A comedic look at generational combat in the advertising world, “The Z-Suite” is notable for bringing Lauren Graham back to series television and being the free streaming channel Tubi’s first original scripted series.
Graham is destined to be forever identified as Lorelai Gilmore in the now-classic mother-daughter series “The Gilmore Girls.” Still, she’s found “Z-Suite” a cozy fit.
“I’ve been wanting to do a half-hour series,” she said in a Zoom interview, “and felt like this was a different enough character that was worth exploring and could be a lot of fun. And it was.”
An executive producer as well as star, “It is important to me to be a creative partner,” she’s learned. “This is Tubi’s first original scripted content. They and (showrunner) Katie O’Brien were so welcoming and wanted my input, which is not always a given.
“And there’s a great degree of enthusiasm, which you don’t always feel. Back in the days of doing pilot season, you can feel a bit of fatigue, of like, here we go again.
“Here, I feel an excitement from the entire creative team, the executive team. They came to visit the set many times. It feels like there’s real investment here. And that is infectious. It fuels our enthusiasm.”
Graham is advertising titan Monica Frazier who suddenly loses her mightiest account to Gen X and Gen Z newbies because she’s not young. It’s fast-paced, with well-chimed zingers.
But where an older generation is being shoved aside by a generation with no regard to their feelings or their status, how do you make this funny?
Graham, 57, laughed. “Good question. There’s always a way. I look at – and it’s a very different show – but the success of this new Tim Allen show, ‘Shifting Gears,’ which is really about generations clashing, proves that there is always kind of a rich comedic soil there.
“Because whether you’re part of one or the other, I think probably the younger generation feels misunderstood. As does the generation who’s been working and has risen through the ranks and paid their dues.
“So the idea behind this show is that we each have something to learn from one another. And we each find the other completely ridiculous.”
Can these two generations ever not be rivals but friends?
“I think so. I certainly always, especially between women, want to find what’s the common ground here.
‘And I think beneath every comedy, there has to be a beating heart. And I feel the heart of this has to be that we grow to understand each other. Even if it takes a little while more.”
“The Z-Suite” streams on Tubi Feb. 6
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