Ted Lasso’s Emmy-Nominated Editors Melissa McCoy and AJ Catoline

By Randi Altman

If you are one of the few who hasn’t seen Apple TV+’s feel-good series Ted Lasso, here is a very quick rundown without giving too much away: An American college football coach from the Midwest is recruited to manage a European football club in England (long story), bringing with him no real knowledge of the sport. Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is a non-tea-drinking fish out of water who, through sheer likeability and charm, succeeds at being a fantastic human while making those around him better people in the process.

Sudeikis created the series, along with veteran TV writer/producer/director Bill Lawrence (Scrubs), actor Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard) and consulting producer/writer Joe Kelly.

The show’s first season — Season 2 is airing now — was nominated for 20 Emmy Awards, including for best comedy series and two nods for best editing in a comedy series. We reached out to editors Melissa McCoy and AJ Catoline to talk about their nominated episodes, their workflows and walking the line between drama and comedy.

What direction were you given in terms of the pacing and rhythm?
Melissa McCoy: Jason always says this show is about the inhales and the exhales. So when we have a snappy dialogue scene, we play it a little more fast-paced, but when a scene demands more patience, we give it that space to play. But it’s really a case-by-case basis depending on the scene and performances. It’s a show that keeps you on your toes.

AJ Catoline: All I knew about it going in were the short sketches, so I thought we would have a more traditionally comedic show. Then when we were given scripts of the first few episodes, I realized we were dealing with something much deeper than a comedy. In comedy, usually the goal is to get to the next joke as quickly as possible. Sometimes you leave room for the comedic pregnant pauses, but mostly TV comedies are paced quickly. That is not the case with Ted Lasso.

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