PITTSBURGH — To be clear, "Fairview" is not based on creator and executive producer R.J. Fried's experiences growing up in Indiana, Pennsylvania. But his western Pennsylvania roots did provide perspective for a show about how national topics can become local headaches.
"It's small-town America," Fried said of Indiana. "It's Jimmy Stewart's hometown. It felt like everything that's good and right in this country."
Fried hopes his love for small-town America comes across in "Fairview," a new adult animated series that premiered last week on "Comedy Central." "Fairview" airs Wednesdays directly after "South Park," a show it shares a lot of DNA with in terms of how it tackles hot button issues with irreverence and the occasional gross-out humor. Among the show's executive producers is Comedy Central alumnus Stephen Colbert.
With a voice cast led by Aparna Nancherla, Lisa Gilroy and James Austin Johnson of "Saturday Night Live," the show follows town leaders as they try to make responsible decisions for a citizenry that doesn't seem particularly interested in doing so for themselves.
It takes a few weeks to make an episode of "Fairview," Fried said. That quick turnaround allows for highly topical installments like the premiere that largely dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Fried said upcoming episodes will examine cancel culture, crime, critical race theory and "the state of work."
Many "Fairview" storylines explore how issues of national importance tend to trickle down to smaller places and cause big problems there. Fried said he has watched that phenomenon play out in real time on the pages of the Indiana Gazette, his hometown newspaper.
"Let's explore what it would be like for a small town that's politically volatile and how they deal with those emotional issues and still come out the other side feeling like a town," he said.
Fried moved to Indiana when he was 3 years old and lived there until he was 13. It wasn't until Fried went off to Harvard University that "it felt like I found people who spoke the same language" and he began realizing that the quirky way his brain worked might be best-served by a career in comedy.
He moved to Los Angeles and toiled in the entertainment industry for about a decade before landing a writing gig on the "Late Show with David Letterman," which is now hosted by Colbert. "Fairview" is the third animated series Fried has worked on with Colbert following collaborations on Showtime's "Our Cartoon President" and the CBS All Access and Paramount+ show "Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News."
Fried admires Colbert's sharp mind for satire and how hard he fights for a creative vision he believes in.
"Stephen is just as kind behind the camera as he is in front of the camera," he said. "He is that person. It's been such a source of inspiration for me personally. ... [He has] taught me a lot about keeping zen and level-headed through the tumultuous times of creating and running a show."
"Fairview" was in development for about a year before the first episode premiered on Comedy Central. The show has a distinct animation style — characters have expressive faces, round bodies and no hands or legs. Fried said that animating extremities takes a long time and shaping the characters this way cuts down on production time and maintains the immediacy of each episode's plot.
There's a certain thrill to working on such tight deadlines, he said, describing the quick turnarounds for each episode as "pencils down, this is what you got."
"I enjoy it because probably like most writers, I tend to overthink things," he said. "When you're bumping up against these deadlines, it's good to not overthink something and go with your instincts and something that's raw."
Airing "Fairview" right after "South Park," one of the longest-running adult animated shows ever, is "very cool and very nerve-wracking," Fried said. But he isn't allowing himself to worry about how audiences will receive his creation.
"Fairview" is a solid companion piece to "South Park" in the way that each show strives to lampoon both sides of the political aisle.
"They all take their hits, and I think that's important to make sure we're not being partisan about this," he said. "At the end of the day, these characters love each other and are doing their best."
Just like everyone back in Indiana, a place that introduced Fried to his lifelong love of hockey and showed him the virtues of living in small-town America.
"There's something so wholesome and connected about the place in a way that I miss until this day," Fried said. "I have such nostalgia for it."
