Actress and comedian Sarah Silverman recently opened up to Variety about her cancelled 2012 NBC pilot, entitled ‘Susan 313.’ Over a year after NBC passed on the Fox TV production, Silverman was granted permission to post a cut of the comedy online.
“There were cringy places for me,” Silverman says of ‘Susan 313.’ “I know, with some perspective of time, exactly what I would change. But the truth is, the cut I liked the most was a 29-minute cut. You have to cut eight minutes out and maintain the storyline. It’s frustrating, but it’s no one’s fault. We should have written a tighter script.”
‘Susan 313’ was to be vaguely based on Silverman’s life as a woman who had just gotten out of a decade-long live-in relationship. Silverman made headlines after breaking up with late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel.
Silverman went on to say, “I don’t feel like any frustration about it,” adding, “I don’t think I want to do 22 of anything a year. Network TV is just not the place for me. But it was good. I worked with all my friends, and it was neat to do something different.”
A whittled-down rendition of the ‘Susan 313’ pilot can be viewed in its entirety below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euSL8cCy4-w
Silverman commented that ‘Susan 313′ contained content more suited for a cable show, though there is still a level of excitement and validation to be had while being courted by one of the major networks. “The networks want you, and you forget about ‘I want to take this to cable.’ You’re just so excited by love and acceptance,” Silverman said. The actress recalls telling NBC producer Bob Greenblatt, “I’m not trepidatious because I want to say “pussy” on NBC, I just want to be able to be far out and not worry that people won’t like it in Poughkeepsie.”
Yet, NBC producers passed on the slightly racy (by network standards) project – “But from that point to the point we had shot and were editing, he had gotten such a severe pounding, and there was just no way,” Silverman said.
Image via YouTube.