When writer and pop culture imprimatur, Shea Serrano, discussed his best-selling book "Movies (And Other Things)" with Wisconsin Public Radio's "BETA" the San Antonio native shared how growing up, the only movie he could recall that spoke to his Mexican American experience was the 1997 biopic, "Selena."
Now Serrano has a chance to add his own childhood story to that Mexican American representation with his new original Amazon Freevee comedy series, "Primo."
Shea returns to "BETA" to share why he wanted to add TV show creator to his growing list of accomplishments.
"I had written a couple of books. I've been doing journalism for a while, and I was ready to try some new stuff," he said. "So, I went to dinner with my wife, Larami. I was telling her I wanted to try to do a TV show. And then we just started talking about what that show could be. And we went back and forth on a few ideas. We both liked a version of a family in South San Antonio, and we just started talking our way through that until eventually we landed on what the idea for 'Primo' was."
That idea was loosely based off Shea's formative years in the Alamo City. It follows the story and antics of the 16-year-old Rafa (the Shea stand-in played by Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) and his family. Rafa is being raised by his mom and five uncles all under the same roof.
Shea ended up pitching the show to one of the preeminent TV comedy creators of recent memory, Michael Schur. Schur was a contributing force and cast member on NBC's "The Office" and would go on to create fellow hits "Parks and Rec" and "The Good Place" for them as well.
Turns out that during their meeting, it took Shea a moment to realize why Mike had posters for all those NBC shows hanging on the wall.
"At the time, I didn't really have a sense of who he was. He was just a name on a list that the agents were sending me all over LA to meet with" Serrano recalled. "I thought they were just TV shows that he liked in the way that I have movie posters that I like. And it was all the TV shows that he had made, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, what an idiot I am. I had no idea.'"
Short of causing his agents a momentary panic, Shea says the meeting with Mike went incredibly well.
"We just sat there and chit-chatted it up for an hour. We maybe talked about the show for like 5 or 10 minutes, but mostly we talked about basketball and about being a dad and that sort of thing. But it was pretty clear we were getting along very effortlessly. So, as I was leaving, he was like, 'Oh, hey, that idea you want to do, I'll help you do it if you want to do it,'" Serrano said.
How Schur helped was to take Shea under his wing. He taught him the ins and outs of successful comedy writing for TV.
"He just baby stepped me through the whole process. Each time we would enter a new phase, he would just sit me down and go, 'Here's what that means and here's how we get through it.' He's like a natural mentor," Serrano said. "It's really impressive when you talk to him. This is something that he just is good at doing."
Schur and Serrano eventually transformed Shea's two paragraph pitch into a fully fleshed out vision.
"The transition was really tricky. It's difficult because I was so used to doing nonfiction writing," Serrano said. "When you're doing nonfiction writing, all the history has been established. A person does a thing and that thing makes sense because they have the history that leads up to it. You don't have to worry about that part. When you're writing fiction, you all of a sudden have to account for all of that. Like if a character is going to say a thing or react a certain way, there's got to be a reason why. So you have to build all of that in place. Otherwise, it starts to feel disjointed or like it doesn't make sense."
While Serrano used his family as a "general shape" for the characters, he said that the similarities pretty much stop there.
"I had decided pretty early on that I was not interested in doing a shot-for-shot remake of my life. So, once we had the characters in place, then it was just these are fictional characters now," he said.
Shea adds that this also allows the actors to embody and own the character as well. For instance, the role of Drea (Rafa's mom) was built out from Shea's mother's personality, but then actor Christina Vidal took it from there.
"My mom was this type of person. All right, great. We found Christina. She was perfect for it. And then you just write for what Christina is good at, which turns out is everything. And you just give her as much space as possible, and then she builds this incredible character," he said.
Christina Vidal as Drea on "Primo" Jeff Newumann/Amazon Freevee
"Same with the other five uncles," Serrano continued. "We have a general shape. We need one guy who's going to be, like, really pragmatic and super interested in just working hard. OK, cool. That's one of my uncles. And then another one should be the opposite of that. Just like free spirit sort of wandering the earth. OK, cool. And a wild man and the military guy and the social climber there, there."
Shea said that even with the space between them and their "Primo" counterparts, that his family was more than touched once they saw the final product at a private screening.
"By the second episode, they're all hooting and hollering and yelling at the TV screen, like we're watching a basketball game. Then they all just said the nicest things about it. One or two of them start crying when they're watching it. It was a really great experience seeing them watch the show. They were over the moon for it."
That was perhaps the most important focus group outcome possible for Shea.
"I was really nervous before we started playing it. I was like, 'Oh my God, what if they hate it? This is going to be terrible.' Because mainly the whole reason I was doing the show was I wanted for them to watch it and then go, 'Whoa, I had a profound impact on this kid's life and in a very positive way.' That's what I wanted them to walk away from the show with," he said.
"Primo" is available to stream on Amazon Freevee.