Exclusive Interview: Ryan Quincy-Fmr Animation Director for South Park, creator of OUT THERE

John Blabber: So?? The premier of Out There is right around the corner, can you describe your emotions?

Ryan Quincy: Well it’s – I mean we’re still producing the last four episodes so there’s still that “we’re not out of the woods yet” feeling, you know?  It’s a new chapter in my career, my own animated show.  We’re showing the first two episodes back-to-back on February 22.  So, it will be an hour introduction into the Out There world and yeah it’s exciting and daunting and scary and a whole cocktail of emotions.  It was my dream to come out to L.A. and do my own TV show back in 1996.  It just took 17 years to finally happen.  It’s all about persistence, you know?

Well it’s not exactly like you were sitting around doing nothing. You were only an award-winning animation director for the biggest show on the planet!

(laughs) That’s true. Yeah, it was a big chunk of time that I spent over at South Park, so that kept me busy.

Is that a bit of a culture shock for you? How are you adjusting to the different styles of production going from South Park to Out There?

I definitely had to acclimate to that because coming from the South Park culture I was, I don’t know if I was spoiled with their streamlined process, but it’s been a transition to figuring out the assembly line of a first season of an animated show. And what was great about South Park was they created their own island where they could do everything they wanted to in-house and change everything up to the last minute. They really constructed this, you know, they could work in this bubble.  It didn’t happen right off the bat, but over time they were able to create that culture, a unique work environment that works for them.  I was there for a long time and there were growing pains, but it’s a really well oiled machine now, so going into Out There, I definitely wanted to bring that experience over but it’s a lot different because our artists and animators are based in Atlanta, Georgia. Our whole team is there and that was one thing I had to get used to with doing Skype calls and video conferencing, emailing and that type of stuff to communicate. It was literally more of a telephone game.  Not so much real face time with the artists, you know what I mean?  And also just getting a lot of notes and approval from the network.  There was a lot of back-and-forth with them, but IFC was amazing, very nurturing and very helpful through it all but, you know, with South Park now, they don’t deal with much approval or notes from Comedy Central. They can just do whatever pretty much.

What were some of the things you learned from working over at South Park in terms of character development, storytelling, etc and how are you applying those to Out There?

It was like going to film school.  Trey and Matt are so dedicated and so hands on and it was so inspiring just to – you know be a fly on the wall there and learn and witness their creative process.  We’d never start with a full script.  Trey would give us scenes and script pages in bits and pieces until the puzzle was complete.  At times you didn’t know where the story was going, but then in the end it all comes together at the eleventh hour.  And those guys became such great storytellers over the years.  So again, being in that culture, really informed a lot of what I wanted to do with Out There. I can see how they cut out a lot of the unnecessary, inefficient steps in animation and turn the work around faster, but to be able to turn it around in six days, that’s just insane.  I never thought Out There could be delivered that fast, but I think there’s a middle ground to be found between the South Park process and how they still do the Family Guy’s and Simpson’s.  We’re still figuring it out.

You have a great animation partner with Bento Box as they’ve been successful in bringing to life shows like Bob’s Burgers and Brickleberry, how has the experience been in working with them for Out There?

It’s been a learning experience for us both. Out There’s a low budget show but it doesn’t look like one, and I’m really proud of that. We always talked about the most important thing was what ends up on screen, putting up a good final product, and we did. Bento Box is extremely busy and have their hands in so many different projects. I was really pleased and impressed working with Bento’s Atlanta division.  They ruled.  So, yeah it’s an exciting time to be working with this company.

Last year, Bubbleblabber reviewed a LOT of different animated shows. What do you think differentiates Out There from the current crop of shows?

Well, I think of our show as more of an animated dramedy. It’s more thoughtful and character driven. There’s a slow burn, melancholy to a lot of it. I was always a huge fan of Charlie Brown and those cartoons and there’s that sadness and there’s that bittersweet, you know, nostalgia to it also.  That’s what sets it apart from those animated adult, fast-paced, loud, screaming at you types of shows.  It’s a departure from the cartoons whose bread and butter are mainly AIDS, race, rape, and fart jokes.  Out There’s a reprieve from all that.

That’s right, you get enough of those jokes at South Park!

  (laughs) Yeah, I got my fair share of all that stuff over there.

How did you come up with the look of the characters? I do get this Where the Wild Things Are type vibe when watching the show.

Oh, definitely. Since I was a little kid I’ve been drawing characters and this is just my style that’s evolved. And yeah, Where the Wild Things Are is a huge influence. And Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarry and, you know, the Muppets and Star Wars, all that stuff. It’s all just this subconscious soup that’s been stirred around and simmering over the years, and these were the characters that came out. I just love drawing these characters with furry heads, claws and paws, and animal muzzles. We never – that was never my intention to call it out and explain why they look the way they do.  It’s just who they are and you buy into it, you know? How they look on the outside is how they feel on the inside has been the answer whenever we’re asked about the character design. But yeah, I think that’s another thing that sets Out There apart is, even though they look this way,  they’re going through very relatable emotions and universal situations that people can relate to and resonate with.

How close is the character of ‘Chad’ to your personality?

Yeah, Chad’s very close to me.  I do the voice and am pretty much just doing my own voice.  A lot of the episodes were autobiographical and taken from stories from my childhood. So yeah, I think Chad’s in the same orbit as me. It’s a little bit amplified, a little, you know, it’s not exactly who I was in high school but it’s pretty close.

How did you cast these characters?

That was quite a process. Grueling, fun at times, but it was really hard to nail down who these characters were. I kind of had an idea of what they sounded like in my head, but the paramount thing was I didn’t want big broad cartoony voices. They needed to sound naturalistic, conversational and as real as possible. I wanted to find people who could bring those attributes to these characters, but also be believable, vulnerable and most importantly, funny. Originally I wanted to use kids voices for the kids, you know, like I talked about  Charlie Brown being an inspiration, but there’s a bunch of reasons why it wasn’t realistic and feasible for us to do that. I’m really happy with our cast, though.  I adore them all!  Kate Micucci as the little brother, Jay, is amazing. And John DiMaggio was a big surprise.  He wasn’t even on my list for Wayne, but when I heard his audition, he just totally blew me away and he brought so much charisma and something to that character I wasn’t expecting. Justin Roiland and Fred Armisen are fantastic, of course.  I’m amazed at the cast we got. When Megan Mullally signed on, that was such a huge jolt to the arm. And with her character of the mom, Rose, we thought, “Oh, this is kind of a June Cleaver type.”  You know, the proto-typical cartoon mom.  Rose really wasn’t well-defined, but Megan brought so much grit and charm to Rose that we just wanted to write more for her. So that’s just a testament to how great she is.  Our entire cast is so versatile and talented.  They were all a pleasure to work with too.

Sure. So one of the interesting perils, you know, I’ve seen is with South Park it was like all about the kids in the beginning and then you kind of saw guys like Randy who is Stan’s dad start to be a focal point of episodes  And when I was watching Out There  I could definitely see like the parents being focal points of the show. Is that something that you’re kind of branching out to one day or you think you’re predominant setting is probably the kids?

Yes, definitely. With the first season we’re setting the foundation. The core of the show is about these two best friends, Chad and Chris, and everything revolves around them. I think that – hopefully if we get a season two, we can branch off a little with the rest of the other characters.  We’d love to do more stories and learn more about Wayne and Rose, Terry and Joanie.  And the secondary characters too, like Grump, Sharla, Martha, and Chips-a-Troy.

Wayne’s a great character. Yeah.

And Terry too!  All of them actually, and I really think that Pamela Adlon as Chris’ mom, Joanie – there’s a good story to be told with her.  We have yet to maximize Joanie’s potential.  So, yeah I think there’s definitely potential to branch out, but Out There’s core will always be Chad and Chris.  They’re the sun, you know?  Everyone’s just revolving around them and to have these other fantastic peripheral characters just makes the world that much, you know, richer.

If you guys keep up the good work I cannot see why you wouldn’t have two to ten – it’s  a very good show.

Thank you. That’s nice to hear. I hope so. Thanks, man. Thanks a lot.