“Ike and I are the biggest Office fans”—Netflix's Running Point showrunner on whether there is any Michael Scott in Isla Gordon (Exclusive)
Running Point on Netflix is the story of Isla Gordon, a fictional character inspired by Jeanie Buss, the President of the LA Lakers. Showrunner, Writer, and Executive Producer David Stassen spoke to Sportskeeda about a wide variety of topics.
Running Point, streaming on Netflix from February 27, portrays an inspiring and powerful woman, but the presentation is certainly comedic. Joining David Stassen at the helm are Ike Barinholtz from The Mindy Project, and Mindy Kaling herself. Kaling, of course, may be best known for playing Kelly Kapoor in The Office.
So it was only natural that Sportskeeda asked Stassen if there were parallels between the goofiness of Isla Gordon and Michael Scott, immortalized by Steve Carell in The Office. Stassen laughed:
"That's funny. First of all, Ike and I are the biggest Office fans in the world. Cuz we both just watched it with our daughters for the first time for them. And we're always sending Mindy funny videos of scenes she wrote or scenes she's in. And obviously, that's where Mindy cut her teeth in comedy."
Running Point is based on real-life characters with a fictional twist!
For anyone with even a passing knowledge of basketball, it is easy to see the similarities between Jeanie Buss and Isla Gordon (played by Kate Hudson). Buss even serves as the Executive Producer on Running Point. Says Stassen:
"Well, you know Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis...Jeanie owns the Lakers and Linda is her right hand woman, her sort of you know second in command there. And it's just inspired by their life. Being two professional women running a men's pro basketball team and how wild and complicated and funny that can be. And how they have to mix corporate and business with dealing with player issues."
That said, while Stassen admits that he would take 'any comparison to Michael Scott', that may not have been the intention while writing the show:
"But we never talked about Isla as a Michael Scott character. But for sure. She's a boss with a big ego. But also insecure. Who's figuring out how to be in charge. Kind of like moment to moment. So, there are some similarities like calling impromptu meetings and maybe putting her foot in her mouth."
According to Stassen, more people thought that there were parallels between Mindy Lahiri (played by Mindy Kaling on The Mindy Project) and Gordon, than Gordon and Scott:
"So yeah, hadn't thought of that. People are usually like is there Mindy Kaling or Mindy Lahiri in Isla Gordon?"
Both Jeanie Buss and Linda Rambis provided input to Running Point, making it the beloved Netflix comedy that's shot to the top of the popularity charts. Stassen continued:
"So that's where the inspiration (came from). But then, Mindy and Ike and I just love putting our own take on sort of the ideas that we would get from Jeanie and Linda and making it comedic, and heightened and giving it stakes and hopefully making it dramatic. So, just inspired by them."
Running Point stars Brenda Song, Drew Tarver, Scott MacArthur, Fabrizio Guido, Toby Sandeman, Chet Hanks, Jay Ellis, Max Greenfield and Justin Theroux. Stay tuned for more coverage of the show only on Sportskeeda.
