Adam Pally's Champaign ILL is getting a second life through streaming. The comedy series launched in 2018 on YouTube premium and all episodes are now available on Hulu. Champaign ILL follows Pally and Sam Richardson as rappers who lose their best friend (Jay Pharoah) in an accident and must figure out how to survive without life in the limelight.
Pally sat down with Screen Rant to talk about Champaign ILL, his upcoming projects, and his time on The Mandalorian.
Screen Rant: Champaign ILL is out on Hulu now. I guess I should say revived on Hulu now - to give viewers some context, the show launched in 2018 on YouTube Premium, but now it's getting a second life on Hulu. What does that feel like?
Adam Pally: Well, it's great. I am so thankful to Hulu for giving it a second chance and to David Caspe and to everybody at Sony for pushing it through. Because doing that in Hollywood, it's a lot of hard work to get that done and I think it's great. I think, the first time around, there's so much good stuff out. You can't begrudge anyone for not being able to find a new show on a network that's also a streaming service, it's so hard to understand where anything is because there's just so much good stuff, so I don't begrudge it for falling through the cracks. But I think the show is really good and I'm really proud of it. I loved working with Sam [Richardson] and I'm just thankful that it's got a second opportunity to be seen.
I was curious if you were basing the character on anything that you had seen or experienced?
Adam Pally: Not necessarily that I had experienced, but I think it was the idea of grief, and losing someone was kind of where it started for us. I think there are some people whose whole lives revolve around other people and so, it is kind of terrifying for them to think of what would happen to them if these people were not to be there. So, the stakes of it being a high-profile rapper seemed to be the right place to put it in that way.
Do you want to do more seasons, more episodes? Are you thinking about that at this point?
Adam Pally: I think both Sam and I would love to do more episodes. I think we'd love to work together again on anything, and the show is so strong that if we were going to work together again, it would have to be up to this level. Yes, of course, we want to do more.
Just to expand on that, things come and things go so quickly and so, a lot of my career, I have seen shows come out and be seen in one place, but then be found in another and that's okay, that's the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes, it takes five years to do a sequel of a movie, and sometimes it takes that long to do a second season of a show. I think that those rules are changing and who's to say when the audience feels something, collectively. I'm hopeful that people will see it and like it, but I don't know if they'll be more.
I'm sure you're asked about revival possibilities of Happy Endings in almost every single interview. That was one of the greatest crimes against television.
Adam Pally: First of all, I don't get asked that as much as you think, because, similar to the reason why it hasn't been resurrected, I don’t know if that audience is as big as people think it is. But I am so honored that the people that are in it are such passionate fans. I know that we would all love to do something again. But again, it's scheduling and there's a million businesses involved that I don't even know about. But I know that I would love to talk to those people anytime. If it was in front of the camera, that'd be great.
I have to confront you because one of your most infamous moments of the past few years is playing a scout troper who gives a hard smack to precious baby Yoda's adorable little skull.
Adam Pally: I want to make it clear, Ted Lasso also smacked him. I guess the last couple of years have gone in different directions for Jason and I, but everyone's so psyched about Jason being in [Ted Lasso] and then they see me and they're like, "I got a bone to pick with you!" Like, what? What did I do?
Oh don't worry, I haven't forgotten. He's just not in this interview. America’s sweetheart, I’m coming for you.
Adam Pally: Okay, good. When Ted Lasso gets here, I want you to give him the business.
You're one of my favorites, I feel like you've never failed to make me laugh. It’s just these subtle moments, even in Champaign ILL there's this part where you go, "We're in a bar and grill." And it cracked me up because I never thought of that as something people wouldn’t do.
Adam Pally: That was a really fun thing about Champaign ILL, was playing these characters. They’re the most different characters from the actual people Sam and I are. But it was fun to play entitled, that's very fun. When you take entitlement, the next logical step of entitlement is idiocy. Because if you believe something's owed to you, you haven't done anything to get it, you have no real knowledge or base of how things work. And just thinking like that is very funny.
And here's a million examples, like when we go into the airport and we ask for the concierge's desk. Or I liked, when we get to his house and he wonders if the house looks smaller, and we say, "Maybe they put a subtraction on it." It's like they don't even know what they're saying and it was fun to think like that for a little bit.
I want to ask you about another upcoming thing I'm looking forward to, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Idris Elba playing Knuckles is so fascinating to me because he has such a sexy voice.
Adam Pally: I guess our scenes are gonna take on a whole different vibe. Yeah, I didn’t think of it like that. No, I haven't heard what he's doing for the character yet, but I'm excited. It was just so fun. Doing that movie, doing any big thing like that is so fun, but especially Sonic the Hedgehog is so fun and silly.
Have you filmed all your parts?
Adam Pally: Yes, we're wrapped, we’re totally wrapped.
Anything else you want to touch on before you go?
Adam Pally: I just want to say thank you for covering [Champaign ILL]. Again, it’s so hard for anything to break through, for anyone to see anything. And I think the good news of that is because there's such good stuff, such good things are out and so I'm just so lucky that more people be able to see this.
Champaign ILL is currently streaming on Hulu.