Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist followed Zoey (Jane Levy), a computer programmer who develops the ability to hear people's secret feelings through song. At any moment, friends, family, or strangers could break out in elaborate song and dance numbers. However, only Zoey hears and sees the routines. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2 finale culminated with Zoey’s main squeeze, Max (Skylar Astin), gaining Zoey's special power. Sadly, NBC canceled the charming romantic comedy series before it could explain how that happened.
Roku Channel, thankfully, picked up the beloved property and greenlit Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas. Premiering on Roku Channel on Dec. 1, the movie promises to tie up all the loose ends of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist series finale and deliver plenty of cheer for the holiday season. Showrunner/creator Austin Winsberg recently spoke to CBR about resurrecting Zoey, his personal attachment to the Christmas narrative, big musical numbers, and more.
CBR: Looking back at season two, it culminated on this massive cliffhanger. Audiences were punched in the gut when the series was subsequently canceled. How devasted were you to not only be able to continue Zoey's story, but not be able to pay off that big Max bombshell?
Austin Winsberg: It was a gut punch. For us, it came out of nowhere. At no point in the process did they say, "Don't do this cliffhanger." Or, "Wrap it up." Also, because the show is so personal to me and it has really taken over my life for the last three years, not to be too dramatic about it, but I went into mourning. I was shellshocked and devastated. I couldn't wrap my head around it being the end.
You were so vocal on Twitter about shopping around the property. How did you ultimately land on a self-contained, holiday-themed movie?
It was presented to us. I think Roku [Channel] was just starting to dip its toes into original content. The idea of doing a movie, financially, was less daunting than picking up an entire season. It was not only a lifeline for us but something that we could all wrap our heads around and get excited about. I don't remember exactly how the holiday-movie conceit came to be, but it was something that we started talking about internally, and then Roku seized on it. We were very grateful they just wanted to do it.
Playlist never featured a holiday episode, either.
We never had the ability. We always knew that we were coming in January/February, but there were never any concrete dates. I would have loved to do a Halloween episode. There were so many Halloween songs we could have used, scary spooky songs. We couldn't do a Thanksgiving episode. We couldn't even do a Valentine's Day episode because we didn't know where it would fall. When this idea of a Christmas movie came about, it was suddenly, "Oh wait. There's a whole new world of songs that are open to us now."
So, what does the Christmas holiday mean to Zoey, Max, Mo [Alex Newell], and the Clarke family?
For the Clarke family, in particular, I can only speak about it in terms of my own experience. My father's birthday was Christmas Day. Growing up, even though I am Jewish, we would light some candles on Hannukah, but we would really get a lot of our presents Christmas morning -- the same time as my dad would get his. Christmas was synonymous with my father in my house.
Certainly, that first Christmas, we felt the loss of him. It was kind of hard to celebrate and go through it like we would in the past. There was such an obvious part of that which was no longer there. I think what the Clarke family is navigating in the movie is they have all these warm feelings about Christmas and Christmas past, but these feelings are now loaded and complicated because the person who was the center of that is no longer a part of it. What does it mean to carry on? What does it mean to continue? Is it easier to ignore it? Is it easier to go away? Is it easier to try and keep his traditions alive? Those are all the questions the family is struggling with in the movie.
As far as Max and Mo… Mo has always been a big gift giver. He's had his Mo Annual Christmas Caroloke Party. Mo loves having people around and being social and loves the holiday. Max is always an outsider looking in on the holiday, wishing he could be more of a part of it.
Max can now hear heart songs, just like Zoey. How is he handling this newfound gift?
For him, initially, he's very cocky and a little bit arrogant about it. He's watched Zoey struggle with these powers for two seasons and for him it's, "This is great. I hear an obvious song. I help the people. I am getting a free convert out of it. What are you complaining about it?" I thought that was a funny attitude, to be in direct contradiction. After all of the emotional weight she has gone through, he thinks it's all a breeze. I thought it was good for relationship, romantic/comedy stuff, but also so we could then pull the rug out from under him later when he realizes the true weight of the powers.
How important was it to explain why Max gained these special abilities?
Always, since minute one of the show, there's been a fraction of the audience that wants to know the "why" and dig into the mythology of the powers. At least in terms of the Max piece of it, a lot of this was my Season 3 design for the series. It was going to be witnessing the two of them in a relationship and what it is like when you are dating somebody, and you know exactly what is going on in the other person's head.
I felt like the place I always wanted to get to with that story is kind of where we end up in the movie, which is he realizes the true power of the powers. Max sees how challenging that has been for Zoey and gains empathy and compassion for her in the process. By walking a mile in her shoes, it enables them to get closer and really helps solidify their relationship. We did a lot of talk over the course of the seasons about what the role of the universe plays. Why did Zoey get the powers and now why does Max have the powers? The reason why he got the powers was to bring them closer. So, I did want to answer that.
The movie pulled out all the stops with the opening musical, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." How ambitious was that number?
Super-ambitious. We had so little time to make this movie. From Roku greenlighting it off of a four-line idea to finishing the movie… It was four months. What Mandy Moore, our director Richard Shepard, the dancers, and the cast were able to accomplish so quickly is pretty mind-blowing to me. I knew that because we wanted to make this somewhat of a standalone movie that people could come into having never seen the show before. It was important to start with a big number and show everybody, "Look at us. Look at what we can do."
What productions in this Christmas tale stood out for you?
There are several. Definitely that opening number, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." I really loved the mashup medley of Max singing "Just the Two of Us" and Zoey singing "We Need a Little Christmas," and how different those two are. We had a really short time to get that right and were blown away by everybody in that. "Wish You Were Here" was a deeply emotional number. That was a challenging one for us to get right tonally, so I am proud about where that one ended up. It's hard because they are all my babies.
If this turns out to be Zoey's last extraordinary playlist, what kind of closure did you want to give her?
I wanted to feel like we had some sort of understanding by the end of how these powers have helped Zoey in her life. The series started with this computer coder, who saw the world in zeroes and ones and very black and white and spent a lot of time looking down at her computer. By getting these powers and starting to understand the emotional complexities of others and gaining this emotional intelligence, she's now at a place where she sees the world in shades of grey. Zoey does have a lot more empathy for other people. A whole new world opened up to her.
I wanted to put her in a place where not only was she in a healthy relationship, but she was surrounded by friends and family. Even though her father is no longer there, who was such a strong part of her life, that she was going to be OK and that she now has this ability to see people and understand people in a way that she never had before.
At the same time, do you have ideas for more Zoey? Could there be Zoey's Extraordinary Marriage? Or maybe a Valentine's Day special? Those sappy love songs seem tailor-made for such an event…
We are thinking the same thing.
If there was an appetite for more and people wanted us to do more, I could certainly see Zoey's Extraordinary Valentine's Day. I could see Zoey's Extraordinary Halloween. I could see Zoey's Extraordinary Proposal. I could see Zoey's Extraordinary Wedding. I could see Zoey's Extraordinary Vacation. There are a lot of different places we could go by telling more movie stories. And, or, if they wanted more episodes, that's something we could talk about too. Now that we've done the movie, I can wrap my head around the idea of doing more of these movies. I think the cast liked doing the movie. Even though it was challenging, it was a sprint that everybody embraced. I could see us doing more of those if there was an appetite.