Erin Foster: It was really this idea from my own life, getting to a point where you meet this really wonderful, healthy person who wants to show up for you, and so you find something really dumb and decide you don't like them because of that. But my husband was just the first person who stood in front of me and said, "I won't let you do that, this is stupid, so call me when you're ready to grow up." And it kind of woke me up. 

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): Noah and I are figuring out how to be a "we." 

[CLIP] Morgan (Justine Lupe): Ew. 

[GFX: Is ‘Nobody Wants This’ Based on a True Story?]

Erin Foster: There were a lot of elements in season one that were important to me. "The ick" was something that kept falling out of the writers' room, and two of our writers, Jane and Lindsay, they came into my office one day and were like, "We feel like you really want ‘the ick,’ and it keeps getting dropped, and so we really want to say to you, ‘Let's make it happen.’ " And it wasn't about this silly story. Of course it's funny and cute, but it was really this idea from my own life, like getting to a point where you meet this really wonderful, healthy person who wants to show up for you, and so you find something really stupid. 

Jenni Konner: And how do you sabotage it. 

Erin Foster: Yeah. "How can I possibly ruin this?" You find something really dumb and decide you don't like them because of that. 

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): I don't have the ick. 

[CLIP] Morgan (Justine Lupe): Sweetie, you can't fight the ick. Okay? It's like a Chinese finger trap. The harder you pull, the stronger it gets. 

Erin Foster: I'd done that to plenty of people, but my husband was just the first person who stood in front of me and said, "I’m not going to  let you do that, this is stupid, so call me when you're ready to grow up." And it woke me up. 

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): The ick cannot be reversed. Now we know it has to be defeated, needs to be conquered, and it can be overcome. 

Jenni Konner: All those little details of it came from people's experiences in the room. It feels very truthful, even when it gets silly, because it's all very emotional.

Erin Foster: Moments like that were important to me, and moments in Season 2 pulled from real life is just the way that someone really makes you feel loved is really unique to each person, but it's sort of universal at the same time. Getting a bedside table didn't happen to me.

Jenni Konner: It happened to Sarah Heyward.

Erin Foster: Our writer, Sarah Heyward. It happened to her.

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): Where did that come from? 

Erin Foster: And it really felt romantic to me because he's paying attention to what you need, he's watching you without letting you know he's watching. 

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): This is the most romantic thing that anyone's ever done on planet Earth. You got me a nightstand for my tower.

Erin Foster: I think that hosting a dinner party together as a couple, it sort of feels like you're being adults together. And it's like, what does that look like? And I think that Joanne, like myself, when I got into an adult, healthy relationship, I was really excited to do all these things that I had seen other couples do that I admired, like hosting a dinner party. That seemed simple, but it felt very cohesive. Like, "Oh, we're a unit now. We do things together." Like, “We're available for dinner March 23rd. We'll look at our calendar.” All those things were exotic to me. [Jenni laughs] And I think that simplicity in that story also then kind of makes everything come undone because there's so much pressure on it. 

Jenni Konner: Also, I wanna say one of the things about the dinner party and one of the things about the way our writers’ room works, which is really fun, and one of the benefits of working with someone who is very inspired by their own story is that I believe the way that episode came about is you telling the story of being insane about the lighting at your own dinner party. You had all these friends come over, and you were like, "Is this right? Is this right? Is this right?" "Higher, lower, in the middle." And Simon being like, "I'm not sure this is what this is about." 

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): This is 20%, 50%, 70%. Yikes, that's an airport bathroom. OK, no. You know what? I should just make an executive decision.

Erin Foster: [laughs] Yes.

Jenni Konner: And showing your anxiety that way. And from that, we got to build the show around it.

Erin Foster: Things that happen in your life or that you do, you can't tell if it'll connect for others. So getting that other perspective, when I'm talking about how, for us, it was like hosting people over for sports or something like that. And Simon had to come up to me and say, like, "You've been by the light switch for a really long time. The lighting is great. Nobody's talking about the lighting, but you keep worrying." And I found myself being an anxious host because I wanted it to be great, that I was sort of killing the vibe. I would go up to people, "You think this lighting's weird?" They're like, "I haven't noticed. Now that you mention it, it could be weird."

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): This is gonna be great. It's gonna be great. 

Erin Foster: I had been in a really bad relationship decades ago. Maybe one decade ago.

Jenni Konner: [laughing] I was gonna say, "Decades"?

Erin Foster: I'm 57 years old. Um… [laughter] We moved really fast, and I thought that we were, you know, just such an amazing couple. And I sort of looked down on these other couple friends we had. Like, "You guys haven't said 'I love you' yet? It's so embarrassing." "You guys don't live together? I guess you don't love each other." And it always stuck out to me that, in the moment, you think you know everything, and you have this instinct to compare yourself to other couples. And it's really easy to feel like [you’re] better than because you're so excited to be there. But it's all about the long game. So I think Morgan just really gets ahead of herself, and it really makes Joanne feel threatened. That's very real. 

Jenni Konner: Yeah. I think it makes Noah feel threatened, too, a little bit.

Erin Foster: Yes.

Jenni Konner: Because they don't have this deep complication that is sort of not something that's easy to get over, that has a very clear answer how you have to get over it. But it may never happen. 

[CLIP] Noah (Adam Brody): Part of being in a relationship is dealing with these issues, and we will.

Erin Foster: That's true.

Jenni Konner: What I love about working on this show is, like, we really try to come from truth and come from moments that are really real and grounded. And even as the show gets sillier or weirder, we want it to be based in a reality level that people can feel. And they feel it because Erin lived it, and it feels really fresh because Erin lived it. We haven't seen that before because it's her.

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): You know what the dream is? Being attracted to someone who makes you feel safe. 

[CLIP] Noah (Adam Brody): Gosh, I hope you find that. 

[CLIP] Joanne (Kristen Bell): I hope you find it too.