05x07 - The Bachelor: Part 1

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat music]

- One place that I've
started to go more recently

for inspiration is other game shows.

- "Bachelor" is a super guilty
pleasure of mine [laughs].

And I really thought this
was one of the funniest ideas

anyone has ever pitched.

- "The Bachelor" is one of
the most popular franchises

in the world of reality
competition there is,

and who better to do that
with than Grant O'Brien?

- I think that we
ultimately did a good job

balancing the creative of the show,

and making it a good experience for Grant.

- We've done a number
of different episodes

of various different shows at Dropout

that involved pranking Grant.

- Oh, oh!

God damn it!

Holy sh*t!
- Oh my God!

- Sam, I would've been
trying harder at this game

if I'd known I was trying to
impress someone the whole time.

- Tonight we're starting
off with a new segment

called True Facts about Grant

that are not jokes, they're
just true, actual facts

about this gangly as*h*le.

- Initially, the game mechanic
was on the meaner side.

We're like, are we mocking Grant?

Are we like...

Are we actually trying to find him love?

- The original idea here,

which was something I think
we called Deal Breaker,

was the notion that we would
do a reverse dating show

in which the contestants are
eliminated based on learning,

they eliminate themselves

based on things they learn about Grant.

And finally, I felt that
was too mean-spirited.

And finally, I felt that
was too mean-spirited.

We like watching people

have a bad time on reality television.

I'm not convinced we like to watch people

have a bad time on "Game Changer."

It would be far more
fun simply to put Grant,

and create moments that were

legitimately heartfelt and interesting,

and be more about the
nature of human connection.

- We were all rooting for Grant in this,

instead of rooting against
him or laughing at him.

We wanted him to make a
connection with somebody.

And I'm really happy that
we took it in that direction

because it just was more fun.

- Ultimately, when we changed the mechanic

to be super wholesome,

that's when I think the show became a gem.

- I shot emails and text messages
to some friends of Grant's

to ask what kind of folks that
they think he would be into.

Nick Kocher told me that Grant dates

the kind of people who you could imagine

as the lead in musicals.

Ally wrote me back one word, "twinks."

Not incredibly helpful.

Grant loves banter, he
loves people to spar with.

He loves good conversation.

He's this odd sort of mix

of very modern and very old fashioned.

We had to reach sort of outside

our usual casting infrastructure for this.

Lallouz/Geller Casting.

And Emily has been a part
of many actual dating shows,

including "Are You the One" on MTV.

With her help, was able to find



Men as well as women, right.

Like we wanted to sort of honor
the fact that Grant is bi,

Like we wanted to sort of honor
the fact that Grant is bi,

which like you normally
don't see in dating shows.

You don't normally have men, women,

and non-binary folks competing
for one person's affections.

- [Kyle] Early on we even talked about

bringing a full-on jacuzzi

into our parking lot so that
Grant could sit in a jacuzzi

and have multiple one-on-one dates

with his prospective romantic partners.

- Yeah, originally it was
supposed to be in the parking lot.

We're like, let's just
slide over the dumpster,

we'll put a hot tub there.

We're literally trying to
copy "The Bachelorette."

And we looked at "The
Bachelor" production designer's

Instagram and tried to copy her style,

but she gets like
$10,000 per set probably.

So instead of the luxurious
bachelor vibe of a hot tub

we got a blow-up kiddie pool from Target,

has like leaves floating in it.

- We're gonna make it a boring, bougie,

like gaudy living room kind of set,

with a fake fireplace and a fur rug.

But we're gonna do it
"Game Changer" style,

make sure we're incorporating the colors.

The couch is hot red.

- The big difference between
us doing a "Survivor" tribute

and us doing a "Bachelor"
tribute is I love "Survivor,"

and I don't love "The Bachelor."

Immediately the question was,

how do we improve upon
the source material?

And I think we did that
in a number of ways.

I think we did that with the contestants

we brought to the table.

I think we did that with vibes.

I think we did it by not
painting our bachelor

as some sort of superhuman,
but showing him off

in all of his pluses and
minuses, which we all have.

I think we did it by offering prizes

to the contestants as they were leaving.

- Oh my God, you weren't lying.

These are good gifts.

- That's what I'm saying.

- I think the wildest part

of that episode was the ending.

- Grant was having a really hard time

as that episode wore on.

I think his decisions felt more arbitrary.

And by the time he had
whittled it down to two men,

it was very clear to me

that he didn't wanna choose between them.

When Grant approached me
about offering the prize

to both of them, I loved it.

It felt different to me.

It felt inclusive, it felt progressive.

- [Kyle] No one saw that coming.

And I think that is what made
for a really excellent show.

At the end of the day,
when Grant couldn't decide,

I'll never forget, there
was a moment we actually

paused the show and Sam pulled us aside.

The look on people's faces

was one of surprise and
a little bit of shock.

- The gamble was that either Reese or Abel

would be too offended
by both being selected,

that they wouldn't be into it.

And then that would've
created its own energy,

its own other vibe of an ending.

But that didn't happen.

And luckily we got our
poly-fairytale ending.

It immediately begs the question,

is this something that we're
gonna do in future seasons?

Are we going to take on other
reality competition shows,

and do our own full-day
two part version of them?

I'm reluctant to fall into patterns,

but I can immediately think of
others I'd wanna do. [laughs]