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DAVE ROSS

‘Tacoma FD’ looks to show lighter side of Pacific Northwest

Mar 28, 2019, 12:10 PM | Updated: 12:42 pm

Tacoma FD...

(Beth Dubber / truTV)

(Beth Dubber / truTV)

A new comedy series about a fire station in the wettest city in America is coming to Tacoma, Washington.

“Tacoma FD” was co-created by Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme, the same comedy duo behind “Super Troopers” and “Beerfest.”

Heffernan and Lemme will both be at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma at 5:30 p.m., on Thursday, March 28 for a free screening of the first two episodes. The event is being run on a first-come, first-served basis.

The show stars Heffernan as Chief Terry McConky and Lemme as Captain Eddie Penisi. McConky’s daughter (Hassie Harrison) plays the station’s first ever female firefighter.

“The fire station is still kind of an old boys club,” Heffernan said. “And we really wanted to have a woman come into the station and kind of shake that up.”

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With all the free time that firefighters have in a city where it rains so much, pranks ensue. In the first episode, Lemme stuffs shrimp into Heffernan’s office chair. Lemme said he actually pulled that prank once in real life.

“Kevin’s cousin is a firefighter in West Haven Connecticut, Bill Heffernan, and all these firefighters just have incredible stories,” Lemme said. “They live in the station 24 hours at a time, so they all play pranks on each other in their downtime. And when they’re not fighting fires, the calls they go on are still pretty ridiculous … so we thought it was kind of a rich place for comedy.”

At the end of the season, Heffernan and Lemme actually do fight a fire — at a marijuana dispensary.

Lemme said the show works hard to make it clear that they respect the job firefighters do.

“I think there are probably a lot of guys who are excited because they’re fans of Super Troopers, but I think people aren’t sure — since it’s a comedy, they don’t want us to be making fun of things,” Heffernan said. “I think we’re very respectful and the idea is to make it feel like you want to hang out with those guys, and so I think they’re gonna like it in the end.”

Unfortunately, the show wasn’t filmed in Tacoma.

“We ended up shooting it in Los Angeles. We were hoping to get up there to shoot some exterior stuff, but just for budget reasons we couldn’t do it. But we’re hoping to do it in the future.”

“We’re really excited to be in Tacoma right now and get this out there,” Lemme said. “By tomorrow you’ll know the kind of surprises we have in store for the good people of Tacoma.”

“Tacoma FD” premieres Thursday, March 28 at 10:30 p.m. on truTV

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