Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen co-created Running Point — which stars Kate Hudson and Chet Hanks — alongside Mindy Kaling.
The duo discusses how they landed a Taylor Swift song for a crucial moment.
The pair teases a potential Running Point Season 2 after that surprising ending.

What do you get when you combine the compelling family drama of Succession with the underdog sports story of Ted Lasso? Well, it might just be Running Point, a show loosely based on the story of Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss (who also serves as an executive producer of the show). Though embellished for dramatic and comedic effect, rom-com queen Kate Hudson serves as a fictional version of Jeanie, taking on the role of the smart and passionate Isla Gordon, who has been passed over for a key role in the family business in favor of her brothers: the charismatic addict Cam (Justin Theroux), the organized but awkward Sandy (Drew Tarver), and the unpolished, likable Ness (Scott MacArthur). When tragedy strikes, however, Isla gets the opportunity to step in and attempt to prove herself against all odds.

Co-creators Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen, who are perhaps best known for their work on The Mindy Project, once again re-team with Mindy Kaling in order to bring Running Point to life. Barinholtz also starred in The Mindy Project as Morgan Tookers and has appeared in films like Suicide Squad and Neighbors. In addition to his collaborations with Barinholtz on projects like Maximum Truth and Central Intelligence, Stassen is also set to serve as co-executive producer for a currently untitled Steve Carell series for HBO that will also star Phil Dunster and Danielle Deadwyler.

Collider got the chance to speak with Barinholtz and Stassen about landing that Taylor Swift song, casting Chet Hanks in a critical part, how the show is similar to and different from The Mindy Project, and more.

Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen Break Down the Sharp Humor and Unexpected Heart of ‘Running Point’

Image via Netflix

COLLIDER: Congratulations on the show. It’s genuinely one of my favorite comedies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s so funny and so exciting that there is this female lead of a basketball show, particularly because women’s basketball is having such a moment right now between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — all of them. What does it feel like to release a series like this within this cultural moment that we’re having?

IKE BARINHOLTZ: Great question.

DAVID STASSEN: Yeah. Part of it is odd for us because we’ve been working on this show for many years. When we started writing the show, I didn’t know who Caitlin Clark was, and now, I’m constantly following her highlights. Some of it is just kismet — just getting lucky. Ike and I love working with Mindy and writing really funny, confident, flawed female characters.

BARINHOLTZ: And it does seem, too, like basketball is having such a huge global, multi-sex moment. I have daughters, so we’ve been watching women’s basketball for a few years, but now it’s this massive thing. It’s turning into this massive thing. And the Lakers are the hottest team in basketball right now because they’ve got the coolest guys, so it feels like a great moment for basketball in general. And, in terms of the tone of the show, we really are excited to give people stuff that’s pure comedy — just really stupid people kind of being petty but also loving each other. So we think this is a great moment for the show to come out.

COLLIDER: That leads really well into my next question. The comedy in the show is very much my type of humor in the fact it’s pretty sharp and vicious, but there is that undercurrent of love and warmth that really shines through. I always love that combination. I’m curious if you can talk a little bit about developing the voice for the show and even tackling some subjects that are a bit tricky. I mean, there’s class in this, there’s addiction in this, but it’s done in a very unsentimental way, which I really enjoy.

BARINHOLTZ: Dave and Mindy and I, when we wrote on The Mindy Project together, Mindy always has these cornerstones — the characters do have to kind of love each other I think. They have to have a respect for each other, but they can be very brutal with each other. I think you saw a lot of that in The Mindy Project, and I think this is the next evolution of that. It’s a step up from that in the sense that these characters have a little more edge than your folks at Shulman and Associates. And because they’re family — most of them — you can say really messed up things to your family. That friendship probably won’t end. So we had a little more leeway to kind of push these characters to be more intense, more demanding, more brutal at times. But also with that, because they are family, there is gonna be just this inherent love. We try to really give you comedy, comedy, comedy, and then give you a couple of moments of harder or love in these episodes.

Because as much as we love Succession — like it’s one of my favorite shows ever — every character on that show is despicable. And you ultimately kind of don’t care if they all go to prison or not, you know what I mean? But in this show, we want people to take shots at each other and make fun of Nessa’s hair and Sandy’s love life and Isla’s Botox, but at the end of the day, they are together — not just because they’re running a company but because of their genes.

STASSEN: One thing we always went back to when we were talking about it was they all have the same wound. They all want this love from their father that they will never get because he’s dead. And even when he was alive, he gave it in dribs and drabs, so as Ike said, they grew up with the same wounds. They always end up knowing what buttons to push but also having empathy for each other because they went through similar things.

Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen Reveal How They Landed That Taylor Swift Song for a Key ‘Running Point’ Scene

Image via Netflix

You touched on Sandy’s love life, and I want to bring up one particular moment. He sings this Taylor Swift song as a grand gesture, and I know those are notoriously difficult to get the rights to, so I’m so curious how that sort of came about.

BARINHOLTZ: Dave is good friends with Travis Kelce.

Okay, there we go.

STASSEN: Yeah, I trained him in the offseason.

[Laughs] Nice. Okay, there you go.

BARINHOLTZ: We really wanted him to sing a Taylor song. We kind of went back and forth about which one it would be. In terms of the clearance, I’m always astounded at how it goes. Sometimes, you get it because the people are a fan; sometimes, you get it because you were able to pay them. A lot of times, you’re not able to get it. So I don’t quite know that there’s a story behind this one, but we were just very excited that they very quickly were like, “Oh yeah, sure.”

STASSEN: It’s all a blur when you’re doing it. You’re juggling 75 issues during whatever week that was we had to clear that song. Obviously, we got the song. Taylor and whoever it went to was really cool about it because it’s hard to get really huge songs like that, and it happened pretty seamlessly, so thank you, Taylor.

BARINHOLTZ: Taylor, we love you.

It makes that moment so great and hit so hard. I love how you guys poke fun at LA, but I’m from Indiana—

BARINHOLTZ: Yeah! Midwest, baby.

STASSEN: We’re from Chicago!

Yes! The jokes in Episode 3 were especially fun. Can you discuss parodying the Midwest with that sponsorship storyline? I really love that we got that as well.

BARINHOLTZ: I think it was just like, “What’s a place that Kate Hudson-slash-Isla has for sure never, ever, ever been to.”

STASSEN: “I don’t know quite where it is…”

BARINHOLTZ: “Is that outside Connecticut?” She’s probably not exactly sure. It just felt like the opposite of this family that is so glitzy and glamorous and has every advantage and goes to the fanciest places all the time. What’s somewhere that would put them in a difficult situation?

STASSEN: She’s bicoastal — LA with the Pacific Ocean and then Lake Calumet. That’s her other coast.

Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen Discuss Casting Chet Hanks for ‘Running Point’

Image via Netflix

I also want to talk about Chet Hanks because he’s so good in the show. We’ve seen him in little roles on television and things, but this is a true, meaty role for him. What was it about his audition specifically that made you go, “This guy is perfect for this”?

BARINHOLTZ: When we were creating the character, we knew there were a lot of elements to Travis that were funny but also could be tough for an actor to play. If you see a comedy guy trying to act like a dopey white rapper, it can seem broad. And so we were talking with Kim, our casting director, and she at one point was like, “So, do we think of this character as a Chet Hanks type?” And Mindy goes, “I think we’re thinking Chet Hanks, specifically.” I didn’t know anything about Chet other than I’d seen him doing patois here and there, but he put himself on tape and sent us an audition right away, and the minute we watched it, we were like, “We have to hire this guy.” He completely nailed it. He completely got the comedy of it, he got the nuance of it, and he showed up every day and was so excited to be a part of this and really gave such a great performance. Really excited to see more from him on not just this show but other shows.

STASSEN: He and the whole basketball team — the guys — they put so much into their characters. It was so awesome to watch the team. By the end of the season, they would have lunch together like they were a real team. They were a cast that really came together, and they really did want to dive into that locker room team mentality. It was really great.

BARINHOLTZ: We’re gonna try to start a real basketball team with them. They’re gonna play the Clippers tonight, and they’re gonna lose very badly.

STASSEN: They’re 87-point underdogs.

BARINHOLTZ: But I think they’ll look good. I put 1,000 on the Clippers.

Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen Tease a Potential ‘Running Point’ Season 2

Image via Netflix

I do want to talk about the ending of the season. Isla has this really great monologue about how her life is not a sports movie because, obviously, you make the decision to have them lose. I’m curious if you can talk about that choice because it is rather untraditional when it comes to this sports story formula.

BARINHOLTZ: We gave her a lot of losses during the season, not just with the team but personally. Things seemed to be kind of cracking up a little bit with her love life, and we kind of went back and forth, but we really did think that if we let her go all the way and win this thing, it’s almost too much. It’s too much good. And where do you go from there? What, is the team gonna just be really bad now? So we went back and forth, but we kind of thought, “Let’s create a run for them and hopefully trick the audience a little bit into, ‘Hey, you’re about to watch Hoosiers.’” So that was a little thing we designed to make sure we weren’t giving her too many wins.

STASSEN: There is a little Hoosiers homage. Ike and I always remember in Hoosiers, when they win the semifinal and the little guy hits the free throws to send them to the finals, the other team inbounds the ball and just misses a full-court shot. The ball hits the top of the rim and then curls out. It’s never picked up, but it was obviously in the take — the player for the other team just took a great shot and almost made it. Ike and I always talk about what a moment like that is, and so in our show, the team gets the shot after the free throws, and they actually make it. It’s a little tip to one of our favorite movies.

I love that little Easter egg.

BARINHOLTZ: A little Indiana for you.

Yes, thank you so much. Just for me. You mentioned her love life, and I feel like the decision not to introduce Lev until Episode 2 is so smart and intentional to set that up. I thought that was genius, and I think that you did such a good job sort of showing those cracks steadily throughout and also the building chemistry that she has with Jay. Can you talk a little bit about crafting that love triangle? Because it feels fresh. I feel like that’s a trope that we see a lot, but it feels done differently in this show.

BARINHOLTZ: We wanted her to be in a good relationship. Does it have problems? Sure. Have they been engaged for a long time? Yes, but they really do love each other, and it’s a very special thing. But there is a thing for some people where, when you have someone you work with and you have this shared goal, you start to fall in love with them. Sometimes, it is a platonic love, but when it’s Jay Ellis, it’s hard for that just to be platonic because he’s so handsome. So we wanted to really make it as nuanced as possible and not make it so our characters were just irresponsible and immature. It feels like a very real thing, and we wanted to treat the audience with a little surprise of meeting Lev in Episode 2. We talked about having it in Episode 1, but there’s so much going on in Episode 1. It kind of felt funny. It was Mindy’s joke to be like, in Episode 2, “Did I not mention that I’m engaged? Yeah, I’m engaged.” We love that joke, but we wanted to make a mature, adult comedy, and sometimes, for mature adults, life is a little complicated. It’s tough. It’s a tough position. How do you choose between Max Greenfield and Jay Ellis? They’re both beautiful, funny, kind men.

STASSEN: And their bodies.

BARINHOLTZ: They have fantastic bodies.

STASSEN: The skin care routines.

BARINHOLTZ: Incredibly lean — very, very lean — but also they have muscles. I don’t know how I would choose between them. I would have to enter into some kind of polycule with both of them because how can you say no to one?

Well, I’m hoping for that in Season 2 personally.

BARINHOLTZ: One of the writers enters a poly— Oh, you mean Kate. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.

You know, maybe art reflects life sometimes!

Running Point Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.