“For me there’s something so magical about the show because it doesn’t traffic in cynicism,” declares Josh Gad about his passion project “Central Park,” the animated musical comedy series that he co-created, co-writes and stars in. Funnily enough, the same can also be said about romantic comedy “Wolf Like Me,” Gad’s other TV project this past season on which he stars opposite Isla Fisher. Both projects feature Gad at his most lovable, showing once again how good he is at portraying endearingly quirky and unvarnished characters. They also naturally reflect his inclination to work on projects that provide much needed levity during some particularly challenging times. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
In Peacock’s “Wolf Like Me,” Gary (Gad) is a single father living in Adelaide, Australia with his 11-year-old daughter Emma (Ariel Donoghue), both still grieving the death of Emma’s mother. They encounter Mary (Fisher), a reclusive, introverted advice columnist living alone and dealing with some pretty hefty emotional baggage of her own, after Gary and Mary are involved in a minor car crash. The two of them continue to cross paths coincidentally, bringing them together against the odds. After they begin to form a connection, they learn some dark secrets about each other, including Mary’s dark secret, which changes both their lives forever. The six-part romantic comedy created by Abe Forsythe is an enchanting fantasy-tinged fable that contemplates two grieving people letting their guard down to ultimately find acceptance, love and happiness. The US/Australian co-production streams exclusively on Peacock in the US, Stan in Australia and Amazon Prime internationally, and has just been renewed for a second season.
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“Central Park” on the other hand is an Emmy-nominated musical animated comedy created by Loren Bouchard, Nora Smith and Josh Gad for Apple TV+ about the lovable Tillerman–Hunter family who live in Central Park, New York City. In addition to co-producing and co-writing the series, Gad is the voice of Birdie, a busker who narrates the show. “Central Park” has garnered raves from critics who have highlighted its joyous spirit and the show’s remarkable commitment to musical content, spotlighting four unique original songs each episode, bringing on numerous guest songwriters including Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Taura Stinson, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson and Wyclef Jean. The series has wrapped production on its third season, and will now be in post-production for some time before a premiere date is announced.
It is “a show that is all about love, laughter, joy and perseverance,” Gad proudly explains about the animated comedy. “I think at a time in which so much content out there — and its content that I love, by the way, content that I absolutely binge — but when so much is defined by that sort of eye-rolling skepticism about life, society and where we are right now culturally,” he says, it’s “a show that will hopefully make you smile, all the way through, and remind you of the greatness of things like community, the greatness of things like a walk in the park.”
Gad had similar feelings about “Wolf Like Me,” which he couldn’t pass up because of how it made him feel. “During the lock down, I didn’t really have much of an interest prior to getting vaccinated to going out and doing anything, especially if it meant leaving Los Angeles, just because I was with my family. I get the six scripts and it’s like that scene in ‘The Godfather Part III’ when Al Pacino says, ‘just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in,’ and I was just like ‘oh no.’ I read it, immediately fell in love with it, had been really wanting to work with Isla for a while,” he explains. “It was unlike anything else I had read or seen. I love the character of Gary. He felt so fully fleshed out and so different than anything I had done before and I was just really excited about working with this team and getting to tell such a unique story.”
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