Paul Reiser, who returns in Hulu’s ‘Reboot,’ knows what the funniest food is

Forty years ago, a little-known stand-up named Paul Reiser made a splash in Hollywood by chattering relentlessly through “Diner,” a career-launching role for numerous young actors, including Kevin Bacon and Mickey Rourke. 

Reiser’s role was relatively small but his largely improvised dialogue was memorable and soon landed him in “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Aliens” and on “My Two Dads.” In the 1990s, Reiser ascended to another level by co-creating and co-starring, with Helen Hunt, in the long-running hit “Mad About You.” 

Then Reiser largely vanished behind the scenes for about a decade before resurfacing with secondary but meaty roles in “Whiplash,” “Red Oaks,” “Stranger Things” and “The Kominsky Method.”

Now he’s back again, co-starring as Gordon in Hulu’s “Reboot” from “Modern Family” co-creator Steve Levitan. 

“Reboot” is about a cheesy, decades-old sitcom getting a reboot (on Hulu, no less) and all the tensions that arise as the old cast and creators reunite. The starry cast also features Keegan Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville and Judy Greer as the actors and Rachel Bloom as Gordon’s daughter Hannah, who shares showrunner duties with her father. The generational clash generates much of the humor in the writers’ room as the two quibble over everything down to what is the funniest food. 

Reiser, who is doing a stand-up tour and recently co-wrote and co-starred in the movie, “The Problem With People,” says much of that career path was happenstance. In a recent video interview, between peppering his interviewer with questions and jokes about the exercise equipment visible in the background, Reiser noted, “I stand by my plan of no plan whatsoever.” 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q. So, what is the funniest food?

Milk will help a sentence. Neil Simon said words with a “k” are funny. Pickles – funny; juice — not as funny.

Q. When you get a script, are you looking at whether it’s funny or at the content of your character and whether it’s multifaceted?

All of it. But this script was a rare no-brainer. The script was really funny and it had the pedigree – Steve Levitan is so talented. And they’d already assembled Keegan Michael Key, Judy Greer, Johnny Knoxville and Rachel Bloom. 

I wasn’t angling to do another half-hour multi-cam sitcom, but this was in that world looking at it from the reverse angle, doing a show about a half-hour show. It was some of the most fun stuff to play — those writers’ room scenes and the long walks after a run-through where you say, “That doesn’t work.” It was fun to be in it – but only as an actor – so if the actual script wasn’t working it wasn’t my problem. 

It was really fun and felt painfully true to life. I can’t tell you how many writers’ rooms I’ve been in where things have gone on into the wee hours just because you spent two hours deciding what to eat. 

Q. You’ve done your own “Mad About You” reboot. Are you a fan of the trend?

I don’t love the idea of reboots – if something was done and ended well, that should be enough. Reunions are a circus, where viewers go, “Ooh boy, he really put on weight, and she let herself go and that facelift didn’t work.”

With “Mad About You,” we ended when we wanted it and how we wanted to and Helen Hunt and I were very clear for years that we wouldn’t do one— we were really protective of what we’d done. But everybody was inviting us to do it and we finally thought it would be fun to play together after all those years. Then we figured out the “why,” that the infant we had in the show is now leaving the nest and you’re back together without the insulation of the kid. So it felt rich enough to write about that and how their dreams didn’t work out exactly how they thought they would.

With “Reboot,” you don’t care about the original show – it’s just a chance for us to get to know and care about these characters who are all rebooting their lives. For my character, it’s a chance to get things right that I didn’t the first time. So those are the two exceptions I’ll make: “Mad About You” and “Reboot.” Otherwise, I’m not a big fan.

Q. Gordon, like your characters in everything from “Aliens” to “Red Oaks” at least starts off as less than likable. Do you enjoy those characters?

Gordon is not a bad guy, he’s a guy of a different time. He has been semi-retired by choice or by becoming obsolete and hasn’t been invited to the ball for a while. There’s a lot of learning he has to do. 

You always bring yourself to the role whether you mean to or not. Even with Meryl Streep, you’ll say there’s a certain Meryl Streepness, even though her roles are wildly diverse. But it’s nice to put on unflattering things and play with them – I like to think I’m not as clueless as Gordon is so it’s fun to say, “That ain’t me; it’s this guy.”

Q. Did you improvise on this show?

The scripts are tight and great, but Steve lets us play a little. My character was out for the evening with Keegan’s; there was some lovely writing but it’s impossible to not improvise when you’re sitting across from a master improviser. He’s like a five-tool player.

Q. There seem to be plenty of references to the actors’ pasts, including a nod to Judy Greer’s character on “Arrested Development.” There are also callbacks to other sitcoms, from each episode being named for one (“New Girl,” “Betwitched”) to scenes like a scene where Judy’s character tricks Keegan’s that seems a nod to a classic “Cheers” moment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7lguprh4iQ). How much of the show is poking fun at sitcoms and how much of it is honoring the genere?

With the references, I’m a bit clueless. I heard Steve talking in an interview that the “Step Right Up” premise was a little bit of “My Two Dads” and I didn’t think of that. 

As much as the show is making fun of sitcoms and taking a bite of the hand that feeds it, it’s also a bit of a love letter, even as it’s showing how the sausage is made. What the show does, and it was the main thing “Modern Family” did so well, was to have genuine heartfelt or sweet moments but cut them with a laugh — not to negate the sweetness but to avoid falling into sappiness. This show has touching moments but we don’t linger too long and they don’t become a “very serious moment.” It’s funny, constantly.