A.P. Bio creator Mike O'Brien

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2019

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you seen "A.P. Bio?" It's one of the funniest network sitcoms out these days and its latest second season is going strong on NBC. The show tells the story of a disgraced Harvard Philosophy professor (played by Glenn Howerton of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") who finds himself teaching Advanced Placement Biology at a high school in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Mike O'Brien created the show, and he joins Jesse to talk about the show's new season. Plus: his own childhood in Toledo, and explains some of the baffling questions the writers room had about his hometown. Like, truly baffling.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.3	I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.
0:21.3	Have you seen AP Bio, the sitcom on NBC, to show about high school or maybe kind of
0:28.0	about the idea of high school?
0:30.8	Most of it focuses around a guy named Jack Griffin, played by Glenn Howardton, who you might
0:36.0	know as Dennis on, it's always sunny in Philadelphia.
0:39.0	He's been basically perfect for 15 years or however long that show's been running.
0:44.2	Anyway, AP Bio, if you haven't seen it, here's the premise.
0:47.6	Jack used to teach philosophy at Harvard and now he doesn't.
0:52.4	So to make ends meet, he gets a job teaching advanced placement biology at a high school
0:57.8	in his hometown, Toledo, Ohio.
1:00.4	He's mis-entropic and not a lovable, mis-enth- really, just a grumpy jerk who thinks that if
1:06.5	the world were a fair place, he'd be getting a MacArthur Genius grant or whatever.
1:11.3	And maybe you're thinking you've seen this kind of show before, the teacher who comes
1:14.9	back home and then he grows as a person becomes lovable and relatable and then he discovers
1:20.4	maybe there's a little more depth to his dopey students than he thought and blah, blah,
1:25.2	blah, blah.
1:26.2	But AP Bio isn't that show.
1:27.8	I mean, in the very first episode, Jack stands up in front of the class and says exactly
1:32.8	that.
1:33.8	But here's the deal.
1:35.3	I do not care about biology.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.