Justin Spitzer on Saying Goodbye to ‘Superstore’
Justin Spitzer is no stranger to writing about workplaces. He gave us The Office. Spitzer wanted to give us a look at retail and decided the world of Superstore would be the best idea. Four seasons later, the show is the comedy you need to be watching – if you’re not. Balancing comedy with hot topic issues, the show stars America Ferrera, Ben Feldman and Nico Santos. The season finale ended with undocumented immigrant Mateo (Santos) being taken away by ICE. As serious as it sounds, there was plenty of humor in the episode to give us laughs.
I caught up with Spitzer as he said goodbye to Superstore.
Where did the idea for Superstore begin? Was there a particular inspiration?
There’s not much of an interesting story. I love writing workplace comedy more than any other format because it’s different people coming together. I was trying to think of a workplace location that hadn’t been done to death in workplace comedies, and I thought of the world of retail. I thought which type of retail and a Superstore was every type of retail and gave me the most flexibility.
Let’s talk about the season finale and how that came up?
We hadn’t planned on using it at the end of the season. Originally, we were going to use it mid-season and I liked the idea. I was inspired by earlier Game of Thrones season and how they’d do crazy balls out, battle scenes that would take a whole episode and you wouldn’t see it coming. It wasn’t always about waiting until the finale. I wanted to do it mid-season, but we wanted to build things up. We needed to get Amy in the manager’s chair, and we got to the end of the season and we had to decide if we wanted to do it then or another time. But it felt like the stories were leading to this point.
In terms of Mateo’s arc, we didn’t want to keep telling stories about Mateo and something else he couldn’t do because he’s undocumented. We’d told those stories. This felt like this move was inevitable and unexpected.
How do you strike that balance between dealing with accessibility, Mateo, and maternity leave in one line and in the next, you’ve got sheer comedy?
It’s about being very sparing with the issues and the drama. A little bit goes a very long way. We never try to force an issue. We never try to force drama. We want it to feel organic for the stories we’re talking about. Let ourselves be carried by that. We never want to push an agenda. That’s not to say we don’t tell both sides of an issue. We’re bringing in an issue, figuring out how it affects our characters. The real challenge is figuring out where the comedy comes from and going from that, and not to take ourselves so seriously. If we take ourselves a little seriously, it’ll come off as too serious. We need to remind ourselves that we are a comedy and make this show accessible. The rest will come through.
When the show first came out, the fans loved this, but the critics were a bit cool to it. What is it like for you as showrunner to see how much this show has grown and how much viewers love the show?
We did have rough reviews fairly early on. I’d have some fantasies where people would discover it and by season four, people would wonder why we’re not watching it. I was fully aware that we’d go away after one season, though. It’s really gratifying that people are finally discovering it and giving it a chance. I think originally people had pre-conceived notions about what the show was. They probably thought it was going to be a low common- denominator show. I think people had to live with it and to get to know the characters. I think that’s what you want. Any show with legs needs time to grow and to become itself. We never wanted a show that burned bright and went out. We wanted to go the distance.
You went out with a big bang. Why did you decide to close the doors on Superstore for you?
I’ll still be around and give feedback. The biggest thing was that my wife and I have both have had shows these past few years. She has The Good Girls, and we have two kids. I wanted to be around and help a little more and help raise them because she’s been doing more than her fair share. Also, I feel the show is all that I ever wanted it to be. I think other people can take it and run with it. Gabe and Jonathan have been with the show since Episode two. It’s not the creator stepping away, and people stepping in who have had nothing to do with it. I think the quality will maintain.
You’ve crafted the perfect group of people, what was the initial idea of crafting that group – how much time did you spend in Home Depot?
I spent time at Target. More looking at customers and getting a sense of the world a little bit. It’s a great way to make anything you buy at Target tax deductible by writing a show about it. In terms of the characters, it’s about thinking about the characteristics of different people that when you put them together, they’d create conflict or funny stories. I would list characters and imagine what would happen if you paired this guy with this guy, is there a story there? I’d whittle the characters down and get them as fleshed out as possible.
