Lauren Graham exits Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist over COVID scheduling conflict with Mighty Ducks

Paste Magazine

Graham revealed on Twitter Tuesday evening that her character, Zoey's boss Joan, will only appear in the Season 2 premiere that aired Tuesday. "Joan is only there for a wee moment (plans to do more thwarted by pandemic-related scheduling issues), but I’m so excited to watch the incredible (Jane Levy) and company," Graham tweeted. In an interview with Paste Magazine, Zoey's creator Austin Winsberg says production delays with Graham's Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks led to her exit from the NBC musical dramedy. "That was unfortunately a victim of (COVID-19) and COVID timing because Lauren had signed on in the off season to be on The Mighty Ducks on Disney+," says Winsberg. "They were supposed to be done shooting by the time we started, so I had actually written Lauren into several episodes but then as the dates got pushed the more we realized that scheduling would be a major issue and we just weren’t going to be able to have her the way we thought we were. It was a bummer for all of us. So then we kind of had to recalibrate. We had always talked about from the beginning that Joan would give Zoey the promotion to be head of the fourth floor and I liked the opportunities that arose with that. I always think the more challenges we can pile on Zoey and the more people Zoey has to interact with the better it is for story. I liked the idea of being able to take her out of the bullpen and deal with bigger type of work stresses. I also liked the idea of giving Leif (Michael Thomas Grant) the promotion he thought he wanted only to see it wasn’t as easy as he wanted it to be." Winsberg also discussed What We Do in the Shadows' Harvey Guillén joining the cast this season and filming big musical numbers while complying with coronavirus protocols. "We breathed a sigh of relief that we were able to make it happen," he says of kicking off the season with a "Hello Dolly" musical number that "kept our choreographer Mandy Moore and I up for weeks leading up to it." Winsberg adds: "Some of (the COVID protocols) were probably made a little bit easier by the fact that we shoot in Canada and the numbers were lower there. We still had to do a tremendous amount of precautions. COVID testing multiple times a week. Different zones for different people who are in the cast and crew. When the dancers are all rehearsing, they all have to be wearing their masks the entire time, they can only take off their masks for takes. We did every precaution necessary. The biggest thing that it affected had to do more with location shooting and interior location work. Scenes that would be in clubs or in restaurants with a lot of extras those were harder ones to control. We had to do more work this season on our existing sets or creating new existing sets that we could have more control of and be a little bit more in our bubble. And trying to do more scenes with less people in them, but I still wanted to strive for as much scope and vision as possible within the constraints of what we can do and what would be safe."

ALSO:

• Jane Levy admits "I was really scared going into this year" in filming during the pandemic: "Like everybody else, I had been sitting in my house with my boyfriend for five months," she tells Vulture. "Lionsgate contracted this team of scientists and doctors to keep us safe. I’ve never felt more fortunate in my entire life than this year, just being able to go to work and do the thing that I love and be paid to do it. I just feel so incredibly lucky to make this show, to play this part, and then to do it while this pandemic … I’m just extremely grateful. It’s a little strange that I spend more hours a day being Zoey than I do Jane, so it’s a little strange to operate as if there’s no pandemic for so many hours. And then we yell 'cut' and masks go on and you go to your secluded area. It’s a little bizarre, but I also feel really lucky that I get to do this."
• Creator Austin Winsberg designed Season 2 to be "rooted in recovery and the different stages that we go through in grief"