If youโve watched Tosh.0, youโve probably heard of Brickleberry, the new animated series on Comedy Central. Trashwire sat down with creators Waco OโGuin and Roger Black at Comic-Con in August for a round table interview about the series, premiering September 25th on Comedy Central.
How did you guys come up with the concept for Brickleberry?
Waco OโGuin: We were looking to do something that hadnโt already been done, so we wanted to do something we know and my father-in-law, Woody, is a park ranger. Heโs the weirdest dude, and he really takes it seriously about being a park ranger and really gets offended when you talk bad about park rangers. [Co-creator Roger Black] is just a jerk and, at my wedding, Roger kept calling him โTree Copโ. It came to a point at my wedding that he got so mad at Roger that he grabbed him by the thumb and bent it back in a park ranger hold that made him drop down to his knees. After that Roger didnโt say anything else. When we were thinking of ideas that memory came out and we thought it was funny that my father-in-law took it so seriously. So, we thought how about a show about national parks and a character who takes his job so seriously and his name is Woody. We tell my father-in-law that itโs just a name, itโs not based on him. It will be interesting to see what his reaction is when it comes out.
Why was Comedy Central a good fit for the show?
It was originally a pilot for Fox and it didnโt end up being taken seriously, which turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us, because we started a comedy show back in โ98 and our goal was always to be on Comedy Central. We got stacks of rejections letters over the years. The short answers is, itโs just the freedom that you have on Comedy Centralโbecause our pilot for Fox, they were like โitโs funny, but I donโt know if we can put this on the airโ and Comedy Central was like, โitโs funny, but can you guys push it a little bit more?โ Yeah, we can do that! Itโs just an awesome place to be and great for us!
How has it been to see the whole thing come together?
It has been incredible! Our animation company, Bento Box, is just incredible place. The great thing about animation is that any idea you have, you can make happen. Brickleberry actually started out as live action, but when they saw the script they said โwe canโt produce this,โ so the decision came down to this.
Tell us a little bit about the other characters.
Well, they are all park rangers except Malloy, whoโs a bear. Woody is the head park ranger. Steve (voiced by David Herman) is really over-enthusiastic, thinks his job is great, but he is really a bumbling idiot. Ethel (Kaitlin Olson) doesnโt work at the park. Sheโs from Yellowstone. Brickleberry is a horrible park, so they get this park ranger from Yellowstone to come in and kind of try to turn the park around, but Steve is really threatened by her. Then Roger plays Connie, who is a park ranger but a little bit of an outcast. The only place she fits in is in the woods. Not an attractive woman. Then we have Malloy (voiced by Daniel Tosh), who is a bear cub that Woody (voiced by SpongeBob himself, Tom Kenny) spoiled so much there is no way he could live in the woods. He plays X-Box, eats candy, and looks down on bears that have to live outside. We also have Denzel, played by Jerry Minor, and heโs like an urban guy, who doesnโt know anything about animals and is totally a fish out of water. Itโs a fun group. The thing about a national park is, anyone can come into it, so itโs basically a springboard for any idea we can think of and we can just wrap up into a national park.
When casting did you have specific people in mind?
Well, for the original it was me and Roger and a buddy or two.ย When Fox picked it up they did a big casting session, like, 1,500 people came, so we knew we didnโt need to play these characters, letโs let professionals do itโexcept for Roger, we knew nobody could do a better Connie than Roger, we tried a bunch of people and Rogerโs was still the best. I do the voice of a side character named Bobby, so itโs nice to be able to perform to and not just have to write it. The hardest part of the whole thing is the writing. Itโs fun now, seeing the animation come back itโs great, but the writing is hard. Maybe season two we can do a writerโs retreat in Yellowstone. We are just so excited for it to air and see peopleโs reactions.
Catch Brickleberry Tuesdays on Comedy Central.
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