‘Another Period’ Stars Natasha Leggero And Riki Lindhome Discuss How They Created TV’s Only 1900s Comedy

Get ready to party like it’s 1902! Tonight marks the Season Two premiere of Comedy Central’s turn of the century comedy, Another Period. If you like historical jokes, dumb rich people, comedian guest appearances, and Downton Abbey mockery, then you’re going to love this series.

Created by Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome, the show follows the too-wealthy Bellacourt sisters. The show smartly blends slapstick and gross out comedy (the 1900s were disgusting, you guys) with subversive portrayals of great historical figures. You never know what direction this historical comedy is going to take, but one thing is for sure. It’s going to be fun. Decider had the opportunity to talk to the show’s creators and stars, comedians Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome, about what went into creating this delightfully insane and historically playful show.

“We came up with [the show’s concept] over drinks,” Lindhome said, laughing. “We had been wanting to make something together and we’d been going through like a million ideas.”

The duo was at a creative crossroads. Leggero had been playing with two show ideas — one about the turn of the century and the other about a dumb family on a reality TV show. “Then I was like, ‘Let’s combine those.’ And it kind of went from there,” Lindhome said.

Though the show gleefully mocks history, Another Period actually has more accurate historical roots than you would think. “We read this book about the Gilded Age, and about Newport, Rhode Island, and that 90% of the wealth in all of America during the Gilded Age was all in this little tiny town,” Leggero said. “So Riki and I went there and learned about all this eccentric families, and it was just the perfect setting for our idea.”

Leggero and Lindhome went on several house tours of the area to get inspiration for the series. “You’ll get headphones and hear stories from their relatives as you like, wander the halls of these insane places. I’m talking like, marble imported from Florence,” Leggero explained. “Everything’s just so over-the-top. Gold ceilings, ceilings that have tortoise shells glued in the entire 400 person ballroom on the ceiling. And you know, the tortoise shells can only be glued by killing a certain kind of rabbit and making the glue from that rabbit. Everything is just like, so obnoxiously over the top, and it still exists. Thank god they didn’t tear it down.”

“We get so many ideas just from reading about history that it’s almost like stealing, just because everything’s so right there,” Lindhome said. “Like, for example, Sigmund Freud in the first season — he masturbates all the women in our family for having hysteria, but that was just something he did. That was just real. Of course we wrote it to make it the funniest possible version of that, but we got to just eff with some history.”

One of the smartest and most fun parts of the show is how Another Period incorporates their fictionalized versions of historical figures. In addition to Sigmund Freud (Chris Parnell), Season One had a sad Charlie Chaplin (Josh Fadem) who wanted to try out some new material but was bound by his infamous falling routine, a creepy Thomas Edison who used his inventions to photograph women, and a party-ready Mark Twain, just to name a few characters. When asked what historical figures will be showing up in Season Two, Leggero and Lindhome got excited.

“Scott Joplin! Cedric the Entertainer plays Scott Joplin. Who else do we have? We have Einstein,” Leggero said.

“Harriet Tubman,” Lindhome added.

“And we have a lot of, you know, people that we’ve made up. Michaela Watkins plays a woman in charge of the biggest brothel in Newport,” Leggero said.

Andrew Rannells will also be guest starring this season as a visiting heir, and Rich Fulcher as Mark Twain is returning this season. Another returning guest star will unsurprisingly be Lindhome’s musical partner, the talented Kate Micucci. Lindhome and Micucci are best known for their band Garfunkel and Oates. According to Lindhome, Micucci “is coming back with a particular illness that we’re excited about.” This season will also feature another original song by Garfunkel and Oates. Currently, you favorite comedy band doesn’t have any plans other than their 2016 tour, but that may change.

“We just had a special come out, and we’re going to tour a little bit later this summer, and then kind of go from there,” Lindhome said. “I’m not really sure what’s next, but I know we’re going on tour, which should be fun.”

When asked how they decide who should play some of the most important figures in American history, Lindhome emphasized that they always focus on the comedy. “We start talking, like, who would be the funniest as this? And then we just think of names, and if someone makes us laugh out loud, the thought of them playing it then we ask them,” she said.

“Sometimes we have auditions,” Leggero added. “Like, we didn’t know any 80 year old women who could play Harriet Tubman.”

Another Period’s cast isn’t the only thing that’s star studded. The musical elements of the show are top notch as well. The show’s surprisingly catching opening theme was written by Snoop Dogg, and both Leggero and Lindhome have a hand when it comes to selecting the music.

“We’re in there picking everything,” Lindhome said. “Natasha and I are there from the first idea to the last sound edit. We have our editors that help us, we all kind of do it together.”

“We have some really talented people helping us with the music,” Leggero added. “We have Cyrus — our friend Cyrus [Ghahremani] — who helps make a lot of the beats. And then my brother Nick Leggero, he makes these classical beats with hip-hop around it that we’ve been using. And then we have Eban Schletter, who composes the — what would you call them, Riki? Like, original music for the show.”

“Yes. More like classical original music,” Lindhome said.

When asked who their favorite character was in the show, Leggero and Lindhome didn’t hesitate in their answer — Michael Ian Black’s Peepers.

“Yeah Riki and I both, we love Peepers because he’s just so fun to watch and every one of Michael Ian Black’s takes are hilarious,” Leggero said. “But there are some close seconds. It’s so hard to pick, I mean, everyone’s so good. I also love watching Frederick. Jason Ritter’s just like, always hilarious. And Armen [Weitzman] as Garfield is like — you just can’t not love him. I defy anyone to not be in love with his character.”

A big reason why the show can have such over-the-top characters is because of how unique its premise is. Another Period doesn’t have a genre mold to worry about. “What’s cool about our show is that there’s nothing like it,” Leggero said. “1902’s like a really popular year right now and there’s so many TV shows that are taking place in this time period, but none of them are comedies. So we can kind of get the best of both worlds. We can watch these turn of the century shows and then, you know, our comedy style is more like a Kimmy Schmidt or a 30 Rock, just so many jokes per minute, and it’s just fun to be able to do that sort of mash-up and make it work.

Lindhome added, “But then we can also watch like, Real Housewives or Kardashians and get ideas from them too on family dynamics and things like that because we are also a quote-unquote reality show set in 1902.”

According to Leggero, the show is trying to find a home for its deleted scenes, which is exciting news for fans of the show. “Because ultimately what happens is if something doesn’t serve the A story, it has to go sometimes, because we have to cut something and the show has to make sense. So, you know, a lot of our funny things that we had to cut for whatever reason, we’re trying to find a home for,” she said. “I think maybe they’ll live on Snapchat. We’re working on it.”

Welcome back, Another Period. We’ve never wanted to go to the turn of the century more than we do now.

Season Two of Another Period premieres tonight, June 15, on Comedy Central at 10 p.m. ET.

[Where to watch Another Period]

Photos: Comedy Central