Creative partners Adam Pally and David Caspe did not expect that one of the greatest basketball players of all time would play the lead role in the “third part of the Pally Caspe trilogy.”

Pally, a dedicated member of his own recreational league basketball team, and Caspe, a “huge basketball fan and even bigger Stephen Curry fan,” couldn’t believe the four-time NBA champion wanted to work with them on a show.

“I wouldn’t be shocked if we didn’t get a call until Thursday morning, when the show is supposed to premiere, saying something like, ‘Yeah, Stephen has decided not to do it,'” Caspe told TheWrap. “I would say, ‘That makes sense. God bless him.'”

The duo came up with the idea for the mockumentary series “Mr. Throwback” after an appearance on Ayesha Curry’s HBO Max game show “About Last Night.”

Caspe and Pally appeared in several episodes with their wives — former “Happy Endings” and “Marry Me” actresses Casey Wilson and Daniella Liben — to play the “newlywed game.” After filming, Pally said the three couples just hit it off (though Caspe asks you not to watch his episode; he’s camera shy).

“We were joking backstage and the next day (Steph) and his producing partner, this incredibly talented producer Eric Payton, called us and said, ‘If you have any ideas, we’d love to hear them,'” Pally recalled to TheWrap.

The production partners immediately called their “Happy Endings” writing colleagues, the Libman Brothers, to pitch them to Curry’s production company, Unanimous Media, and the idea of ​​making a mockumentary series about Curry’s middle school teammate who cheats on him to “save his own ass” was born.

After filming was delayed due to writers’ and actors’ strikes last summer, production on the Peacock series was pressed for time. Between Curry’s NBA regular season and his appearance at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, it was difficult to find the star on and off the court. As a result, the show and its script are extremely topical, with references to “Hawk Tuah Girl,” “Gypsy Rose” and “Saltburn.”

“It honestly wasn’t our intention to be so topical. The truth is, we just had such an accelerated production schedule,” writer Daniel Libman told TheWrap. “(It) was such a compressed time frame that I think the result is almost ‘South Park-esque’ in its topicality.”

“We wrapped on June 30th. As far as I know, that’s the fastest time a television show has ever been broadcast,” Caspe added.

Although “Mr. Throwback” is a mockumentary series, it doesn’t draw inspiration from Christopher Guest’s work or “The Office,” but rather from real-life documentaries like “The Last Dance” and Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary. The creators said they wanted the show to answer the question of who made this film and why. “Mr. Throwback” includes confessionals, music and text slides that, unlike many other parodies, are reminiscent of a real documentary.

The writing trio of Caspe and the Libman brothers said they weren’t sure if the show would be improvised or written before filming began. They knew this was Curry’s first foray into series acting, so they wanted to give him enough material to work with, but didn’t know if the athlete had enough time to memorize 60 pages of dialogue.

“Then of course he came in because he’s just a genius, and (director) David Wain called action, and he just knew every one of his lines and knew when to come in, and it was so funny,” Caspe raved about the athlete.

“The first day we were like, ‘How is he going to take notes?’ And then we almost forgot that he wasn’t an actor,” added Matthew Libman.

But Curry wasn’t always perfect, the creators noted. Working with Pally and “SNL” star Ego Nwodim, the basketball star was bound to break down a few times. The creators revealed that they even left some of his giggles in the final cut.

“There are some shots where he’s laughing really loudly or where the three of them, Adam, Ego and Stephen, were laughing because they were just having so much fun together,” said Caspe. “It’s just great chemistry.”

Nwodim agreed that the chemistry between the three was like a real group of friends. For her first series job, she couldn’t have been more excited to work on a project where everyone got to shine and be funny in their own way.

“I didn’t want to miss anything and I think it’s a testament to how much fun I had. Even after I got permission to go home, I said, ‘I’m staying,'” Nwodim told TheWrap.

Much of the team behind Mr. Throwback worked on ABC’s Happy Endings, and they said they’d be happy to continue working together on a reboot of that project…if someone can come up with the money.

“Nothing’s set yet, but they keep talking about it,” Caspe confirmed. “I’m all for it, and the cast is all for it. And I actually had a drink with Jonathan Groff, the co-showrunner, the other day, and he’s all for it. So, you know, we just need someone to pay for it.”

For now, fans of the series can see the team back in action in “Mr. Throwback.” Pally plays a down-on-his-luck souvenir salesman and former middle school friend of Stephen Curry, played by himself. When he finds himself in a tight spot, he asks his old pal for a favor.

The executive producer and lifelong basketball fan said he was at least happy to be able to work so closely with the NBA star.

In the end, Caspe, the longtime basketball fan and EP, raved about Curry: “It was just a dream. We just got to know him and that’s fine. That’s all I wanted out of all this.”

All six episodes of “Mr. Throwback” are available to stream on Peacock.