There’s a through line connecting some our favorite comedies — Broad City, Louie, Inside Amy Schumer, Younger — and, aside from featuring some of the best comics out there, it’s Lilly Burns. Get to know the producer, who is Head of Development at Jax Media (and the daughter of filmmakers Ken Burns and Amy Stechler), in our exclusive interview here.
Both my parents make documentary films so I grew up around people who had creative professions that they were actually fulfilled by. I think for this reason I imagined that I could have the same. When I was in college I wanted to be a writer, but once I started interning and seeing the business up close I realized that I would be best suited for producing — I lack the skill of suppressing my opinions.
What I love about what I do…
Every day is very different. Sometimes I am in a writer’s room figuring out the arc of a show, sometimes in the office casting and prepping for a shoot, then every day on set can be in a different location with varied elements, and then after that I am in the edit. For this reason, nothing ever becomes mundane. The other element that makes TV great to work in is that it is incredibly collaborative and social. It takes so many people to pull off a shoot — it ends up kind of feeling like a high-stress summer camp.
A typical day includes…
There are no typical days.
And a more atypical day…
See above.
Most memorable day on set…
My favorite thing is when we are shooting something so funny that I have to suppress my laughter so I don’t ruin the take. It happens to me a lot on Broad City when Abbi and Ilana improvise. I will be sitting at the monitor silently crying. It’s not too often that I laugh and actually blow the take, but there have been times when we are sound mixing and we have to edit my laugh out of a scene.
Watching The Simpsons every day of my childhood informed my sense of humor more than anything else.
Best career advice received…
My Dad’s advice is not to worry about what the audience wants but just make something that you would want to watch.
Three things every would-be producer needs to know…
1. Be prepared to lose lots of sleep. 2. Don’t take the cool job; take the job where you are going to have the most responsibility. 3. If you find a clean bathroom on set, don’t tell anyone about it.
If not a producer, I’d be…
Raising six kids on Long Island. Not really.
My new Search Party show…
Is a dark comedy about a group of four self-absorbed 20-somethings who come together when a former college acquaintance mysteriously disappears. It has an incredibly unique tone as it moves between comedy and mystery in a way I haven’t seen on TV before. I think people are really going to be addicted to it. It’s equal parts funny and thrilling and it stars Alia Shawkat, John Early, Meredith Hagner and John Reynolds.