When FX asked Louis CK to recommend someone for a new series centering on a woman, the first name he gave them was Pamela Adlon — his longtime collaborator on his own FX comedy, “Louie.”
Adlon’s semi-autobiographical half-hour series “Better Things” (Thursdays at 10 p.m.) premiered earlier this month on FX and last week was picked for a second season. Adlon, 50, spoke to The Post the morning after the renewal announcement — but hasn’t fully wrapped her head around what she wants to do in the next 10 episodes.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve told my network: I don’t know yet! I’ve got ideas. I want Phil to have a game of bridge,” she says, referring to her mother on the show, played by Celia Emrie.
“Better Things” is a fictionalized version of Adlon’s life in which she stars as Sam Fox, a working actor in LA and single mom to three daughters, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward). So far, Season 1 episodes have seen Sam struggle with the audition circuit, give a speech about periods at her daughter’s school and endure an awkward dinner with her elderly mother when she brings home a black colleague.
Like her character, Adlon started acting as a child on shows like “The Facts of Life” and has since become a prolific voice actor, including voicing Bobby Hill on “King of the Hill.” She grew up with an English expatriate mother (who now lives next door to her in LA) and a writer/producer father, catching the Hollywood bug at an early age.
“I just wanted to be on the soundstage all the time, I wanted to be part of that world,” Adlon says. “I loved television and I wanted to be an actor and I loved walking around pretending I was a producer. I’d have a clipboard under my arm or a script and throw a scarf around my neck.”
Like CK on “Louie,” she is starring in, writing, producing and directing “Better Things” and credits her friend for teaching her how to run a series in that auteur way. (CK is also a co-creator, executive producer and writer on the show, and he directed the pilot episode).
“I would say, ‘Well what’s it about? So she goes to the lawyer’s office and then what happens?’ And he was like, ‘Forget it. Stop doing it that way, just keep writing.’ That for me was the greatest advice because it allowed me to flow and keep coming up with scenarios and then all the stories wove together,” Adlon says.
Playing a character based on herself also proved difficult to balance: “I wanted it to be interesting and separate enough from me that people don’t just think that somebody’s videotaping me in my house,” she says. One difference is that her children on the show are younger versions of her own three daughters, who are all teenagers.
Following her work on edgy shows like “Californication” and “Louie,” Adlon says “Better Things” is the first show of hers her daughters actually watch, and will even casually pitch her ideas for the series — or forbid her from using something from their personal lives in an episode.
“I say, ‘Totally, I totally won’t,’” Adlon says. “‘But I’ll ask you again in a year.’”