The AMERICAN AUTO Team Previews ‘The Letter’

On the Tuesday, February 28 episode of AMERICAN AUTO, Katherine (Ana Gasteyer) has to meet with the Payne Motors employees when it’s revealed the company has donated money to pro-life politicians.

“Yes, abortion, is that the topic that it deals with, but we didn’t come into it thinking, ‘We want to explore abortion and do an episode about pro-choice or pro-life or any of that,'” AMERICAN AUTO creator Justin Spitzer acknowledges to Give Me My Remote. “I think, thematically, it’s an episode about generational activism. How we deal with it when you’re CEO, you’re management, and employees have an issue that’s very, very important to them. A generation ago, employees left their personal feelings at home [than] even in the last 10 years. This generation feels like they need to be activists at work—and what that frustration would be like for Katherine.”

“We say in the episode that Katherine, herself, is pro-choice, but she finds herself being harangued by younger pro-choice workers,” he continues. “And she has this now old-fashioned attitude of, ‘Well, I leave my personal feelings at the door and that’s just not what this is about.’ The A-plot really is about that and abortion was the topic that let us explore that issue.”

As the Payne Motors employees try to contend with the controversy, “people are on sides that you wouldn’t expect them to be on sides of,” Tye White, who plays Jack, explains in the video below. “So there might be some switching of sides in Dori’s character, in the male cast’s characters. So I’ll just leave it at that…there are unexpected alliances.”

“Subverting expectations, for sure,” X Mayo, who plays Dori, adds. “And I think it’s reflective of our world…People are nuanced and complex and can change their minds based on the data that they receive at that time. And I think, all in all, I’m just so happy that we didn’t try to treat it like a PBS after-school special. It’s still very much a hard, classic, Justin Spitzer comedy. And I love that we’re going to hear from the Gen Z’s perspective versus millennial versus Gen X. You get to see like all those different tiers of people, their opinions, and POVs.”

Things are also complicated as the men of the office are tasked with solidifying Payne’s policies regarding abortion care and aftercare for its employees.

“Whenever you let men speak for women, it is probably not going to go well,” Michael Benjamin Washington, who plays Cyrus, acknowledges. “Or at least it’s going to be funny as hell watching them try to do it. So if that [humor] happens, I think the gentlemen of AMERICAN AUTO achieved our weekly objective. It is an episode for the women. It is featuring the women. It is about the women. And the women do their thing.”

Watch the video for more from the AMERICAN AUTO stars…

AMERICAN AUTO, Tuesdays, 8:30/7:30c, NBC

RELATED:

• AMERICAN AUTO Post-Mortem: Justin Spitzer on Payne Motors’ Big Gamble
• Justin Spitzer Previews Ben Feldman’s SUPERSTORE Reunion on AMERICAN AUTO
• AMERICAN AUTO: What You Need to Know About the Season Premiere

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.