‘Central Park’ Songwriters Kate Anderson & Elyssa Samsel On Choosing “Backing Up” For Emmy Consideration: “All The Dads Would Cry”
Three seasons into Central Park, songwriters Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel are thrilled with how much room they’ve been given to explore new genres. Told through the eyes of a busker narrator named Birdie (Josh Gad), the musical series follows Owen Tillerman (Leslie Odom Jr.), the manager of the park, who lives in the park with his journalist wife Paige (Kathryn Hahn) and two children Cole (Tituss Burgess) and Molly (Emmy Raver-Lampman). As they deal with issues across the park, elderly heiress Bitsy (Stanley Tucci) is plotting to turn the park into condominiums. Anderson and Samsel chose the song “Backing Up” for Emmy consideration, performed by Owen (Odom Jr.) as he deals with the possible loss of his family’s memories from a hard drive. As the pair played the song for the show runners, they found it “hit a nerve in a good way.”