keep that energy up?
Aline Brosh McKenna: You know what? Everybody’s just so excited every week. We’re so excited to do it so people are pretty burnt by the end of the season but everybody loves their job, so.
Was Valencia’s song about women sticking together when she’s really sniping everyone a real comment on how some “friendships” can be?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yeah, that’s a woman who’s been raised to see other women as competition so that even when she’s trying to express solidarity, she’s sort of incapable of doing it.
When Kenny Ortega directs, what does he bring to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Just because you don’t know which directors are going to do which episode, poor Kenny got an episode that was a bottle episode. It was in the bus the whole time. So he had very little dance, but he did the episode where Rebecca does the striptease but none of the big group numbers that you associate with Kenny.
Was the witch prosthetic modeled after Wicked?
Aline Brosh McKenna: No. Did it look like that?
Yes, as much as I’ve seen Wicked from the back row and it was a green witch with a pointy nose.
Aline Brosh McKenna: Interesting, I think it was sort of inspired by a lot of fairy tale witch imagery, Shakespeare, Disney.
Was their conversation about the UTI song?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yeah. Every song we do, there’s usually a racier version of it and then we have to work with standards and practices to make it work for the network.
Santino uses a stirring spoon as a microphone. Was that a comment on all the singing into hair brushes in romantic comedies?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yeah, they do. Hairbrushes, whisks.
Was that you’re way of saying, “There’s more than just hairbrushes, people?”
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yeah, right, there’s also kitchen implements.
Some episodes have three songs. Is that an added challenge?
Aline Brosh McKenna: Yes, we have more episodes this season with three songs.
