Vanessa Bayer’s Character Strikes an Uneasy Bargain at a Home-Shopping Network in I LOVE THAT FOR YOU

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede One might think that every possible “behind the scenes” comedic examination of TV genres has been done before. But maybe SHOWTIME’s I LOVE THAT FOR YOU – which debuts Friday, April 29 on Crave – represents the last frontier. Starring and co-created by Vanessa Bayer, I LOVE THAT FOR YOU is a comedy that follows a survivor of childhood leukemia named Joanna Gold, whose obsession with a popular home-shopping network helped to get her through those very tough times. Now, as an adult, Joanna gets a job as an on-air host at that very same home-shopping network, where her idol is played by Molly Shannon, and her boss is played by Jenifer Lewis. The story was inspired by the EMMY®-nominated Bayer (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE), who personally overcame childhood leukemia. And yes, she was obsessed with a popular U.S. home-shopping channel. “When I was growing up I watched it a lot, I would tape it, I was very into it,” Bayer said during a virtual roundtable interview. “It’s just really mesmerizing. And it’s also really funny, because the hosts talk the entire time. And they often share stories about their lives. This is such a fun world, because it incorporates shopping, and all of this glamour stuff, and all these different personalities, the vendors and celebrities who are selling their specific products. So it’s exactly what you were saying – I was like, ‘why isn’t this on TV?’ ” There’s an important plot development in the first episode of I LOVE THAT FOR YOU, which has been revealed in the official trailer (which is available on The Lede) for the show. Nonetheless, it’s about to be discussed here, so this is a spoiler alert. After Joanna’s first on-air shift goes poorly, she gets fired. But before she even leaves the room where the firing has taken place, a desperate Joanna shouts, “I have cancer!” Suddenly, she is un-fired, and is encouraged to use her cancer as a tool to sell more products. The issue, of course, is that Joanna doesn’t have cancer – she HAD cancer, but she doesn’t any more. Obviously being a cancer survivor who was addicted to a home-shopping channel is very specific to Bayer’s experience, but blurting out a lie in a panicked moment, and then having it take on a life of its own, is something to which just about everyone can relate. And it doesn’t even have to be anything serious – like, when someone is asked if they’ve seen a certain movie, and for some reason they say yes, even though they haven’t. “There are those moments where we get caught and we lie, and then we have to make it believable, and kind of keep it going, even if it’s the dumbest thing,” Bayer agreed. “I did that the other day with someone. I was with other friends, and I told someone I had seen a movie, because someone was stopping by, and we had a mutual friend who was actually in the movie. And they were like, ‘did you see them in it?’ And I was like, ‘yes.’ And then as soon as they walked away, I said to my friends, ‘I just lied, I don’t know why I did that.’ And they were like, ‘Vanessa, you did the right thing, it made it go more easily.’ But I truly did it a week ago.” Big and small fibs aside, Bayer hopes viewers connect to something deeper with I LOVE THAT FOR YOU. “What I hope people find relatable is that we all, to some extent, love the special treatment we get when we’re going through a difficult time, and maybe I’m someone who focuses on that more than other people might,” Bayer said. “But something my co-creator, Jeremy (Beiler), and I have talked about is, when you go through a difficult time, you get special treatment, but when that time is over, you’re like, ‘where’s my special treatment?’ And on top of that, the idea we’ve written for Joanna, and a lot of the characters at this home-shopping network, is that they’re putting on a certain persona, because they just don’t feel like they’re enough as they are.” Finally, what’s the most bizarre product Bayer has ever seen on a home-shopping channel? “The most outrageous thing I can think of is this home spa that you sit in, it’s almost like a tent, and you zip it up all the way, and just your head sticks out of it, and they show it with a model who puts it on,” Bayer said. “I’m sure it’s a really great product, but the appearance of it is very funny, because it just looks like your head’s coming out of a tent. So that’s the craziest thing.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv