The Four Seasons is an adaptation of the popular 1981 film written and directed by Alan Alda. It is a comedy-drama that takes place over four seasons featuring Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, and Will Forte. It has already been renewed for a season two by Netflix. It was created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher (The Mindy Project, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and Tracey Wigfield (The Mindy Project, Saved By The Bell), who all worked together on the classic comedy series 30 Rock. Fisher and Wigfield recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
How did you both first get involved with this project? Was it something that you guys launched or something that was presented to you?
Lang Fisher: Tracey, Tina, and I initially wanted to work on something together. We were talking about many different show ideas, and we knew that this would be like Tina’s return to TV, so we wanted it to be something special. Tina kept referencing the movie from 1981 as the tone she wanted to go for in terms of just it being grounded in the real world. Tracy and I hadn’t seen it, and after we did, we thought, why don’t we do this? It had a cozy feeling about relationships during four trips over the four seasons, and you have this group of friends.
Like the original, this has a great cast of comedy legends. Talk about assembling them.
Tracey Wigfield: We got so lucky with this incredible cast. We wanted this show to showcase these funny people you love. What if they were friends and went on trips together, and you could go on trips with them? We went to Steve Carrell first, then Colman Domingo, who was excited to do comedy.
Kerri Kenney-Silver played drama as well as comedy, which was a revelation because I had only seen her do comedy. Her audition was just so lovely, and it was so real, and you felt so much for this woman. Marco Calvani was a friend of Colman’s, and he was so great that we rewrote the role for him. Erika Henningsen was cast, and then casting informed us that Will Forte was available.
Then you have to shoot four trips in four seasons… Talk a little about the challenges of shooting in all these different locations…
Lang Fisher: Due to time and budget constraints, we couldn’t shoot the episodes in the actual seasons. We shot it between September and December and almost did it in order. We shot spring, fall, and winter, and then we did summer in Puerto Rico. In the end, we waited till hurricane season was over. It was great for a couple of seasons because we shot in spring in September, but it was hot in September. It was hot when they jumped in the lake. Our production designer and greens people made sure there were flowers everywhere, which was beautiful.
Fall was the peak leaf-peeping season, which was beautiful because the leaves were turning. This is why we came to the East Coast for this. It’s so gorgeous. Winter was more of a challenge because we shot it in November, and it happened to be quite a warm November. We did some pickup shoots in January to make sure we had snow. Then we went to Puerto Rico for the tail end. So, the first three episodes were shot in the Hudson Valley.
I’m from New York. It’s nice that you actually shot there. Talk a little bit about shooting in the state of New York.
Tracey Wigfield: We had a lot of our 30 Rock crew that I worked with for six years with us. I haven’t seen them since I moved to LA, so it was a wonderful reunion because they were the same great crew. Yeah. Tina had continued to work with them on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Girls5ever. New York is amazing. The people are amazing. We shot an hour outside of the city, and for a show about seasons, you can’t shoot anywhere better. It’s beautiful. It’s just such a lovely, picturesque place.
What were you favorite moments?
Lang Fisher: My favorite moment was in the seventh episode, the first half of winter. I’ll tell you why it’s my favorite just on set. It was because we shot it on Halloween, and it was an emotionally fraught scene, but then someone had to streak across the camera. I was directing it. It was a closed set, very respectful for the actor, but our boom operator was dressed like a banana. At that moment, you are watching this emotional scene, and then someone also has to be naked while being serious, and the boom operator is dressed as a banana. So that was my favorite.
Tracey Wigfield: I liked anything where the whole group was together. When they jumped in the lake in the spring and in the summer when they were all at the beach club, I liked any of the dinner scenes, anything where all six of them were talking over each other.
Vivaldi is a big part of the original movie, and he’s represented here, too…
Tracey Wigfield: We knew we wanted Vivaldi to be a big part of our show. The music makes it feel distinct. Jeff Richmond, our composer (and executive producer), did a beautiful job uniquely using Vivaldi because much of his work is so familiar. He reinvented these themes modernly and integrated them into his original score. It’s beautiful. Our music elevates the whole thing.
When you have a cast like that, you want to see them interact. What’s it like to be on the other end of this now?
Tracey Wigfield: I’m very proud of what we’ve made. I’m so excited. It was hard in ways that making TV shows is always hard, but in many ways, it was the easiest, nicest experience because it felt organic from start to finish. Part of that is because I’m working with all people I trust and have a long history with. I’m feeling good about it.
Lang Fisher: I’m excited, too. It feels wonderful to be on this side, and I think I’m just as excited for people to see it. I hope it is like the nice, gentle, funny TV that we all kind of need right now.
The Four Seasons season one is streaming on Netflix.
