Nov. 09--Less than a year after his sitcom "Mulaney" was canceled by the Fox network, comedian John Mulaney is slated to return to the small screen Friday with a new comedy special on Netflix.
The Chicago native recently talked to New York magazine about his show's cancellation, his work on "Saturday Night Live" and his fascination with former president Bill Clinton. Mulaney, 33, said his upcoming special, "The Comeback Kid," is a nod to Clinton's slogan during the 1992 presidential campaign.
"Bill Clinton fascinates me because (growing up), it seemed like his shenanigans and the people after him were the biggest political stories you could ever imagine," said Mulaney, who grew up in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and attended St. Ignatius College Prep in the Little Italy area.
"I remember when the Starr Report was published in the newspaper, all of us were reading it in the high school cafeteria, and a dean started taking the newspapers away from us. There was crazy stuff in it. It was like explicit and hilarious. Everything about that time felt huge."
After high school, Mulaney attended Georgetown University and moved to New York. He worked as a writer for "SNL," where he helped create Stefon, an easily excitable character played by Bill Hader.
Mulaney told New York magazine he doesn't get to decide if there will be a movie featuring Stefon. Hader left "SNL" in 2013.
"There are no current voicemails, emails, or discussions about a movie, but this hotel don't pay for itself. So I might be be calling Bill (Hader) tomorrow, going, 'Please. Please. Just put on the wig for five minutes. We'll do webisodes,'" Mulaney said.
His show "Mulaney," a semi-autobiographical series, began airing in October 2014. Shortly after the premiere episode, Fox cut the 16-episode order to 13 episodes, which finished airing in February.
The show was not renewed for a second season. Mulaney told New York magazine that there was "momentary relief in not having to run a network show seven days a week. Momentary. But not really."
"It was very frustrating and disappointing not being able to go back to work with everyone. It was like on a Friday. I had a table-read Monday with some guest roles I was so excited about, and a script another writer and I had worked on all week," Mulaney said. "The tea leaves were pointing there for sure, but the moment it happened, it was more frustration that I wasn't going to be able to go back and do it."
