EXCLUSIVE: “Legends Of Chamberlain Heights” Producers Talk Taking The Show To “Another Level” In Show’s Second Season

Comedy Central is getting ready to bring back Legends of Chamberlain Heights for a second season. Fun fact: this show was already in the writers’ room for the show’s second season while the first season was still being produced! But here we are, six months removed from the show’s first season finale, we talk to Quinn Hawking and Brad Ableson as to what fans of Legends of Chamberlain Heights can expect in the show’s second season.

One of the fastest growing verticals in animated comedy is sports comedies. Bleacher Report already has a few of these e.g. Game of Zones which celebrates it’s season finale today, Blake Griffin has a deal with FOX to produce Oakies of Bel Air, and in the middle of these two worlds is Legends of Chamberlain Heights which has a multiple-headed monster that’s growing on both television and the social platform with apps like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts for the animated franchise getting growth on the back of show co-creator Josiah Johnson’s ardent knowledge of social media and how to use that knowledge for the purposes of good (growing a brand like his series) and evil (usually trolling the shit out of pro ball players before and after games).

“We have a fan base now thanks in large part to what Josiah is doing” says co-creator and long-time pal Quinn Hawking, “Most of the time my head is up in the clouds, but Josiah spends most of his time on his computer really honing in on impressions and engagements that he was with people on Twitter and social platforms to great success.” Comparisons could be made as to how Legends of Chamberlain Heights was put together in the first place.

A couple of years back, Legends of Chamberlain Heights executive producer Brad Ableson discovered Josiah and Quinn’s Youtube videos that were hawking puppet commercials featuring NBA Players. This lead to a meeting with Bento Box and subsequently led to Legends of Chamberlain Heights being born with Brad developing a concept of animated production that favors a more crude animation style more akin to his days on The Simpsons as he was producing animatics for the longest-running animated comedy in prime time, “What I saw was a lot of the stuff that I was developing in animatics were just as funny as after the episode is produced with all of the extra details in it. Regardless if I’m working on Legends, The Simpsons, or Despicable Me, the animatics all start the same, it’s just that with Legends we purposely trim the fat for a more urban and dirty look.” With Twitter, the producers of Legends of Chamberlain Heights are doing the same thing as before they got a TV show, just on a different channel and they are doing it with the help of Comedy Central Digital, says Quinn, “Comedy Central gave us this app that does a decent job of syncing up character animations with what we’re saying.” This allows the boys to produce sports and social commentary on a daily basis in a relatively short amount of time (in some cases…MINUTES) and made available on various social media platforms.

The growing fanbase for Legends of Chamberlain Heights need not worthy if season two is going to go “soft”. The points that the producers are trying to make as it related to social issues are still razor sharp. This season, we’ll get to see our fabled “Legends” i.e. Grover, Jamal, and Milk take on the “Black Lives Matter” movement and what happens when you throw the kids in the slammer with OJ Simpson there to protect them, “He’s kinda like their Morgan Freeman from Shawshank” says Quinn who also adds that the boys will be heading to a Civil War reenactment featuring the Southern dialects featuring Atlanta-boys Waco O’Guin and Roger Black from Brickleberry fame. “My only contribution to the writing was my high school water polo playing days” seen teased in the show’s season two trailer where Jamal attempts another sport other than basketball.”

Other hot topics that aren’t safe for the upcoming season include gentrification of the boys’ community, transgender issues, and “Derek Fisher” taking over as coach of the boys’ team, “We hope he’s watching” says Quinn as Brad adds, “it’s by far the most over-the-top thing we’ve ever done.” New and returning voices will be on hand to help out with Affion Crocket (teased to be voicing Montrel and Grover’s father), Instagram comedian Jay Versace, and RuPaul Charles just to name a few to go along with the return of fan-favorite recurring characters voiced by Carl Jones, Jamie Kennedy, and music supervisor Erykah Badu whose voice presence in the upcoming season will be expanded upon as compared to the show’s first season run.

That said, Quinn Hawking is quick to note that Legends of Chamberlain Heights, at its core, hasn’t strayed away from what made the show so successful, to begin with. It’s still a show about three kids who sit at the end of the bench thinking that they’re legends but end up in situations that reflect social injustices in black communities i.e. Milk trying to fight gentrification so that his town stays more black and he can be the only white kid or Montrel being an ex “legend” which provides for the back and forth “dance” in the relationship between Grover and his older brother that is usually testy but as we saw at the end of the show’s last season became more apparent.

“Fans are gonna be excited” with Ableson noting that ideas for a potential third season of Legends of Chamberlain Heights coming to fruition are just “spilling out” in anticipation along with Hot Topic’s impending release of Legends of Chamberlain Heights-inspired merchandise featuring T-shirts that have the show’s favorite characters for fans to enjoy. “This season is going to be BIG! Everything about the show is on another level from the animation to the story-telling. The first season set the stage for these characters and the show’s second season is really going to up the ante.”

Legends of Chamberlain Heights Season Two will premiere June 18th @ 1130 pm ET/PT only on Comedy Central, check your local listings.