“DMV”: scared souls, loud jerk, great fun

In our minds, we might cast our spouses as heroes, angels, knights in shining armor.
And in TV, Dana Klein cast her husband as a complete and total jerk. “He’s such a nice guy,” she insists.
She’s creator and producer of “DMV,” at 8:30 p.m. Mondays on CBS. In the opener (Oct. 13), a rich businessman keeps badgering for special treatment from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Ah yes, Klein figured — a perfect role for her husband, Mark Feuerstein (shown here). “We’re from New York, so we know some people who are a little, you know, entitled when they go into a room.”
That fits the mood of “DMV.” Matt Kuhn, one of the producers, points to a line in the opener “that describes the DMV as the great equalizer …. We’re set in Hollywood (and) everyone — from a high-powered movie producer to a first-time teen driver — gets the same mediocre treatment.”
That lets the show zip between stories, in the style of “Superstore” or “St. Denis Medical.” It might leap from a privileged businessman to a nervous teen or a flustered oldster, all while winding back to the lives of the workers.
Klein is familiar with such details. “I am the mother of three teenagers, she said, “two of which took multiple tries to pass their driving test ….
“One of those times, as I sat in the waiting room, worrying if I had the correct forms, I thought, ‘This is really the perfect setting for a workplace comedy.’ And then I thought, ‘Why is there caution tape around the water fountain?’ And then I missed my number being called.”
Soon, she read novelist Katherine Heiny’s short story “about a very big-hearted driving examiner …. The employees were layered and complex and I love how she found beauty in what is arguably one of the most dreaded places in America. The beauty is in the small moments, the tiny victories.”
So she created a show that does have a big-hearted driving examiner. That’s Colette, played by Harriet Dyer, who co-starred in another workplace comedy (“American Auto”) and stars in “Colin From Accounts.”
The cast also has two “Saturday Night Alive” alumni — Tim Meadows as a world-weary examiner and Molly Kearney as the overwhelmed boss. Tony Cavalero (“Righteous Gemstones”) plays Vic, the most devil-may-care examiner. Alex Tarrant (“NCIS: Hawaii”) plays the newcomer Colette fancies; Gigi Zumbado plays the image-conscious license photographer.
And their own adventures getting a driver’s license?
Meadows passed easily, he said. “It was not cool to fail driving in Detroit.”
Dyer and Tarrant needed licenses when they arrived from Australia and New Zealand, respectively. He still hasn’t taken the test; she did, with someone who “was in such a bad mood …. She was so unhappy that I passed.” Kearney’s examiner was also in a mood. “She’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve had a day. The last kid in here hit a deer.'”
And Cavalero’s guy was a lot like the one he plays. “I had a very Vic-like instructor who would literally take us to, like, McDonald’s and be, ‘You guys want something?’ And then he’d make us pay.”
And Zumbado? At 15, she failed her first try for a learner’s permit. The second time, she had a bet with friend sto see “who gets the ugliest photo.”
Zumbado is not even remotely ugly. She arrived with purple hair and her dad told the photo person she was self-conscious about having a terrible smile, so not to say anything.
“I did the ugliest smile ….I did win the bet; I didn’t get anything for it.”
A year later, she compensated. “I looked very hot for my official license.”