BREAKING IN Takes On Comic Con

FOX’s new comedy Breaking In is so much more fun than I expected. A workplace comedy with a twist, it follows a security company and their team of experts at breaking in and exposing weaknesses in security systems. The premise didn’t catch my attention initially, but Christian Slater plays the boss so it was certainly worth a look. Surprise! It’s hilarious! It reminds me of Leverage, if that show didn’t take itself quite so seriously.

In the May 4th episode, “Take the Movie and Run”, the team heads to Comic Con to protect the sequel to The Goonies (no, that’s not a real movie). Suspicion falls on ultimate fan-boy Cash, played by Alphonso McAuley, when the movie goes missing. In a conference call with reporters, Alphonso and executive producer Adam F. Goldberg talked about their homage to the biggest geek fest on the planet.

Alphonso started us out by saying how much fun he has playing Cash because he’s a geek and a fan boy. “I’m somewhat like him, not much. I do have some figurines and some comic books.” Adam broke in then and insisted that Alphonso talk about his Star Wars Lego collection.

“I do have some Star Wars Legos, and used to have some Superman briefs,” Alphonso admitted. “Those were pretty cool, but they just – those got worn out, and I don’t know. I’m looking for some new – I got to get some like Chewbacca briefs or something.”

Adam chose to honor The Goonies with this episode because it’s the movie that inspired him to become a writer. “What’s the one movie that should be made, but isn’t in active development? It’s Goonies 2 for me!” Bonus: Adam got to keep most of the props!

Alphonso gets to wear some pretty sweet geek costumes, including a Star Trek uniform and a full Han Solo costume. Spoiler alert: in the Breaking In season finale, Cash wears a full Voltron suit, another shoutout from Adam who used to write for the TV show. Both of them geeked out over that costume.

With their geek credentials established, talk turned to tonight’s episode and taking on Comic Con. Adam pointed out that it’s not THE Comic Con (San Diego’s huge event), but rather an homage to that event. He’s been attending SDCC for about 15 years now and seen it progress from “a thing where my friends would make fun of me for going to now having them go with me and having to show them around and stuff.” This episode gave him a chance to showcase an event and a culture he loves, and the rest of the cast jumped in with him.

Alphonso and Adam are both giddy over the fact that Cash goes in costume as Black Zeus  – rapper by day, superhero by night – a character Cash made up. He’s trying to publish a comic book about the character, so he goes to Comic Con to find a publisher. (Anyone who’s spent any time on Artist’s Alley knows how legit that scenario is!)

The cast went to WonderCon, which was the first experience at a con for most of them. Adam recalls that Christian Slater, a huge sci-fi fan, was going nuts! “He literally was texting me like, ‘I just got a picture with a Gorn!’ And he was just thrilled and he’s walk up to these actors with booths and pay money to like – he’d pay $20.00 to get a picture – they were like, ‘I can’t believe Christian Slater is paying me money to take a picture with me.'”

Watch Breaking In take on Comic Con tonight at 9:30/8:30c on FOX.