RAISING HOPE: Martha Plimpton & Greg Garcia on the show’s surprising success

If you are like most viewers, Raising Hope has been a delightful surprise this fall season. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Raising Hope was the first new series to be picked up for the full season. With its charming blend of outrageous humor and poignancy, it has become a must-watch show for Tuesday nights.

In Raising Hope Martha Plimpton, plays Virginia Chance, a young mother whose 20-something son just found out that he has a newborn daughter. Created and produced by Greg Garcia, Raising Hope is a comedy mixed with bits of dark humor. With clever casting of Plimpton alongside Garret Dillahunt, Lucas Neff, Shannon Woodward and Cloris Leachman, the show seems to come to life with such a magical mix: Dillahunt plays Virginia’s quiet and quirky husband, Burt; Neff plays their naïve, good-hearted son, Jimmy; Leachman plays Virginia’s memory-challenged mother, Maw Maw; and Woodward plays Sabrina, the zany grocery clerk with whom Jimmy is infatuated. For the most part, the show focuses on Jimmy’s adventures as a new dad and how that sudden change tips the scales of responsibility in the Chance family and brings them closer together.

It was perhaps a fortuitous string of events that led Plimpton to being at the right place at the right time in order to be cast in Raising Hope. Plimpton was not even looking for a television series when she got a call to be on the lookout for a script from Greg Garcia. It was after she had read it and could not stop laughing that she thought she had to be a part of it. The role was perfect. She immediately got the sense of humor and loved the way it was written – and now that the show has taken off — it has only gotten better. She really loves working on the show because the writing is so good.

“Every week the scripts just seem to get tighter and funnier, Plimpton shared. “I like being able to see this character, all of the characters actually, develop and become more themselves . . . I like working with an ensemble of actors and learning each other’s rhythms and figuring each other out and that’s really exciting for me.”

From Garcia’s perspective, he was the lucky one. He unabashedly declared, “[Plimpton’s] funny. She’s funny. She’s a very funny person—she’s hysterical!” To which Plimpton responded, “I’ll tell you, what is really nice is to have somebody who knows funny tell you that you’re funny. That’s really great. That’s really awesome.”

Sharing a bit of what it is like working with her young co-star Lucas Neff, Plimpton said, “It’s actually really fun watching somebody who hasn’t experienced this stuff before and let’s be honest, none of us really has. . . Of course, we’re all new to the show so we’re all in it together, sort of figuring it all out as we go along as well, in life and on the show, which is a fortunate parallel. . . It’s been awesome watching him get his sea legs out there and get more confident in his performance, which is great.”

Garcia chimed in to add, “He’s also really easy to mess with.” To which Plimpton ruefully admitted, “He’s really easy to tease. He has got the biggest bull’s-eye on his forehead. That is the best part of the job.”

Then talking about what it is like working with Cloris Leachman, Plimpton said, “Cloris is the one who gets the leash. This is a woman who can find 15 jokes in one-half a joke. She is fearless, totally and is really basically willing to do anything for a gag and then some.” When asked if there is anything that Leachman won’t do, Garcia jokingly said, “I’ve asked [Cloris] to stop licking me and she said, ‘No,’ to that. I’ve asked her to stop jumping on top of me, she said, ‘No,’ to that. Yes, there are a lot of things that I’ve asked her to do that she says, ‘No.’”

Despite casting such an unusual group of actors, some which do not come from the typical comedy background, Garcia said that it just felt “real.” He explained, “[It’s] just a credit to them as actors. Nobody really has to push real hard . . . Everybody can just be natural and get the laughs off subtle smaller things. I got lucky. I got really lucky.” He also shared, “I knew I wanted Martha to play this role [and] as soon as I saw Garret to do it, I knew he was the guy — and the same with Lucas. I just got incredibly lucky that I have all the people that would be best for these roles playing these roles. But I think for me it does come down to that at the end of the day that everybody just feels like these characters. You don’t see anybody on screen trying, they’re just doing it great.”

Commenting on her co-star Dillahunt, Plimpton said that while she had known about him for years and had always wanted to work with him, the opportunity had never come up until now. Thus, for her, “It’s an entirely pleasurable experience working with him because . . . he’s the perfect example of the understated choice. Everything he does just kind of sneaks up on you. It’s all about behavior with him, which I love because it gives you something to work with. You’re working with a character instead of just a situation. That’s really great. When I’m working with Garret I feel like I’m getting better at my job, so that’s great. He’s also just a hilarious person. . . you’d never know that he is truly and honestly one of the funniest people around. He’s hilarious.”

When asked about where all those great story ideas come from, Garcia admitted that most of the stories are made up in the pitch room and they have not been drawing from real life yet. For the most part, they just try to come up with the most absurd, yet fun situations for the baby and then go from there. Plimpton generously shared that so far everything about Virginia has come directly from the writers themselves, though she acknowledged that the writers have been good about playing to each of the actor’s strengths with their characters.

For Plimpton, one of her favorite things about Virginia has been her “soft and chewy core.” She explained, “[Virginia’s] kind of tough. She kind of says what’s on her mind. She kind of doesn’t take any crap, but at the same time she’s got a really gooey, chewy, soft center. She’s kind of a sucker for love. Playing around with that has been really, really fun as well as—I’ll only hint at the sort of things that you guys haven’t seen yet but that you will—her sort of Lucy-esque desire to be in the spotlight. Her aspirations are very cool and exciting to me. The fact that she has aspirations is great.”

The upcoming Halloween episode was also a special treat for them. Unlike most shows which just dress up their characters in costume, this episode allowed them to explore a bit more into the interesting relationship between Neff and Dillahunt’s characters and the awkward dilemma of whether young Hope should be allowed to watch videos of her now-deceased mother. Halloween may be the backdrop, but there is a beating heart underneath the comedy. This was their chance to dig a bit deeper and have some fun in the process.

On how it feels getting picked up for a full season, Plimpton was effusive, “It feels awesome. It feels really good that FOX is behind the show and likes what we’re making because we’re having a really good time doing it. . . it’s really nice that they’re enjoying it as much as we are. It makes me feel really good.” Garcia also happily shared, “I’m having a lot of fun with this cast and crew. Everybody’s working really hard so it’s great to be able to keep doing it. I’m exhausted but other than that I’m thrilled.”

As to what to keep our eyes open for in the upcoming episodes, there is apparently a classic scene involving Leachman and shaving cream, more singing, and a special appearance by Jason Lee (who worked with Garcia in My Name is Earl).

Don’t miss out on this extraordinarily funny new comedy series exploring adventures of an unconventional family doing the best they can to raise a baby the best way they know. Two new episodes of Raising Hope air tonight on FOX after Glee.