“BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s new animated series, “Long Story Short,” is unapologetically Jewish in the best and funniest possible ways.
Inspired by Bob-Waksberg’s own family, the show centers around Naomi Schwartz (Lisa Edelstein), Elliot Cooper (Paul Reiser) and their three kids: Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson) and Yoshi (Max Greenfield).
“I think the show in some ways is about Jewish joy, and I think a lot of Jews will enjoy having a place for the Jews, and I think a lot of anti-Semites might learn a thing or two,” Bob-Waksberg told me Monday at the show’s premiere at Netflix’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood.
While “Long Story Short” may be dropping on the streamer at a time when antisemitism is on the rise worldwide and the Israel-Hamas war continues to rage on, Bob-Waksberg recently told Vulture that such real-life crises are not addressed during Season 1 because “I don’t want to create any content that is then going to make people want to boycott this show in either direction. We will have to get into that at some point. I want to do it in a way that makes sense for our show, that doesn’t feel didactic, that doesn’t feel like scoring points.”
“Long Story Short” received a renewal for Season 2 earlier this month. Sadly, antisemitic trolling is already targeting the show. As Bob-Waksberg said, “We’ve never not had antisemitism.”
“The harassment is already there. I don’t think there’s a Jew in Hollywood, a public, a visible person that doesn’t get constantly harassed on Instagram all day long,” Feldman said. “An article came out this morning, it was a profile of the show, and I stupidly skimmed the first few comments and they were all…just nothing I want to repeat. But it’s just a buzzkill.”
“People are going to want to talk about the greater global geopolitical issues that are happening around this show, but this show is not about that,” he continued.
Edelstein said she channeled some of her own mother into her work as Naomi. “It’s all about the complications and love of a family,” she said. “It is very culturally specific, but I think also it’s universal.”
She added, “It is really wonderful that Netflix wanted to do our show. The timing was really interesting, meant a lot to me. The way they cast it is very meaningful. The way it’s written is really beautiful. There are a few tears shed, believe it or not, later on in the season.”
Edelstein’s reaction to antisemitism has changed over time. “I posted an image of a challah I made and I got trolled,” she said. “You have to learn how to separate yourself from it. I used to hide all those comments or delete them or block them and now I’ve stopped caring because I rather people see what happens.”
The cast also includes Nicole Byer as Shira’s partner, Dave Franco, Angelique Cabral and Michaela Dietz.
Much of the first episode revolves around Yoshi’s Bar Mitzvah, the coming-of-age ceremony marking a 13-year-old’s transition to adulthood.
Greenfield recalled his “Saturday Night Live”-themed Bar Mitzvah party with tables named after “SNL” players like David Spade, Jon Lovitz, Victoria Jackson and Ellen Cleghorne. “It was one of the best moments of my life,” Greenfield said.
Edelstein’s Bat Mitzvah also had some show business details. “I sang my haftarah like Ethel Merman,” she said. “I got up there and I thought none of these people can leave, so I’m gonna go for it. I really belted my haftarah.”
“Long Story Short” Season 1 premieres on Netflix on Aug. 22.
