Television is a great place for both women and dynamic duos, just ask Playing House's Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham. But don't ask them about Gilmore Girls—more on that later.
The two are real-life best friends who play best friends in the USA Network comedy that's just returned for a second season after months in renewal/cancellation limbo. They join a long list of women doing it for themselves in comedy on the small screen, so why is TV the place to go for hilarious women and shows such as Playing House, Broad City and Inside Amy Schumer? Because people can take their time with TV, according to the duo.
"I think what's nice about TV for us is female relationships are long. We're like swans, we mate for life," St. Clair said. "And people like to see—"
"And we were ugly ducklings when we came out," Parham interjected.
"My mother said, and I quote, ‘It was touch and go from 11 years old to 16,'" St. Clair said.
"Really didn't know which way it was going to go," Parham said.
"I find that they're comforting to watch, like years and years of friendship on TV. Like with Sex and the City, I feel like we watched those girls grow up together and there's something you can relate to with that because most of our friends we've had at least since our early 20s," St. Clair said.
"I think with TV too, a lot of people are getting out of the artists way," Parham said. "'You do what you do, here's this 30-minute time capsule and we'll let you have the run of our network for whatever night that is.' It seems to me that Abbi [Jacobson] and Ilana [Glazer] or Amy Schumer, they're telling the story they want to tell and I think right now on TV that's kind of one of the only places to do it."
Parham and St. Clair are just a recent dynamic duo doing it for themselves. What do they think of other famous pairs? Here's what the first thing that came to mind when quizzed on some of pop culture's most famous pairs.
I Love Lucy's Lucy and Ethel
Parham: Chocolate.
St. Clair: Slapstick.
Xena: Warrior Princess' Xena and Gabrielle
St. Clair: Fierce.
Parham: Sexual tension.
St. Clair: #Flawless.
Mary Tyler Moore's Mary and Rhoda
St. Clair: Bandanas—scarves!
Parham: Working girls.
Scooby Doo and Shaggy
Parham: Mysteries.
St. Clair: Ripping a mask off your face.
The Odd Couple's Felix and Oscar
St. Clair: Gay.
Parham: What'd you just say?
St. Clair: I said gay and then did a bunch of spray…
Parham: Opposites attract.
Broad City's Ilana and Abbi
Parham: Dildo.
St. Clair: Fearless.
Laverne and Shirley
St. Clair: Glee.
Parham: Beer factory.
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey
St. Clair: Queens.
Parham: Icons.
The X-Files' Mulder and Scully
St. Clair: Smuldering. That's two of their names joined.
Parham: Can I do a noise? [Sings The X-Files theme song]
Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie
Lennon: Besties.
St. Clair: Twin beds.
Gilmore Girls' Lorelai and Rory Gilmore
St. Clair: That's the fantasy!
Parham: Too many words.
St. Clair: No! She hasn't seen it, Chris! Don't print that. She refuses to watch it and that is so rude. Don't print that.
Parham: I saw one episode.
St. Clair: You can't tell from one episode—
Parham: That they're saying too many words? Absolutely I can.
Playing House airs Tuesdays, 10 p.m. on USA.
(E! and USA are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)