CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) – A visit to Billy Crystal’s offices, in a bungalow on a historic studio lot, could be intimidating. First, there’s Crystal himself, star of screen, Broadway and Oscar ceremonies. There’s the hit movie posters decorating the walls, including one for the Crystal-Robert De Niro romp, “Analyze This.”
Then there are the anecdotes Crystal breezily relates about the likes of – top that! – Marlon Brando.
But Josh Gad, plopped in an armchair next to Crystal and kibitzing with him about the excruciatingly pepper-obsessed restaurant they visited recently, looks very much at ease.
The scene contrasts with “The Comedians,” the new FX series (10 p.m. Thursday) in which Crystal, 67, and Gad, 34, play parallel-universe versions of themselves with their names and resumes – the veteran big-name performer, the rising young star – who are thrown together, unhappily, on a TV sketch show.
With taping completed on the 13-episode “Comedians,” which is based on a Swedish show, Crystal and Gad (“Book of Mormon,” ”The Wedding Ringer”) reunited to discuss their mutual admiration and the project that brought Crystal back to series TV for the first time since the 1977-81 sitcom “Soap.”