Stars of ‘Weird Loners’ take a leap of faith

There’s a saying about survival in the fickle world of show business: It takes the skin of a rhino, but the heart of a rose.

Actress Becki Newton — one of the stars of the off-kilter comedy Weird Loners, premiering at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on Fox — has the aforementioned thick skin. It protects her from criticism, rejection and disappointment. But hers is more like the hide of a purple dinosaur.

“My first professional job as an actor, I was paid to be Barney the dinosaur at children’s birthday parties,” Newton says. “I got paid $25 per party. After a summer of wearing this costume in 90-degree heat, I was fired because apparently I wasn’t ‘committed enough’ to the character.”

Undeterred, Newton would go on to co-star in such TV shows as Ugly Betty and How I Met Your Mother.

“When I do something, I’m in 100 percent,” she says. “Unwavering optimism in the face of logic.”

She’s going to need all of that positive energy. These aren’t the most inviting times to launch a new comedy series on TV. The success rate is very low. Also working against Weird Loners, a subversive shaggy dog of a sitcom, is the fact that it was green-lighted and went into production before a major regime change at the network.

It’s probably a long shot for renewal after its initial six-episode run, yet Newton and her cast mates remain firm believers in the show.

“They’re giving us a shot, so we’ll see,” co-star Zachary Knighton said during a visit to North Texas last week to promote the show. “The network gave us billboards and promos on American Idol and Empire.

“So if it doesn’t work, we can’t blame them,” he says. “But if people like the show, it will grow.”

Knighton knows a thing or two about the unpredictable nature of television.

One of his bigger successes was in Happy Endings, another comedy that got a midseason launch. It had a three-season run on ABC (2011-2013) and became a cult favorite.

“But I was also on the sci-fi show that everybody said was going to be the next Lost and that one didn’t take at all,” Knighton says. He’s referring to ABC’s FlashForward, which opened strong in 2009 but lost its way storytelling-wise, then lost its support audience-wise.

Weird Loners is a New York-based sitcom about four relationship-challenged misfits in their mid-30s.

Newton’s character, Caryn, is a beautiful basket case who has a habit of picking the wrong guys.

“She’s one of those people who goes all in on everything, including relationships, often gets herself into trouble, doesn’t learn any lessons but stays supremely optimistic and obtuse about it all,” Newton says.

Knighton’s character, Stosh, is a skirt-chasing satyr and a user.

“The guy is a jerk,” he says. “It was fun to behave as badly as he does, to explore those darker aspects of my own personality, without having to pay any consequences.”

In one episode, Stosh works a scam in which he “steals” psychiatric therapy. “But if you think about it,” Knighton says, defending his character, “stealing therapy isn’t really so despicable, not when you consider the kind of money that therapists make.”

It’s pretty clear from the get-go that Caryn and Stosh are heading in the direction of a dysfunctional romance.

The other members of the group are Meera Rohit Kumbhani, who plays Zara, an oddball artist, and Nate Torrence, who plays Eric, a socially awkward man-child. They’re unlikely to pair off as anything more than friends.

But if the show manages to stick around for a while, this foursome might prove to be good for one another. With time, they might even manage to transform themselves into not-so-damaged people.

Newton has her fingers crossed.

“There was a very easy chemistry between us, as though we’ve all been working together a very long time,” Newton says. “It made filming fun and easy, and we were able to play around from Day One.”

For the time being, Knighton doesn’t mind being the underdog.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” he says. “I think the show is hilarious, and I had a good time making it.”

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Stars of ‘Weird Loners’ take a leap of faith."