I need you to stop what you're doing and look at this.
In 2017, The Last Man on Earth aired an episode called "Got Milk?" — Season 3, Episode 10. It's a flashback episode. No Will Forte. No apocalypse survivors. Just Kristen Wiig playing a wealthy, insecure socialite named Pamela Brinton at a charity gala, feuding with her rival played by Laura Dern. The setting? A glittering high-society fundraiser. The theme? What a woman will do to claw her way to the top of a social hierarchy she doesn't really belong in.
In 2024, Apple TV+ premiered Palm Royale. It stars Kristen Wiig as a status-obsessed woman named Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons who schemes her way into Palm Beach high society. Laura Dern co-stars and executive produces. The setting? Glittering charity galas and exclusive country clubs. The theme? What a woman will do to claw her way to the top of a social hierarchy she doesn't really belong in.
Are you seeing this?
In "Got Milk?", Wiig plays Pamela Brinton — a super-wealthy socialite who hosts charity auctions, delivers self-aggrandizing monologues to crowds of rich people, and is deeply insecure about her social standing. She's married to money but terrified she doesn't really belong. Her nemesis is Laura Dern's Catherine, who upstages her at her own charity event.
In Palm Royale, Wiig plays Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons — an outsider who schemes her way into Palm Beach high society through the town's most exclusive country club. She's married into the Dellacorte family but terrified she doesn't really belong. Laura Dern plays Linda Shaw, another woman navigating the same treacherous social waters.
"Got Milk?" opens at The Pamela Brinton Foundation Charity Auction for Canine Hip Dysplasia. That's not just a setting — it's a satire of how the ultra-rich perform generosity. Palm Royale is set at The Palm Royale Club, a fictional version of the Everglades Club or Mar-a-Lago, where membership is everything and appearances are currency. Both worlds are defined by the same thing: the elaborate performance of status through charity events, galas, and social rituals.
In "Got Milk?", Pamela (Wiig) is hosting her own charity event when Catherine (Dern) arrives and effortlessly steals the spotlight. Pamela is wealthy but insecure — she needs the validation of being the center of attention. Catherine doesn't need it; she just is it. This dynamic — the striver vs. the natural — is the exact engine that drives Palm Royale. Maxine (Wiig) desperately schemes to belong. Linda (Dern) and the other Palm Beach women are gatekeepers of a world Maxine can never truly enter.
Before "Got Milk?", Wiig and Dern had never worked together. Their careers ran in parallel universes — Wiig in comedy (SNL, Bridesmaids), Dern in prestige drama (Blue Velvet, Wild, Big Little Lies). The Last Man on Earth episode was the collision point.
Here's what makes this even more interesting. In 2017 — the same year "Got Milk?" aired — Laura Dern was also starring in Big Little Lies as Renata Klein. Who is Renata Klein? A wealthy, status-obsessed woman who has public meltdowns at social events and screams about not being taken seriously by the other rich women in her community.
Dern was literally playing the same archetype across two shows simultaneously in 2017. The wealthy woman whose status is everything, whose public persona masks deep insecurity, who performs generosity and sophistication while barely holding it together.
When Palm Royale was greenlit five years later with Dern as executive producer, she wasn't just bringing Wiig along — she was bringing her entire portfolio of wealthy-woman-unraveling performances as a creative template.
"Got Milk?" is a comedy episode about a pandemic apocalypse that plays like a Vanity Fair social satire. Pamela barely notices the world ending because she's too focused on being upstaged at her own charity event. Palm Royale is a period comedy where Maxine barely notices the political upheaval of 1969 (Vietnam, moon landing, Watergate) because she's too focused on getting into a country club. Both use the obliviousness of wealth as comedy and tragedy simultaneously.
I don't think anyone sat down and said "let's turn that Last Man on Earth episode into a whole show." That's not how Hollywood works. What I think happened is more organic and more interesting:
1. Wiig and Dern had incredible chemistry playing wealthy rivals in "Got Milk?" (2017). Both were Emmy-submitted. Critics raved. Something clicked.
2. Juliet McDaniel published "Mr. & Mrs. American Pie" in 2018 — a novel about a woman scheming her way into 1960s Palm Beach society. The Pamela Brinton energy was already in the air.
3. When the book was adapted, Dern was involved as producer. She said Wiig was "the only person they had in mind." Why? Because she'd already seen Wiig play this exact character in 2017. She didn't need an audition. She had "Got Milk?"
4. Palm Royale became the 10-episode, two-season expansion of what "Got Milk?" proved in 22 minutes: Kristen Wiig is transcendent as a wealthy woman performing status while falling apart inside, and Laura Dern is the perfect foil.
"Got Milk?" didn't become Palm Royale. It proved Palm Royale was possible. One extraordinary episode showed Wiig and Dern that this pairing, in this world, with this tone, was magic. Seven years later, they built an entire show around it. The Last Man on Earth ended the world. Palm Royale was born from the ashes.
If you want to see the connection for yourself, here's what to watch:
First: The Last Man on Earth, Season 3, Episode 10 — "Got Milk?" (2017). Available on Hulu. 22 minutes. You don't need to have seen any other episode. It's a self-contained flashback.
Then: Palm Royale, Season 1, Episode 1 — "Maxine Simmons Dellacorte Begins Her Ascent" (2024). Apple TV+. The parallels will hit you like a truck.
When you watch Wiig give that monologue at the charity auction in "Got Milk?" and then watch her sing Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" at the Beach Ball in Palm Royale... you'll see it. The same woman. The same desperation. The same magnificent, heartbreaking comedy.
Nobody is talking about this connection. I'm talking about it. Now you know.
