SUPERSTORE: Mark McKinney on Directing ‘Lovebirds’

[This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, March 28 episode of SUPERSTORE.]

“Lovebirds” may have been a big episode for SUPERSTORE’s Glenn (Mark McKinney), as he realized he needed to step back from managing Cloud 9, but it was equally big for his real-life portrayer: McKinney directed the episode.

The actor had directing experience before—including two episodes of his previous series, THE KIDS IN THE HALL—but he was moved to take his own time behind the camera on SUPERSTORE after seeing his colleagues America Ferrera and Ben Feldman take the step. “The show is fantastic, so I wanted to see if I could do it,” he says.

He got a bit of a surprise when he saw which episode he’d be directing. “I was expecting them to give me a small one, but I got a really challenging script,” he says with a laugh. “It was super fun to solve the problems. Ultimately, it wasn’t that much of a problem, because the crew and cast are so good.”

A little out of his control were the birds, which he acknowledges were the biggest challenge. (Some, as noted in the video below, were real, though a few were CGI.) “But it’s fabulous,” he admitted. “You’re like in a Jolly Jumper and you get wheeled around and the crew takes care of you and you get to think while you’re walking.”

The experience also allowed him to step back from his day job and look at the show with fresh eyes. “It was really interesting and fun to see the cast from the point of view of the director and then go in and say, ‘Go this way or that way,’” he said. “And they’re so good. They’re so good. That was maybe the biggest appreciation of that [time].”

And with season 5 already ordered, McKinney is ready to direct again. “Oh, totally, absolutely,” he said quickly. “If you had asked me the Saturday before [filming started], I would have said I’d break my leg to get out of it. And now I want to do it!”

Check out a video of McKinney and Lauren Ash talking about working with the “Love Birds” birds:

SUPERSTORE, Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC

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