VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Michaela Watkins & Dan Bakkedahl Speak To What Makes A Great Comedy In Their Show ‘Dinner With The Parents’

Actors Michaela Watkins and Dan Bakkedahl reminisce about the filming of their new show Dinner with the Parents in their new uInterview.

Dinner with the Parents follows the escapades of two Langer brothers in their twenties who regularly attend dinner at their parents’ house – the family gathers every week for dinner, only to find themselves filled with remorse afterward. The show amusingly portrays their weekly family gatherings’ chaotic and disastrous nature.

“Dan makes me spit-take, genuinely,” Watkins told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “I just don’t see it coming, and he knocks me sideways with comedy. I mean, I laugh a lot. I was watching the episodes, and I was going, ‘Okay, it’s not just me.’ My husband and I were just cracking up.”

She told Bakkedahl, “I remember the episodes where you had the hot wings, and you’re not feeling well and sweating, and you’re about to throw up. I was cry-laughing.”

Bakkedahl thought back to his own experience on set, particularly the culture of the younger actors. “What’s really interesting is that everyone has their own lives outside the show, and then sometimes, in between scenes, you’ll see them living this personal life that they have. This is the only thing I have going on!”

Watkins laughed and jumped in, “Dan and I were like, ‘Oh, I bought a teapot and I made tea.'”

Dan quipped, “‘I live in England now!'”

Watkins added, “‘I miss my dogs!’ Stuff like that—that’s our life.”

Watkins noted what she thought made the show special as a comedy series. 

“I have to say sometimes, you know, for women in comedy, they come at you with like, ‘You’re the mom, you make dinner!'” And everything about that actually makes me kind of want to run screaming from it, but then you realize [with this show], ‘Oh, the hook is the tone and the writing and the cast.'”

Dinner With The Family is now streaming on Prime Video. It features other actors, Carol Kane, Daniel Thrasher and Jon Glaser.