When Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer — creators of HBO’s Mormon polygamy drama “Big Love” — set out to develop a new series about caring for the elderly, they didn’t have to look far for inspiration.
“For the last 10 years of our lives, both Will and I have been dealing with our mothers through their elder care issues — Will’s mother through assisted living and my mother through boarding care,” says Olsen. “The untold story of ‘Big Love’ and our five years doing that was our constant commutes — Will back to New York and me to mid-state Nebraska to keep our mothers going and to be with them.”
The fruit of their struggle is “Getting On,” a new HBO comedy series (based on a British show of the same name) that premiers Sunday, November 24, at 10 p.m.
Fiercely smart and effortlessly dark, “Getting On” focuses on the neurotic staff at the fictional Billy Barnes Extended Care Unit of Mt. Palms Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., where over-the-top personalities collide with the drama of dealing with geriatric patients. Laurie Metcalf stars alongside Niecy Nash, Alex Borstein and Mel Rodriguez as nurses and doctors who struggle to provide care in tricky situations.
“The UK version is more or less a loving send up to their national health service,” says Olsen, with a laugh. “We’ve taken the dial and spun it in a different direction.”
The result is a show that warmly salutes the people who dedicate their lives to helping the elderly, while also taking an occasional biting look at health care bureaucracy.
Though both creators’ mothers ended up in facilities their sons were happy with, a few bumps along that road inspired some of the hilariously awful people on the show.
Says Olsen, “At a nameless skilled nursing facility on the Upper East Side that Will’s mother was placed in after a surgery, he was horrified at how callous [one doctor was], basically saying in so many words, ‘You don’t like it? Tough s–t. I can fill that bed in two seconds.’ That kind of attitude was incredible. We absolutely put that in the show.”
On the flip side, those caretakers who showed the utmost compassion have also made it onto the screen. “The show really sings the caregivers,” says Scheffer. “Even though they may be really crazy or neurotic and screwed up themselves, they are the heroes and heroines who are taking care of an ignored population.”
Sadly, last year, both of the creators’ mothers — who were in their 90s — passed away.
“My mom had made jokes about wanting to be an extra in the piece,” recalls Scheffer. “[So] there were times on the set when it was deeply melancholy.”
“And deeply moving to see a moment that was verbatim recapturing something that quite literally happened with our mothers,” adds Olsen.
“It’s like they led us to this material and then bid adieu.”