Veep Information

Veep is an HBO television comedy series, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, set in the office of Selina Meyer, a fictional Vice President of the United States. The program was created by Armando Iannucci and was inspired by his previous political satires, the BBC series The Thick of It and the Academy Award-nominated film In the Loop.

The series premiered on HBO on April 22, 2012, with an eight-episode season. This was followed by a second season of ten episodes debuting on April 14, 2013. On May 1, 2013, HBO renewed Veep for a ten-episode third season to premiere on April 6, 2014.

Veep has received critical acclaim and has won several major awards. Louis-Dreyfus has won two Emmy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award for her performance. In addition, Veep has twice been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, and its second season won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series. It joins The Office, 30 Rock and Modern Family as the only comedy series since 2000 to win awards from both the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America in the same year.

Cast

Main cast

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Vice President Selina Meyer: a former Maryland Senator and one-time presidential candidate. She often feels powerless, disregarded and discontented in her position as second in command. Her relation with the President is portrayed as a strained one. She is divorced with one daughter, however remains romantically entangled with her ex-husband. Louis-Dreyfus has received widespread critical acclaim for her performance, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and receiving two consecutive Golden Globe nominations.
• Anna Chlumsky as Amy Brookheimer: the vice president's chief of staff. She credits herself as the Vice-President's "trouble-shooter, problem-solver, issue-mediator, doubt-remover, conscience-examiner, thought-thinker and all-round everything-doer." Amy is constantly sacrificing her own reputation to save Selina's political credibility. Chlumsky had previously portrayed a similar character, Liza Weld, in Iannucci's 2009 film, In the Loop. She has received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance.
• Tony Hale as Gary Walsh: the vice president's personal aide. A long-term associate and confidante of Selina's, Gary is portrayed as an incredibly loyal and giving aide to the Vice-President. He received a Primetime Emmy Award for his performance on the series.
• Matt Walsh as Mike McLintock: the vice president's director of communications. Also a long-time employee of Selina's, Mike has served as her communications director since her time as Senator for Maryland. His dedication to his career is often questionable, to the extent where he pretends to have a pet dog so he can escape from work commitments at times.
• Reid Scott as Dan Egan: deputy director of communications. The most recent addition to Selina's administration, Dan is a highly ambitious up-and-comer in DC who takes pride in his contacts and networking skills. He often dates the daughters of influential politicians to get ahead in his career.
• Sufe Bradshaw as Sue Wilson: the vice president's personal assistant. A direct and straightforward personality in the Veep's office, Sue boasts she is the third most important person in the world, as she is the one who arranges for people to see Selina, the second most important person in the world.
• Timothy Simons as Jonah Ryan, White House liaison to the vice president's office. Self-described as "the go-to guy for all things White House", Jonah takes immense pride that he works for the President and not for the Vice-President. He constantly clashes with most members of the Veep's office, particularly Amy, a former love interest. It is shown that he is disliked by the President's staff as well.
• Kevin Dunn as Ben Cafferty: the President's White House Chief of Staff. Although he is depressed and hapless, he is often very insightful. Ben shows little regard for his co-workers or his job, but appears to love his nine-cup coffee thermos more than anything else. Selina refers to him as a "burned-out loser." (recurring season 2; regular season 3)

Recurring cast

• Gary Cole as Kent Davison: the senior strategist to the President. He is a number-cruncher, and is often referred to as being cold and robotic. His adherence to polling statistics is shown to negatively influence the president's decision-making during several episodes in the second season. He attempts to come between Selina and the President, and forced Selina to appear friendly with her hated ex-husband during the election. (season 2 & 3)
• Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as General George Maddox: the former Secretary of Defense and one of Selina's rivals for the presidential nomination. (season 2 & 3)
• Dan Bakkedahl as Roger Furlong: a congressman with aspirations to be Governor of Ohio. Ill-mannered and foul-mouthed, he constantly hounds the vice president's office, even after he loses the gubernatorial election. (season 1 & 2)
• Nelson Franklin as Will: Congressman Furlong's aide. He is often subjected to constant verbal abuse from Furlong. (season 1 & 2)
• Phil Reeves as Andrew Doyle: a senator from the president's party and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. (season 1 & 2)
• Peter Grosz as Sidney Purcell: an oil lobbyist. (season 1 & 2)
• William L. Thomas as Martin Collins: a Secret Service agent. (season 1 & 2)
• Randall Park as Minnesota Governor Danny Chung: a young veteran not shy to exploit his own military record for political gain. A member of the president's party, he covets the presidency himself and is seen as Selina's chief rival for the nomination after the president leaves office. (season 1 & 2)
• David Pasquesi as Andrew Meyer: Selina's ex-husband. (season 2)
• Sarah Sutherland as Catherine Meyer: Selina's daughter. (season 1 & 2)
• Jessica St. Clair as Dana: Gary's girlfriend. (season 2)
• Brian Huskey as Leon West: a veteran political reporter who frequently antagonizes Mike at briefings. (season 1 & 2)
• Zach Woods as Ed Webster: Amy's boyfriend. Woods also appeared in "In the Loop" as a State Department aide who was a rival to Chlumsky's character. (season 2)

Episodes

See List of Veep episodes for more information

Development

The Thick of It

BBC series

Veep uses the same cinma-vrit filming style as Iannucci's BBC television sitcom The Thick of It, which is set in a fictional department of the British government. The Thick of It was first broadcast in 2005, gaining a number of awards and in 2009 inspired a spin-off film, In the Loop, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

ABC pilot

A pilot for an American version of The Thick of It was produced as a candidate for the 2007-2008 season on ABC. The ABC pilot, also titled The Thick of It, was developed for American audiences by producers Mitch Hurwitz and Richard Day of Arrested Development fame and would have been about the day-to-day lives of a low-level member of the United States Congress and his staff. Original series creator Armando Iannucci had a production credit on the show, but he was not otherwise involved. The pilot was produced by Sony Pictures TV and BBC Worldwide. Grammy and Emmy Award-winner Christopher Guest directed the pilot.

In the pilot, John Michael Higgins played Albert Alger, a newly elected Congressman and Oliver Platt played committee chairman Malcolm Tucker. Actress Rhea Seehorn was Ollie Tadzio, a young and ambitious speech writer, and Michael McKean played Glen Glahm, "a former campaign operative who's now the chief of staff" for the congressman.

ABC did not pick up the show for its fall 2007 schedule. Iannucci distanced himself from the pilot stating "It was terrible...they took the idea and chucked out all the style. It was all conventionally shot and there was no improvisation or swearing. It didn't get picked up, thank God."

HBO development of Veep

After The Thick of It was dropped by ABC, several networks including HBO, Showtime and NBC again expressed interest in adapting the show. Iannucci re-entered talks with HBO (his initial preference) about adapting the series, with the result that a new pilot episode for a series based in the office of the Vice President of the United States called Veep (a nickname derived from the position's initials "VP") was commissioned in late 2009.

Iannucci has been given much more creative control over the show and co-wrote the pilot with English comedy writer Simon Blackwell, who also contributes to the British The Thick of It. HBO announced that it had picked up the show for a full season in April 2011.

Louis-Dreyfus has described Veep's intent not to have the President on-screen, or to reveal the political party of the characters.

Production

In October 2011, AFRO reported more details of the show: "Directors for season one include Iannucci, Tristram Shapeero and Chris Morris. Veep is executive produced by Iannucci, Christopher Godsick and Frank Rich. Joining as co-executive producers are Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephanie Laing producing. In addition to Iannucci, Blackwell and Roche, writers include Sean Gray, Will Smith, Roger Drew, Ian Martin and Jesse Armstrong." Each of these writers has previously worked with Iannucci on the scripts of The Thick of It.

The series is recorded in Baltimore and began production in late 2011 after several months of rehearsal designed to get the actors comfortable improvising with one another. Shooting for the pilot episode was completed in March 2011.

The series premiered on April 22, 2012 on HBO and in the UK on Sky Atlantic on June 25, 2012.

Tax credits

Because most of Veep is filmed in Maryland, the show is eligible for a Maryland state tax credit.

• For season 1, the company received a tax credit of $3.4 million because the company hired nearly 1,000 Marylanders and had estimated economic impact of $30.6 million.
• For season 2, the company could receive a $5.5 million tax credit because the company hired of more than 1,000 people and had an estimated $44 million economic impact.
• For season 3, the company could receive up to a $6.5 million tax credit because the company hired more than 2,000 people and had an estimated $52 million economic impact.
• For season 4, the company filed an application and letter of intent to film in Maryland. The company was "promised $7.4 million in tax credits, slightly less than what state economic development officials hoped to give."

Reception

Season 1 received postive reviews from critics. Review aggregator site Metacritic gave the season a score of 72 based on reviews from 30 critics. The second season received once again a very positive reaction from critics. In Metacritic it averaged a score of 75 based on reviews from 10 critics. The third season received critical acclaim from critics and received a score of 88 in Metacritic based on 8 critics.

Home media

Complete Season	Release dates					DVD Extras and Bonus Features	# of DVDs	# of Blu-rays
	DVD			Blu-ray
	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4	Region A	Region B
1	March 26, 2013	June 3, 2013	April 3, 2013	March 26, 2013	June 3, 2013	The Making of Veep, Veep: Misspoke, Veep: Obesity, Deleted Scenes and Outtakes, 12 Audio Commentaries with cast and crew. The Region A Blu-ray edition includes the DVD and UltraViolet/iTunes digital copy.	2	2
2	March 25, 2014			March 25, 2014			2	2

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
2012	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actress in a Comedy Series	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy Series	Armando Iannucci, Christopher Godsick, Frank Rich, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephanie Laing
		Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
		Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series	Jennifer Euston & Allison Jones & Pat Moran
	Satellite Awards	Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Television Critics Association Awards	Individual Achievement in Comedy	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Women's Image Network Awards	Best Actress in a Comedy Series	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
		Best Comedy Series
2013	AFI Awards	Top 10 TV Show of 2013
	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actress in a Comedy Series	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
		Best Comedy Series
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series (Musical or Comedy)	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Television Critics Association Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
		Individual Achievement in Comedy	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Writers Guild of America Awards	Best New Series	Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche, Will Smith
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy Series	Armando Iannucci, Christopher Godsick, Frank Rich, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephanie Laing
		Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
		Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Tony Hale
		Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Anna Chlumsky
		Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series	Allison Jones, Pat Moran and Jennifer Euston
2014	Art Directors Guild Awards	Best Half Hour Single-Camera Television Series	Jim Gloster
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series (Musical or Comedy)	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Gracie Allen Awards	Outstanding Comedy
	Producers Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television Comedy	Armando Iannucci, Christopher Godsick, Frank Rich, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephanie Laing
	Satellite Awards	Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Sufe Bradshaw, Anna Chlumsky, Gary Cole, Kevin Dunn, Tony Hale, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Matt Walsh
		Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series	Julia Louis-Dreyfus
	Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Comedy Series	Simon Blackwell, Roger Drew, Sean Gray, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Georgia Pritchett, David Quantick, Tony Roche, Will Smith