Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson say the most important lesson they drew from running “Broad City” was learning that friendship and business thrive on firm boundaries.
Speaking on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast this week, the comedy duo explained that by season three of their Comedy Central hit they scheduled a brief “after‑school club” each morning—ten minutes devoted only to personal chat—before launching into writers‑room decisions, a practice they credit with keeping conflict off‑camera.
Glazer recalled that during production they rarely socialized after hours “because we were already living together at work,” a choice Jacobson said preserved the spark that first drew them together at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade in 2006.
The conversation has resurfaced as both creators navigate increasingly separate careers. Glazer, 38, scored a modest box‑office hit last year with the pregnancy comedy “Babes,” which she co‑wrote and starred in, and will return to Hulu in December with her second stand‑up special, “Human Magic.” Jacobson, 41, is writing a new half‑hour series for Amazon while voicing Princess Bean on Netflix’s “Disenchantment” and recently married actor‑producer Jodi Balfour.
Industry observers view their boundary‑setting talk as a case study for creative partnerships strained by the nonstop demands of prestige‑TV production. One Los Angeles‑based therapist who counsels writers’ rooms said the duo’s ritual mirrors corporate “check‑ins” designed to reduce burnout and is “far easier to implement than couples therapy after the damage is done.” Even so, the friends insist the practice does not preclude future collaboration; they are currently contributing oral‑history anecdotes to an Emmy magazine package marking the show’s 10th anniversary and have “never closed the door” on a limited‑series reunion.
Asked whether the public conflates work and friendship, Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter that fans “loved watching our best‑friend romance, but they never saw the spreadsheets.” Glazer added that distance is now their secret weapon: “We text jokes, we hype each other’s wins—then we get back to our own lives.”
