NOTES From Nick Weidenfeld Reddit AMA about ADHD, ADULTSWIM, and MORE

Yesterday Nick Weidenfeld did an AMA deal for Reddit where he answered a lot of questions (except ours…but more on that later) about what to expect for FOX’s ADHD, why he left Adult Swim, and more. Plus I’m pretty sure we were all being trolled by Moral Orel’s  Dino Stamatopoulos.

For starters I asked Nick a very simple question that should have been answered before everyone else:

On a 1-10 scale, how much do you love Bubbleblabber?…feel free to be explicit…

And what did I get? NOTHING! That said, despite our lewd advances we did get a pretty entertaining AMA with the exec producer of Animation Domination HD and former Adult Swim higher-up Nick Weidenfield.  During the course of the AMA Nick clarified how the style of ADHD on Youtube may actually be a bit different:

The stuff for tv will absolutely be longer and episodic (both 11 minute and 30 minute). we are trying to build bigger shows with indelible characters, stuff that could potentially go on forever. with youtube, i think the medium best serves short, one-off pieces. that’s why you will see more parody, topical, and songs. stuff that you can immediately get, laugh at and share.

Interesting that Nick has kind of parted the red sea and as such noted that the more long-form material will be on TV and the shorter on the web. That said I wonder if one could be an extension for the other. For example, when I watch Daily Show, sometimes an interview gets really good but the network doesn’t have a ton of time to air so they put the full interview online. That said, Nick did said he had some worries on being able to bring over the internet cartoon audience:

That definitely worries me, which is why we are trying to make content that works specifically for the medium(TV). So online, we are making GIFS and super short animations. But for TV we are writing longer, more narrative shows.

Sooo how about the content? Well we just recently spilled the beans on who will be voicing characters in the upcoming televised rendition of Axe Cop. Nick was able to shed additional light on some of the other actors that are a part of the show including a few surprises.

Best moment ever was meeting and recording Mike Erhementrout from Breaking Bad for AXE COP. Actually recording anything for AXE COP. It’s insane getting all these talented people to say the craziest stuff. They’re literally saying the words of an eight year old. Also, when we got Mandy Moore to say “I hope he’s straight, so I can suck his gay cock.” I got the best job in the world.

And to think I thought Mandy was a classy lady. Well, she may be but she’s certainly been brought down to our level. Another note about the content was evidently music:

Music is a big part of who we are and will definitely be part of ADHD. I think the original songs work really well online and we have really talented people in the building that can play music and sing so it’s easy to produce. For example, Slender Man was sung/played by our associate producer Liz Beebe.

We are also going to start doing animated music videos for bands that we like. I hope we can do one a month. Sort of like a music club? Golf Wang will absolutely represent.

That could be a pretty bad-ass X-factor. Think about it, Nick is basically bringing the two biggest Youtube industries on late night network TV in music and cartoons. The mix would really be the only one of its kind as SNL very seldom does any cartoons and the majority of the music on that show is terribad. Lets not forget Nick gave us Metalocalypse…could the next Brendon Small happen on ADHD?? One last tidbit about the content that I thought was pretty cool was when he was asked if a show like Xavier:Renegade Angel or another PFFR show would be able to make it over to ADHD.

One of the things I’m most proud of being involved with is Xavier: Renegade Angel. I can’t believe that ever made it to TV. If I ever have the opportunity to work with John and Vernon again, I will jump at the opportunity.

PFFR would be a MAJOR coup for ADHD and certainly a partnership I’d like to see on ADHD as the two would go together like lamb and tuna fish. There was a whole bunch of other shit talked about the AMA, like about Nick’s time at Adult Swim, leaving to work for FOX, and more of which you can read here.

 

ADHD premiers this July on FOX!