Sullivan & Son star Vivian Bang talks the art of the sitcom

With all the leaps and bounds being made in television, the traditional sitcom has become a bit of a lost art. TBS’s Sullivan & Son is a half-hour comedy that sticks pretty closely to the mold, including shooting in front of a live audience at Warner Brothers Studios every Tuesday. Star Vivian Bang – who plays Susan Sullivan, the sister of lawyer-turned-bartender Steve Sullivan – recently chatted with me about working in front of the audience and what she enjoys most about acting.

“Not only do we shoot in front of a live audience but we have two separate shootings,” explained Vivian, pictured above with her TV husband Ken Jeong (Community) and TV brother Steve (Steve Byrne). “First with one group of audience [members] and that one, we hardly stop. We do it as if it’s like a play, so we get like the rhythm of the show. Then in the evening, we have another brand-new audience. And for that one we have a little bit of leeway to stop.

“It’s neat because you kind of have this momentum and this rhythm going. It’s just like doing a live performance or a live stage show. You’ve got that weird pressure but also that extra energy. It’s so neat to get this like immediate approval.”

And once all the filming is done for the day, the faux Pittsburgh bar gets to see some real use. “The bar actually is a functioning bar,” revealed Vivian. “One time Vince Vaughn was there and it was like 3:30 [in the morning] and we were all about to leave!” It’s not uncommon to see the Dodgeball and The Dilemma star on the set: Vaughn serves as one of Sullivan & Son‘s executive producers.

Vivian is a television veteran, who’s appeared in episodes of Better Off Ted, House, Monk, Numb3rs and Sex & The City, and she likes the unpredictability of her chosen career. “Of course I love working,” she enthused. “You never know what to expect. You just don’t know. Every day it’s kind of like a new thing. It’s so rare to do this, to act and to be someone else and to play and have other people that are going to pretend with you.”

What does she watch when she’s on the other side of the equation? You might be surprised. “I love that show Girls. I think Lena Dunham is super-smart. I love like Mad Men. I love Homeland,” Vivian told me. “I love actually more serious things than comedy. I just have this natural rhythm for either tragedy or comedy.”

But there’s one comedy that gets her approval: “Oh, and I love The Mindy Project,” she added.

You can see Vivian in new episodes of Sullivan & Son every Thursday night at 10 PM on TBS.