We also had an "in" with MTV those days. Tara Reid was engaged to Carson Daly. She just called him and was like, "Do you want to be in the movie?" So they kind of had to make it work.

I don't want to call the show [ "Mary and Jane" ] a satire because it is not, but there are satirical elements.

Hopefully we have a slightly different vibe, but also East Side is where a lot young people live. It is a really fun, trendy, funky neighborhood, and it is ripe for satire, that area specifically.

I don't think it feels like a burden. We did not really think of it ["Mary and Jane"] that way. I think it is certainly how we branded. The thing it does is enables us to be a little bit surreal.

When we were done and not picked up to series yet, they wanted us to read lots of writers. I was like, "No." Then we finally were picked up. It is hard not to start thinking of story lines. It is like doodling.

Two years ago it felt novel to do the East Side and then tons of other stuff have come up set in that world, but we still liked it. It felt like people are using East Side in other shows because it is cool.

We did want it ["Mary and Jane"] to feel a little different and have some surreal weird touches, which we try to do every episode. That is what we took advantage of.