Vanessa Bayer and Jeremy Beiler may have worked together at “Saturday Night Live,” but they bonded over QVC.
While at the late night variety show (she as a performer, he a writer), the two watched home shopping channels. They both left “SNL” at the same time and, one day over breakfast , Bayer told Beiler she had an idea for a show set in the world of QVC.
Ironically, Beiler had already written a number of pages about a series also set at QVC.
The two joined forces and created “I Love That For You,” a comedy about the world of home shopping.
How the sausage is made
To get inspiration, Bayer and Beiler took a tour of the retailer’s headquarters. Bayer got to meet many of her favorite hosts; both got to see just how similar QVC is to a live show like “SNL.”
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“With ‘SNL,’ you always want your sketches to make it into the live show but you never really know if they will,” Bayer says. “With home shopping, you want to have better time slots. They’re (both) set up in such a way that you sort of have to compete.”
While doing research, the two learned home shopping hosts start at bad time slots, then work their way up to prime time. They have to be able to engage viewers and create that desire for whatever’s being pitched.
“If you watch it all the time, you end up buying a ton of stuff you don’t need because they make it seem so great,” Bayer says. “They’ll say, ‘You can wear this to your daughter’s graduation,’ and it’s like, ‘I don’t have a daughter,’ but I’m like, ‘Yeah, I could wear this to my daughter’s graduation.’”
Niche casting
To reflect the various personalities doing the selling, Bayer and Beiler populated their cast with various types – including the veteran host (played by “SNL” alum Molly Shannon), the folksy man-about-the-house and the “very successful” wife, mother and entrepreneur. To keep them in line: a stern boss played by “black-ish” star Jenifer Lewis.
“Patricia is a hot mess,” Lewis says. “She’s desperate to keep this empire that she’s built. I’ve been rehearsing for her all my life and she’s a horror story.”
Bayer's character enters the world as a shopping network fan who wants to move up from her place as a Costco food demonstrator. She gets a shot but also has to work around the people in her way.
To survive in the world of SVN (the shopping network's handle), she learns the tricks of the trade.
Among them: Touching the products. “It draws the viewer in,” says Shannon.
And? The hosts have to be conversational, Bayer says. “It makes you feel like you’re watching a friend who’s just kind of talking to you.”
Because shopping network pitches are adlibbed, the hosts need to be able to think on their feet.
“They’re just spinning stories about products,” Beiler says. “It’s really a talent.”
Adds Bayer: “They are such incredible conversationalists. They are the type of people that you would never get caught at a dinner with and no one has anything to say.”
Those at the top level even have product lines, books and branded “shows.”
Shannon – who plays someone at that level – admits she hasn’t bought anything from a shopping channel, “but I came close to buying one of their fake fur coats.”
To celebrate that “I Love That For You” got picked up, Bayer and Beiler bought blankets for Showtime executives that were designed by Catherine Zeta-Jones. “They have told us they’re the best blankets they’ve ever owned,” Bayer says. “I will be back for more because she makes a great product.”
“I Love That For You” begins airing April 29 on Showtime.