Older people are having a hard time holding it together on TV this season.
On “The Millers,” they’re losing control of their bowels. On “Mom,” they’re drinking too much and losing their jobs. For the ancient, as on HBO’s new series, “Getting On,” there’s just no hope.
Set in the Billy Barnes Extended Care Unit of Mt. Palms Hospital of Long Beach, Calif., “Getting On” sees patients vomit, pee, poop on the furniture, spit up and unleash a torrent of obscenities at their caregivers.
You’re probably thinking: laugh riot. Right?
Based on a British comedy series, “Getting On” stars Laurie Metcalf as Dr. Jenna James, who’s middle-aged, entitled, condescending and not adjusting well to the fact that she’s been demoted to living out her days among patients at death’s door. Her big aspiration in life is to have her in-depth study of fecal matter published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
A veteran of TV shows such as “Roseanne,” for which she won three Emmy awards, and dozens of theater productions, Metcalf says the only way to play a 15-minute poop joke is to do it with a straight face.
“All you have to do is put yourself in the frame of mind that me as the doctor and the nurses, that they really, really care about what they do. And my fecal study is very important,” Metcalf told The Post.
The actress, 56, is starring off Broadway with Jeff Goldblum in Bruce Norris’ political satire “Domesticated” and says she admired the Bristish original of “Getting On” because “the subject matter is so timely. It has a lot of humor and heart and got the tone right.
“When the camera cuts to one of those women just looking over at something . . . It’s heavy in a good way.”
One of the most appealing features about working on “Getting On” was that the shoot — in a Pasadena hospital — was mercifully short and that Metcalf says she was blissfully unaware of the camera.
“This show was my most favorite way of working because the cameras were so unobtrusive. Half the time we didn’t know where the [camera] guys were,” she says. “I felt more at home.”
Metcalf’s co-stars include Alex Borstein — more famously known as the voice of Lois Griffin on “Family Guy” — and Niecy Nash (“Reno 911!”), who play two of the worn-down nurses on the floor.
Metcalf was once married to actor Jeff Perry, who is having the time of his life playing Cyrus Beene on ABC’s “Scandal” and they were two of the founding members of the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago.
“I’ve seen a clip of him do some monologues on that show and they were wonderful,” Metcalf says.
“He knows not to take [success] for granted, especially when you are proud of the piece and you believe in the writing.”
Metcalf and Perry have a daughter, Zoe, an actress who co-starred with her mother in the Broadway play “The Other Place.” After divorcing Perry, Metcalf married her “Roseanne” co-star Matt Roth and they had two other children, Will and Mae, who was born by surrogate.
Although she lives in LA, Metcalf often works in the New York theater — which remains the scene of her greatest triumph, the Lanford Wilson play “Balm in Gilead,” which featured her 20-minute monologue and drew backstage visits from Rickie Lee Jones, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, whose work was in the show.
“I run into people and they tell me how much it means to them. It wasn’t recorded. I like that plays can do that,” she says.
“It was very theatrical and unique for the time. It was the longest run I’ve ever done.”