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Three years ago, Stephen Falk, a TV writer and producer, created a comedy called “Next Caller.” NBC picked up the show and ordered six episodes, but canceled it before it ever aired. When he got the word, Mr. Falk took to Tumblr and wrote that the sudden notice felt like “a 10.0 earthquake,” explaining that “there is a larger discussion that has to do with network expectations” versus “the Creative’s expectations; the wisdom of holding to what you deem good vs. What They Want; making yourself laugh first.”

According to Mr. Falk, his show “You’re The Worst,” which airs Wednesday on FXX, does just that. It’s about Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash), two selfish and relationship-averse 30-year-olds who somehow manage to come together despite their better instincts. It was the only show to survive last season’s romantic comedy logjam, and it landed on many critics’ year-end top 10 lists. Mr. Falk recently spoke about the show, how his characters are jerks and what he learned from his “Next Caller” experience. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

A lot of people weren’t quite sure what to make of the show from its pilot — two 30-year olds who don’t have their act together. What was your reaction to that, knowing what was ahead for the show?

A.

I was O.K. with their reaction in that I don’t think that when you read the first chapter of a novel, or the first 15 pages, you’re necessarily going to be able to assess A, what the story is on a whole, B, are you going to like it and C, understand the complexities of these characters.

He owns a house. They both have careers. She has an office. She has clients. He has a novel. I don’t think there was any effort ever for me to portray, “Look at these man-children or women-children. They don’t know how to live on their own.” I’d find that boring as a 43-year-old man.

Q.

At what point during the season did you know that the audience was going to accept Jimmy and Gretchen as this twisted but traditional romantic couple?

A.

I don’t think it was a conscious decision to have some sort of easy signpost of likability. I just think that I trusted the audience to understand that I don’t think Jimmy or Gretchen’s bad behavior is cool. I don’t think it’s lovable. And I think that Jimmy’s relationship to writing, particularly in Season 2, certainly is not my view of writing. He holds it up as a very austere, high godly calling. There’s a lot in Jimmy’s persona that I don’t love. The fact of the matter is last season in Episode 5 when he finally said to Gretchen, “Yeah, O.K. don’t go off with Ty,” that was probably a moment where an audience went, “Oh, O.K. There’s a little more to this guy.”

Q.

Where do Gretchen’s dysfunctions come from?

A.

I’m a little tired of the “boy who couldn’t grow up” character in pop culture and I think that maybe it’s a little underrepresented in the female characters. While she functions in her job, her real life having been compartmentalized by exacting parents really made her sort of arrested in a lot of ways. Even little details about her apartment. There’s like five UPS stickers on her front door. She gets parking tickets. It’s just sort of observing how a lot of the women I know seem to of that age sometimes have even more trouble navigating the intricacies of daily life. And I think that’s funny and underrepresented.

Q.

How tough is it to navigate the romantic comedy signposts while keeping Jimmy and Gretchen from becoming stale characters?

A.

They’re so ridiculously afraid of becoming this image, and we deal with it a lot this season. In Episode 9 a side character actually speaks about how it’s very easy to get trapped in living in opposition to becoming some imagined thing or some real thing and I think the characters are very aware of that. They’re paddling very hard away from the shores of domesticity. But at the same time I have to write it as I would if I was hired in the early 2000s to write a big studio romantic comedy. I believe in the romantic comedy form. I believe in Jimmy and Gretchen’s inexorable march toward love. I think there’s where we’re going. We’re not going to pull the rug out from the audience and become 100 percent something else.

Q.

I went back and reread the Tumblr you wrote three years ago when “Next Caller” got canceled before it even aired. What did you learn from that experience?

A.

I learned a ton from “Next Caller.” I mean, “You’re the Worst” is very much the reaction to the experience of trying to write for a network that didn’t really understand what its brand was or didn’t really even like its brand at the time, in terms of comedy. Even they would argue that they still haven’t found it. I’m talking about NBC; they don’t know what they’re doing in that realm. And so that lack of identity led to a lot of chaos in terms of the kind of notes we got and they didn’t really want us. I ended up really contorting into something that I didn’t love at the end.