Episode 79: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

not any different. We're covering a real Monsters, which is something that I grew up with, so I think out of all of the core Nickelodeon shows, this was the one that I resonated with the most. Yeah, and we have someone who it's very near and dear to his heart. He's a writer, producer, and showrunner who's concludes The Simpsons, the PJS which we're just seeking out about Lego Star Wars F is for Family. It is Michael Price. Hey, Hi, Hi, guys,

how are you. You have a long list of things? Yeah, yeah, but this one, Real Monsters Are Real Monsters was one of my first so that's why it's such it's such a show that I even thought about a lot lately. But when you mentioned asked me to come on and talk about it, I was so happy too, because it was really at the very beginning of my career. It was one of the first jobs I ever had, and it was I was so thrilled to have it and

it was a great just a great fun show. Actually, I have to shout out it was like a mutual follower of ours because I I was like posting I love all real monsters. I think I had a picture like I have a T shirt, I'll have to post it for everybody, and they tagged you and said you should have a Michael price on and that's how they got connected. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, we've been starting our show with what we're seeking out about. So what are you speaking out about this week? Well, I guess

it's it's Tuesday right now. So in about two days, I just passed a billboard for it, which is the El Camino, which is breaking bad sequel movie that I'm just so exciting to see. And I think it's going to be in theaters, possibly too Netflix, I don't know, but I imagine it will probably come out like at midnight on Thursday night into Friday, and so I think I'll be sitting there watching it as soon as it comes on. That's a show. Breaking Bad was the show that I did not get into until it had been

on like four years. As I watched the first episode and it was so dark and so bleak, and I said, well, I'll try another one. And the second one, if you remember, is the one where he's got that guy tied up in the basement. Oh yeah, It's like this is too much for me. And then a couple of years went by and all my friends, uh working on the Simpsons, we're talking about it, and then I started reading about it. I was like, all right, all right, I'll start it now.

And boy was I so happy that I did. Yeah. Yeah, I had a similar one. I had friends who were in it, and I think, looking back now, this had to be around on season three. But it was when the kid uh yeah, yeah, the one on the bike. Yeah, well not without trying not to give too much away, even though you should have already did it. And that was like my introduction to it. And I was like, oh,

this is a rough one. But then like everyone was so hyped for the final season that like I binged like the all the win up until the pen ultimate season so that I could watch along for the final season. Which it was great to be able to watch along and wait week by week. But Breaking Bad is not a show you should binge. It's very heavy, so you was like, after some episodes I'd have to like take a break and just put it on this Yeah, although last year I went back through and watched it all again.

I did watch over the course of like two or three weeks something. Have you watched better? Oh? Absolutely. In fact, one of my really good friends is I'm better call Saul. Her name is Eileen Fogerty, and she plays Mrs Wynn, the lady who run Salon. So she Spennet and I know a couple of old Bill Burr who I work with him. I peraps your family is place Koobi Breaking Bad, and um, you know, I was also an officer. Family is We have Matt Jones who plays Badger and Breaking Bad.

It's one of the voices and family too. So in fact, we were at a party, like a season premiere party the last November for um Forever your Family, and I asked him are you gonna be on a better call, Saul? And he goes, no, I don't think so, but maybe something better or whatever. I think you just heard about this movie. And then like two weeks later they announced the movie, you know, like I said, oh, that must yeah, and he's in it and it's not a spoiler. He's

in for it. But now they said, like so many other people are in this party last night premiere party where they're all there, like Brian Cranston and Dianor and they're all there. It's like, how many of you are they in the movie? Are you doing in it? You know?

I have the funniest story took my mom. She just she loves Jimmy Alan, as a lot of moms do, and it took her to his show and Brian Cranston was the guest, and so we're sitting there in the audience and Brian Cranston comes out and very loudly, my mom goes, oh my god, the dad from Malcolm in the Middle. And I'm like, mom, he's done a lot then, he's done a lot since then. But also Malcolm in the Middle, he was great. That's such a mom thing to say. If he what about you? What are you

geeking out about? Well, you know, um, you know, as a lot of gamers the games listen no Destiny, uh you know, shadow Keep was released and everyone everyone was asking if I was going to come back forward, if I was gonna play, and uh, you know really, uh you know, I think this is all I have to say about it. People keep asking if I'm back, and I haven't really had an answer, but now, yeah, I'm

thinking I'm back. I've been playing. That is like one first of all as my favorite on bite from John Wick, and I reference that so much, like it's just it was such a cool part of the movie too. But yeah, I've been playing. I was playing all day. I was streaming, uh for like six hours today just playing through. Uh. It's it's great if you played like the first Destiny because it's on the moon, so it referenced a lot of like Krota and like the old raids and you're

getting to do all that fun stuff. And like a lot of people showed up for the stream today of flu of Heat came and we we were just bouncing around the moon and it's been a fun experience. So so yeah, I'm back in Destiny now. Did you, like when Tom Holland came back and he did that Wolf of Wall Strong that was going anyway, I love a good like, like a good reference that will say what

you're you want to say for you. It's so yeah, that was I I watched, like I know that scene, but it was so funny to watch it and then think of it in reference to the Spider Man in the m c U. Uh. The thing that I'm geeking out about is well, thank you everyone that came to any of my panels at New York Comic Con. It was so great getting to meet y'all. And Uh, the Disney Princess panel was one of the coolest things that I did. I mean, it was so weird slash like.

I tried to take in the moment to be on stage with these iconic women that have voiced I mean, Jodie Benson has been the voice of Ariel for over thirty years. Uh, and Pedo Harrah, who was Belle Jennifer Hale who took over at Cinderella, She's been doing Cinderella's voice for over twenty years. And a Nikanoni Rose who's a voice of Tiana. And it was just I told myself I'm not gonna cry. And I even like I didn't have tissues and I brought like toilet paper and

I'm like, I'm not gonna cry. But a Nika told his story and started crying and then I cried. I'm like, this is such an intimate moment that we get to share, and like, just it was. It was amazing and there were like a thousand people there, so thank you to everyone that came. And that is just I'm geeking out about the fact that when I was little, I just would dance and sing to their music and their words and I knew all of the songs by heart, and then to be on stage with them was was awesome.

So that is my geeky thing this week, and we are diving into I want to know who came up with all of these Did you all just call you called it real monsters so that it was always yeah, yeah, because it's like or we just called monsters or whatever like that. You know, you always you always show folk come from the theater originally, so in the theater, you sort of just it's not Sweeney Todd, it's Sweeney or whatever.

You know, it's not Oklahoma it's or it's not that or the one that the one theater speak out with here, because you have to say it this way is Scottish plow. That's a whole different thing, the Scottish the Scottish play. When I asked you to be on it, though, I made sure I didn't want to be disrespectful, so I made sure I like all the a's and all of the exclamations. I think it's three A, two ages. I

think that's what it is. You still got it? Yeah? Well, but actually before we dived into that, I wanted to know when did you because this was your first was this my first animated show that I worked on? When did you realize, Because we have a lot of writers that listen, when did you realize that you could do this professionally? Well, I mean I knew that I wanted

to do it. I come from the East Coast from New York, New Jersey area, and I did a lot of theater and then I started doing improv sketch comedy, and that was when I first realized, Okay, I think I'm funny, you know, I'm not just funny around the house whatever. I think I can do this and and perform in front of an audience and make somebody laugh. So then that got me thinking, all right, maybe there's a job in that somehow, you know. And uh, and then when I came out here, um, I just started.

I had, I was, I was. I was doing a show, a two person show with a writing partner, And that's what got us a little bit of attention out here and got us some representation, an agent and a manager. So suddenly I was like, Okay, now now I see

that there's possible way forward into this place. And I just wrote like spec scripts and all that kind of stuff, and um, cook a couple of years of like knocking around and not getting anything happening, and taking all kind of crazy jobs, like right in this neighborhood, in this Hollywood neighborhood, I had so many ridiculously awful jobs that

he even tell like phone rooms and awful stuff. But um, but finally I got hired on a on a sketch comedy show with a packet of sketches, a very low budget kind of like a Saturday Nette lifestyle show that was called The News any w Z. And it was on like syndicated. Uh it's early nineties, and um, that only lasted a couple of months. But from that I met a guy. His name is David Litt, and he

was that show was one of his first jobs. And when that show ended, he called me like a week or two, a couple of weeks later saying, oh, I just got a job on this Nickelodeon cartoon show called Real Monsters. And he was the staff writer on that show. But you know, wait, wait, those kind of shows work is that this is the staff will write so many episodes, but they also need like freelance people to come in and write other episodes. So he goes, do you want to come in and like talk to us about maybe

writing an episode? So I did. And that's so David got me in there. Uh So, I mean he's always been he was a great guy. I haven't seen him in a long time, but he went on to an amazing career. He co created the sitcom called The King of Queens. That's yes, So I mean he doesn't probably never need to work every that I was just going to say he's super rich. I'm sure he is. Yeah, but he's a wonderful guy. But he got me in.

He got me in the door a Real Monsters and so I wrote my first two episodes on a freelance basis, and then UM for the second or third season of Monsters. Uh, they knew me for that, and then they brought me

in the sort of pitch. The people who running it were replaced by another guy running it, and they brought me in to pitch some stories and they didn't quite go all my stories, but then they thought it remembered me, and then someone left another guy went on to have a huge All these guys I've went worked on this Nickelodeon show had like just giant suitcom careers. A guy named Steve scro Van who left because he got a job on Everybody Loves Raymond. She went off and like

was on Raymond for its entire run. UM, but I replaced Steve on the staff and that was on the staff for the rest of that time. So that's why I think I wrote about fourteen episodes of that show. But the first two were on a freelance spaces and the rest were once I got on staff. I mean. And also you also went on to have this. I didn't create the King of Queens, but yeah, it's it's been all right, it's been all I mean, Monsters really

was this bouncing pad for all these great right. Why. Yeah, it was a great what a great place to be. I mean, uh, it was class key Chupo was the studio that admit it made it. And they were were in this little building on Highland Avenue in Hollywood, right the low um By Fountain Avenue. There's a Jack in the Box right across the street. It's still there too, Yeah, And the Klassky Chupa wasn't there anymore. Oh it's yes.

The hairplace, Yeah, it's a hairplace, and there's a little there's a little tiny school there and some of the some of the characters are still painted on the side. Character on the side of the building. I thought it was still there because those monsters are still there. They're still there. They're still That's where we worked and uh we just sat in a little room, a little office writing and uh writing our stories. And then the recording studio was there, so we get to go see the

records with these amazing actors. I mean, the people who started the show were great. Uh. Um, Charlie Adler, who's one of the great voice over people of all time. Um, and then uh, I don't have her name from Christine Christine Kavanaugh, she's the late Christine Kavanaugh. She was wonderful, like named David eccles who it was a sound guy at Krassky Chupa had a really interesting funny voice. He was became Crumb, the guy with the eyeballs. And but

then the guest actors would come in. The casting director was a woman named Barbara Right who would just cast these amazing actors so like people like you would never expect to show up, like Tim Curry and uh and people who now like have had big careers later like um, this guy named Sander Berkeley, you know Xander Berkeley. He's in the original term. He's a terminator too. He's the guy who who was um John Connor's like step stepfather gets killed with like the thing through the face. Yeah, Uh,

that's Sander Berkeley. Has been in a million things. This guy named Toby hass has been in a million things. But like Big Margot Kidder, the late Margot kid Like, these people just come through just doing like one voice, you know, because this woman was a great woman who like like these people. So I get to sit in and watch these amazing voice sessions, and and the animators were great. It was just just a really fun experience. Yeah. So for people that don't know that haven't heard of it,

I don't know how. But the show focuses on three young monsters. It's its Obelina and Crumb, who attend a school for monsters under a city dump and learned to frighten humans. Uh. Many of the episodes revolve around them making it to the surface in order to perform scares as class assignments. The series premiered October at eleven am on Nickelodeon. That's cute. That was a good slot, running a total of fifty two episodes over four seasons. The

final episode air December six. So, like you were saying, Charlie Adler voiced its do you hate? Do you have a favorite or like one? I hate to ask this good to ask your favorite monster? For sure? I mean he was so he was because he was He was a little bit me too, because he was like very nervous and anxious and always worried. And you know, Crumb was the cool one who liked nothing bothered him. And Obeliina was super cool and stylish, which I wasn't. So uh, yeah,

definitely it is. Yeah, I liked writing for him too. He was fun to write for. Yeah, that was always fain. He had those uh am, I remember those blue lips, right, blue lips. No, I'm tripping. He was kind of purpleish rabbit looking thing with big fangs and like giant ears, you know. Blini was basically like a cany giant lips, and Crumb was a little roy if you weren't off, he had blue like they kind of both had blue, just depends on the how they were drawn. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,

no I'm not crazy. Yeah, he had the blue lips, and he had the curly legs. Yeah, a little yeah, and he was like a little nervous guy. Yeah. I love and Charlie was just, I mean, did an amazing job performing him. But he was just a fun guy to have around. He's still he's still very busy and uh he directs a lot voice overacting now, but he still acts a lot and he's really amazing. Yeah, so it is if you also somehow don't know is the

small Red Monster. He's the main protagonist anti Heroes series, and he changes between him and Obilina, and his method of scaring humans is the ability to grow bigger. I always remember his garden. Uh. And but due to his large ears, he's often confused with a bunny rabbit, which I think that happened when when he had like a fail scare and like they thought he was as Yeah. Uh, it extends to be on the nervous. Uh. It extends

to be nervous. And he also has a lack of self confidence, partly from trying to live up to the legacy of his father, slick Ist, who was the academy's most renowned student. Yeah. These roommates with Obilina and Crumb, and he is also best friends with him. He goes to the Monster Academy and he's one of the few monsters who can hear the pool of Elders, the source of monstery existence that is made of the very substance

of fears. Right. Can you imagine y'all like in this writer's room making up this for quote unquoted kids show. But you know who came up? Do you? Were you there with a pool of elders? No? I was not. The show was created by man name Peter Gaffney and Gabar Chupo, who was the head of studios. Uh So by the time I joined, it was already well on the work, so I just came in and did my first couple of episodes. But my first episode, I'm trying

to remember. I don't think I pitched the story. It couldn't have been because I didn't know anything about it. But it's the one that people seem to remember the most. Was my first one, which is where Crumb got a pimple that that came alive and started talking to him and it was voiced by Jim Belushi. But I remember writing that having a good time and that the pimple became more popular than him and he sang a song, and um, yeah. It was just I was like, oh

my god, I can't believe. Because I grew up as a kid just loving cartoons, uh specifically Bugs Bunny cartoons. So I would come home from school every day, and where I lived in New York, there was a Channel five in New York, which is show Bugs Bunny from half and from like three o'clock to three thirty. So I come home from school, turn on the TV half an hour of Bugs Bunny. But I became so obsessed about it, like that's if if I was doing that show all these years ago when I was a kid.

I'd say I was nerding out about Chuck Jones because I knew the names of all that I could recognize the director's style. Tell it Chuck Jones from Frizz Feeling from a Bob Mackimson from a Frank tash Lyn. Uh, you know, and and I so so I have a chance to work in animation. Was just I had planned on it, but it just really because that guy David Litzon you want to try and right on this cartoon, and I just ended up loving it. I couldn't believe here I was this kid from Jersey, like you know,

in Hollywood, like working for a cartoon show. It just was a thrill. Did you collect any of the like do you still have any of the real A couple of dolls, Yeah, they're in a box somewhere. And they gave us a cool Nickelodeon bathrobe for Christmas one year character it. Yeah, yeah, you had the Nick magazine right, Yeah. I used to want that so badly. They would just

show those commercials constantly. I just want to show the power of our own monsters lore that in two thousand and fourteen, you know, Goslin sixty on Devian Art fan art of Slick is iks his dad and his mother with her pregnant with wow, that's a lot if I mean it's not I mean it's it's p g. It's not like it's well, I know, Danny's making it seem like I'm going now this Danny fan some and no flash, I'm sure I'm gonna try not to go that this if it was ever drawn anywhere on anything that they're

you know, weird, weird. We have to do it the the the Nerdificent episode on Rule thirty four. We will do that. But also I know, because you follow me on Twitter and haven't unfollowed me, that you have to deal with a lot of my crap. Moving into Oblina, who was voiced by Christine Kavanaugh. Um So Obelina often Biggers I related to her the most. That felt like those were my brothers. I have two brothers and I was Obelina growing up. Um often Bigger's with it is

one of her two roommates. Oblina also goes to Monster Academy. She's the brains of the group and is very well behaved on like I or Crumb, but she does treat Crumb very well. There was a note in here. It was like she's the one woman that treats him well. Sad Um Obelina comes from a wealthy monster family and is considered by Gromble to be his best student. She's shaped like a black and white upside down Candy Cane. One of her favorite methods of scaring humans is reaching

within herself and pulling out her internal organs. She has considerable talent for shape shifting into various terrifying forms. She also has a talent for inducing nightmares and humans by sticking her finger in their ear and tickling their brains while they sleep. So I have seen cause play of her, and I respect that because it's very hard to cause playing upside down Candy Cane. Absolutely, Oh yeah, I mean I think the greatest thing of Obleina and really the

design of all the monsters they're they're all ugly. Everything is ugly, but like there's even with Obliina, like the way her lips are designed. They're always so lumpy in a way that you're like, what is going on here? Crumb, who actually was one of my favorite short, smelly, very hairy monster I lives with a Blina and ICUs Uh, his teacher the Gromble often yells at him. Crumb holds his eyes in his hands since they're detached, and he's treated very very nicely by But that's what I would say,

his only female friends. Only female friends. Like the rest of his family, crumbs eyeballs are not attached to his body. If he requires the use of both, hay and he can carry his eyes in his mouth his most valuable tool and scaring. It's his own overwhelming armpit stitch as well as using his eyeball. Remember that's true. I wonder if Gama de Toro maybe borrowed a little bit of after Yeah, oh possibly, Yeah. I just remember they would do such close views of his armpit, like the hair

coming out and just like such up close. Yeah, it wasn't a time. I mean, I don't even know if shows like this exists, because this was also the time of Ren and Stempy was out on Nickelodeon. But I don't know if I see stuff like this on nick anymore. Do you feel like it was more allowed at that time? I guess that just have been. I'm sure he could probably do that now, it's just been like people don't go into that stuff as much anymore. I remember I always love the ren and Snippy thing. I love ar

and Snippy anyway. But my favorite thing and Sponge about this that a lot, which is when you go to a close up and it's when he was like super insane, you know, with all the skin and uh, you know, like super ugly and grotesque. I love that. I'm always trying to work that into the simp for the Simpsons. Yeah, family, we have to take a really quick break. Then we're going to hop back into all real monsters right after

this and we're back. Michael. I wanted to know, because you're you talked about the Pimple episode, was there other ones that you remember that? Yeah, out for you the first two I wrote. Maybe that's the ones I remember the most because they were the first was the Pimple, then they wrote one because the other the fourth main character was called the Gromble, their teacher, uh, and he was this weird, four legged green thing that wore red pumps. That was my favorite. So he's a little bit of

you know whatever queer. I'm very happy about it. Yeah, he's great, and he was voiced by a great actor named Gregg Berger, who um I still run into occasionally. You know he occasionally does some stuff on The Simpsons, so he's a really nice guy. And I followed him on Twitter and he's incredible. He still was working all the time. Uh, he was great. So the other one I wrote, the second one that wrote that first season, was about the Grombel's mother coming to hang out, and

we got Andrea Martin from SCTV to play the ground. Um. I did a couple. I was looking at them yesterday earlier today. I was like, I remember that now, I remember that now, I remember that now. There was one with um Obelina's lips. I think that I broke where she lost her lips, but then they found they landed on the face of like a supermodel and turned the supermodel into a bigger supermodel and they had to get

the lips back. I think that turned into one of the stories I love to tell, which is because we have to deal with the people at nicol At Nickelodeon were for the most part, we're pretty cool, but we

would have to their Nickelodeon at that time. I don't know if there's the same way, but they were very kind of uh kind of micromanaging in Wayne, like giving notes on everything, so we you know, you think she's a silly cartoon show, but we would have to go to them every time we wanted to do a new story.

We we'd go meet with them, the executives Nickelodeon, like once every couple of weeks and pitch all our stories and then that we wanted to do and they could say yes or no. So once we got through that, then we would write the stories and then we go in and have these modest conferences with them. And it might have been that one about the lips where you know the three because carminal Blina they had to get

the lips back and the supermodel had them. The idea was that they're going to break into her house late at night and and like do like a heist and steal the lips back and so uh so in the scene I wrote in the script, they wrote, there's a scene earlier in the day when they go, okay, I know we have to do and then you cut to that night and they're doing like the kind of mission impossible thing, like sneaking in and one of the executive from Nickelodeon said, well, you know in this scene here

on page eleven, they say we're going to hoist it and that's during the daytime, and then you cut to the heist and it's at night and I go, yeah, and they go, well, what were they doing in the hours in between? I said, I said, I don't know. I went to the movies. Like thanks about that, you know, so I definitely not children. So I literally like I couldn't help it, Like usually you're trying to be nice to them, but I kind of like just I just burst out laughing. So I think it was that episode.

But anyway, yeah, there's there are so many of that I did. Most of my memories are about like being there and writing and working on and being with the people you know, and yeah, and like that. It was a crazy, crazy experience. It was just a wonderful group of people. Was there like episode that you wish you could have done, or maybe an episode you pitched that

you're like, I wish we did that? Well, yeah, the one there was one because I remember after I had done this first two uh, then they called me in after it. They were in the starting the second season and I got a call from the people who would work to Classy Tupo saying, would you like to come in and pitch stories to the new the new head writers. So I said absolutely, and I was out of work.

Right then the other show i'd been on, that news show got canceled, and I, you know, I was out of work, and I was like, I gotta try to

get something going. And I went and I pitched them this story and they didn't go with it, but it was about how I think it ended up being in a later episode where it was a thing because they lived under the source system, and so my idea was that it was super Bowl Day in in the above world the super Bowl, and used to be the thing they used to say, like during the super Bowl, during the halftime the Super Bowl, that's when everybody across the

United States goes to the bathroom, you know. So it was the thing about they would have like a big surfing competition and it was time to the half time with the Super Bowl. So I remember pitching that story and they were like okay, okay, um, but they said, oh, for whatever reason, none of my pitches went got to you know. And I'll never forget because I was just still starting out. I was newly married, and um. I left that day and it was really cold and rainy,

and went. My wife and I had one car and uh and I went and I sat in that sizzler. It's a sizzler on Highland Avenue. I don't I don't think there anymore. I think it shut out. But I sat there and this year, so that's how long that sizzler has been. Yeah, it was there forever. And then, like she said, she would pick me up at like five o'clock, and it was four three. I sat there really sad. Tell my story about the monsters surfing on the you know, super Bowl Day. Uh so that was

the one that got away. But I think I think later on they used it like as a as like a piece of another story. So I felt good about it later. Okay, hopefully they paid you for them. Well, I think by that point I might have been on the step. I'm already. Yeah, I do have to say from it. I think I've told this story in here. But my mom used to be teased for her lips. She had big, full lips, and she they would call her Sandy big lips. Also like kids were like, couldn't

think of the better. Yeah, you old Sandy big lips. But that was one of the things because the women in my family have really full lips, and I remembered that about Oblina, Like it was just so we'll look, we'll take representation wherever we can get it. And that was the thing that I loved about her having these big, full lips. It just like reminded me of the women in my family and I loved that so much. Um. And then when my mom grew up, everybody was getting

them injected to get their lips like her. So there, you gons was a good representation for people who are growers not showers. Wow, the joke was right there. I couldn't leave it sitting. It was right there. Um, this is going to be fun because I would love talking about the production and you can be like no our role. Monsters was created by Godboard Chopo and Peter Gaffney and was the third animated series produced by Chupo's company Class

Class Key Chupo. Which it's so funny because I'm relearning it because as a kid, I was always was like class by goose Bow. This classy Chupo cowboys wife was Arlene Arline. Yeah, started the studio together so tight. Um, just a power couple. You have to stand, which also created the animated shows road Rats and Duckman on the USA. Okay, I knew about rug Rats, I didn't know that was

them who did duck Man. Yeah. One of my great memories was that once they started working on that show, that same guy David let He he I wasn't like on the staff of the show yet, but he was. And they had a premiere party for the premiere of duck Man at the Chubo's house and I went to see it. That was my first like Hollywood party, and I went to Yeah, that was a great I mean, anybody there who's listening duck Man. It was a really amazingly funny show. Yeah, well, I think kind ahead of

its time a thousand percent. Yeah, I totally agree. Before the final title was chosen, which took over five years, the series had a working titles Monsters and Real Monsters, which you already said, yeah, I know the Park Yeah, the Exacts. Yeah yeah, thats like it said. It took five years and then it was like, uh, that was what they needed, the extra magic they needed to seal

the deal. And whoever whoever wanted the three a's to two h is and the three exclamation points, Yeah, they probably focused tested in it, Like the kids were like, we like when you scream, Like all right, well that's the name of it. Yeah. The show was conceived after Chubo and his wife's uh and creative partner Arlene Klasky, were approached by the network Nickelodeon create a follow up series to rug Rats That begs the next question, how do we go from rug Rats to this? Are too

wildly different shows, but I love both. They were both big parts of my childhood. Chubo drew some sketches of possible monsters on a piece of paper and successfully pitched the idea to the network. Well that's because I mean, I'm sure that he was a genius, but also because he had rug Rats, because the idea of ever Yeah, I hear these stories of it, and I just told him a joke in the room and they bought it. I had to make an entire bible for this for

them to want to buy by show. You get you get to those points, you know, like I think when the news was going around where like Lena Waite just came in and she didn't have an idea and it was like yeah, but she also made tiny furniture, which was this like Indie Darling that blew up Festival Festival. So they're like, we want to make something with you, and I was like, yeah, okay that when they already want you, When when they already want you there will

help work it with you. Plus like in the long run, sometimes it's a lot less work when they can feel like they were a big part of it. That's that's what I find. It's like we made it, oh man um. Nickelodeon programming director Herb Scannel said the character design and all Monsters was partially inspired by Yellow Yellow Submarine in ninety animated films inspired by the Beatles. I can see that. Yeah,

it's really that's an amazing movie too, very weird characters. Yeah, especially I think they said in that Nickelodeon I mean that Wikipedia article like the Gromble looks a lot like Blue Meanies. Yeah, that's a crazy movie. It's not really good. It's no sense. But I on the era of the Beatles. I don't think you're supposed to watch it sober No, probably not, probably not. I saw it first as a

little kid. Oh my god, I did too, because they is that the one like don't they have like I don't know because you know, there's the way, especially like early nineties media, there's like stuff that is the I P. And there's stuff like inspired by it that might not be but wasn't. There was there like thing where they're all wearing yellow suits and someone's like spring them with sugar water or something. Probably, I mean that movie is

really nuts. It's really beautifully insane. The fun part is going to be either I'm right or someone probably what I'm talking about and tell me. I remember there were these guys in that movie called the Apple Knockers that were these giant guys like with They were like twenty feet tall and they carried big apples and they would knock you on the head with them. It's all crazy. We have to take another quick break and then we're going to hop back into Auto Monsters right after this

and we're back. I didn't know, so David eccles, was the voice of Crumb, said okay, yeah, I did not know that. He voiced the monster under Chucky's bed in The rug Rats, So that comes full circle. He was a monster in that world, and then a monster he was, I'm pretty sure a guy who just worked in the sound department at class Key Tupo and then he had a really was a funny guy, had interesting voice, and I think maybe he did that thing in rug Rats.

And then when they came up with the Monsters, they said, if you want to do this too, yeah, all right, yeah, I love just have a weird voice. Yeah. Uh. And they did actually have an official crossover. So in the sixth season of Rugrats, Kasblina and Crumb crashed Tommy Chucky, Phil Little Dill and Angelica's Spooky slumber Party. It was

called ghost Story and uh, this iconic crossover. Yeah. So we were talking about at the break, we were talking about the fact that Nickelodeons rebooting a bunch of these shows. Apparently right there. I think they're doing new rug Rats, They're doing new Hey Arnold. They had a movie for Hey Arnold, uh, that came out last year, and then they also had Rocko's movie came out Rocko. That's right, So why not Monsters. I'm right here to give me a call, call me up, get the gang back together.

There were the writers on that show were one. I mentioned some of the other guys already, but Mark Steen was the guy who ran it most of the time that I was there. And was a guy named Mark Palmer, uh, Spencer Greene, Mary Elizabeth Williams. Just we were the main staff. They're just great, great people to work with and really talented and funny people. Yeah. And also it was just like such weird. I love that it embraced the weird grossness,

you know, especially because children love that. But also I think that that might be why all of these iconic writers that came together to kind of start in this room. I think that that's why it resonated with us even now decades later, that it was just such a It was just doing something different that I feel like a lot of the other shows weren't doing at the time. That's right. I mean they were very encouraging, the people Nickelodeon.

I made some jokes about them before. They were really very encouraging and they love what we did and they let us do crazy things and then so you know, it was fun. Is there anyone you'd want to shout out that you know you worked with? Uh? Yeah, someone I haven't had a chance to mention until now is a guy named Chuck Swinson who was our animation director

and kind of the main producer of the animation. Uh. You know Chupo Chupo, you know was ahead of the studio, but Chuck really was the main director and worked with animation people, and he also did all the directing like he would direct the voice actors. So I was so happy, like I said earlier, to get to see these amazing actors.

So I admired come in. But then I really learned how to do it, you know, from Chuck, because I training as a theater director, but I had never seen vocal directing before and he was just just great and it's a real wonderful guy. Who I hope he's out

there if you can hear this high check. But I learned so much from him, and he was a really a real sweet and wonderful kind of like he kind of was a teacher as well, because he's a little bit older and he had been in the animation business for a long time, so he was very patient with us and sort of explained to us like why maybe something we had written maybe should be different because it would be better for the animation. And he was just

a really a real great guy. Yeah, this year was like the first time I did like writing for animation. And it is funny how like you know, um so I wrote for season two of Ticktone, and so you know before that you're just in a with all the writers and the showrunnering. You're just you know, goofing off doing the jokes. And for Takedown we had you know, the animation director in there with us, and it was always interesting to like pitch something and be like, oh, yeah,

that does sound cool. That's very expensive. I was like, okay, cool, I'm gonna try and tone it back then. That's always a funny note. I remember at when I was writing at full Screen, they just wanted everything to like go viral or whatever, and they'd be like, this guy's limit whatever you want and we'd like send in our script and then get it back like okay, so not so much, you know, tone it back. Yeah. I actually did an animation workshop at six point Harness, which is great animation studio.

They're awesome. They've done so many shows and I have such They had some animation directors and I'm like, such a different world than being in the writer world. Jumping over. I mean, that's what you have to do now, but like just seeing yeah, there's responsible for so much. Yeah, it's interesting too, because you know there's like two different kinds of animated shows, or maybe they're like there's the kind that are more writer driven, like the Simpsons is

completely right or driven. An Officer Family, because I come from the Simpsons, is very right or driven, but for the most part, like the Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network style shows are more for the most part of kind of more animator animator driven. So I worked on the show with Disney, uh like almost twenty years ago now, and I was called Teacher's Pet. That was great, but that was sort of a melding of both. So it

was very right or heavy. But our director was a guy in tim Bi Workland who had come from Rocco's Modern Life, and so he was used to like just sort of like the animator does it all, you know. So we would write these elaborate scripts and be like, what what is this? I don't need this? He would say, all I need is like three words on a cocktail navka And why do you write all this stuff? You know? So it was a real tug of war sometimes between the two styles, you know. Uh So, yeah, yeah, that's

so funny. Uh speaking of Rocco's Modern Life, I did want to say that Charlie Adler, who again is the voice of it, is also voiced Ed Bighead. As another inside joke, it is sometimes says ed Bigheads catch phrase, I hate my life. So yeah, that's just another thing. I'm just gonna go over some trivia real quick before we head out. It is has two uv las. I don't know who decided that. I do remember that, though,

I remember that. I have one last question that I want to ask just and then this one's more of a general writing question. You know, you said you wrote for Disney, and you wrote for AH, and now you write for like more adult comedies like f Is for Family and Simpsons. What do you feel is like the main difference between writing for the two mediums. It's not

much different. I don't feel like even with Monsters and even with Disney the Disney shows, we were mostly just trying to make ourselves laugh and enjoy, you know, make entertain ourselves and as long as we didn't hear anything saying like you can't do that little kids are watching it, um not that much different. It's just like, you know, you you learned to adapt to the characters you're working for, writing for, and and this the stuff that you're doing.

But the general way the shows are created are very very very similar. Yeah, except except on Monsters. We didn't really have a room like like a Simpsons has written like a sitcom with like a writer's room. Um. With Monsters, we had mostly are we would go off and maybe we'd sort of break the stories together with each other, but then you just go off and write and then the show writer would say, okay, here's notes and he's finished writing in the script. But we never did like

kind of punch ups like that. That's the only thing that's different. Have you gotten to go to any cons or anything and see people, cause playing is like the characters you've written for. Not yet, not yet. I mean I've seen some Simpsons people, of course, because everywhere, but I'm sure there's family, But I've seen some pictures of them, but I've never seen them in in life, you know,

some dying to go. I'm sorry I miss New York comic con um, but I've got a standing of a comic con a couple of times, and yeah, just to see somebody dressed as one of our characters would be really hilarious for I would love that. Alright, people, if you have it out there. Halloween's coming up to it for Family. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Is there anything that you're allowed to plug or we? Uh? Season four R Family is in the works right now.

It'll be coming out sometime early in the first three or four months of twenty We don't know exactly yet, but uh, certainly by by like April, it should be out on Netflix. So uh. And The Simpsons just continues to run, run, and run, although Simpson is going to start airing not airing, I guess streaming on Disney Plus in November and while continuing to be also on cable

on the f X channel f x X channel. Yeah. Yeah, So, and we have a new they're putting out a new DVD set, like a first twenty season complete box set of The Simpsons, very limited edition, like only a thousand of them are being sold. Wow. Yeah, so dang, but most of them are out most of the DVDs are already out there, but they're selling it as one big box. Yeah.

And also follow you on Twitter where we became. Yes, my Twitter handle is Mike Price in l A, which is a Twitter handle I chose very hastily ten years ago. Everyone says every says I could change it, but I don't know. It's just that's what it is. I almost had that too. There's so many Danny fernandez is that I had to do m s. I did Miss Danny for it, and it sounds even when people are mad at me, it sounds like they're addressing me. Miss Danny fernand is awful thing that I can't say. And if

you're a fan of us, your family. There's a writer's account which is f I F F Netflix, which is

like our writer's account. So I I usually it's usually me, it's just me in my house, but we put up we put up photographs of like if you like the show, Like just last night, we were editing a show, so I like take a little screen grabs and throw all pictures so you have a sort of given idea of like how we're doing or if we do if we were doing hoarding session, maybe I'll take a picture of a recording session or things like that so you can sort of keep track of how we're doing when we're

coming out. Yeah, you know who's good friends with Bill Burt? Our friend Marcella. Yeah, she's friends with his wife. We talk o'nea for him many times. He is Bill is the greatest guy in the world. I'm so thrilled that I got to work with him. He's great. Tooth too Younger comics, Yeah, that's what I've heard. Yeah, he's and he's phenomenal. I mean I've seen him. I've now seen him, uh you know, live several times. Usually I've ever seen him at a small club. Usually get to see him

at like Madison Square Garden or something like that. But he's amazing and it's just a great guy. And me always if you want away on Twitter and Instagram, if he's on Twitch, if you have Twitch Prime, Twitch Prime have to reap every month, y'all know by now Discord Discord for Slash Salt Squad and as always, stay ne