"Arrested Development," "The Ben Stiller Show," "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" and "Mr. Show" have a couple of things in common: They all relied heavily on David Cross and they all took a while for audiences to appreciate them.
"I don't know why that is," Cross said last month by phone from his home in New York. "Maybe they were just a little ahead of their time. They're not recognizable initially. If there was no 'Arrested Development,' there would be no 'Modern Family.' By the time that show came around, people were used to the idea that we originally had."
Cross, 59, continues to contribute to prestige TV. He's got juicy parts in "Justified: City Primeval," which debuts July 18 on FX, and the fourth and final season of "The Umbrella Academy," which is expected to drop on Netflix sometime this winter.
His main focus remains on stand-up, but balancing an acting and comedy career has gotten more challenging since his daughter, Marlow, turned 6. Instead of staying on the road, he flies home every three or four days to the home he shares with actor Amber Tamblyn. (They play a bickering married couple in the new movie "You Hurt My Feelings.")
"Let me put it this way. When I started the tour, I was silver medallion on Delta. Now I'm platinum. That's a jump of two levels," he said as Marlow poked her head into his office to ask what he was doing. "The other day, I was checking into a hotel, and I thought, 'Oh, this is who I am. This is what I'm doing.' Then I'm home being a father and I think, 'Oh, this is what I do.' It's two very distinctive lifestyles."
The grind hasn't affected his sharp and challenging wit. If you attend one of his shows with only a cursory knowledge of politics and pop culture, you're bound to be lost.
But despite his reputation as one of comedy's smartest minds, he hasn't enjoyed the critical success of his former "Mr. Show" partner Bob Odenkirk, who played Saul Goodman in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul."
Cross isn't surprised that his buddy has dramatic chops.
"He would tell you he lucked into being on two of the greatest shows in TV history, but he was perfect. They thought of him for a reason," Cross said. "It's an odd thing that people shockingly have this kind of idea that if you're a comedian you can't be a good actor, that you don't know how to play human emotion."
Cross deserves more credit for his own performances. "Margaret," in which he played an inept salesman, is a master class in cringe comedy. I picked it as the funniest show of 2010.
But to really appreciate his gifts, see him onstage.
"I'm not Scarlett Johansson or Timothee Chalamet. I have to wait until someone thinks of me and reaches out," he said. "But I control every aspect of stand-up."
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