Mark McKinney Of ‘Superstore’ Says Glenn Is About ‘Forcing Optimism Into Things’
So far, fans of Superstore have learned a few things about Cloud 9’s affable manager Glenn. His family owned an independent hardware store for generations until the big box moved in nearby. He once canoodled with his wife Jerusha at work, and he has what seems to be a plethora of foster children he’s struggling to support financially.
Glenn is deeply religious, warm-hearted, and, according to Mark McKinney, who plays him, not really in control either at home or on the job. But establishing control is not necessarily what Glenn is all about, according to McKinney’s September 2016, interview with A.V. Club.
“The world exists to sabotage his dignity, which is endlessly replenishing, and deciding to take the high road—well, no, it isn’t even about taking the high road, it’s about just forcing optimism onto things.”
Glenn has one notable characteristic that the A.V. Club called “a very bold acting choice:” his voice. McKinney, who has a long history as a sketch comedian and writer as a member of The Kids in the Hall, said it came to him as he developed the character after receiving the first Superstore script.
“[W]hen I read the script, and I was trying to sort of have this pleasant but plodding type of person, when I slowed the voice down and let it start to creep up the register it made every line better and better until I arrived at this place [In the character’s voice.] where he’s a guy who talks to you and he’s very sincere. But there’s something [Whistles.] a little spectrum-y, a little bit off about him.”
Mark McKinney recapped Superstore‘s two-part holiday special last week — a “double header,” including episodes “Seasonal Help” and “Black Friday” — in a post for Entertainment Weekly. McKinney joked that “double header” could be a great new character for the show: a two-headed cashier whom a drunk customer might see as four different people.
In “Seasonal Help,” the regular staff start betting on whom among the temporary workers will be first to quit. The process sets off Jonah’s unhealthy penchant for gambling, turning into deep guilt when he learns the seasonal staff were recruited from the “Last Chances” program at Glenn’s church, which helps people with troubled pasts to get a fresh start. In “Black Friday,” the sober Glenn is keeping his cool with the help of some of his wife’s medication and several mugs of juice.
McKinney talked about his continuing work with The Kids in the Hall in an interview with Uproxx in January 2016. The troupe had a successful television program in the early 1990s, produced a film in 1996, Brain Candy, and eight-part miniseries for the CBC in 2010, Death Comes to Town. They have also toured frequently, which McKinney said is one feature of the troupe that has remained strong over the past few decades.
“We always loved performing live, if there is kinda something that we do as well today as we ever did, it’s that. If anything it’s better. We kinda got more stage-craftier, I think. We put the word out that we were doing a tour, and the response was absolutely, insanely overwhelming. And that sorta knitted us together, wounds were sorta like papered over. That was a treat, to get together.”
In the past, the group, which also includes News Radio and Hot in Cleveland actor Dave Foley, was notorious for its occasional personal fall-outs. In 2012, the web channel Nerdist uploaded a series of classic skits from The Kids in the Hall television series, with commentary from McKinney, Foley, Bruce McCulloch, and Kevin McDonald.
Superstore airs Thursday nights on NBC.
[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]
