‘We laugh a lot on set’: Andrew Phung and Rakhee Morzaria on running the ’burbs for a second season

Economy-sized lasagnas, endless laughs and a plethora of dad jokes.

This is the stuff of suburban fantasy.

CBC’s “Run the Burbs” returns for a second season on Jan. 4. For “Kim’s Convenience” alum and “Burbs” co-creator Andrew Phung, the success of “Burbs” isn’t a surprise — he knew early on the show would be a hit once it found its audience.

“I always knew that,” he said in a Zoom interview. “I knew that when audiences found the show they’d love it. So much of launching a show is getting audiences to watch it.

“And a lot of people want to binge it,” he added. “One thing we noticed right away was that our audience was much younger, was often families and often families of colour. That’s something I’m really proud of. In order for us to make those changes in our media landscape, we have to engage audiences who haven’t always been engaged by mainstream broadcasters.”

Phung is no stranger to fans stopping him on the street — until a few months ago, he was used to being recognized as Kimchee from “Kim’s Convenience.”

But things have changed.

“I’ll be out in the street, and people will come up and say, ‘Hey, we love your show.’ And I’ll say, ‘Thanks so much for loving “Kim’s,” but watch my new show.’ And they’ll say, ‘No, no, no, we are watching your new show.’ And that was really nice to start seeing.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly for those who’ve seen the show, the atmosphere on the set of “Run the Burbs” is unusually friendly and warm, according to Rakhee Morzaria, who plays Phung’s wife, Camille, on the show.

Part of that lovely working environment? The food.

Food is a major part of Morzaria’s character on the show and that’s partly modelled on Morzaria in real life. Morzaria reluctantly calls herself a “foodie,” but really, she just loves good eats.

“I’m very much an Indian woman in terms of my cooking, where it’s a pinch of this, a pinch of that and let’s see what happens. But that’s a really fun element to bring into Camille. She’s constantly in the kitchen making things and there’s a sort of choreography in that. I used to dance and I love to dance,” she said on Zoom.

According to Morzaria, “Run the Burbs” takes good care of its cast and crew’s culinary needs, which has fed (ha, ha) the team’s bonding on set.

“Almost every week there’s a food truck on set,” she said. “Andrew brought in Vietnamese coffee. I brought in samosas for Diwali … it’s so lovely. The days are long and they’re fun, but everyone appreciates a good meal.”

Sometimes those meals appear onscreen, much to the delight of the actors who get to bring them home after a long day of shooting. Food has been a major source of on-set bonding for Morzaria and Phung.

“We shot a scene … where there were these massive lasagnas and there were four of them,” said Phung. “Rakhee and I knew if we didn’t eat a ton of lasagna onscreen, and we rationed our bites, we’d each be able to take home a lasagna at the end of the day.”

“I was driving home and I took a picture of the lasagna in my passenger seat,” said Morzaria. “It took up the full seat. I took a picture and sent it to Andrew, and he sent me back the exact same photo … it was high quality, Italian lasagna. I could tell while we were shooting the scene that this was a high-quality lasagna.”

“It had to be five or six pounds,” added Phung.

Working with her onscreen family, especially kiddos Zoriah Wong and Roman Pesino, has been “inspiring” for Morzaria.

“Every season, I feel like I grow as an actor. I also saw change with Andrew. But those are subtle things, because … we’re adults. But seeing the kids change is so cool,” she said.

“From Season 1 to Season 2, they have just a little more in their steps, they have a little more of an opinion. They’re trying stuff. And I just think that’s so fun to watch … and so inspiring.”

Lasagnas aside, the cast of “Run the Burbs” knows how to have a good time on set. The cast will sometimes improvise to find an even funnier version of a scene than the one written — a scene in the first episode of Season 2 came to mind for Morzaria and Phung.

“There’s a scene where we’re in bed together, under the sheets,” said Phung. “It’s Andrew with his shirt off and he’s covering his nipples. In that moment, we played with it. We thought about how we’d play with the sheet, how we’d do our hair coming out of bed. Rakhee or myself will say to each other, ‘Hey, let’s try a thing,’ and we’ll run with it … we laugh a lot on set.”

On the surface, there are obvious similarities between Phung and his character, Andrew Pham: the name Andrew, for one. The obsession with sneakers, too. But on “Run the Burbs,” Phung has handed himself over to the series’ roster of directors and spent time differentiating the character from himself.

“That’s a process of learning the characters,” he said. “I had to find moments where Andrew Pham was different from Andrew Phung. It came from working with the directors. Every director that came on set, I’d tell them, ‘Don’t think of me as an executive producer or co-creator. Think of me as the actor.’ That’s what I want. When I’m on set, I go to work as an actor … and all our directors bring out a different version of Andrew.

“It’s hard, because I’m a control person. But I find it really nice to give up control to a director and find the differences. You find subtle differences. Andrew Pham is more of a worrier. Andrew Phung makes choices immediately,” he said.

“On the surface, you see sneakers and a big personality. But it’s in the things that make us tick where there’s a difference between me and the character.”

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