Zachary Knighton talks returning to TV after starring in cult favorite 'Happy Endings'

WASHINGTON - Don't worry: Zachary Knighton knows you want "Happy Endings" to come back. Knighton, who played the earnest, V-neck wearing food truck owner Dave Rose on the cult favorite ABC sitcom, is also disappointed that the show got canceled in 2013. But he's in a new show now, "Weird Loners" on Fox, so it's time to move on.

"Sometimes I think it's better to get canceled early because it gives it a little bit of a cult status, it kind of makes it cooler," Knighton says. "I'm sure we'll do something again, one day."

He shouldn't even vaguely reference such things. There's such passion for the comedy (starring Knighton, Damon Wayans Jr., Elisha Cuthbert, Casey Wilson and Adam Pally as a group of crazy friends) that the "Happy Endings" writers got quite the backlash on Twitter this week when they made an April Fools' Day joke about a reunion.

At this point, Knighton, 36, gets how the business works and the intense fan response. "Weird Loners," which debuted on Tuesday night to a soft 2 million viewers after some pretty decent reviews, has a very "Happy Endings" vibe. Knighton stars as Stosh, a sales rep who gets fired and evicted after sleeping with his boss's fiancee, so he crashes with his socially awkward cousin, Eric (Nate Torrence). Next door is Caryn (Becki Newton), a dental hygienist whose family is fixated on her getting married, like, ASAP. Her roommate is Zara (Meera Rohit Kumbhani), a "free spirit" artist who likes meditation. Naturally, the four become fast friends amid their loneliness and dysfunction.

Knighton recently stopped by The Washington Post newsroom, where the D.C.-area native (he grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and Virginia Beach) talked with TV critic Hank Stuever and entertainment reporter Emily Yahr about what made him want to come back to TV, and if it's awkward forging chemistry with complete strangers on set.

(This interview transcript has been edited and condensed.)

• On always winding up on critically acclaimed shows that don't have great ratings:

Knighton: Usually the biggest shows are not critical darlings at all. But I feel like I'm doing something right in that sense, that you know, "Happy Endings" was really critically successful. Then I did a little stint on "Parenthood," that's a very critically successful show but not a lot of people watched. I'd rather be where people I respect like the show, you know? (laughs) I don't know how these things work. I don't know how to make a hit show.

• On if there's a stigma about taking a show on, say, Yahoo! or Hulu than a traditional broadcast channel:

Knighton: I don't think so, no. I'm really good friends with Pablo Schreiber and I remember he was kind of having this weird year on network TV, he was doing some stuff, and then it was right around the transition he called me. He was like, "Yeah, I'm doing this little job for Netflix." And I was like, "Oh so I guess they are doing original content." And he was like, "Yeah, I don't think anybody will see it." It was "Orange is the New Black."

I feel like that turn has happened so quickly. That's exciting; that just means there's so much more opportunity for content. For me, like, classically it's cool to work for one of the big networks. And I've worked for them all at this point. I think it's all blurred lines now. The big difference is the networks are being forced to catch up, obviously. With "Happy Endings," they would be killing for those numbers now (that the show had when it got canceled).

• On whether social media really has an impact on TV shows:

Knighton: Well, "Happy Endings" actually was I think, interestingly, saved by Twitter. We didn't get a launch really at all ... So that was the big thing, everyone was like, "We're going to see how it's doing on Twitter." I remember scrolling through and all these people were just loving it. And then seeing this ad on ABC about with all the Twitter responses, that kind of gave us a life and lifted us up. Unfortunately, it didn't sustain us.

• On what drew him to "Weird Loners":

Knighton: I just loved the title, I was like "'Weird Loners?' That's a strange title for a network TV show." Then I met with (showrunner) Michael Whitehorn ("King of Queens") and I read the script and I just thought the script was so funny. I guess originally it was a cable thing, so the pilot script was very crass and dirty and kind of hard-core. I was like, "Wow, are they going to get away with this on Fox?" And he was like, "Yeah, you know, I think they're going to let me do what I want!" And of course that changed. But we get away with some stuff on that show.

The scripts got better and better and we had so much fun - and then we were done. Six episodes and that's it. So hopefully people will like this show and we'll come back and do more. It would be great to live in that world some more.

• On the anxiety waiting to see if your new show will be a hit:

Knighton: It's not worth it, because it's so out of my hands. And I have experienced that anxiety before where I do a movie or a launch a TV show and I just put so much weight on it. Being an actor, it's so personal. Because it's your face, it's you, it's your voice, the choices you're making. So it's you that's being judged in a lot of ways and that really kind of tore me up when I was getting started in my 20s. And now it really does bounce off. As long as I have respect of my peers and my friends which I feel like I do at this point in my career, that's enough for me. That's validation.

• On creating chemistry with new castmates who play your best friends, even though you're strangers in real life:

Knighton: I'm in my mid-30s now, and most of the people I work with are working in that same age range and have the same amount of experience I do. In a weird way, you're such a pro at this point that even if you don't have that chemistry, you can kind of turn it on if you want to make it work. It's never really forced. But at "Happy Endings," we were just going insane. We were partying, and that was the most insane set of all time. Yeah, it was crazy. That was a crazy set.

• On making out with "Weird Loners" co-star Becki Newton's neck in the pilot when he barely knew her:

Knighton: That was our first day of shooting, and they tend to want to get it out of the way. (laughs) I think it's smart because you kind of jump in bed with somebody on Day One and you get that awkwardness out and it's kind of funny, and that's a really good bonding experience. Then you're great. It's like, if you can do that, we can do anything.

• On the joy of having a character who's kind of a jerk:

It's so much fun to play a character like Stosh because he makes some really horrible choices as a womanizer. For me to play that, and play that aspect of me maybe that's deep in there and not actually have to pay any consequences for it, I don't get in trouble for it. I finish the day and there's no person physically wrecked at the end of it. So that's kind of nice and in a lot of ways it's cathartic, and it actually prevents you from being that way in real life sometimes, you know? Sometimes I'll have a terrible day but I'm doing some scene where I'm screaming at somebody or something and I'll feel great after.

• On the difficulties of having to memorize lines in Polish for his role as Stosh:

Knighton: I think it's just the world that Michael created and he wanted it to be more rich ... There was a very difficult scene to get through where (Stosh and Eric) are screaming at each other in Polish and I literally had my lines on a dinner table with a plate. The scene is shot over my shoulder because I just couldn't nail it down.

• On his reaction hearing there's something around 370 scripted shows on TV now:

Knighton: I feel like I should be working more then. I should probably call my agent about this.

• On frequently getting recognized for "Happy Endings":

Knighton: It's amazing. It's a great feeling to know that you make people laugh. I'm not famous in the sense that I'm getting mobbed on the street ever, but just once a day, someone will come up and say "I loved 'Happy Endings." It's great because it was so special to me too. You're having some sort of effect on someone's life, or just taking them away from their daily doldrums, and that's a great feeling. To me, that makes it worth it, the struggle and the ups and downs of this business.

• On if the "Happy Endings" cast could really come together for a reunion, and how close they came to being picked up by another network:

Knighton: It was very close, very close. We were extending our deals. But it seems that everybody's shows are not working as of now, so that's why there's this renewed thing of "Are they going to come back?" I don't think Damon or Adam are taking shows. I don't know what the fate of (Casey's) "Marry Me" is. I don't know what the fate of Elisha's show ("One Big Happy") is. And Eliza's show ("Benched") has already been canceled. So you know, who knows?