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5 Things We Learned about 'Broad City' Before Season Three's Finale

By Nicole Levy | April 18, 2016 2:28pm | Updated on April 18, 2016 5:32pm
"Broad City" stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer appeared alongside their co-writers Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs at a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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Getty/Brad Barket

The season three finale of "Broad City" — a show widely described as a love letter to New York City — airs Wednesday on Comedy Central.

It's also a suicide note, writer and director Lucia Aniello likes to say — "because New York is so great and also so hard to live in," her creative partner Paul W. Downs explained at a Tribeca Film Festival panel Sunday afternoon. 

We got a sneak peek of the final episode of "Broad City"'s latest season (it's been picked up for two more seasons), and while we don't want to drop any plot spoilers, we will share what we learned from Aniello, Downs, and the show's writer-stars, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, from a discussion moderated by Kelly Ripa after the advance screening.

There were at least three people at Comedy Central responsible for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's cameo in this season.

Those include a channel executive, director Todd Biermann, and executive producer Amy Poehler, well-known for her impression of Clinton on "Saturday Night Live."

”We wrote [the scene] so we didn’t have to have her, 'cuz we were like, ‘She’s not going to do ‘dis," Glazer recalled.

After Clinton did make the appearance, playing herself in a scene at her Brooklyn campaign headquarters, the cast and crew wondered if the candidate had been briefed on previous episodes of the show.

”I said 'I pegged' to her face, and I don’t think she knew what it was," Jacobson said, referring to an episode in season two featuring a strap-on dildo.

Downs thought she did. 

"She has the CIA, you know," he said. "They inform her about stuff.”

Abbi and Ilana probably won't be hooking up in future seasons.

Asked whether the best friends would ever get married, Glazer said, "We’ve been getting asked that lately… like are they going to f--k? Over and over again.

”I think they are married, already, in the way they need to be right now. I’m also pretty sure they’re not going to hook up. Because Ilana’s love of Abbi .... it’s just an aspect of their friendship that will always be there," Glazer said.

Added Jacobsen, a sexual encounter could ruin its core relationship.

”it would enhance it," Glazer countered. "I think it would be good for us as business partners.”

The team writes an entire season of episodes before they begin shooting them.

Glazer, Jacobson, Aneillo and Downs, who all met through the UCB Theater in New York, like to outline episodes together in a single Google document.

"We try to make each other laugh in the Google doc," said Aniello, who writes scripts with Downs, while Glazer and Jacobson pair up.

Once all the scripts are finished, the foursome works with a larger team to determine set locations and choose props.

When the shooting process begins, "there’s a little bit of a pressure cooker feeling that keeps everything alive," Aniello said. "I don’t think we have the luxury of time for things to feel stale."

Actors in the first three or four takes hew closely to the script.

"Then we get a little more improv-y," Glazer said.

Downs, who plays Abbi's boss and love interest Trey, has another career option if "Broad City" tanks.

“There are a couple of porn stars who have asked if I would appear as Kirk Steel, Trey’s porn alter ego, in a porn," Downs said, responding to a question about notable encounters with fans. "I would deliver pizza."

"That's a huge honor, I think," Ripa commented.

At the very least, Downs has "something to fall back on,” he said.

The storyline about Ilana's job and firing from the online coupon service Deals Deals Deals is ripped straight from Aniello's life.

“Ilana in Deals Deals Deals is Lucia at Lifebooker," explained Glazer, who plays a slacker employee finally cut loose in season three.

Aniello got Glazer and Jacobson jobs at the online beauty and health appointment booking service company while they were working on "Broad City" in its early web-series phase. They showed up to work at the 11 a.m. start time, but Aniello didn't appear at the office until noon, Jacobson said.

"Noon is generous. I would come in after lunch and say, 'Time to take a nap,” said Aniello. While Glazer said Aniello was beloved by her boss, she was eventually fired.