Martin and Short brought their talents together on screen with "Only Murders in the Building" in 2021, starring alongside Selena Gomez in the hit Disney+ show. The show was Martin's brainchild, and he told The New York Times that he came up with the idea at a party when a host suggested he write about three older theatre actors in attendance. "The idea came almost immediately, that they lived in a building and they all were interested in crime. But they didn't have the energy to go downtown, so they would only do murders in the building," Martin said.
His original idea starred three older men, though he apparently didn't want to play one of them until Short suggested they do it together. Ultimately, Martin pitched the idea to producers Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal and agreed to star in the show only if Short could, too. Eventually, showrunner John Hoffman suggested adding a younger character to the mix, so Gomez's character, Mabel, was born, and the rest was history.