Meet the creators of the Israeli hit comedy ‘Checkout,’ now streaming on ChaiFlicks

(L-R: Creators Nadav Frishman and Yaniv Zohar on the set of “Checkout” Credit: Reuven Kastro)

“Checkout” is a half-hour hit Israeli sitcom currently streaming on ChaiFlicks (with English subtitles). The show follows the quirky staff and its customers in a struggling grocery store in the small city of Yavne in central Israel. It won best sitcom at the Israeli Television Awards in 2020 and was nominated for best comedy at the 2019  International Emmy Awards.

Although Israeli TV series including the spy thriller “Fauda” and the Orthodox-themed “Shtisel” have been hits worldwide, “Checkout” — whose first three seasons aired on Israel’s Kan 11 channel — has become wildly popular for its absurdist depiction of more average, unglamorous Israelis. The show bears a slight resemblance to the NBC sitcom “Superstore,” which ran from 2015-2021 and revolved around a fictional big box store in St. Louis.

In “Checkout,” there’s Kochava, the callous middle-aged woman who doesn’t hesitate to close her register even if there is a long line of people waiting. At one point she tells a customer he has bad hair, then gleefully walks away when his hair gets stuck in her lane’s conveyor belt; the hapless store manager Shira, who tries to model her executive style after the late Apple magnate Steve Jobs; Ramzi, the goody-two-shoes Israeli Arab who approaches the market as if it is a shrine; and a butcher who imagines he sees a holy rabbi’s likeness in a cut of beef.

The show is the brainchild of Nadav Frishman, 45, and Yaniv Zohar, 36, who grew up frequenting small-town supermarkets in the areas of Neve Monosson, a communal settlement in central Israel and the centrally located city of Ra’anana, respectively. Frishman began his career as a stand-up comedian. Several years later he shifted to screenwriting and went on to create and write the Israeli series “Pini the Great.” Zohar has been a writer on a number of prime-time comedy shows on Israel’s major commercial stations including “Ktsarim” and “Tzhok Me’Avoda.”

SoCal Jewish News recently caught up with the duo in Tel Aviv via Zoom.

SoCal Jewish News: You got to know each other when you worked together on a comedy talk show on Israel’s Channel 13 seven years ago. But Nadav, you fired Yaniv a week before the first season ended.

Nadav Frishman: He was lazy. He didn’t come in on time. Actually … it involved the producers and money issues, but we shouldn’t make a big deal of it.

Yaniv Zohar: No, there were more writers besides me, so he could’ve fired somebody else. And I was very angry at him at the time. We weren’t friends then, and I told him that what goes around comes around.

NF: [From] my perspective, he was not good enough, and I had to shake him [up] by firing him. But now look, he’s better. Who was right? Thank you very much. Drop the mic.

SCJN: But then you worked together on another Channel 13 comedy show two years later.

YZ: I came in and they told me Nadav would be above me. It’s like they ambushed me.

SCJN: But you then found you had similar approaches to comedy.

NF: We had the same quality. We give 120%, even if we don’t agree with the material or the comedians. When everybody used to go home at 6 p.m., I was the showrunner and I used to stay [late]. And Yaniv, who was the head writer, he’d also stay until 10 p.m. or 12. The nature of our comedy is that the work never ends. We both are reaching for truth — the unspoken truth. With a lot of the other writers, there was the bad habit of making jokes. But as Larry David once said, “When you’re committed to the truth, something funny will come out.”

YZ: The difference between us is that Nadav is more evil in his humor.

NF: I love “Seinfeld” and he loves “Friends.” I’m not evil. I just don’t like [sentimentality.]

SCJN: Why did you decide to set “Checkout” in a supermarket?

YZ: Even in Ra’anana, there were all kinds of people, from every place in society, which is the magic of the supermarket.

NF: People are funny and people are in the supermarket with an attitude. It’s like a war zone because in Israel, people want to f— you, excuse the language. Everything is a competition. It’s like a 100-meter race. It’s dog-eat-dog; every person for themselves.

YZ: It’s the modern jungle. Early humans needed to hunt, and now when we go to the supermarket, it’s like the same experience. It’s all kind of primordial.

SCJN: Why did you include the character of Ramzi, who is an Israeli Arab?

YZ: That’s what you have in the supermarkets in Israel. It’s from life.

NF: What’s funny about Ramzi is that he is committed to his big love, which is the supermarket. I think that any character who has a big obsession is a great [comic] tool to work with. There’s a lot of love in his heart, and again, the obsession is funny because he doesn’t see how the customers are sometimes nasty. Also, he’s not racist. To be honest, the Israeli-Arab conflict doesn’t concern us at all and we don’t understand it deeply.

YZ: Nadav and I have almost zero interest in the news. I’m not proud of it. We are more interested in the psychology of the characters than the political [ramifications]. It’s always the individual, not the big story.

SCJN: In one episode, there is a terrorist attack near the market and one customer says Ramzi is the terrorist, so the manager keeps transferring him to different departments, and finally sends him home. Can you talk about that?

YZ: When we created Ramzi, we didn’t really address the fact that he is an Arab. But later when we delved into the character, we realized we’d have to deal with that issue, but in our own way.

SCJN: Can you discuss Kochava, the most outrageous character?

NF: Kochava is a kind of an Israeli prototype. She’s shameless, cheeky and opportunistic…. In my mind, the worst thing she does is, during a competition among the [workers] to sell wine, she very much wants to win, so she gets some alcoholic in rehab to drink again.

YZ: One of the inspirations for Kochava is the character of Cartman in “South Park.” We used to talk about, “What would Cartman do?” when we talked about her plot lines. It’s the quality that is self-centered, outrageous and has a filthy mouth.

SCJN: And Shira, with her Steve Jobs fixation?

NF: She’s so far away from him that it’s funny. We thought that her attempts to apply Steve Jobs’ management principles with a monstrous business-like Apple to a small supermarket in Yavne is hilarious.

YZ: The wanna-be is the greatest tool for a comic writer.

SCJN: You’re now preparing to write the fourth season. Why do you think the show has been so successful?

NF: Everyone is surprised about this show. We are amazed. We can’t explain it, and we don’t try to explain it. My dream is that one day [Jerry] Seinfeld will see it.

Season 1 of “Checkout” is currently streaming on ChaiFlicks.