The Fosters Think The Kardashians Are The Realest

There are scripted shows, there are reality shows and then there is a new show called Barely Famous , which is in a category all on its own. At first glance at the promos for the new VH1 series it looks like another reality show about beautiful, clueless rich people that don't understand that they are in a hilarious comedy because this is just their life. Luckily, I was able to chat with sisters Erin and Sara Foster about their new series and the balance it strikes between reality and well, not reality.

"I don't really think it has a genre carved out for it. We would call it a satire or a parody," said Erin, trying to explain their brand new series.

"It feels like a House Husbands of Hollywood vibe. We pulled from The Comeback, we pulled from Curb [Your Enthusiasm], we pulled from The Larry Sanders Show, we pulled from Extras," added Sara. And it's not surprised that these two have that slate of shows as inspiration: They all parody the star-studded world they grew up in.

If you're not familiar with these two, you should probably know that they are the daughters of legendary music producer David Foster, stepdaughter of Real Housewife of Beverly Hill-er Yolanda Foster, and therefore stepsister of super Insta-model Gigi Hadid. Their father was also married to Bruce Jenner's ex-wife Linda Thompson, which means they are somewhere on the giant Kardashian/Jenner family tree. It doesn't get much more Reality TV than that. Sara is a model and actress (best known for her role as Jen Clark on 90210) and Erin is a writer for shows like The New Normal and frequent guest on Candidly Nicole; basically, these two are the perfect women for a reality show. They've got their hilarious L.A. surroundings and an inner circle includes Nicole Richie, Kate Hudson, and Jessica Alba. But they've also got a significant leg up on the Kardashians...

...because Sara and Erin are so in on the joke.

That's because Barely Famous isn't actually a reality show. The Fosters are playing hyped-up versions of themselves and those alter-egos are on a reality show (even though half the time they are denying they are on a reality show, like in the hilarious opening scene of the pilot), and beyond besting the Kardashians, there's an extra honor that comes with this set-up: It hasn't really been done before.

As you can imagine, Barely Famous has been difficult to explain, especially since it can't be compared to anything that came before it. Erin says she's aware and that's it's been a challenge as a creator, as well.

"The way that it's a confusing show to explain, it was a confusing show for us to understand what we were doing too. We are pulling from so many different genres and carving out from this different space so we had to really work out so many details," Erin said. "At some point we just had to decide that even if it didn't make sense, and sometimes we would break the fourth wall and sometimes we won't, and people just aren't gonna think about it and once we made that decision, every thing else got a lot easier."

Luckily, VH1 was all in on this strange new endeavor. "They really let us do what we needed to do. I think they saw that we had this vision and like everybody else they didn't quite know what it was going to end up looking like, but they trusted that we knew what we were doing," said Erin.

Of course, convincing their celebrity friends to cameo proved to be quite difficult when explaining the show didn't come so easily. "Like Kate Hudson had to take a real leap of faith," said Erin of Sara's famous high school pal (see the two friends at a Clippers game, below). But explaining the unexplainable was a task the sisters knew they needed to take on for the sake of the show.

"You can't do a show about L.A. culture and not have a ton of celebrity encounters. And one of our favorite things to poke fun at is the way that people act around celebrities, the way that people treat celebrities," said Erin. It helps that Sara said she wouldn't let Hudson give her "no" for an answer, which works out because Hudson's swag scene worked pretty perfectly. Lucky for us, the Fosters also managed to convince a few other friends to swing by include Alba, Richie, Ashley Benson, Molly Sims, and Courteney Cox (who will be featured on Wednesday's new episode).

But for two women taking the piss out of reality TV, they sure don't indulge in many guilty pleasure shows (they say they've never even watched The Hills — gasp!), though Erin said she recently became obsessed with Married at First Sight and Sara does occasionally watch The Wahlburgers.

Surprisingly, they don't really watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians — even though in the first episode of Barely Famous Richie points out that Erin is technically a Kardashian, just not a famous one. They do, however, give KUWTK some major props for being the ultimate reality show. "It's fascinating. They're so real. In terms of if you are going to fill the voyeuristic need of watching people in their living rooms you might as well watch the Kardashians," says Erin. "I have no interest in the shows that are just pretending to be reality, but are fake. At least the Kardashians really let you in there and they fight in front of you and cry. We really get a glimpse into what their family is like unlike just watching people go through the motions."

The Foster sisters certainly aren't just going through the motions either. Well, their alter egos may be, but that's just makes the show even funnier.

Image: Getty Images; VH1