After creating “The Real Bros of Simi Valley” for his YouTube channel, LifeAccordingToJimmy, star Jimmy Tatro wanted to go bigger and better for the sophomore season.
“Season 1 was able to live on YouTube because I financed it and we just did it,” Tatro tells Variety. “Season 2, I wasn’t really interested in losing that much money again, and we wanted to do it on a larger scale.”
The second season of the comedy series, about five millennial best friends living in Southern California, debuted on Facebook Watch back in November.
During a Monday night screening of the season’s final two episodes held at the United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tatro said the absurd drama and countless spinoffs of the “Real Housewives” reality series helped him form the idea for “Simi Valley.”
“One of the original inspirations for this show was talking about how many cities were popping up for ‘Real Housewives,’” he said. “I think they’d just come out with ‘Potomac.’ We were like ‘we gotta do one of these in the most random possible city.’ And then the bros idea came second.”
Growing up in Southern California also gave Tatro ideas for the types of personalities on “Simi Valley.” Nearly every character surfs, skates, vapes, and talks with an exaggerated SoCal accent.
Despite a majority of the cast becoming popular on short video sites, like YouTube and Vine, the transition to Facebook Watch was natural.
“As long as we keep true to what we want to do, we’ll find the next place to put it,” executive producer Christian Pierce told Variety. “The work comes first. Where it’s gonna be shown comes second.”