The eight-episode HBO comedy series Crashing tells the story of Pete (Peter Holmes, who draws on his own experiences as a comedian for the show) a sheltered suburbanite who finds out that his wife is cheating on him, unraveling the world in which he was married to his childhood sweetheart with dreams of making it as a stand-up comedian. Forced to re-evaluate his priorities, Pete jumps into the New York comedy scene, crashing on other people’s couches while learning hard life lessons he never imagined he’d be experiencing.

Executive Producers Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow (who also directed the first and last episode of the season) sat down with Collider to chat about the new series and the journey that Pete will be taking. During the interview, the two talked about how they first crossed paths, how you know when a collaboration will work out, shaping the story, putting together an incredible list of hilarious comedy guest stars, and why stand-up comics and comedy are so intriguing, as a subject.

crashing-pete-holmes-judd-apatow-interview
Image via HBO

Collider: How did you guys come to be working on this show together?

PETE HOLMES: My manager asked Judd [Apatow] to do my podcast in Austin, and Judd did it.

JUDD APATOW: That was for the premiere of Girls, which was five years ago.

HOLMES: Some magical wind blew and Judd was like, “Yeah, I’ll do a podcast with some people I’ve never heard of!” It was me, Kumail Nanjiani, Chris Gethard and Todd Barry. Judd is producing Kumail’s movie, we made this show together, and he’s doing Chris Gethard’s Career Suicide show for HBO. It’s the most productive podcast in the history of man.

Judd, are you just always looking for people to work with, wherever you go?

APATOW: You know, I’m never looking. I just stumble upon people. There’s no part of me that ever has my casting cap on. I just find myself laughing at somebody, or maybe they say to me, “Hey, can I tell you this idea I have?” And then, for some reason, I think, “I kind of know how to do that.” That’s really all it is for me. It’s about, do I want to see it and do I have anything to add to it?

So, do you usually know pretty quickly, if you’re on the same page as someone else, or are there times where you think you are, and then you read the material and realize you’re not?

APATOW: Well, you don’t know. Sometimes you talk about something, and then they send a script and you say, “Okay, here’s how to fix it.” And then, they refuse and it’s over because the relationship doesn’t work. Pete wrote very quickly, which is helpful. Amy Schumer is like that. She worked very hard and she wrote fast. Pete would write a draft of an episode in a few days or a week, and then we would talk about it and he’d do another draft in two days. It becomes very productive. You know right away, if you see things the same way and if someone appreciates your input. It just completely worked. I liked his writing. Even when he sent over the first scene or two, I thought, “He’s a great writer. This is just going to be fun!”

crashing-pete-holmes-judd-apatow-interview
Image via HBO

And he has a point of view that’s unique. His history as someone who was religious and who wanted to be a youth pastor is a way of looking at life that is so different from anything I’ve experienced, and that fascinated me. It was all new terrain to explore. I’ve never been able to communicate about these ideas in any of my work, so this was a fun, new conversation to have. Especially as I get older and I know I’m going to be meeting my maker, I feel like it would be helpful if Pete could get some damn religion in me, before it’s over.

HOLMES: This is a spiritual alliance.

Pete, do you get nervous, at all, when you’re writing, knowing that Judd Apatow will be reading it?

HOLMES: I know a lot of creative people, but I’m not competitive, in any way. I don’t like playing sports. I don’t like gambling or doing any sort of foot race with my friends. But, I do like being competitive with myself. I have the type of brain, and I’m glad for it, that if a pressure situation comes up, I enjoy it. Some people lock up, but I go, “Oh, this is a great opportunity to try to impress Judd.” And the script was better because I was writing it for Judd, instead of as an exercise. It was fun to go, “I’m going to send this to him and, boy, I hope he likes it.” He gave me notes and I’d go, “Oh, wouldn’t it be great, if I gave him back a new draft in a day.” I don’t know where I got that, but probably from somewhere deep in my psychology. But, it was fun to play that game.

What feedback was most helpful in shaping all of this?

secret-life-of-pets-2-pete-holmes
Image via HBO

HOLMES: Judd was very, very good at noticing what was the story and what wasn’t the story. A lot of how we worked, at the beginning, was writing everything. You start with a wide net, and then Judd goes, “This is a funny scene, but it’s not necessary.” He was never like, “This is bullshit!” And I like writing, but I need that guidance to go, “This is what you’re really saying. And this pocket here is where something big should happen.” I’d like to have I have them more now, but then, I didn’t have the instinct to go, “This is a pilot, so something big should happen here,” or “This is the first episode after the pilot, so something really funny should happen here.” And you can’t just talk about it. I would just have two people talking and he’d be like, “No, something should also happen in the show.” It seems so obvious, but when you sit down to write, especially if you’re thinking of how your life really is, you’ll just be like, “And then, you call them.” But, you should go and see them. That’s why TV is so much more satisfying than our lives. People have the conversations that we hold in, and they do the things that we’re too lazy to do.

When it came to bringing in other really funny people to guest star, did you just come up with a list of people you wanted to be able to sit and watch tell jokes?

HOLMES: Kind of. Artie [Lange] auditioned.

APATOW: We knew that Artie Lange was the most important piece of guest casting for the first episode.

HOLMES: Talk about a Judd instinct, though. That was a blindspot for me. We needed something to contrast Pete.

crashing-pete-holmes-judd-apatow-interview
Image via HBO

APATOW: And that person also had to grab you. Artie hadn’t acted in 14 years, and we knew he was someone who’d had a lot of turmoil in the last few years. He’s someone who people really love and root for, and they want him to be happy and strong. That seemed like a great counter to Pete’s naive nature. He hasn’t experienced almost anything, and here’s this guy who’s been through everything, which is a funny clash. They immediately fell into a comedy team. They just seemed like two guys who were built to be Abbott and Costello. But then, as the season went on, I realized that Pete becomes a comedy team with each of these people, in different ways. It’s not that he’s the straight one to the funny one, but he naturally falls into an emotional and funny comedic rhythm with whoever the person is who’s couch he’s sleeping on. It’s funny to watch.

HOLMES: We did sit down and go, “Who would be great? Sarah Silverman would be great. Would she do it?” I think it does come down to friends, especially in the first season of a show.

Does this guy, at this point in his life, have a realistic view of what it takes to succeed?

HOLMES: No, I don’t think he knows exactly what it’s like. I like to think my parents raised me until I was 22, and then my wife took over. This really is a person who goes, “Oh, shit, you have to find an apartment and pay an electric bill!” It’s all the stuff that somehow I was so sheltered, I didn’t know how to do it. And you don’t realize how frightening and raw the comedy world can be. I get excited thinking about the new ways Pete, the character, will crash in the second season. That’s where the comedy is. It’s not always going to fall and it’s not always going to go well. Somewhere in the middle is the good story.

With so many bad things always happening to Pete, did you ever worry that people would just not believe that all of these bad things would keep happening to the same guy?

crashing-pete-holmes-judd-apatow-interview
Image via HBO

HOLMES: I totally would believe that it might be a stretch, in the factual, real world. There’s a little bit of a heightened reality, I suppose, to help deliver the feeling of what it’s like to start in comedy. It might not be factually accurate, but the feeling is true. If you look at the timeline of the show, it’s a way of telling the story, in an entertaining and true way. People seem to like the show, both when he’s floundering and when something goes right. That’s something that, in success, we’ll take into the second season.

Judd, since it’s a subject you’ve explored a few times now, what is it that you find so intriguing about stand-up comics and comedy?

APATOW: I don’t know if there’s anything I find more fascinating. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with it, and it hasn’t gone away. In a lot of ways, I think it’s increased recently. I got bored with it, for a long time. I did stand-up for seven years, from the time I was 17 until I was 24, and then I didn’t really have interest in it. I didn’t watch much of it. I didn’t go to the clubs. And then, I began to think, “I should know who some of these people are.” I had neglected it so much. And then, I met Amy Schumer, and she’d come tell me about her travels on the road. That’s what pulled me back in. I started doing stand-up again, to amuse her, and then it went well and I thought, “Oh, this is fun!” In hanging out with all of the comedians, I thought, “I miss this!” I enjoyed the relationships with all of those comedians. When you’re a director, you don’t meet any other directors. Everyone is alone in rooms. There might be one meeting a year at the DGA that people go to, and if you’re busy, you miss that year. So, that made me think more about what the lives were like for comedians, right now. And Pete loves comedy even more than I do. His enthusiasm about it really pulled me back into it.

HOLMES: It was fortuitous that Amy had gotten Judd back into it ‘cause then I pitched him the show on the set of Trainwreck. That convergence of Judd’s interests is something that I give a lot of thanks for. He could have been interested in pastries.

APATOW: Well, I am!

Crashing airs on Sunday nights on HBO.

crashing-poster