«Barry» is an American black comedy crime drama thriller TV series created by Alec Berg and Bill Hader that premiered on HBO on March 25, 2018.
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- Barry is an American black comedy crime drama thriller TV series.
- It was created by Alec Berg and Bill Hader that premiered on HBO.
- It premiered on March 25, 2018.
- Hader stars as Barry Berkman, a hitman from Cleveland who travels to Los Angeles to kill someone but finds himself joining an acting class taught by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), where he meets aspiring actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg) and begins to question his path in life as he deals with his criminal associates such as Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root) and NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan).
- The second season premiered on March 31, 2019.
- In April 2019, HBO renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on April 24, 2022.
- In May 2022, the series was renewed for an eight-episode fourth season.
- Barry has received critical acclaim, with most praise going to its directing, writing, originality, humor, characters, and performances (particularly Hader’s).
- The series has received various accolades, including 30 Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
- Hader won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series twice, while Winkler won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in the first season.
- For the second season, Winkler, Root, and Carrigan all received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor, while Goldberg received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
- The show has been nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
- Principal photography for the first season began in 2017 in Los Angeles.
- The second season filmed from September 2018 to December 2018.
- Production on the third season was shut down on March 18, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before a single episode had been shot.
- The cast had already gathered for table reads for the first two episodes when they were informed.
- In January 2021, Hader revealed that scripts for seasons 3 and 4 had been written.
- Filming for the third season began in August 2021.
- Production on the fourth season will begin in June 2022 in Los Angeles.
- Alongside the report of the pilot order, it was confirmed that Hader would star in the pilot.
- According to Bill Hader, NoHo Hank was originally meant to die in the pilot episode when Barry shoots at the car. Hader said that they found actor Anthony Carrigan so funny as the character that they decided to keep him on the show.
- While filming his final scene of season two, Henry Winkler looked around between takes and realized that they were filming on the same soundstage where he had filmed “Happy Days” over forty years earlier. The entire cast and crew became distracted while Winkler walked around the stage and pointed out where specific locations and sets had been constructed.
- Series co-creator Alec Berg thought that a show about a hitman wouldn’t be well-received or funny, until fellow co-creator, Bill Hader, asked “well, what if the hitman was me?”
- Bill Hader’s directorial debut.
- Henry Winkler showed up to audition for the show. Bill Hader and Alec Berg have stated that they would have just offered him the role regardless, but Winkler insisted that he audition like everyone else.
- Bill Hader figured out how to finish the second season while sitting in traffic on his way to a press event for the first season in New York City. Hader arrived to the event just before it started and pulled Alec Berg to the side to pitch him the idea minutes before they went on stage.
- Bill Hader, who is known for his comedic roles, said that one of his biggest challenges on this show was having to sacrifice jokes when the scene called for a more dramatic tone.
- The show’s creators were insistent that the violence not be glorified or romanticized for the sake of comedy. In fact, the cast was shown real footage of people being shot in order to play the death scenes more accurately.
- D’Arcy Carden who plays Natalie, met Bill Hader many years earlier when she worked for him as a nanny.
- One of the production companies for the show is “Hanarply Productions.” This is Bill Hader’s personal production company, and the name is an amalgamation of his three daughters’ names; Hannah, Harper and Hayley.
- One of the co-writers of Game of Thrones (2011) saw a few early episodes of Barry and told Bill Hader that he thought the show was really dark. Hader remarked “you know you make GoT (2011), right?”
- In season 2 episode 2, Noho Hank tells Barry he could really go for a “Yoshinoya beef bowl”. This a callback to one of Bill Hader’s infamous breaks while playing Stefon on SNL when John Mulaney whispered “my girlfriend works at Yoshinoya Beef Bowl” in Bill’s ear, causing him to break character.
- Despite having to be very adept with weapons for the role of Barry, Bill Hader was very uncomfortable with having to shoot guns on set. According to Hader, in the first takes of the first scene where he shoots a gun, he looked away and winced as he was doing it.
- Season 3 was scheduled to begin filming in April 2020, for release in Fall 2020. However, production was put on hold due to the Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. It eventually premiered two years later, on April 24, 2022.
- In the show Barry and some of the class can be seen reading from an acting how to book authored by their teacher, Gene (Henry Winkler) titled ‘Hit Your Mark And Say Your Lines’ (with a different self portrait of Gene on the front and back covers). This title and description is a perfect unison for Barry’s joining of his worlds. The title is intended as an oversimplification of acting; to arrive to your spot in your blocking at the correct time and to recite the written words. The title also reflects his hidden profession as a hitman as a mark is also a term for person who is an intended target. So the title’s second meaning would translate to “Assassinate your target and then say whatever is planned for you to maintain your facade”. Also like the book, Barry is forced to be two-faced.
- Barry wears a metal bracelet with an inscription on it. In the inscription is written “Psalm 91.1”, which refers to the protection of God and says: You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
- The “Bar-ry Berk-man!” chant done by Barry’s Marine buddies is the same one Ryan drunkenly chants in the bar in the first episode of the series.
- One of the cashiers in the grocery store is Bill Hader’s personal assistant, Nicky Hirschhorn.
- Sasha Kirby Howell-Baptiste vehemently denies that she’d ever be willing to play an Australian character. Howell-Baptiste plays an Australian character on The Good Place, for which she was criticised for her poor attempt at an Australian accent.
- At a press event for season two at New York’s 92Y, moderated by John Mulaney, a fan asked Hader if Mulaney would ever guest star in the show. Hader vehemently replied “No!” before the fan had even finished asking the question.
- Anthony Carrigan (Noho Hank,) D’Arcy Carden (Natalie,) and Michael Irby (Cristobal) were the only cast members hired from audition tapes. According to Bill Hader, everyone else came in and read for their parts.
- The studio and primary filming location for “Barry” is Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, USA.
- Cameron Britton plays one of the detectives tasked with retrieving the footage from Hank’s camera. Britton previously played a serial killer on Mindhunter (2017) and would later go on to play an assassin himself in «The Umbrella Academt» (2019)
- The fifth episode of season two, titled “ronny/lily,” stemmed from two ideas Bill Hader had: one about following Barry on a botched hit in real time, and one that he got from stunt coordinator Wade Allen. Allen told Hader while they were filming season one that he knew the young daughter of two stunt performers who was a martial artist, and that he could get in contact with her if they ever had use for her. Hader later combined these ideas into one to create the plot of the episode.
- By Season 3, most of the characters in the acting class had been written out of the show. This was partially due to the plot point of Mr. Cousineau shutting down his studio, but also because many of the actors had moved on to other projects once Season 3 finally moved into production after a two-year hiatus.
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