Max Greenfield Breaks Down ‘The Neighborhood’ and Present’s Consistency

SPOILER ALERT: This text comprises spoilers from “Bienvenidos a Nosotros,” Season 7, Episode 8 of “The Neighborhood,” now streaming on CBS.

Max Greenfield earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal of the OCD, kimono-wearing Schmidt on the hit comedy sequence “New Lady,” which ran on Fox from 2011-2018. And within the Season 7 episode of “The Neighborhood,” “Bienvenidos a Nosotros,” Greenfield’s inner-Schmidt comes out, as his character Dave should restrain himself from finishing his teenage son Grover (Hank Greenspan)’s Spanish homework.

Greenfield says he finds parallels between the 2 roles, though he says Dave has a much less over-the-top, dramatic mindset than Schmidt, and favors pragmatism. “There’s going to be overlap in something I do. The massive distinction is Dave could be very open and constructive, and he doesn’t have any of the cynicism that Schmidt inherently has,” Greenfield says. “It’s good to only play fully open and susceptible and optimistic about each interplay you’ve gotten as a personality.”

Greenfield says one of many components of “The Neighborhood” that he loves is the tonal consistency of its episodes. He says that “The Neighborhood” is the type of comedy he grew up with, and elicits a sure appreciation in addition to intimacy amongst viewers. “Your purpose is for an viewers to fall in love with these characters and really feel near them in order that when [fans] are watching of their front room each week, you actually really feel like you recognize these folks and also you belief these folks,” Greenfield says. “A part of that belief is realizing what you’re going to get each week. Each Monday evening I’m going to get Calvin and Dave — I get to tune into ‘The Neighborhood.’”

Greenfield provides that he makes use of experiences from his real-life always to floor his approaches to completely different scenes for “The Neighborhood.” Monday evening’s midseason finale feels notably life like to him, as a result of Greenfield himself has a 14-year-old daughter at house. “It begins out as simply this pure loving relationship and after which there’s a shift,” Greenfield says of the dynamic between Dave and Grover on this episode. “This occurs in actual life too, the place you’re type of guiding this particular person you’ve given all this like to. And now that parenting has to turn out to be ‘How do I form this particular person into maturity?’ — and it’s been actually enjoyable to determine the funniest model of who Grover may very well be as he will get older.” (Greenfield says that whereas his parenting type is drastically completely different from that of his on-screen counterpart, the writers did a superb job of evoking essentially the most comedic potential from the vitality simmering between Dave and Grover.)

Later within the episode, Dave helps his neighbor Malcolm (Sheaun McKinney) when Malcolm’s household ignores that he’s been revealed in a prestigious literary journal. After congratulating Malcolm on his accomplishment, Dave offers each of their households with copies of the e book the place Malcolm’s writing has been featured. “That is an accomplishment and it needs to be celebrated by the individuals who love you essentially the most,” Dave tells Malcolm earlier than bringing out a mariachi band to have a good time his pal.

“That’s what the present is,” Greenfield says of this second. “Connection factors between these characters who in some other circumstance wouldn’t essentially be collectively, and discovering a typical floor.”

He explains how the emotional core of “The Neighborhood” lies within the consistency with which the Johnson and Butler households come collectively to kind a heartfelt bond as neighbors.

Greenfield cites “The Massive Bang Idea” — which additionally aired on CBS — for example of a profitable sequence that maintained a gentle emotional tone all through its 12-season run.

“Sheldon is just not altering that a lot,” Greenfield says with fun. “I believe folks love that. I like that [Dave] doesn’t change. As a result of the character has been so constant, I maintain coming again to it for that very particular purpose. There’s something very nice about consistency and the way [these characters] don’t change. These are the kind of exhibits the place you actually really feel like I’m inviting these folks into my house.”