CW's 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Pays Tribute to San Gabriel Valley Residents

The CW’s set-in-West Covina musical comedy “Crazy Ex- Girlfriend” encompasses more of the San Gabriel Valley in Monday night’s episode in what co-creator/executive producer Aline Brosh McKenna calls “a tribute to the people from the ‘burbs.”

“I’m from New Jersey, so I get what it’s like to live in the shadow of a big city,” said Brosh McKenna, who wrote the episode, which airs at 8 p.m.

“Josh and I Go to Los Angeles!” includes what may be the first prime- time references to Alhambra, Baldwin Park, Citrus, Diamond Bar, El Monte, Industry, Irwindale, La Puente, Monrovia, North El Monte, San Dimas and South El Monte.

“If you live in the San Gabriel Valley OR are an east coast Jew, you are REALLY gonna want to watch Monday’s episode of #crazyexgirlfriend,” Rachel Bloom, the series’ Golden Globe-winning star and co-creator, tweeted.

The episode continues the tale of attorney Rebecca Bunch’s (Bloom) class action lawsuit against the conglomerate Greater City Water after a disgruntled former employee (Michael Hitchcock) tells her of a scheme to divert water from the San Gabriel Valley toward Los Angeles.

“Josh and I Go to Los Angeles!” also includes a “JAP Rap Battle” between Bunch and her longtime frenemy (and fellow Jewish American princess) Audra Levine (Rachel Grate), the New York-based lawyer representing Greater City Water, a character described by Brosh McKenna “a shadow version of Rebecca.”

“She is that person your mother likes to torture you with by listing all her achievements. Doesn’t everyone has someone like that?” Brosh McKenna told City News Service.

Levine was initially conceived just as the “instrument of torture” of Bunch’s mother (Tovah Feldshuh), “but it quickly became clear to us that we would want to meet up with her, mostly so that Rebecca can see the person she almost became,” Brosh McKenna said.

The rap battle has Brunch and Levine exchanging barbs like “since we were toddlers, I studied every chink in your armor,” “academically, you could never catch me,” “I put the OG in five point O GPA” “all your book cracking don’t make up for the fact that I’m trapped with the killer instinct that you lack.”

--City News Service, photo courtesy of the CW