Somewhere along the line, “Studio C” cast members started getting unexpected recognition.
For Jason Gray, it happened at a hospital. The father-to-be found himself surrounded by nurses asking for pictures while his wife was in the middle of a 26-hour labor.
Whitney Call and her husband, fellow cast member Stephen Meek, were in a viewing room leading up to a funeral when a group of kids ran up to them quoting punchlines and asking for pictures. “They just love the show,” the children’s parents told the couple.
Matt Meese received a message one day from a high school friend who had just discovered that he was on a TV show. “My brother told me about it,” the friend told Meese. “He’s in prison.”
As “Studio C” begins its fifth season Oct. 6 on BYUtv, it’s safe to say that the once audacious venture — to produce a family appropriate sketch comedy show — has gained some traction. And a lot of the credit goes to the young fans of the BYUtv show who are consuming and sharing their favorite sketches via social media. Those fans may not comprehend how demanding the process of crafting and performing 160-plus sketches over the course of a year is, but Gray, Call, Meese, fellow cast member Mallory Everton and producer Jared Shores work full time to produce smart, fresh and at times sharp comedy that families can view together.
And as for the attention? They’ll take it, even when it comes in surprising ways or at inopportune times. As Gray said, “We’d much rather have that problem than being like, ‘Please watch our show!’ ”
Social growth
On a Friday evening in early September, the lobby of the BYU broadcasting building was packed.
Event managers called out numbers and filed the waiting people into lines. Teenagers stood next to life-size cutouts of “Studio C” cast members and had family members or friends snap pictures with smartphones. Posters, hoodies and T-shirts — one of which read “Shoulder Angel goes here” — were being sold at a booth.
After the 200 or so lucky fans filled the stadium seating in Studio C for the final shoot of the year, an event host announced that more than 20,000 people had signed up for a random drawing in hopes of getting a ticket to see a live taping. Less than 1 percent were awarded tickets.
Watching “Studio C” live has become an event.
Rachel Harrison, 19, of Payson, brought three sisters — Emily, 17; Rebekah, 15; and Vennalynn, 12 — after successfully securing tickets on her third attempt. They’ve followed the cast since before the days of “Studio C,” when Gray, Call, Meese and Everton were part of the Divine Comedy troupe that performed at BYU.
“It’s original, and it’s very clean humor,” Emily said. “It’s something we can all watch together. … We’re just glad to be here.”
While the Harrison sisters were waiting to enter the studio, 13-year-old Anika Butler was emerging from an earlier performance. She puts her name in for every live taping she can, and has been able to attend twice.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I lost my voice.”
Butler watches “Studio C” sketches on YouTube and talks about it with her friends. The Harrison sisters also make friends into fans by sharing the comedy through YouTube, Facebook and the BYUtv app.
They’re typical of the demographic that’s helping grow the presence of “Studio C” through social media. According to a recent news release, views for “Studio C” via the BYUtv YouTube channel have increased from 500,000 following Season 1 to 60 million heading into Season 5.
“If we do that every season, we’ll have quite the following,” Gray said.
According to Shores, the majority of BYUtv’s YouTube views come from “Studio C.” The show has also seen “a ton of growth" on Facebook, he said, with 110,000 likes after two years.
“Our fan base has really helped make itself larger,” Meese said. “The fans keep sharing it with more people, who become more fans and share it with more people, and it’s just become amazing to watch that with the very supportive fans.”
“Studio C’s” digital efforts also include reaching out to “niche or interested parties” who might appreciate a particular sketch, according to Shores. For instance, a sketch called “The Truth of Running” was sent out to and shared on running blogs. A sketch called “The New Life Alert,” which satirized the abuse of public service calls, gained the attention of some fire departments.
“They garnered a lot of views for us,” Shores said.
In addition to being seen on standard BYUtv broadcasts, “Studio C” can be viewed on byutv.org, apps for iOS and Android, Roku, Xbox and YouTube. According to a news release, the most popular sketch online is “Bane Birthday Party,” which has more than 627,000 views.
“Younger fans are the ones who are going to really push the online presence,” Call said. “We have much more young people using the Internet that are much more tech-savvy that get into that culture, so of course YouTube’s going to do really well, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, any of the places that we really try to promote the show, it does really well in that group.”
Clean and funny
While the “Studio C” writers and performers appreciate their young fan base and the social media jolt they provide, they’re not trying to produce kid comedy.
“We try and write the things we think are funny, so we never try to play down and say, ‘Well, let’s just make sure all 6-year-olds can understand this sketch,’ ” Call said.
The brand of “Studio C” comedy can be a tricky mix — smart, at times sharp (promotional materials for Season 5 even go as far as labeling it “irreverent”) but also appropriate.
According to Meese, the “litmus test” for each sketch is whether families can view it together. That’s what draws in Caleb Kohn, a 15-year-old from Pleasant Grove who attended the taping with Butler, his neighbor, and her family members. Kohn’s family records episodes on DVR and watches them together.
“It’s always something for everyone and always clean,” Kohn said. “You never have to worry about it.”
The “Studio C” team acknowledges that most of its viewership comes from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But according to Meese, “there’s definitely a growing portion that isn’t.” And according to Shores, the majority of “Studio C” YouTube consumption comes from outside the state of Utah.
“That’s our next level of trying to disseminate the show and to get that out to people just looking for, really, first off, entertainment comedy, and then stuff that isn’t going to offend them as far as topics, issues or language,” Meese said. “Because there’s definitely a need for that.”
Making the show compelling, though, sometimes means taking risks, said Shores, who made it clear from the start that “doing comedy means that you’re going to offend someone.”
“Studio C” writers and performers often employ satire to point out the absurdities found in everyday life and people. One sketch from Season 4, called “Kill the Whales,” depicts a protest against the beloved marine mammals where people give over-the-top, silly reasons against their protection. For instance, one protester blames whales for making her fat.
“Obviously, we’re doing anything but advocating killing whales,” said Shores, who added that the “most poignant, message-driven sketches” can sometimes be misunderstood.
“Studio C” comedy is described in a recent press release as being “cutting but clean.” That edge, Call said, usually comes when writers are trying to be satirical. She admits that it’s “a hard line to walk.”
“But when we see something that needs to be made fun of — that needs to be seen in a way of like, ‘Can’t we all just laugh at this and realize how ridiculous it is?’ — sometimes we do like to go a little sharper at that, to just really cut it in and say, ‘that’s ridiculous.’ ”
Sometimes the subject itself draws negative feedback from viewers, such as a sketch that took on violent video games. The mere mention of diabetes in “The Truth of Running” upset a few viewers.
But that doesn’t stop "Studio C" from trying to present a positive message in a humorous, entertaining manner. In fact, one sketch written by Meese that will air during the upcoming season pokes fun at people’s ignorance toward the daily challenges faced by diabetics.
“My intent was actually to raise awareness about diabetes, because I feel like a lot of people don’t know what it involves,” he said.
Meese said he never means to offend but knows it’s a possibility “no matter what we do.”
“The best thing to do is just follow our own moral compass,” he said.
A year-round effort
Meese, a BYU graduate from Phoenix who along with Shores is credited as co-creator of “Studio C,” says the show has “never been better.”
“We’re making plans to make sure that we can keep up the pace,” he said.
But producing two seasons and around 160 sketches per calendar year, while constantly seeking to improve the freshness and quality of the product, is quite an undertaking.
“I think that’s what a lot of people don’t understand,” said Shores, who also directs the show. “Sometimes they think, ‘Oh, you guys even get paid for this? It doesn’t look that hard.’ But the reality is, even in the normal run of one season, we’re shooting about 80 sketches.”
And those are the ones that make the cut. Shores said that the team is constantly writing material. They try to get a certain number of sketches on their planning/idea board each week. He estimates that they write 320 sketches per year that get serious consideration.
“We’re just always writing, because it’s a monster that needs to be fed,” Shores said. “We’re always working on a show.”
“As soon as we were done filming Season 4 … we were like, ‘OK, meet Monday morning for Season 5,’ ” said Call, a Portland, Oregon, native. “That’s just how it has to be, because we have to film twice a year, and between those film dates we have to get enough writing out there that we can film it.”
The main players — Gray, Call, Meese and Everton — don’t have a lot of time for extended vacations, but they say periodic breaks help with creativity.
“So much of what we write is based off of experiences,” said Gray, who is from Boise. “I go home and spend time with my dad and I’ve got like five sketches because of all the goofy things he’s done.”
According to Meese, the creative process is constantly evolving. The team has started to do improv as a way to develop new ideas and characters, as well as to “stretch” their abilities.
“You can get a lot from improv — or nothing,” he said.
For Season 5, the team spent less time in meticulous editing and more time rehearsing and revising. New writers were also added.
“Just having a fresh new brain on the show will be really fun for people to see,” Gray said. “Each writer writes jokes in a different way even if they kind of seem similar.”
More than 80 people are involved with the live tapings. The set changes are complex, and the wardrobe and makeup team puts in a lot of work. When Gray portrayed the Grinch for a sketch, it took three hours to get him into costume. He couldn’t go to the bathroom for 12 hours.
Shores, who grew up in Montrose, Colorado, and graduated from BYU in 2010, is grateful that the show he co-created with Meese has been given both the chance and the freedom to grow and thrive. He realizes that when they started, the show “wouldn’t last three seconds” on network TV. But as a loyal fan base awaits Season 5, Shores can point to increasing viewership and comedic material that is “becoming better at a faster rate.”
“That’s what’s been so great for us is being part of a growing network (BYUtv) and a growing audience, that we’ve all been able to grow together,” he said. “… It’s been such a blessing for all of us involved to be a part of a network who knows us and vice-versa. ...
“With that freedom, it allows us to have hits and definitely misses. We have to be able to take those risks, and I think with those risks, (it) allows us to find new audiences and success.”
Email: ashill@deseretnews.com, Twitter: @aaronshill