‘Platonic’ creators Francesca Delbanco & Nick Stoller love it when you hate watch

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kim Masters speaks to Platonic co-creators Francesca Delbanco & Nicholas Stoller about what inspired their show about the comedy and complications of grown-up friendships. They talk about the challenge of writing characters—played by Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen—with none of the underlying sexual tension that has propelled so many television comedies to success. They also remember the time that Netflix boss Ted Sarandos sat through a lengthy table read of their first series, Friends from College.

Plus, as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr ramps up scrutiny of major media players, Comcast’s NBCUniversal appears to be his latest target. Is the company’s cable spinoff Versant a calculated play to dodge the Trump administration’s media witch hunt? Kim Masters and Lucas Shaw dig in.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.
0:05.3	Before Francesca Del Banco and Nicholas Stoler came up with the Apple series Plotonic,
0:10.2	the married couple ran into a buzzsaw of fan hostility over a plot turn in their previous project,
0:16.1	Friends from College, on Netflix.
0:18.1	But people still watched, and Netflix ordered a second season. People were so mad. It's really funny. People would be like, this show is trashed. I finished the whole thing. I was like, well, you liked it then. I don't know what to tell you. Like, I have a rule about myself. Like, if I finish anything, no matter what I say my opinion is, I liked it. Nick Stoler and Francesca Delbancos share what inspired Platonic, their show about the comedy
0:39.3	and complications of grown-up friendships.
0:41.9	And they talk about the challenge of writing characters, played by Rose Byrne and Seth
0:46.1	Rogan, with none of the endless underlying sexual tension that's propelled so many TV
0:51.6	comedies to success.
0:53.5	They also remembered the time that Ted Sarando
0:55.7	sat through a lengthy table read of Friends from College. But first we banter. Stick around.
1:01.5	It's the business from KCRW. I am joined by my special colleague in banter, Lucas Shaw. He is
1:09.5	Bloomberg's managing editor for media and
1:11.9	entertainment and filling in for vacationing Matt Bellany. Hello, Lucas. Hey, Kim.
1:17.9	So, can we talk about Brendan Carr a little bit? I guess we have to. The chairman of the FCC.
1:23.8	Now, we all witnessed what Paramount Global and Skydance went through to get the
1:29.2	administration, specifically the FCC, to approve that deal, and that's finally happened.
1:35.3	And Skydance has agreed to make some changes at CBS News to make it more palatable to this
1:41.0	administration. But Brandon Carr is not satisfied. He has already announced,
1:46.3	I think, in March that he's going to look into Disney. And now Comcast, I think Comcast has not
1:52.2	been willing to go along with vague demands about diversity, equity, and inclusion. And what he
1:59.3	uses Brendan Carr to get at this, I guess, is that he's investigating their relationship with their affiliates.
	...

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