‘Only Murders in the Building’ Showrunner and Co-Creator John Hoffman On Creating the Mystery of the Year

Only Murders in the Building became a phenomenon this season, and that’s thanks to the brilliant writing and the performances from its star-studded cast. The Hulu series draws inspiration from the fervor surrounding podcasts like Serial, S-Town, and My Favorite Murder, but the show became a talking point as well. There were so many times that I jumped up and down when I found a relative stranger was into Only Murders in the Building. Not only is it a comedy about connection and loneliness, but it was always a blast to talk about with people you were getting acquainted with. Co-creator and showrunner John Hoffman was even taken aback by the feverish reaction to season one.

When you have actors like Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, it appears that your job is done. They each bring something incredibly heartfelt to their comedy, and matching two comedy pros with a younger actress felt like New York City itself to Hoffman. There is always something fresh and new mingling in with the traditional and old school. Charles and Oliver can teach Mabel about history but Mabel can give them a pointer about technology.

In addition to creating a story that kept you guessing, Hoffman wanted to create a quintessential New York story. He is still in love with the city (he currently lives in Los Angeles), and he wanted to pen a love letter to the Big Apple because of its eccentricities and its resilience. Only Murders in the Building is tightly written and beautifully acted. Hoffman has done New York City proud.

**Please note that we talk about key plot points and who the killer is. If you haven’t caught up with season one–what’s wrong with you–please check back to read this interview after you’ve finished watching. 

Awards Daily: When during the run of the first season did you realize you had captured everyone’s attention? Because in the week leading up to the finale, most of my Twitter feed was only talking about Only Murders In the Building.

John Hoffman: I am still realizing it. I feel some of it but I’m so wrapped up in getting season two going and we are only a few weeks from shooting. The writing of this show is so complex–more unusually for a half hour comedy. I feel a little insulated because of the pandemic but then I will go online or Twitter and the remarkable thing is how shocked I was with how much they are loving the show. I then step back and realized we made a show that we wanted to see. It was a big dream. I wanted to make a show in New York, and I was so in love with that idea for almost twenty years.

AD: I wanted to ask about making a New York story actually. Only Murders, hitting when Broadway is re-opening, really made me long to go back. What visions did you have with creating a quintessential New York show. 

JH: I was born in Brooklyn, but then I moved to Ohio. There were New Yorkers there, though, so I always held New York as this romantic dream. I went to New York for college, and I live in Los Angeles now even though I was traveling back and forth for the show. Before the pandemic it, I would travel to New York several times a year, and it always looked the same. I would spend five day weekends, and I would see a lot of shows. All friends would come. It was always the greatest time, and it all happened in the years before this show. Jonathan Groff and I would see a lot of theater together. Actors and directors and theater people set me up for this show, and it was such a dream. It was the best feeling to fly in, see a lot of people that I loved, and then fly back out.

AD: Are you into murder mysteries, and is there anything you want to honor with Only Murders? That feeling of finding out someone is into the same show or podcast as you is such a specific jolt of energy, and I think this show nails that very well. 

JH: The show is about connection and the odd ways to find each other. All those common interests. It’s also about loneliness and how people break out that feeling. I was actually not a big true crime person.

AD: Oh yeah?

JH: I knew Serial and S-Town because friends turned me onto it. I grew much more appreciative of them when I got this job and did a deep dive on how people piece them together. I love old school documentaries on true crime like Errol Morris on The Thin Blue Line. For the show itself, I thought about What’s Up, Doc? and a mix of keeping things insane but then stopping and caring about the people. It’s such a tonal big swing, and that was the big question for me. It’s classic meets modern, and that’s something we see with Steve [Martin], Martin [Short] and Selena [Gomez}. New York is like that too. You walk anywhere and you see amazing, old school architecture next this a new steel contraption, and they are working together in some way. I was just happy to see people taking the ride with the mix of tones. People would ask me what the tone of the show is and I would tell them that it’s New York. You can walk down the street and see something scary and then a Broadway show is promoting itself in the middle of the street.

AD: You brought up the cast, and I was wondering if you and the creative team wanted to play with our perception of these actors? Nathan Lane scared the shit out of me, and I’ve never felt that way watching him before. 

JH: I know…

AD: Martin Short’s screaming is one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard. When I re-watched the pilot again, I was reminded of how sad his character is and how sad his actual predicament is. That goes against everything we’ve ever seen from him, for exampled.

JH: It was very intentional in that way. What I love about the actors in the how is there is a welcoming feeling with those feelings. Steve and Martin are such sublime actors. I’ve always loved comedic actors, and, as you know, comedy is hard and it’s innate. You’re either funny in your bones or you can swing funny. It’s an either or for me. It’s a personality kind of built in. One the other side of it is pathos. When I met both of them, it felt immediately clear to me that they are soft, fragile creatures in a lot of ways, and that was interesting to play with. We know the grandiose Oliver Putnam that Martin can play. The scene where he talks about Splash! on that preview night is very funny, but he doesn’t push a thing there. I love when you give an actor a feast of words, and watching him lay them out in the way I heard them was so incredible. All of the actors did that.

AD: I was taken by surprise with a lot of the emotional heft that the actors bring. You don’t lose that vulnerability as you age, you know?

JH: Totally. And Nathan and James Caverly–who goes by Joey–are so good together. I knew Nathan would be a consummate actor, and Joey was newer to me. I had a feeling about them together. Nathan had never done ASL before.

AD: The episode–told mostly through the perspective of James’ character–is very special. I can’t imagine what that would mean to the deaf community, and the sound design is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. 

JH: That is the design of Matthew Waters. He worked on Game of Thrones and other great things, and I was thrilled by the care he put into that part of the story. When I heard it in the mix, I was floored by its thoughtfulness.

AD: That was the episode that no one could stop talking about. Even after it aired, I knew there was something so special about it, and that’s why we couldn’t get enough talking about it. I haven’t seen anything like that before. It’s so grounded in character and pushes the story forward. 

JH: I love that.

AD: Jumping back to the first episode, you co-wrote the first episodes and the last two episodes. Did you know who the killer was going to be when you started? I will fully admit that I thought Maulik Pancholy’s character was going to be involved in some way. 

JH: We wrote the pilot, and sold the show off of that. Suddenly, you’re in the writers’ room and it’s like…now what? We got all these faces on Zoom and we planned out the three acts of the season. I wanted to leave it open for the killer, and it was only about a month into the writing that an idea for the killer being a bassoonist came into it. A character was pitched that based on someone that someone knew, and that story rocked our writer’s room. How the character was descried was so odd and funny and she is so charming…but you knew something was wrong. We were so drawn into her, and then it became a romantic idea for Steve as Charles. That felt like a good way to hide her and create a good challenge for Charles’ romantic troubles. I loved the bassoonist angle. You have to find out where you’re going first and then work backwards. You have to twist your way back and hide your way there.

AD: Working backwards has to be hard in order to deceive the audience. There was actually a point where I was debating someone who ruled her out because she was stabbed. I remember just yelling, “We didn’t see the attack! It was staged!” I got a little crazy. 

JH: I like what you said about Maulik. He was in my mind but then it developed another way. I wanted to give him more, and hopefully we can factor him back in more in other seasons.

AD: What pressure do you feel for season two?

JH: It adds so much pressure. I will always put pressure on myself, though. It’s exciting because we are definitely pushing forward with the three of these characters in intensity. We go bigger on all fronts in the way that they are under suspicion. And they need to figure out what happened at the end of last season. Everyone’s careers take very interesting turns. It all gets a little bit bigger.

Only Murders in the Building is streaming all episodes on Hulu.