SPOILER alert: This article includes details about the season finale of “Mr. Throwback,” now streaming on Peacock.
Stephen Curry couldn’t have done better PR for his first TV show than his performance Thursday at the Paris Olympics. The four-time NBA champion put up 36 points, shooting nearly 70% from three-point range, to propel Team U.S.A. to a comeback win that has sent them to a gold medal match against France. Even sweeter for his collaborators on “Mr. Throwback,” the game occurred on the comedy series’ launch day on Peacock, which has been streaming wall-to-wall coverage of the Olympics.
“I like to think Stephen did that for us,” series executive producer and writer David Caspe half-jokes while speaking during a Zoom interview Thursday afternoon. “It’s launch day, and he said, ‘You know what? I’m gonna go get 36 points just to draw extra attention to our TV show.’ That was really his master plan.”
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The Olympics serve as a sequel of sorts to “Mr. Throwback,” which concludes with Curry jetting off to Paris for the games. He’s joined by his manager Kimberly (Ego Nwodim) and his middle-school teammate Danny Grossman (Adam Pally), freshly forgiven after he belatedly spilled his guts to Curry and the world about fabricating a conspiracy involving his daughter having a terminal disease. In response, Curry takes a swing at Grossman early in the finale — a climactic punchline that comes after the NBA star has seemed up for any type of comic setpiece over the season’s six episodes.
On “Mr. Throwback,” Curry is shown undercover bossing, sipping on horse placenta and tanking San Francisco’s economy via a shooting slump. Caspe shares that Curry’s main note as an executive producer was to “go harder” in writing those sequences.
“I don’t often get that note. We’ve all seen a celebrity playing against type: They’re known as a nice guy, and they play a huge asshole. We didn’t want to do that,” Caspe says. “When he said ‘go harder,’ I don’t think he meant edgier jokes as much as just more comedy. He didn’t want to just be the straight man. We leaned into a heightened version of who he’s known as. Like the line in the show: ‘a Hall of Fame sweetie boy.’”
See Caspe’s full discussion about the finale below.
I was surprised by the moment in the finale when Steph goes viral for punching Danny in the face — mainly because I found it impossible not to think of when TMZ obtained a tape of Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole at a Golden State Warriors practice two years ago. Then I read GQ’s set visit feature, which ended with an account of Nick Kroll yelling, “That’s some Jordan Poole shit!” while shooting that scene. Kroll’s joke isn’t in the final cut. Can you talk about the decision to keep that line out?
We wanted to be super respectful of any of Steph’s relationships and anything that could be problematic for him. That line was an ad-lib. And, while funny, we have so much respect for Steph and for Draymond and for the Warriors. We felt like maybe we just shouldn’t touch that.
Did that comparison occur to you all when writing that scene?
It actually didn’t. It wasn’t until that day when that joke was made. Wejust wanted to respect that boundary. And who knows? Maybe it wouldn’t have been a issue for Steph. But we just felt like, “Oh, let’s stay away from that.”
The series was still shooting just a few weeks ago. Curry filmed his scenes after the NBA post-season concluded in June. Was being ready for a launch timed to the Olympics always part of the agreement with Peacock?
One hundred percent. I think it’s the fastest that any television show has been made. I don’t have /confirm/iation, but from anyone I’ve worked with on it, they all said, “I haven’t seen one that was done in this time.” Now, that doesn’t really matter to the general public. We’re not going to get a participation medal, but… I kind of want one? But I know that no one cares about that.
Adam Pally even makes a “Hawk Tuah” reference in one scene with Curry. That phrase didn’t enter the public’s vocabulary before the summer.
When Adam improvised that on the day, I hadn’t even heard of it. That’s how immediate it was. That video was recorded in June, and then it must’ve taken a beat to go viral and get into the public consciousness. What is that? A month ago? It’s pretty insane that it’s then in the show. We shot that scene end of June — now, all episodes are out. That’s a month to edit, mix and release a show. It’s quite fast. The writing was definitely accelerated too, but not record-breaking in the way that post-production was.
How did Curry’s limited availability affect the way you wrote him into the series?
We knew we weren’t likely getting him five days a week for six weeks, so we tried to be smart about how we built it. But frankly, we probably put him in more than everyone thought we could get him for. He’s in just an enormous amount of the show — I think everyone probably expected he would be in it on FaceTime. But he is nothing if not the hardest worker I’ve ever seen in my life. We used every minute that we had — to the point where there are some shots in the show that were stolen from between takes.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also appears in a few cutaways. You were a teenager in Chicago in the ’90s, when Kerr was playing for the Chicago Bulls alongside Michael Jordan during the team’s dynasty run. Was getting him involved particularly meaningful to you?
about 10 years ago, a bunch of my friends started texting me: “go to the front page of ESPN right now.” There was a picture of Steve Kerr walking off the floor after he hit the championship winner in 1997. I ran from my seats to the edge of the floor and reached out my hand. There was a Getty image that I actually had to buy for $800: it’s mid-high-five with me and Steve Kerr as he walks off the floor. I’ve got my burnout long hair, and he’s got his son on his shoulders. It’s an incredibly perfect picture. So to then get Steve Kerr in this show was incredible. I actually convinced him to recreate the picture with me. So now I have a picture of me at this age, high-fiving Steve Kerr. That was an enormous highlight.
Danny admits to his lies, and ends up in Steph’s good graces by the end of the season. Did you ever consider a darker, more punishing ending for him though?
We want to do another season, so it felt like we had to get him back into Stephen’s life in some way at the end of the season. Most people have a mistake in their past that they feel defines them. It’s simple, but I liked the message that that doesn’t have to. It seems super pretentious to say talking about a show that has some of the dumbest jokes ever.
Do you feel like you left anything on the table with the fast production of Season 1?
We definitely want to do Season 2. We have a bunch of ideas. As far as anything we could have done diffferent given more time — not really. Necessity is the mother of invention. If you give us more time, we would have just done the same thing longer.
