Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, Broad City
Abbi Jacobson and Illana Glazer in Broad City
Broad City is a comedy sitcom created by Illana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (real life friends) that follows the chaos, hilarity and friendship of Illana and Abbi (fictional best friends).
Illana and Abbi have a serious Big Friendship / Work Wife - Illana has spoken of her life in terms of “B.A.” and “A.A.”: before Abbi, after Abbi. They met at an improv class in New York and after many failed auditions they decided to just do it themselves. They began to meet everyday in coffee shops to write together, they took the same job selling coupons at Lifebooker, an online booking service for spas and salons which inspired Illana’s job in Broad City at ‘Deals Deals Deals’.
Though I’ve been a Broad City fan for a good few years now I hadn’t watched the original web series that is still on YouTube until a few weeks ago. Watching the web series 10 years after it was created it’s remarkable that it’s not lost its charm or comedy value. The short few minute episodes are the perfect dopamine hit between work calls and impending pandemic doom.
Despite the web series’ popularity online they couldn’t find a station who wanted to put it on TV. For the second season finale they were put in touch with Amy Poehler, for a guest appearance. Poehler agreed to be the producer on a Broad City TV sitcom, with her endorsement the show was quickly snapped up.
When reading about Broad City I came across this 2014 piece by none other than best-selling co-author of Big Friendship Ann Friedman, on season one of Broad City. And I thought of course Ann has written about Broad City - she has been observing, writing and practicing Big Friendship for a long time.
“Ilana and Abbi demonstrate what I absolutely found to be true in my 20s: when your job is falling far short of what you hoped and men are nothing but disappointment, your life is about your best girlfriends.”