'Broad City,' 'SATC' creators find common ground

At first glance, "Broad City" feels like the opposite of "Sex and the City."

"SATC" followed four 30-something New Yorkers through Manhattan's sleekest clubs and swankiest brunch spots. The ladies suffer headache and heartbreak, but they do it in fantastic style. In one episode, heroine Carrie Bradshaw realizes she can't afford to buy her apartment because she's spent more than $40,000 on fancy shoes. Oops!

The life of "Broad City's" broads is much less glamorous. The stars (real-life pals Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer) are hustling to afford their crummy apartments and ho-hum nights out. In one episode, the pair bucket-drum their way through Union Square Park and clean apartments in their underwear to earn money for concert tickets and pot.

Below the surface, though, these shows share the same DNA. Both offer uninhibited portraits of female friends trying to make it in a gorgeous, unforgiving, brutal city. Jacobson, "Broad City's" co-creator, writer and star, calls "Sex and the City" one of her inspirations. And Darren Star, creator of "Sex and the City," says he sees a lot of the same themes at play.

In a telephone interview, the pair dished about showrunning, joke-writing and escaping Los Angeles for New York. An edited, condensed transcript of their conversation follows.

Star: How do you like L.A.? I mean, honestly, how do you like it?

Jacobson: I like it. Honestly, when I come out here, I come for such cool things, so I've never had to really try and figure things out.

Star: I think L.A. has got a great lifestyle, but I love New York. You couldn't do "Broad City" in L.A., because L.A. is a much gentler place. The standard of living is so different.

Jacobson: I think about that all the time. A bunch of my friends moved to L.A. in their mid-20s and late 20s, and the comparison of the apartments was unreal.

Star: But I think that you wouldn't really be able to do a funny show out here. Adversity creates comedy. You really nail it on "Broad City" in terms of what it takes to hustle and survive in New York, and how much fun it is. In L.A., you just kind of come and have a nice hiking-yoga-gym life.

Jacobson: Exactly. Most of our writers actually live in L.A. now. But when we write, we make them come back, even just so they can have the rough New York commute to the office in the morning. You need to have (expletive) happen to you to get into the mind space of hustling a little bit.

Star: I agree. We should do that with the writers on my show. We write in L.A., and a lot of them are New York transplants. Almost everybody is formerly from New York.

Jacobson: I have no friends in New York anymore, basically.

Erickson: Abbi, has "Sex and the City" influenced you and your show?

Jacobson: Definitely. I know every episode so well. There have been so many times in the writer's room, where someone will suggest a story line for one of the girls, and we'll have to catch ourselves. We'll be like, "No, Miranda did that already, we can't do it."

Our characters live in a very different New York. But the female friendship, that's the biggest inspiration from "Sex and the City."

Star: "Broad City" has a very different structure, but I love how uninhibited the characters are and how free they are with each other. I love that they love each other. I think those themes are what connects our shows.

Jacobson: I don't think our show could exist without yours. We felt like those women were friends and people could relate to them, whether they lived in New York (or not).

Erickson: In the last couple of years, there's been an explosion of shows centered around women, like "Girls,""The Mindy Project" and "New Girl." Do you see "Broad City" as a part of that trend? Do you feel in conversation with those shows, too?

Jacobson: To be compared to any of those shows is so cool. But you know, no male shows are ever grouped into a category as being so similar just because there are guys on them. The shows you mentioned are all very different shows, too.

Erickson: Tell me a little bit about the origins of "Sex and the City."

Star: I had done a couple of network shows [including "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Melrose Place"]. When I brought "Sex and the City" to HBO, I wanted to do something independent, where I could be like: "I don't care if anybody watches this thing. Just let me do something that I would love to see." Honestly, the success of "Sex and the City" was what was most surprising to me. It was sort of like the anti-TV-show in my mind.

Jacobson: It was like your small passion project.

Star: I wanted to be honest like you can't be on network TV. But then I got nervous. I actually thought at the beginning: "Oh my God, are people going to think this is pornography? Is this the end of my career?"

Jacobson: It was kind of the same for us. When we were shooting the first season, we had only ever done the Web series. We had no idea what would happen. We were just trying to make a show that we would love and to not care what would happen.

Erickson: Do you worry about making shows that people outside of New York can relate to?

Star: That's part of the fun of watching a show, right? Where you're like, "Wow, that's not my world, but it sure is fun to watch and enter it for a half-hour."

Jacobson: If the character is grounded and you can relate to something about them and their world, even if you have no idea what that's like, you get it.

Star: Are you in production right now?

Jacobson: We start shooting a week from today. If you're in New York, you have to come by.

Star: I will come visit your set.

Jacobson: When we meet in person, I promise, I'll be much cooler.