Greg Garcia on Raising Hope: "He Just Felt Very Real to Me — I Got That He Was a Very Honest and Likable Guy"

Emmy Award-winning producer Greg Garcia — creator of My Name Is Earl — is the executive producer of FOX's hit comedy Raising Hope, which has been picked up for a full second season. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

Emmy Award-winning producer Greg Garcia — creator of My Name Is Earl — is the executive producer of FOX's hit comedy Raising Hope, which has been picked up for a full second season. The show follows Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff), a young man raising a baby on his own with the help of his eccentric family. The "Romeo and Romeo" episode, featuring guest star Tichina Arnold (Everybody Hates Chris), airs Tuesday, February 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.

On how Lucas Neff has developed as an actor: "He seems to be going backwards. No — he's a solid actor. He was a solid actor when he showed up here. He remains a solid actor. I think that as we all get more and more comfortable in the character, both in the writing and the performance of it, we're finding different things. The character is always evolving."

On what made Neff stand out from the auditions: "I watched Lucas on tape. He was in Chicago, so I watched on the computer. He just felt very real to me. A lot of auditions that you watch, people are pushing it and trying to push real hard to get the comedy and stuff. He just felt very honest and real to me. I wanted this character to be somebody that people were rooting for and kind of the eyes of the audience into this crazier world, somebody that definitely feels very overwhelmed by this new responsibility thrown in his lap. I just got that from his performance. I got that from him as a person that he was a very honest and likable guy. Then I met him and realized he was just a really good actor."

On what inspired the concept for Raising Hope: "I just kind of wanted to do a domestic comedy. I kind of knew the premise I wanted was this family, trying to raise this baby on their own and not knowing what they're doing. I didn't want the mom to be around because my fear is that I would write the mom to be perhaps a little more knowledgeable with babies. I really wanted this guy — the character of Jimmy — to have as little help as possible. In thinking about that, I thought about the ways to not have the mom around and this is what I came up with."

On what Raising Hope and Modern Family have in common: "I think there's always something nice about turning on the TV and seeing people that are worse off than you. It does make you feel a little better about yourself. You could turn on Modern Family and it's an affluent family, but you're going to watch them screwing up and messing up things and getting out of situations that they've created. Our family is going to be doing the same kind of thing, just possibly with different resources at their hands, but I think ultimately, you're still laughing at the same stuff."

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