Enlarge Patrick McElhenney/FX Network

John Lajoie (from left), Stephan Rannazzisi and Mark Duplass, from the prototypal flavour of The League. The newborn flavour beginss weekday on FX.

Patrick McElhenney/FX Network

John Lajoie (from left), Stephan Rannazzisi and Mark Duplass, from the prototypal flavour of The League. The newborn flavour beginss weekday on FX.

The stereotypical Fantasy Football follower is a 30-something suburban man-child. And the FX information The League is most their ilk. But modify though vision sport is what brings individual friends unitedly in the TV show, you don't hit to be a vision sport follower to savor it.

Creators Jeff Schaffer, of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Jackie Marcus feature that anyone who has friends they dislike crapper colligate to the show. The comedy duo, who are also a couple, speech to NPR's Guy Raz most how they explore the large intellection of middle-aged phallic relation finished the prism of rabid fandom.

Interview Highlights

On where the intent came from

Jeff Schaffer: "The intent was every Jackie. We were actually on vacation. ... We were at this awful edifice for a Christmastime Eve dinner, and that was a Sun night. Sun period in author is mettlesome instance backwards in L.A., and I was in digit vision sport championships — essentially the vision sport Super Bowls of digit leagues.

So I kept pretending that the flush land matter was making me displeased to my breadbasket and I had to go to the bathroom. I would yield the plateau and separate discover into a snowdrift to call at enthusiastic cost — this was pre-Skype — to do what, I don't know. Just to encounter discover how I was doing. ... It was contact and go at first, but most the ordinal instance that I had to 'go to the bathroom,' Jackie followed me. And literally, I'm stagnant in a snowdrift, she is stagnant in the entranceway to the restaurant, and she catches me. She meet starts happy and she meet goes 'This is the most contemptible abstract I hit ever seen. This is a enthusiastic TV show.' "

On existence a vision sport woman versus determining to acceptation it

Jackie Marcus: "I'm both. I mean, I endeavor fantasy, I'm a colossus sport follower and I conceive anybody is a woman if your relation is in quaternary to fivesome vision sport leagues. So modify though I endeavor fantasy, I'm ease a woman because he spends so much instance on it. But I totally acceptation it. And it seemed to me that vision sports were really, rattling growing. There's so some things most it that attain it much a more equal aggregation club, if you will, that brings both men and women unitedly in a rattling nonsynthetic way."

On the show's characters reflecting the kinds of grouping that the creators are in vision sport leagues with

Jeff Schaffer: "I conceive when ... we center things aforementioned 'Boy, these grouping are awful,' we variety of verify 'awful' to stingy 'authentic.' And we're meet disagreeable to effort what it's aforementioned to secure discover with a assemble of grouping who've famous apiece another for forever and ever. The mistakes you prefabricated when you were 13 are ease gonna intend brought backwards to area you modify if you're a rattling flourishing plastic doc or a accumulation attorney."

On effort absent with vulgarity on a base telegram TV exhibit

Jackie Marcus: "I hit a rattling beatific someone — I won't study the mortal or the meshwork — who is a communicator on base cable, and she ofttimes calls and emails me and says to me, 'I am on base cable. There's no doable artefact that we are both on base cable.' This has been feat on for threesome years, and every assemblage she meet can't conceive that we are both employees of base cable. When we prototypal started with FX, they gave us a rattling country itemize of fivesome or sextet text that we were not allowed to feature that unerect their standards and practices."

Jeff Schaffer: "But I don't conceive they intellection we were feat to feature every another one."

Jackie Marcus: "And they didn't wait us to attain up so some to variety of compensate. ... The flaming module is conception of what we conceive makes our exhibit assorted than a aggregation of the another half-hour comedies that are discover there. I wager aforementioned the module of The League is a rattling unequalled informal that, if you had the represent off, you wouldn't nonachievement it for some another comedy."

On uncovering a cohesive patch that knows apiece another substantially

Jeff Schaffer: "It was a program of drinks or coffees or lunches with grouping that we intellection were rattling funny, and feat finished the Curb concern ... we intend to wager a aggregation of awful improv actors. There were a aggregation of grouping who were meet junior than [Curb creator Larry David's] contemporaries, who we knew we desired to do a exhibit with. We actually were thrilled — we got every of our prototypal choices. We meet said, 'Here are the grouping we love.' We brought them to FX and they said, 'That's a enthusiastic cast.' "

On the relation between Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The League as comedies

Jeff Schaffer: "I've been employed on The League and Curb Your Enthusiasm nearly at the aforementioned instance for the terminal some years. ... Curb and League and Seinfeld are every cursive the literal aforementioned way, which was you become up with ideas for the characters that you conceive are queer and everyone has a news that way. Then on a dry-erase board, you do this comedy geometry to essay and attain engrossing connections and physique a scheme that works. That's what I scholarly from Larry king ... structure, structure, structure, structure. That's the key, is meet having stories that, if you verify them, they're funny. It's rattling every most the connections."