When the season finale of TV sitcom “Tacoma FD” airs Thursday night, it might mark the end of the show. But probably not.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape of having a new season,” series co-creator Kevin Heffernan said Wednesday.
TruTV, the network that airs the show about a fictional Tacoma fire station, hasn’t announced a Season 2 yet. But the ratings are looking good.
“The numbers of the first season were fantastic, and everyone is super happy about it,” Heffernan said. “It would be hard not to renew a hit.”
The show premiered in March as the most-watched new adult cable comedy series with 5.5 million viewers and has maintained high ratings since.
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Heffernan and co-creator Steve Lemme set the sitcom in Tacoma so they could label the city as the rainiest town in America. Firefighters have lots of free time to pull pranks and make mischief because rain douses any fires that break out.
The show is filmed in Southern California, and the real Tacoma Fire Department has no affiliation with it. But, that doesn’t mean they’re not fans.
Heffernan and Lemme were in Tacoma on May 20 to perform stand-up at the Tacoma Comedy Club.
“There was a lot of Tacoma Fire Department at those shows,” Heffernan said Wednesday. “It was amazing. We sold out the two shows there. It was probably 60 percent firefighters, cops, first responders. They were looking to have a good time on a Monday night.”
Firefighters from across the country have been eager to tell the pair their stories.
“All the firefighters we have met have welcomed us into the fold,” Lemme said. “It’s been really cool to get to know them.”
Support for the show isn’t just coming from first responders.
“I think people are loving having a straight-up comedy to watch, week to week,” Heffernan said.
Heffernan and Lemme had a fan base before “Tacoma FD.” The pair rose to fame and cult status with their “Super Troopers” movies.
During the pair’s recent 10-city stand-up tour, show-goers chanted lines from “Tacoma FD” and dressed up as characters, the men said.
Along with Lemme and Heffernan, the "Tacoma FD" cast includes co-stars Marcus Henderson, Gabriel Hogan, Hassie Harrison and Eugene Cordero.
Cordero plays Andy, a naive and continually put-upon firefighter. He’s proven to be a break-out character on the show.
“My wife and kids think he’s the best character on the show,” Heffernan said. “Everybody loves him. He’s just a talented comic actor.”
While Lemme and Heffernan write the scripts, Cordero improvises many of his lines.
“He’s shocked at how many improvisations of his we’ve actually put into the show,” Heffernan said.
The show has attracted high profile guest stars including Will Sasso (“The Three Stooges”), Joanna Cassidy (“Blade Runner”) and J.D. Pardo (“Twilight”). Pardo is the star of FX’s biker drama, “Mayans M.C.”
“J.D. Pardo — we didn’t know him,” Heffernan said. “But he loved ‘Super Troopers.’ He’s in a serious drama, and I don’t think people ask him to do comedies all that often. We reached out to him and he was totally on board.”
Cassidy played an old flame of Lemme’s character.
“Joanna Cassidy — she just wanted to make out with Steve Lemme,” Heffernan said.
In the finale, the “Tacoma FD” crew finally gets to fight a fire — in a cannabis store. At different points in the episode, Lemme and Heffernan have to perform the fireman’s carry on each other.
But when Lemme first tried the maneuver, which requires one person to carry another across their back and shoulders, he injured himself.
“I tried doing it for real, but Heffernan’s a hefty load,” Lemme said. “The irony is I popped a hernia. The whole episode is about popping a hernia. Life imitated art.”
“He had surgery a couple of weeks ago,” Heffernan said.
With the success of 2018’s “Super Troopers 2,” the pair are working on “Super Troopers 3.”
“We’re writing drafts right now,” Lemme said. He said it shouldn’t interfere with a new season of “Tacoma FD.”
Production on “Tacoma FD” would stay in Southern California although they might come to Tacoma to shoot some exterior scenes, Heffernan said.
Everything they need — crew, actors and sets — are in California.
“We shoot about six minutes from my house,” Lemme said.
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