Josh Duhamel, left, and Dean Winters speak onstage during the "Battle Creek" panel at the CBS 2014 Summer TCA held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday, July 17, 2014, in Beverly Hills, Calif. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

TORONTO - Chatting with Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters about their new cop show "Battle Creek" is more suited to a referee than an interviewer — the affable co-stars can't help but digress into wisecracks and jabs at each other.

The duo play two mismatched law enforcement officers who butt heads over just about everything, but in real life they say they've become fast pals.

Their off-kilter comic crime show shoots in Los Angeles but is set in the town of Battle Creek, Mich., an actual community between Detroit and Chicago that Duhamel says is a surprising hotbed of criminal activity.

The Canadian Press sat down with the stars to discuss the show's pedigree, Duhamel's life as a new dad and Winters' career shift from dark heavy material to lighter fare.

CP: So this show comes from "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan and "House" creator David Shore — two very different series. How does "Battle Creek" meet in the middle?

Duhamel: It's a good hybrid of the two shows because "House" ... had a different spin on a medical show, which is what I think made it so important. And then just the overall talents of Vince Gilligan and his ability to take something that hasn't really had that light shine on it and give it life, like he did in "Breaking Bad."

I think that this show, in a lot of ways, takes what we think is a cop show and spins it on its head and gives you a different take on it. There's a very tongue-in-cheek irreverence about this show that I think people are going to find refreshing.

Winters: I can't really say it much better than that. That was amazing, Josh.

Duhamel: Thank you.

CP: Cop procedurals have been done to death.

Winters: They're boring.

CP: So what made you want to sign on, Dean? You've tackled cop characters before.

Winters: This show is not about that. This show is about relationships and it was about the writing. Initially, when you get the call from your agent and you get a script that has Vince Gilligan, Bryan Singer and David Shore on the first page of the script then it's really kind of a no-brainer. It's almost like a perfect trifecta. Josh and I both met with them separately and we were very clear about what we wanted to do as actors. I didn't want to be looking for fingerprints and running black lights over sheets.

CP: Dean, I still think of you from HBO's "Oz." How did your stint on "30 Rock" change your career path?

Winters: I love doing comedy, but no one had ever seen me do it ... and then Tina (Fey) actually took a real shot in the dark with me. When I did the audition I played it just like you see it and I guess no one else had done that and she wanted to go that route. What it did was it ended up opening a whole new world for me.

CP: I imagine that one of the attractions for you, Josh, is that a regular series lets you put down roots now that you and your wife Fergie have a son.

Duhamel: The fact is I got to be home, I really got to be home for that first year of my kid's life. And in (future) I'll get to be there more. And I never thought I would feel as strongly about that as I do, but it's the most important thing to me. I just don't want to miss anything in this kid's life and so it's going to be something going forward, no matter what it is — whether my wife is on the road or I am on the road we're going to have to figure that out.

"Battle Creek" debuts Sunday on CBS and Global. This interview has been edited and condensed.

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2015