The Last Man on Earth: Will Forte survives the apocalypse. Hilarity ensues.

Will Forte The Last Man on Earth

In FOX’s The Last Man on Earth, Will Forte (Saturday Night Live) delivers a virtuoso comedic performance as Phil Miller, the planet’s lone survivor of a deadly pandemic. Free to do as he wants, Phil passes his time drinking, destroying things and trying to stave off loneliness. And, yes, it’s a comedy. The series begins with an hourlong episode Sunday, March 1, at 9pm ET/PT then moves to its regular Sunday time period beginning March 8 at 8:30pm ET/PT.

In 2020, a deadly pandemic wipes out all human and animal beings, save one. Phil Miller travels through all of North America in search of survivors and finds none. Deterred, he returns home to Tucson with once-prized relics of civilization he has collected on his journey. Lonely and despairing, Phil’s days are passed with drunkenness and wanton destruction.

And it’s funny as all hell.

Creator/writer/star Will Forte (Saturday Night Live, Nebraska) is the last man barely standing in FOX’s new comedy The Last Man on Earth, directed and produced by The LEGO Movie’s Chris Miller and Phil Lord. The pilot episode plays out almost like a silent movie, and Forte spends much of his onscreen time alone, where he’s free to do whatever he wants: smashing things, shooting things, peeing in things and playing pool with his Cast Away-inspired athletic equipment buddies.

“It has been a very, very fun show to shoot because I get to do a lot of wish‑fulfillment stuff,” Forte says. “I would imagine that men and women would have different ideas about what they would do if they were the last person on Earth. And I think I would just go around and break stuff. And it just has been really fun to break a lot of stuff.”

And drink a lot of stuff, too. Phil turns a kiddie pool into a giant salt-rimmed margarita glass. “Mainly colored water,” Forte says of what was actually in the cocktail/bath. “Definitely my dirty feet had gotten in there first. I was drinking a mixture of water and dirt, essentially. And a lot of salt. Eventually a ton of salt was in there.”

Being a comedy, Last Man is not all that concerned about realism or details of the apocalyptic plague. Chris Miller says, “There are only a few casual mentions of where all the dead bodies are.”

Will Forte The Last Man on Earth

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Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.