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The FX Version of Broad City Was … Different

Photo: Walter Thompson/Comedy Central

Everyone knows Broad City started out as a web series and then became the Amy Poehler–produced Comedy Central phenomenon we all know and love. But perhaps some among us forget that the TV show was originally developed at FX. This week’s New Yorker has a few details of what that version looked like.

… Poehler’s name and support changed everything. There are hundreds of Web series, but here was a foundling with a fairy god-mother. FX, the home of Louie, commissioned a pilot. They flirted with naming their characters Ali and Eliza, or Carly and Evelyn. Abbi/Ali/Carly worked in a coffee shop and had a neighbor named Miss Kragg, who maintained a tenants’ bulletin board called Kragg’s List. But after six months, FX passed.

This is why we press on, kids. Because somewhere beyond FX’s rejection is the majesty of Broad City as we know it. Can you even imagine if Abbi and Ilana were not “Abbi” and “Ilana”? The mind reels.

The FX Version of Broad City Was … Different