July 29, 2013
For three seasons now, David Alan Basche has played Stuart Gardner, a neurotic divorced dentist who moves in with two other divorced guys as he gets his life back on track, on the TV Land sitcom The Exes. Kristen Johnston (3rd Rock From the Sun) as Holly, Donald Faison (Scrubs) as Phil and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld) as Haskell co-star with Basche on the show. Here Basche talks about his role as Stuart, how The Exes has progressed and the experience of acting opposite a talking horse.

What first drew you to the role of Stuart on The Exes?

I started in sitcoms. I’m a New York theater guy, and when Hollywood sort of stood up and took a little notice, which is always wonderful, it was to come and do a sitcom. I did Alan Ball’s first TV show, which was, believe it or not, from the guy who wrote Six Feet Under and True Blood, it actually was a four-camera sitcom. So that was where I started in TV, and I did a bunch of them, and then didn’t do them for a while, because they kind of went away. And when TV Land gave us the script for The Exes, I loved the script. I loved the idea. It was such a classic comedy, sort of an old-school, old-fashioned classic comedy. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, they just wanted to make it funny. So I was on board right away with the idea of the show. People don’t know, but I auditioned for Donald Faison’s role first, which would have been absolutely ridiculous, of course. Just a horrible idea. I have my suspicions that they had already actually cast Donald, but they weren’t sure what to do with me, and maybe wanted to see what I could do.

But it worked out fine, because they said, “No, no, no, you can’t do that very well, but how about playing this sort of straitlaced nerdy guy?” And then they brought me out to L.A. for the test, and we started. And three years later, we’re still going.

How has Stuart evolved over the course of three seasons?

I’m really happy to say very, very little. In a sitcom, you don’t want to evolve too much, because you tend to lose your funny if you become too evolved and self-aware. So it’s my deepest hope that Stuart will stay insecure, neurotic, idiotic, chaotic for five or six more seasons. The truth is, Stuart has [evolved] a little bit. In truth, Stuart first couldn’t get over his ex-wife, and now he is dating again. So we are seeing some movement in his personal life. But I just hope his personality doesn’t change, is what I mean. I like him. I like all his flaws.

How has the show as a whole evolved since the beginning?

We were really lucky that we just almost immediately had great chemistry with each other, and we actually all really liked each other, and that’s just really, really rare. We’ve just gotten closer, and that’s a really good thing. And we started off really liking each other and kind of having fun, and I think it’s just gotten more so. I think if you look at the episodes from season one, I think they were really funny and silly and everybody did a good job, but as you start to look at seasons two and three, there’s a little bit of a shorthand, kind of a comedy shorthand happening now, and we’re all even more comfortable with each other, we know each other even better. We’ve got some relationships between cast members now, so it’s very interesting.

How does Stuart relate individually to each of the other main characters?

Stuart is very much indebted to Holly and really considers her a good friend. She really saved him by being a great divorce lawyer and giving him a place to live. Stuart would drop everything for Holly in an instant, and sometimes tries to help too much. That’s where the comedy comes in, is that he always tries to help and then screws things up. I think with Phil, Donald’s character, I think Stuart kind of idolizes him a little bit. He’s the flashy guy, he’s a sports agent, he’s always with celebrities, he has a really healthy dating life after his divorce. So I think Stuart kind of looks up to Phil and wants to kind of be like him and have some of his ease around the ladies. And with Haskell, it’s an interesting thing. Wayne and I understand each other. Wayne is one of the smartest, most well-read, interesting, engaging people I’ve ever met, and I think he and I understand each other, and we understand each other’s comic timing in an understated kind of a way. And the relationship between Stuart and Haskell is very similar. I think they are able to really poke at each other, but it’s with some sort of unspoken understanding. With Wayne, someone said on Twitter, “You guys are like Abbott and Costello.” And that’s a huge compliment. So every time I get to do scenes with Wayne, or have a storyline with Wayne, I think that’s in the back of my mind, and I feel really lucky.