Louie Anderson Reflects on the Final Season of ‘Baskets’

In a TV landscape defined by big, ambitious ideas, Baskets was always an outlier. FX’s soon ending series about a perpetually failing French clown never strove to be anything other than an examination family life and small town America. Its scope was tiny; its plot even smaller. But no show currently on television had a bigger heart. That’s in large part thanks to Louie Anderson’s portrayal of Baskets‘ meandering, forgiving, and ever loving mother Christine.

“This was a gut punch season for me. Like three or four times during the season for sure I had to leave the set,” Anderson told Decider ahead of Christine’s big Season 4 episode (and ahead of the official announcement that the show is ending). “Homecoming” is supposed to follow Christine’s wedding to her cheery second husband Ken (Alex Morris). Then a carpet emergency at Ken’s family business interrupts the big day.

“She’s scared because she never allowed this again since her husband committed suicide. This doesn’t sound like a comedy, does it?” Anderson joked. “She has to see if she can allow herself to be happy and go with this. It’s just the best episode.”

Though there’s nothing inherently mortifying about the episode, the cumulative weight of Christine’s deeply relatable fear, her love of Ken, and Anderson’s memories of his own mother made the episode difficult to shoot. “I thought to myself, was my mom ever this happy? And so it just crushed me,” Anderson explained about why he had to leave set. “Sometimes I think this has been the greatest part about this part is I’ve had to explore all of my family relationships on all levels. I’ve been mad, I’ve been sad, I’ve been happy, I’ve been confused. I had more questions at the end of this stuff than at the beginning.”

In addition to Christine’s big scene in “Homecoming,” two other moments this season were so emotional they forced the actor to leave the set. One was when Christine, Ken, and Chip (Zach Galifianakis) moved out of the Baskets family home. Partially because Christine is so connected to her home, Anderson explained that it was hard to say goodbye to the place where his adoring character was created. But Anderson’s other emotional moment was far more beautiful and speaks to Christine’s extraordinary relationship with Ken.

In “Homemakers” Christine becomes obsessed with finding the kitchen magnets from her old kitchen. As she’s digging through a stranger’s garage it’s clear that she doesn’t really care about the magnets; she just wants to make her new house feel like a home. But when she comes back empty handed, there’s Ken standing next to a fridge covered in kitschy magnets. “That scene, that was the hardest scene of the whole season. It was just like somebody did something nice for Christine without any prodding — just out of the goodness of their heart and gave her the idea that this person really does care. And this is the first time anyone has cared for her or that she’s allowed anyone to care for her,” Anderson said.

It’s a tiny moment. But Baskets is one of the few shows that has consistently understood the importance of tiny details. “There are no shows that have these kind of people on them. There’s nobody. There’s no 300 plus pound mother on TV of this age and everything. It’s just not there,” Anderson said. “I wrote something to somebody recently after I watched a bunch of episodes — I said the first thing you get out of this show is that it’s not for everyone. But it’s for everyone who needs it. It’s such an important show for the people who get a lot out of it.”

Since Baskets has premiered people now regularly approach Anderson either to praise Christine or ask her to be their mother. One fan even confided in the actor that Baskets was the first show to make her laugh after her brother died of an overdose. “That’s a lot to put on a show,” Anderson joked. “But I was just like I’ve always been steered towards things that have something to say. And this is the luckiest draw of all of them.”

Though Decider spoke to Anderson before FX announced it would not be renewing the series, the actor and comedian seemed happy with Christine’s ending. But that doesn’t mean he’s completely finished with Christine Baskets. “If it even ended now that would be the best ending. But for me I want to do a spinoff with Martha. I’ve been pushing for this. Let me and Martha be Thelma and Louise together and just have a year of everybody else is busy and me and Martha are going to save the world somehow.”

Anderson’s dream show for the outspoken Christine and the aggressively introverted Martha (Martha Kelly) is a road trip comedy that involves an old ’88 red convertible, line dancing, running away from the mob, and New Orleans jazz quartets. “This is the type of thing I’d like to do, honestly, with Christine,” Anderson said. “I’d like to live out everything my mom couldn’t.”

For years this quiet, deeply introspective, and important sad-com has been sidelined in a crowded television environment. But Anderson is hopeful that will change. “I think that it is therapeutic, and I think that Jonathan [Krisel] is going through his stuff as a director. The writers are going through their stuff as writers. I for sure have gone through so much this season, and I think Zach has too,” Anderson said. “We missed the Emmys but I predict that Jonathan (Krisel), Zach, Martha, and luckily me, if I could get one, will get noms. I think more people get noms next year than before.”

New episodes of Baskets premiere on FX Thursdays at 10/9c.

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