Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts, known for their roles in “Step Brothers” and “I Love You, Man” are teaming up in a new comedy series called “Players” on Spike TV.
Co-creators Walsh and Roberts will star in the show about two brothers trying to run their own sports bar.
Walsh got the idea for the show’s premise from personal experience.
“I used to work in a sports bar in Chicago, and that’s basically where I got the idea for the show. Ian and I have worked together for 15 years now; we have good chemistry and work and write well together, so it was an obvious choice to work together,” Walsh said.
“I think it was a small cultural revolution when sports bars opened. It’s a great place to congregate. A lot of events for men are based around sporting events, like the Super Bowl, the Sweet 16 and the World Series,” he said.
Walsh and Roberts play two characters that are quite different.
Roberts’ character is “very uptight and older and comes from the world of corporate chain restaurants, while Matt’s guy is the guy everybody loves: fun-loving, goes on instinct, does whatever he wants and impulsive,” Roberts said.
The dichotomy tells a story based around the brothers’ differing ideas and attitudes.
“Most of the storyline is about my unwillingness to take a risk and have some fun and Matt’s unwillingness to be reasonable and think things through,” Roberts said.
Walsh came up with ideas based on his own childhood interactions with his family.
“I have good relationships with my brothers. I think a brother relationship is pretty awesome because you fight fiercer than you would with your friends, but you have this baseline that you know you’re going to come back and you’re still going to be brothers and it’s going to work out. I am borrowing a little bit from my childhood for the show,” Walsh said.
Walsh and Roberts chose the city and state for the show to take place.
“The fictional bar takes place in Phoenix, Arizona. You would spot that it’s there because it’s sort of ‘everywhere-America’ and also because they have legitimate sport franchises. They have the Diamondbacks, the Suns and the Cardinals so that’s a good town for sports,” Walsh said.
As with most comedy programs, comedians will guest-star throughout the season. A friend of Walsh and Roberts, Andy Daly, plays a gambling sponsor. Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel and Matt Besser also have guest spots on the show.
“Players” premiered March 2 and airs at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday nights on Spike TV.
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