Home Television Television-related Interviews USTownhall RealStories presents KYLE BORNHEIMER & HAYES MACARTHUR of PERFECT COUPLES
USTownhall RealStories presents KYLE BORNHEIMER & HAYES MACARTHUR of PERFECT COUPLES
Written by Scott Katz   
Sunday, 13 February 2011 08:40

NUP_141809_0027-resizeNUP_141809_0202-resize-02NBC's new sitcom, Perfect Couples, revolves around the lives of three couples who are each in a different stage in their relationship, but who face similar problems and situations.  There is Dave and Julia, played by Kyle Bornheimer and Christine Woods, who are the so-called "normal" couple with whom anyone in a relationship can identify.  Highly competitive Rex (Hayes MacArthur) and Leigh (Olivia Munn) see themselves as the perfect couple and relationship experts, while Vance (David Walton) and Amy (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) are a couple who are always fighting and making up leading to a very active sex life.  The series was created by Jon Pollack and Scott Silveri.  They, along with Andy Ackerman serve as Executive Producers, and Ackerman directs many of the episodes.

 

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO KYLE BORNHEIMER AND HAYES MACARTHUR

 

USTH: Can each of you describe your characters in Perfect Couples, and tell us how similar or different you are to them?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: I couldn't be more similar. I don't know where my life ends and this begins. When I met with the guys about it who [created Perfect Couples], Scott Silveri and Jon Pollack, we started swapping stories about coupledom and kind of graduating from your 20s into your 30s, and then all of a sudden you're hit with kind of adulthood.

And a lot of this builds with that transition and under the brighter lights of being in a couple too, which was exasperating. There's no manual for it; although, some of the couples in Perfect Couples actually do use a manual. You know, it's constantly putting our show into our life and our life into our show.

HAYES MACARTHUR: I think speaking to that transition from the 20s to the 30s is something that all the characters go through on our show like being single and then now being in relationships and dealing with all the things that come along with it.

And, [my character] Rex is this reformed party guy and an ex-jock who now is really excited about being in a relationship. And I think normally you would see a character like that, an archetype like that, who is an ex-party guy who's in a relationship, and he feels confined and constrained by it.

But one of the things I love so much about what the writers created in Rex is that he's really being into the relationship and he's taken all this competitive energy and he's put it into his own life in making his marriage work which is great.

And I think one of the things when I look at each of the couples, I see little nuances of my relationship. You see, I love even in the pilot episode the way that Dave [played by Kyle Bornheimer] and Julia [played by Christine Woods] discover that they play games just like they think all the other couples play games.

I think it's kind of like you always think everyone else is the crazy one and then you look at yourself and you see your own stuff.

 

USTH: Kyle, at times you worked in single camera, and at times you've worked in three camera productions. What are the differences that you see in the way those two production models are put together, and do you have any sort of preference for one or the other?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: First of all, the schedule is much different. Amazingly, there's a stark difference in the schedule. And the multi camera, the live audience is – you feel guilty about it. It's barely working. Whereas, single camera the way the Perfect Couples is, it's not rare to have a 17-hour day.

Our show [runs] actually amazingly smoothly. So, we were out [after a] 13 or 14-hour day, but the schedule is different, but I like both. I'm a part of that generation who's embraced single camera quite a bit. And when I did a multi cam last year [on ABC's Romantically Challenged], I didn't know what to expect, actually. And I quite liked it.

I didn't feel confined by the [multi cam] format or anything. I felt I could do what I needed to do, you know. I like both formats, but if I had a preference right now, it might be single cam. I think we might head into an era where both are starting to get quite good. And we're certainly in an era of great single cam comedies, and I just wanted to be in that era. And there's a lot of good ones out there.

HAYES MACARTHUR: We're having a lot of fun with the single camera device in the show the way that we pop back in time and do flashbacks. I think even just performing that, you know, doing a scene and knowing that you're going to pop in and get a joke like they do on 30 Rock in the middle of a scene. It's something that's fun to think of. It's just – it has a clip, a different taste to it.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: And it's neat because Andy Ackerman who directed most of these comes from mainly multi cam. He directed most of the Seinfelds and then New Adventures of Old Christine, and he started out as an editor before he became a director, and so we kind of get that sensibility of both on this show. He knows the best of the sitcom world and the best of the single cam world.

 

NUP_141810_0948-resize

Cast of NBC's Perfect Couples (l-r: Hayes MacArthur, Olivia Munn,

David Walton, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Christine Woods, Kyle Bornheimer)

[Photo Credit: NBC]

 

USTH: Hayes, I believe this is your first weekly series. How its been for you to acclimate yourself to a weekly schedule?

HAYES MACARTHUR: I love being on the show because of the people that are involved. So, to go in on a weekly schedule is just really a lot of fun. It's great. I mean, even getting the script and going into the table reads is fun and then all the way through the shooting where you get just a great group of people to be around.

And, as Kyle was saying earlier, all the things, the stories we tell, the bits and the jokes we do all end up finding their way into the show in one way or another. So, just to be working in that environment is great.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: I haven't even actually felt like it was work. I mean, literally, I would come to work to try to see if I could crack up Hayes or crack up Mary Elizabeth Ellis. Hayes is hard to crack up. Hayes doesn't break easily. Dave Walton is easy to make laugh. And Christine Woods I get. Olivia Munn is incredibly easy to make laugh on set.

HAYES MACARTHUR: Yeah. Being on a weekly series you see these people so much and you have these genuine interactions with them [whereas] if you're away doing a film, it's a little different because there's these definite end dates to everything. And it's like when camp is over, it's over. [Doing a weekly series is] more like being in school with people.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: You get to see them more than any job. You see them more than you see your family, really. And, [we're] quite in love with the "six people" scene. Anything that the six of us were in, we started calling them sixers. And sometimes we would drink a sixer before doing a sixer.

 

USTH: Kyle, a television critic said that you were the next Bob Newhart. Did you hear that compliment? What did you think of it, and are you a fan of Bob Newhart?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: I'm a huge fan of Bob Newhart. My parents were big Bob Newhart fans and that show was on – both shows – [the] first one with Suzanne Pleshette, and then the second one set in Vermont in the 80s were both played in our house quite a bit, and my dad would play Bob Newhart's old records for me and his old telephone gags.

I don't know how much consciously got into me. But, my family was good at one thing, [and that] was being entertained. So, we had a lot of movies and TV going on in the house. And Bob Newhart was certainly part of that rotation.

HAYES MACARTHUR: Did they shoot Newhart on our stages too?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: Oh yeah, we are. And Andy, I think, edited on Newhart. But yeah, Bob Newhart - that's a good point. We're shooting on where Bob Newhart shot.

HAYES MACARTHUR: On the CBS Radford stages where they shot the shows.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: It's just awesome to be on hollowed ground.

 

USTH: Thanks to both Kyle Bornheimer and Hayes MacArthur for taking the time to speak with us today.

 

Perfect Couples airs Thursday nights at 8:30pm Eastern on NBC. 

 

 

MORE INTERVIEWS...

  

the-apprentice-logo-thumb UslanMichael-resize-thumb 30-rock-thumb agnes-nixon-thumb BenSpierman-thumb big-brother-logo-thumb bobby-flay-thumb Bridgeboy-logo-thumb
cast of The Apprentice 10

BATMAN film producer MICHAEL USLAN

Sherri Shepherd

Vanessa Minnillo

All My Children creator AGNES NIXON

Bronx Opera's BEN SPIERMAN

cast of Big Brother 12 BOBBY FLAY & STEVE ELLS of America's Next Great Restaurant Cast of the play Bridgeboy
bruce-canwell-thumb chuck-thumb crystal-chappell-thumb dan-kroll-thumb dan-parent-thumb david-lyons-thumb debbie-gibson-tiffany-thumb dede-emerson-thumb
Library of American Comics' BRUCE CANWELL RYAN McPARTLIN & SARAH LANCASTER

CRYSTAL CHAPPELL

part 1: Guiding Light

part 2: Days of Our Lives

soapcentral.com founder DAN KROLL DAN PARENT of Archie Comics DAVID LYONS of The Cape DEBBIE GIBSON & TIFFANY Author DEDE EMERSON of A Different Kind of Streetwalker
dowling_jpeg-thumb eliana-ujueta-thumb jamal-igle-thumb Jay-Mary-thumb jeremy-irons-thumb jerry-beck-thumb josh-groban-thumb kai-soremekun-thumb
BOB DOWLING of the 3D Entertainment Summit Indie filmmaker ELIANA UJUETA of Beneath the Rock comic book artist JAMAL IGLE Genesis Repertory's JAY MICHAELS, MARY MiCARI, & actors Oscar-winning actor JEREMY IRONS

Animation historian JERRY BECK

1st interview

2nd interview

singer-songwriter JOSH GROBAN

web series producer KAI SOREMEKUN of Chick

1st interview

2nd interview

kathy-bates-thumb kenneth-johnson-thumb kyle-bornheimer-thumb law-and-order-los-angeles-thumb logo-thumb luann-de-lesseps-thumb max-thumb mike-miz-thumb
Oscar-winning actress KATHY BATES of Harry's Law Television producer KENNETH JOHNSON of V, Bionic Woman, Incredible Hulk KYLE BORNHEIMER & HAYES MacARTHUR of Perfect Couples

Terrence Howard, René Balcer

Dick Wolf, Alfred Molina, Alana de la Garza

publisher DAN HERMAN of Hermes Press COUNTESS LuANN de LESSEPS of The Real Housewives of New York City author MAX ALLAN COLLINS of Road to Perdition WWE Champion Mike "The MIz" Mizanin
MillCreeklogo-thumb nick-lachey-thumb niki-taylor-thumb paul-reiser-thumb ricky-gervais-thumb rosie-odonnell-thumb steve-niles-thumb the-event-cast-logo-thumb

JEFF HAYNE of Mill Creek Entertainment

1st interview

2nd interview

singer-actor NICK LACHEY supermodel NIKI TAYLOR talks The Celebrity Apprentice actor PAUL REISER of The Paul Reiser Show actor-producer RICKY GERVAIS of The Office actress-television host ROSIE O'DONNELL comic book writer STEVE NILES

Ian Anthony Dale, Nick Wauters

Jason Ritter, Sarah Roemer, Blair Underwood, Željko Ivanek

thore-jo-thumb tom-brokaw-thumb tom-pelphrey-thumb apothecary-theatre-thumb tori-spelling-thumb
THORE SCHÖLERMANN & JO WEIL of Verbotene Liebe Peabody & Emmy award winning journalist TOM BROKAW Emmy award winning actor TOM PELPHREY of Guiding Light actors from The Apothecary Theatre Company TORI SPELLING & DEAN McDERMOTT of sTORIbook Weddings

 

 

MORE FEATURES... 

 

Reviews & Previews:

Summer 2011 Movie Preview

Fall 2010 Television season

Fra Diavolo

Die Drei Pintos

Romeo and Juliet in Brooklyn

MPI Home Video

Timless Media Group

Boris Karloff's Thriller

Hunter: The Complete Series

Polly and Her Pals

Icons: The DC Comics and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee

Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern

Spider-Man musical delayed again

Frozen

Dead Space: Aftermath

Altitude

 

 

    

Events:

New York Comic Con

Apprentice 10 kickoff

Farewell to Guiding Light

Farewell to As the World Turns

The Broadway Directory

 

Award Show winners:

Academy Awards

Emmy Awards

Grammy Awards

Tony Awards

American Music Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Screen Actors Guild Awards

American Country Awards

 

    

Television blogs:

American Idol 10

American Idol 9

American Idol 8

Big Brother 12

Big Brother 11

ABC Cancels Both All My Children and One Life to Live

Guiding Light: A Look Back

 

Editorials & Issues:

Scam Alert: Have You Received This E-Mail Job Offer?

Meet the 112th Congress

Brooklyn politicians Kevin Peter Carroll vs. Ralph Perfetto

Before Rosa Parks There Was Lizzie Jennings

Understanding New York State Government

USTownhall RoundTable podcast: The Worlds of Entertainment and Current Events