Liza Lapira in TRAFFIC LIGHT - Season 1 - "Kiss Me Kate" | ©2011 Fox/Carin Baer

TRAFFIC LIGHT, on Fox Tuesdays at 9:30 PM, is a series that proves some things are universal. The comedy is adapted by Bob Fisher and David Hemingson from an Israeli show about three male friends who constantly find time to talk with each other, even if it’s over the phone in the car. In the Fox version, David Denman and Liza Lapira are happily married couple Mike and Lisa, Nelson Franklin and Aya Cash play somewhat nervously cohabiting couple Adam and Callie and Kris Marshall plays single Ethan.

Lapira had a recurring role as programming assistant Ivy on Fox’s DOLLHOUSE before landing on TRAFFIC LIGHT. Other previous credits for the New York-born actress include CLOVERFIELD, REPO MEN and recurring roles on NCIS, DEXTER and HUFF. Lapira (whose first name is pronounced LEE-za, not LIE-za) talks to ASSIGNMENT X about her new comedy and her recent tenure on the Joss Whedon show.

ASSIGNMENT X: Did Fox say they wanted to find another project for you after DOLLHOUSE ended, or was this just a straight audition?

LIZA LAPIRA: It was just serendipity. I’ve worked with Fox before, but this was just a regular, run of the mill audition and it worked out well.

AX: The TRAFFIC LIGHT creators have said that the three male leads on the show represent the different traffic lights – the bachelor is green and the couple who are just moving in together are yellow. David Denman, who plays your character’s husband, says his character is generally happy with where he is in life …

LAPIRA: So he’s red.

AX: Do any of the characters ever wish they had different romantic lifestyles?

LAPIRA: We do have an episode where we address that, and it’s cool in that these three guys essentially switch lives for the night, and at the end of the episode, they’re sitting in a bar, going, “I’m exactly where I need to be. I should be married.” “I should be single.” “I should be with my girlfriend.”

Aya Cash and Liza Lapira in TRAFFIC LIGHT - Season 1 - "Tommy Guns" | ©2011 Fox/Carin Baer

AX: Had you done half-hour sitcoms before?

LAPIRA: I was a guest star, so yeah, I did the finale of THE PARKERS, so I’ve done sitcoms. I’ve also done single-camera dramedies, which is very similar to this. It’s not shot in front of a live audience. It’s single-camera, it’s very much like an episode of MODERN FAMILY in that it’s very quiet and suddenly the camera finds you.

AX: To ask a little bit about DOLLHOUSE, because a lot of  our readers love DOLLHOUSE …

LAPIRA: As they should.

AX: Do we know what happened to your character Ivy after her boss Topher said, “Go find a life”?

LAPIRA: What happened to my character? It’s left up to the imagination, but in terms of me and what I expected, Ivy lives. Topher essentially saves her life. He says, “Don’t be like me.” He’s devastated by what has just happened, his girlfriend was just shot in front of him, he’s in shock, and he says to her, “Don’t turn out like me.” He sends her off into the night.

AX: Do you know if Ivy was always intended  to be on the show as much as she was, or did you sort of sparked a bit, so they wanted to write more for the character?

LAPIRA: I don’t know. I don’t think it was planned to be what it was, so I think the writers just threw me a bone and were very generous to me.

AX: Even though DOLLHOUSE was certainly not a comedy, you and Fran Kranz, who played Topher, had hilarious chemistry together …

LAPIRA: Thank you. He’s a wonderful actor. As much of a comedic chemistry as we had, at the end, he broke my heart. It was a beautiful kind of devastation, that last scene where he sends Ivy off, knowing, or halfway knowing, that he’s going to die and not make it.

AX: When you went on DOLLHOUSE, did you think it was going to go for two seasons?

LAPIRA:. I thought it was going to run for years. I’m a very bad litmus test, because I thought the conceit was so out of the box and so cool and so – what a treat for the actors to get to play different things and different skill sets – so I thought it was going to be this interesting new thing that was going to run for years.

AX: Do we know whether Ivy was a Doll?

LAPIRA: She was not. She was a human. I discussed this with the costume designers, because they would put me in these wonderful, Doll-like outfits – she had Doll envy. She wished she was, but she was not.

AX: Do you find different rhythms working on a half-hour show and an hour show?

LAPIRA: Not necessarily. For me, the truth is the truth, and so whether the truth is louder or bigger or broader, because it’s theatre, or whether it’s half-hour in front of an audience, or whether it’s quiet and subtle, because it’s a dramedy, or TRAFFIC LIGHT, it’s all the same to me. It comes from the same place.

AX: Is there anything else you’d like to say about TRAFFIC LIGHT?

LAPIRA: It’s my favorite ensemble, it’s my favorite job thus far. I love these guys and they’re very, very funny. So watch.

Click on the link: for AX’s interview with TRAFFIC LIGHT star David Denman

Click on the link: for more DOLLHOUSE interviews and news

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Nelson Franklin, David Denman and Kris Marshall in TRAFFIC LIGHT - Season 1- "Help Wanted" | ©2011 Fox/Carin Baer

Fox’s Tuesday night 9:30 PM comedy TRAFFIC LIGHT deals with a group of five friends at different stages in their relationships. Mike (David Denman) and Lisa (Liza Lapira) are married to each other, Adam (Nelson Franklin) and Callie (Aya Cash) are involved with one another and Ethan (Kris Marshall) is the player of the group.

In this exclusive interview, California native Denman, who has been on the big screen in films including Tim Burton’s BIG FISH, talks about his new gig and a few notable previous TV jobs.

ASSIGNMENT X: How many seasons did you play Roy Anderson on THE OFFICE?

DAVID DENMAN: I was on the first three seasons, and then I did one episode in Season Five, and now I [did] one more episode in Season Seven, the flashback episode, so I was excited to go back and see everybody.

AX: Can you talk about the difference between being part of an ensemble as large as the one in THE OFFICE and the ensemble in TRAFFIC LIGHT, which at least initially is a lot more contained?

DENMAN: Our [TRAFFIC LIGHT] ensemble right now is basically five of us and it is a different experience. I was one of fourteen or fifteen main characters, I think, on THE OFFICE, and it’s hard when you’re doing a show like that to find time for anybody to have their moments. In this, you can really focus on the main five characters and they have a lot more story. As an actor, creatively, there’s a lot more to play and a lot more to do, which is a lot of fun. But it’s still – the camaraderie and ensemble work is still very similar to THE OFFICE, because we do a lot of improvisation on our show, as well as we did on THE OFFICE.

AX: Is TRAFFIC LIGHT the first time you’ve been the lead in a series?

DENMAN: Yes and no. I’ve done ten pilots, and I’ve played the lead in many other pilots, but none of them made it to the air. So this is the first time – I’m not “the lead,” I really do believe it is an ensemble. I’m one of five people. I’m grateful, honestly, that I’ve got to have the show not solely on my shoulders. It’s really an ensemble effort, and honestly, they are one of the most talented ensembles I’ve ever worked with. Honestly, they’re just as funny if not funnier than THE OFFICE crew and on any other show that I’ve worked on. This is an outstanding group of actors, so I’m grateful to be part of that ensemble.

Liza Lapira and David Denman in TRAFFIC LIGHT - Season 1- "Where the Heart Is" | ©2011 Fox/Carin Baer

AX: Liza Lapira plays your wife on TRAFFIC LIGHT …

DENMAN: Yeah. The enormously talented Liza Lapira!

AX: She is very petite and you are very tall. Do you play with the height difference in the comedy?

DENMAN: Honestly, Liza Lapira’s five-foot-two, but she has such spunk and such fire in her, she comes across as a six-foot-five animal. So she puts me in my place every second of every day when it comes to the dynamics [in] our relationship. It’s never really been an issue, it’s never really been addressed. The other couple addresses it a little bit more than we do, but maybe that’s because Nelson is six-five and I’m only six-four, so …

AX: Is that ever an issue as far as framing the shots so both your faces can be seen?

DENMAN: It is, actually. A lot of this show is done in wide angles, to be quite honest, because our comedy works best, sort of, in the bigger angles, bigger shots, so yeah, it does create a little bit of an issue for our d.p.s [directors of photography], but they are so good, they don’t make it an issue, because it just is the logistics of our show. I will say, when Liza auditioned, I was very adamant about sitting down on a chair, or squatting down on my legs, so she didn’t look as short as she did next to me on camera when we first did the test screenings, because she’s so great and so talented that I really wanted her to get the job and I’m so grateful they hired her.

AX: Is your TRAFFIC LIGHT character Mike the most stable within the group of friends in all ways, or is he faithful to his wife but quirky in other ways?

DENMAN: He’s got his own neuroses. He’s a bit high-strung about the details and when [his friends] look to give him a hard time about stuff, because he definitely has a black-and-white feeling of how things are supposed to be and how things are done. When they mess with that and they push those boundaries, it creates a lot of comedy.

AX: Do you have any relationship-comedy heroes, like Jackie Gleason in THE HONEYMOONERS, for example?

DENMAN: Oh, I love THE HONEYMOONERS, but no, I mean, I’m not necessarily a fan of particular comedians. I’m more fans of particular movies or TV series, stuff like that. I’m a huge fan of Steve Carell, I think he’s just a genius, and I was so grateful to get to work with him every day [on THE OFFICE], but I don’t necessarily have that perspective. I like so many different comedians.

AX: One of your more unusual recurring roles in the past was playing Skip on ANGEL …

DENMAN: I did. I did four episodes as a demon, wearing lots of prosthetics. I had a good time on that show.

AX: Skip wound up having quite a character arc. Did you know what that was going to be?

DENMAN: No, actually, that started off as a one-episode deal and it was such a fan favorite that they decided to bring me back. That was the first time I’ve ever experienced something like that Only in that world of Joss Whedon can you create a character like that, a demon who’s like, “Hey, what’s happenin’?”, so nonchalant. I had a great time doing that. I didn’t have fun getting in and out of the makeup, but I had a great time working with those people.

AX: Have you done any roles that have called for heavy prosthetics since then?

DENMAN: No. No, and I don’t plan on it, to be quite honest. It was my one and only prosthetics show, I hope. I don’t know. You never know.

AX: Is there anything else you’d like to say about TRAFFIC LIGHT?

DENMAN: It’s a real show about real life and it’s really funny and hopefully people will tune in. The show does get better every week. It’s the nature of a new series that it does get better as the chemistry grows between the cast, and the writers try to write more to the strengths of the actors, and that is no different with our show.

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Actor David Denman may have played small parts in very successful shows like THE OFFICE and ANGEL, but he is no shrinking violet. Denman is a bulky 6’4 and finally stretching his acting muscles in the new comedy TRAFFIC LIGHT premiering tonight on Fox.

In Hollywood’s trend of late, the show focuses on three friends at different romantic stages in their lives. Denman, 37, plays the married and content one who struggles to balance his family life, friendships and career. But don’t look for a copy cat version of RULES OF ENGAGEMENT or PERFECT COUPLES. Denman says TRAFFIC LIGHT is similar but different as he takes 5 to talk about his new show.

Nelson Franklin, Aya Cash, Kris Marshall, Liza Lapira and David Denman in TRAFFIC LIGHT - Season 1" | ©2010 Fox /Joseph Cultice

TAKE 1

On how his show will stand out from all the rest…
“I did read a bunch of (scripts) during our pilot season, and one of the things that struck me so great about this show was that it did seem so real,” says Denman. “I read this, and these people were so relatable. They were my friends. It was my life. These were people that I know, so that was the reason why I gravitated towards this script as opposed to the other scripts that I had read on paper. I don’t know how those turned out, but this just rang so true.”

TAKE 2

On the very free use of improvisation on set.
“There’s a lot of improv in the show,” Denman reveals. “So, it’s incredibly and creatively fulfilling to have the opportunity to have executive producers and writers and directors that allow a workplace like that where we all riff on things, whether it’s suggested by one of the directors or the writer or one of the other actors. You know, a good portion of our show comes with that banter, and we’re genuinely friends off-camera, so a lot of that dynamic makes it easier to play on camera.”

TAKE 3

On his time on THE OFFICE playing Roy…
“For THE OFFICE, for me, I had seen the British show,” explains Denman. “A friend of mine had called me and said, ‘Oh, my God, you have to see this show. It’s brilliant. You’ll love it.’ And I called my agent and said, ‘Hey, I’d like to get in on this.’ He literally said, ‘Really? You want to do that?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I do actually. I think that might be really funny.’ That the tone is different, and I like that it’s different than your typical comedy. So I don’t think any of us thought it would be as big of a success as it was. We all loved it, and we believed in it. I think most of us, except Steve [Carell], had seen the original and were fans of it. That show grew as time went on. I mean, that first season is very different from season two and on. In the first season, we spent a lot of time trying to imitate the other show to some extent. Once it sort of took legs and they started writing for that cast of characters, it all of a sudden got a new life. And honestly, our show, like this is one of the most talented ensembles I’ve ever worked with, and I think as talented, if not more talented, than THE OFFICE in some aspects. The chemistry grew as time went on, and the show got so much better, and they started writing to the strengths of us. I think we have something very special here that I think people will genuinely connect with.”

TAKE 4

On the freedom giving to him on THE OFFICE
“There was a subtlety to some of the comedy on THE OFFICE that allowed a landscape for MODERN FAMILY and [TRAFFIC LIGHTS],” says Denman. “For me, it was a huge learning [experience]. I learned so much sitting on that set watching Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson and everybody that was there because they got to play so much. And we did a lot of improv on that show as well, which allowed for a lot of these great magical moments that pop out, and that only really happens when you have the freedom to do that. And we also have the luxury of great executives that allow us to play in that same type of tone, although ours isn’t done like a documentary.”

David Denman, Nelson Franklin and Kris Marshall in TRAFFIC LIGHT - Season 1 - "All The Precedent's Men" | ©2010 Fox /Ray Mickshaw

TAKE 5

On the title relevance to the show…
“One of the other things that’s a big component of our show is actually sitting in traffic on the phone,” says Denman. “One of the conflicts of our show is that Mike is trying to be the best dad, the best father, the best husband, the best friend and the best employee. So he has so many things he’s trying to be good at. He’s juggling all of it. So to try to carve out a little time to be able to continue those relationships, a lot of it’s done in the car driving to and from work or doing errands and he’s catching up with his buddies. So that’s partially the title. You know, a lot of our time is spent in the car talking and I do that personally. Whenever I’m in the car, I’m talking with friends and stuff on my way to or from work. I play the married guy who is very happy, you know, with where he’s at in life. I’m red. Nelson [Franklin] and Aya [Cash] are just moving in together. They’re yellow. Then Ethan [Kris Marshall], who is the green light, doesn’t necessarily want to settle down.”

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