“Law & Order” fans, you have Rob Lowe to thank for the entire franchise. As does Dick Wolf’s bank account. At least, Lowe says with his tongue a bit in cheek (but also with some accuracy). As the star of Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star” and Netflix’s “Unstable” recently told Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, Lowe starred in Wolf’s 1988 feature flop “Masquerade.” It was just the kind of movie disappointment that would have sent Wolf back to TV — and two years later, “Law & Order” premiered. “I remember him saying to me how frustrated he was in the movie business, that he was going to write a pilot,” Lowe said. “And he wrote ‘Law and Order.’ And the rest is history. You’re welcome. Yeah, I’m happy to provide the bomb that powers your rise to dominance.”
Lowe’s not asking for credit — well, OK, if Dick Wolf wants to “wet my beak,” then Lowe is fine with that. But of course, Rob Lowe is doing just fine himself, given his two series on the air. And in “Unstable,” Lowe is working side by side with his real-life son, John Owen Lowe. John Owen plays Jackson, the son of Ellis Dragon (Rob Lowe) in the workplace comedy. Ellis is a quirky biotech genius who finds out he may lose his job when he spirals following the death of his wife. With the company at risk of imploding, his employees seek out the one source they feel can help him at this time: his son.
“The genesis of the show was my son, Johnny’s relentless trolling of me online,” Lowe says. “He’s merciless, and people enjoyed it so much, that that he wisely had the idea, ‘Is there something here? The audience is signaling to you, they’re interested in something.”
Rob Lowe sat down with Variety’s Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider to talk a bit about the father/son dynamic that led to “Unstable,” and what it’s like to work together. Lowe also shares how he wasn’t keen at first with the idea of his son joining the family business, and whether that has changed. He also gets into his world inside the Ryan Murphy universe via “9-1-1: Lone Star,” and what else he’d like to do with Murphy. And then there’s a surprising amount of talk about “The Grinder.” Listen below!
The Lowes have worked together several times before: John Owen served as a writer for multiple seasons of Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star,” and also appeared in “The Grinder.” They also worked together on Netflix’s Christmas movie “Holiday in the Wild” and the indie “Grace Point.” And then there was the A&E docuseries “The Lowe Files,” in which Lowe and his sons went hunting for Sasquatch.
So when John Owen suggested he and his father star in a show together, the question was, “what what is the relationship?” Lowe recalls. “We’re going to actually play ourselves? Are we going to do a reality show? Are we going to do Larry David style, alternative universe of ourselves? That was exactly what we had to crack. And I think this is the best version of that.”
What they came up with was an idea where Jackson is Ellis’ practical son who’s managed to stay away from the family business — until his father needs him. His agitation toward his dad’s eccentric practices comes to the forefront as the two are forced to look past their differences to save the company.
The Lowes set the show in the tech world to specifically avoid doing something based around entertainment. “Nobody loves inside baseball stuff more than me,” Lowe says. “I love all all of anything showbiz business related. But, I travel a lot. I’m out there in the world. And there’s a whole ginormous area of the world that is not interested in Hollywood at all. And I didn’t want to exclude that. So we found a world that I thought was ripe for satire, and that’s the sort of fleece vest wearing black baseball cap sporting tech genius.”
Asked if playing father and son perhaps changed the dynamic between the real father and son, Lowe says that “I think we were able to say things to each other in character that we may or may not normally say to each other so much in person. And for me as a father, it was super easy to let my really be let my judgments run wild. He really should engage his core more. There’s no what’s the point of having a twentysomething’s body if you’re going to slouch. You know, he really should look at his hairline. It’s all of my heightened, ridiculous father advice that I might give him in person I definitely was able to give to him as a character.”
But here’s where they differ: On “Unstable,” Ellis wants Jackson to emulate his career and lifestyle. In real life, Lowe never wanted John Owen to join the family business. “I wanted Johnny to continue his stem cell biology career that he got into Stanford with. Of course, after graduating and coming out of Stanford, he came home and said, ‘I want to be an actor.’ I prepared to jump off of a building. He could have saved me a lot of money. I’m like, ‘Bro, you could have just worked at Jamba Juice these whole four years. You didn’t have to go up to Palo Alto!’”
Lowe reveals the unique path to making “Unstable”: John Owen Lowe had actually appeared as a “teenage douchebag” on “The Grinder,” and later worked for Brad Baker, who serves as an exec producer/director on many shows in the Ryan Murphy universe. John Owen Lowe was offered a job in the Murphy universe around the same time that Rob Lowe was about to start “9-1-1: Lone Star,” and the decision was made to put John Owen Lowe on the writing team of that show.
Speaking of keeping things in the family, the season finale of “9-1-1: Lone Star” featured Rob Lowe euthanizing a character played by his actual brother, Chad Lowe. “It’s the feel bad finale of the year,” Lowe quips. “When Tim Minear, who is just such a genius who runs our show, pitched me that the season was going to end with me euthanizing my actual brother… I was like, that’s amazing. And are they letting letting you do that? I was actually surprised. You know, network TV is still network TV. But they did. And it’s as powerful as anything I’ve been a part of.”
Speaking of “9-1-1,” with the original series moving to ABC and “Lone Star” staying put on Fox, the question of future crossovers between the two shows remains murky. But Lowe says he thinks they will continue: “Oh I think we will,” he says.
“There’s a world where ‘9-1-1 Lone Star’ and ‘9-1-1’ are on at the same time on different networks,” Lowe says. “I don’t think they would cannibalize it. But I mean, anything’s possible. My guess is that it will end up in a world where Ryan will be Dick Wolf at Disney and have his own night. I think that’s where this all heads. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a third ‘9-1-1.’ Why not? ‘9-1-1: Sin City.’ I’m just spitballing. I don’t have any insight. I just know what I’d be doing if I ran the world.”
And if Lowe ruled the world, he would have already been cast in Murphy’s upcoming Menendez Brothers edition of “American Crime Story.” “I’ve already Googled who was involved, to see if there’s a part for me… maybe they visited the set of ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’!”
But it all comes back to “The Grinder,” which aired for just one season on Fox in 2015. “What can we do to bring ‘The Grinder’ back?” Lowe asks. “It remains still one of my favorite things I’ve ever been a part of. It was fun. It died tragically at the height of its career.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
