Too Much TV: Cullen Crawford Talks 'Strip Law'

Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, February 13th, 2026:

PRODUCTION NOTES
Welcome to all of the new subscribers who joined yesterday after reading my piece on Apple TV and The Savant. You'll receive this newsletter five days a week, generally mid or late morning. Although it can run later, if it's an exceptionally busy day. Like today. 

I received a few complaints from people who noted I was on Substack and I do have my reasons, which I wrote about last fall. I respect anyone who says they don't want to give money to Substack. Although I would mention it's probably hurting me more than it's hurting those VC-backed Substack weasels at corporate. 

But if you would like to support my independent journalism without sending money to Substack, you can buy me a coffee or two. And if you buy $40 worth of coffee, I will add you to the paid subscriber list, allowing you the benefits of that without providing any revenue to Substack.

THE GLOBAL TV AWARDS
There is one week left to vote for your favorite non-English language programs in the 2nd Annual Global TV Awards. Last year's awards garnered around 60,000 votes and this year is just over 75,000 individual votes so far. I am hoping to crack 100,000 voters before it wraps for the year. Which I modestly think is pretty impressive for an awards event that has received zero coverage in the entertainment news press.

A CONVERSATION WITH 'STRIP LAW' CREATOR CULLEN CRAWFORD
The adult animation series Strip Law premieres today (Friday) on Netflix and while I loved the ten-episode season, it is also a challenging series to explain. But I can tell it is a comedy-dense, often insane series that relies more on humor and the strength of the characters than many shows in this genre.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with him about how the show came together, his method for convincing Netflix to give him a substantial writers room and the lessons learned from working on the series Star Trek: Lower Decks. I'm posting the entire interview later today on AllYourScreens, but here is a excerpt from the conversation, which was a real blast to do:

First, I wanted to ask you, what was that initial pitch meeting like when you went into Netflix? How did you describe the show? Because honestly, when people ask me about it, I've kind of given up trying to explain it and just say, "Look, it's funny, just go watch it."

Cullen Crawford: Honestly, that's kind of what my pitch was like. I just said, I promise this will be funny. But we didn't know 100% what it was going to be when I pitched it.

I liked this idea of like a Vegas legal scene where billboard lawyers who dress up in wacky costumes and stuff are the big names. These are the people who run the legal scene in Vegas. So we started there. I made a bunch of fake billboards.

I actually paid a musician to record a fake jingle that's in the show. And I just had a bunch of jokes, basically. And I just said, "This is the kind of stuff you'll see in the show."

And they bit. And then as we worked on the show, if you told me when I sold the pilot that it was going to go to the places that we took it, I would have been as shocked as anyone.

Given that the show wasn't 100% in place when you pitched it, at what point in the process did you find yourself thinking, "Okay, that's what this show is. This is what it looks like."

It's interesting. I think probably it was episode three, because we pretty much wrote them in order. When we're talking about a lawyer means we can do this riff on The Mighty Ducks where a lawyer has to coach a youth hockey team.

And that led to all the crazy places it went. First of all, I get bored really easily. And second of all, I'll just go wherever I think the laughs are. And then we can take you kind of wherever we want. So yeah, I was running episode three. And I thought "This show is just going to go wherever, whatever is funniest.



One of the things I liked about the show is that I had the feeling sometimes you would set up an entire premise just so that you could deliver a specific punchline down the road. There's a scene in I think the last episode where you have these bunk bed desks for the two lawyers, which makes no sense. And then at one point you do a bro-hole joke and I thought, "Okay, that's why these desks are arranged that way because otherwise you can't do the joke."

Yeah. I think that was an offshoot of thinking what to do because we were doing a whole style parody in that episode of, "What would two kind of office would two playfully immature guys have?z" So we did actually start with bunk desks there and then bro-hole grew out of that.

But absolutely, we will set up a whole episode just to take a left turn somewhere. And as far as that whole episode ten, we didn't know we were going to do that. Because I don't think I've ever seen a show do something along the lines of "What if the last episode of our show was a different show where our characters sort of accidentally invade this other show? And that got me really excited.

So yeah, I'll just go anywhere for the laugh.

And without giving anything away, I have to say that that episode ended at a point where I found myself thinking, "Okay, it's going to be interesting to see where it goes from here because I have no idea how that will happen next."

I actually have no idea. If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, which is the last scene of this show, I don't know what we're going to do with that yet either. I'm excited to see what we do.

One of the things I liked about this show is there's been a lot of talk in recent weeks about how Netflix wants everything really obvious. So if people are looking on the phone and they're watching this, they don't miss anything. And your show is just crammed with stuff that even if you're looking at the show, I found myself having to go back, and check "Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Did you get any sort of pushback or guidance from Netflix on that?

Absolutely, absolutely not. I was actually really dreading that note. I'd heard about that from other people and absolutely, our show is so dense that well, I mean, you could be doing the dishes and watching it, but it definitely rewards scrutiny in our show.

In my favorite shows, I will watch a hundred times and still find something new, you know, like 30 Rock and Community are two huge shows for me. And I've pre-watched them probably 10 times. And to their credit, they've really let us do kind of whatever we wanted and the crazier we got, the more excited they got and the more dense we got, the more excited they got.

So it was the opposite of what I was expecting.

ODDS AND SODS
* If you are looking for a smoky-sensual song perfect for Valentine's Day, let me recommend the 1991 track "Something About Your Touch" by Francesca Beghe. It didn't make the charts at time, but I can't believe it hasn't been picked up by someone to use as a needle drop in a TV show or movie. And since this is a media newsletter, the TV connection is that her brother is Chicago PD actor Jason Beghe.

* Not that I need the competition, but NBC News just launched the entertainment newsletter On The Lot as part of its paid subscription bundle. Written by Rebecca Keegan, the weekly newsletter will come out every Friday.

* OWN has greenlit two new television specials featuring Iyanla Vanzant. Production on the specials will begin this March, as "Ms. Vanzant sits down with people who are in crisis in front of a live studio audience. Each special will dive deep into the heart of community and family dynamics, continuing Vanzant’s mission to help people "fix" their lives from the inside out."  

* The animated series Mating Season premieres Friday, May 22nd on Netflix. Here is the official logline: "From the creators of Big Mouth comes Mating Season, an adult animated romantic comedy – set in the animal world – about love, sex, relationships, and the universal need to find a partner and perpetuate the species – starring bears, raccoons, deer, foxes and a host of other horny, lovable forest critters."

READER FEEDBACK
As you might imagine, this week's newsletters have sparked a lot of feedback from readers and here is a sampling from the past couple of days:

"Since I'm sure you'll get blowback from your rightwing subscribers, thanks for following up on The Savant. It was a disheartening decision at the time and now it seems both cowardly and contemptible. You're the only one I've seen talk about this, yet another testament to the importance of independent media voices. I appreciate it!"

--Kim S.

Thanks for the kind words. I did receive a bit of negative feedback. I tend to lose a few paid subscribers every time I write about a topic that is seen as some kind of political attack. But it's difficult to write about these things without explaining why they are happening. Which often gets down to politics. Honestly, I miss the days when I didn't have to do this.

"On my friend's smart TV/GoogleTV, searches for a great PBS show like Great Performances' "Twelfth Night" at Shakespeare in the Park bounced us over to the YouTube channel, where PBS cross-posts things. And I wonder if PBS is losing money for each of those viewings. PBS "Independent Lens" had an amazing documentary last night about librarians getting targeted by MAGA activists & losing their jobs."

A.J.

My guess is that it's because on-demand viewing of the title might not be available unless you are a subscriber to PBS Passport - which I would recommend if you enjoy PBS. You can get access by donating as little as $5 a month to your local PBS station.

I wasn't about to review The Librarians because of timing issues, but I am going to be covering a lot of upcoming things. Including the really spectacular documentary White With Fear, which premieres March 24th. I am hoping to arrange an interview with the filmmakers, but as an FYI, here is the official logline: "Tracing the strategy from former President Nixon’s call for “law and order” during his 1968 presidential campaign, through 9/11, various other presidential campaigns, hate crimes and the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the film includes the voices of Steve Bannon, Hillary Clinton, former Fox News reporter Carl Cameron, The Lincoln Project founder Stuart Stevens, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rick Gates, former Breitbart writer Katie McHugh, and many more. White With Fear pulls back the curtain for a first-hand look at the strategies and tactics that have shaped some conservative political playbooks for decades. The film explores how divisive narratives and policies were strategically implemented by some politicians and media outlets to earn power and profit."

"One day, people are gonna have to come to terms with how they had a chance to draw a line in the sand between themselves and the fascists, and how they didn't because of death threats, fear of retaliation or, for some, concern they might offend the people who desperately need to be offended, shamed and ostracized out of our communities. I understand how some are more at risk than others, but we need to drop his excessive sheen of politeness regarding right wing violence. We need to hurt some feelings, while we still have the luxury of a voice."

--D.

WHAT'S COMING TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH:
* A Father's Miracle (Netflix)
* Belle Collective Season Premiere (OWN)
* Ben After Dark Season Two Premiere (Daily Wire+)
* Gold Rush Mine Rescue With Freddie & Juan Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Honey Bunch (Shudder)
* Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix Series Premiere (Prime Video)
* Joe's College Road Trip (Netflix)
* In The Mud (Netflix)
* Kissing Is The Easy Part (Tubi)
* Love Me Love Me (Prime Video)
* Neighbors Series Premiere (HBO)
* The Art Of Sarah (Netflix)
* The Museum Of Innocence (Netflix)
* The Singers (Netflix)
* The Wrong Baby Daddy (LMN)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH:
* Because Of Cupid (Hallmark)
* The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story (Lifetime)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH:
* American Pickers Season Premiere (History)
* Dark Winds Season Four Premiere (AMC)
* Family Guy (Fox)
* Filthy Fortunes Season Two Premiere (Discovery)
* Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Season Premiere (HBO)
* Like Water For Chocolate (HBO Latino)
* Love, Ted Bundy (Oxygen)
* Murder And Mayhem At Mardi Gras (Lifetime)
* Naked & Afraid Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Timber Titans Season Premiere (Weather Channel)
* Tournament of Champions: The Qualifiers (Food Network)

SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND!