We check in with the producers of Pickle & Peanut and talk about 2015’s most surprising show

 

John Blabber: How did you guys come up with the concept for Pickle and Peanut?

Noah-We knew we wanted to do something different, but still hold our heads high everyday we go into work.

Joel- We knew the reaction would get different responses when you think of Disney, most have an idea of what that world is, and I had an idea of what that is. So we decided to make a thing we enjoy working on whether or not the network liked it, and we just got lucky that they’ve been generous and let us kind of do our own thing.

 

John Blabber: Right away, Pickle and Peanut doesn’t feel like a show that would have a Disney tag on it, and I think that’s my favorite thing about it. This show could just as easily be on Adult Swim.

Joel-We don’t mind making a little stink to put people on their toes including the execs. Its nice to try a few things out.

Noah- We’re like modern day Picassos. I’m a Picasso with a nasally voice.

 

What was the inspiration behind Pickle and Peanut

Noah- We both kind of dabbled in stuff and went on dream quests in the Mojave desert and we visited a shaman that we give a lot of money to. He guided us and made us strip down naked in the middle of the desert.

Joel- At first it’s humiliating, but we started to conceptualize a pickle and peanut from the shadow silhouettes.

Noah- We just want to be clear, the show is NOT about skin bags. That was pointed out to us in development but we just like alliteration. All BS-ing aside. We wanted to make a simple lo-fi show that’s kinda of dumb.

 

John Blabber: What inspired you to have John and Jon play the titular characters?

Joel- They both came to mind very early. Very familiar with their work. We had a long list of people to start with but it quickly boiled down to Pickle and Peanut. Despite some casting choices, we thought they embodied him in physical form.

Noah- Joel dug up a podcast they did together and they already sounded great together. First time we met Johnny he tried to do something cool in picking up his dropped wallet, and we thought that was just a Peanut way to do.

 

John Blabber: The mash-up of aesthetics has always been one of your trademarks. what inspired you to have your shows this particular look? i.e. Ren and Stimpy-esque close ups, live-action bits, and random shout outs.

Noah- Neither of us like working hard, so that’s where a lot of our design come from. Anytime we can put the least amount of effort into the show we do. Our story boards are poorly done. We keep telling the artists to draw worse on their storyboards which always look way better than ours. But then we’re like…

Joel- Close one eye, squint with the other eye, and use one arm preferably with musclear atrophy.

Noah- It’s us not wanting to work hard, but we like to keep the audience on their toes with live action bits that make sure you pay attention.

Joel- The show comes from Pickle and Peanut’s points of view. The drawings are from the characters’ points of view and they aren’t craftsman and they shoot from the gut. That falls in favor with us not wanting to work hard. The live action is crusty, but that reinforces Pickle and Peanut’s perception on their world. 

 

John Blabber: Joel, to go from Electric City, to Pickle and Peanut, is a pretty hilarious transition.

Joel- (in the most sarcastic tone) I like to try things out, John,

The projects I’m interested in are things that take a risk. Why is Tom Hanks making a web series that isn’t a feature with a more robust budget? Why is Disney known for craftsmanship, go behind an unrefined show. I’m more interested in trying projects that have a risk for failure. They live in the same realm in that they are polar ends of the spectrum. Ones lo-fi and ones high def

Noah-We knew early on what we wanted. They aren’t gonna be bros, high five, no dude, no fart jokes though we have one. We set all these ground rules. It’s easy to say people to come along, but there are some that won’t like it, but others will. I am rather drunk right now, so not sure if this makes sense.

Joel- Our show does seem to split audiences, some get it, some don’t. Some don’t wanna get. But it does seem like we work with people, and despite our training, some people it just doesn’t stick with, but others pick it up like second nature. We want to bring people in that put their spin on it.

 

Are more episodes of Pickle and Peanut on the way? Is a season two coming?

Joel- More episodes of season one on the way. We are halfway aired, we shipped all out including 20 half hours. Another season? Knock on wood.

Noah- We have a half hour special that we can’t divulge, pretty action packed. Bunch of new characters. It is all about keeping people on toes. We don’t want a define pattern. We really wanted these guys to have an honest teenage boy friendship and making each of their moms. They are sweet boys that care about each other. Then we ball that up in weirdness.

Joel- A lot of new fans and new enemies. We go out of our way to make sure the random stuff we do is tie up those parts to the story. One mandate Disney has that story HAS to be there. There is a story in every one of these because Disney doesn’t tolerate just random.

 

On how the “Yellow Snow” short came about.

Joel- The network asked us if we wanted to do a Christmas special. We thought at first doing a stop motion short but thought that had been done so much before, so we thought what would Pickle and Peanut do? So, what if they go their hands on a 3D program and thus “Yellow Snow”. We told the producers, Quit making it good. 

Noah- We had one guy taking care of everything at Copernicus, and he didn’t something beautiful. And we kept saying, can you make the character models break apart or can people enter cars without the door closing?

 

Is there more Pickle and Peanut Season One on the way? How about a second season pickup?

Joel- More episodes of season one on the way. Right now we are halfway aired, but we shipped all episodes out totaling 20 half hours. Another season? Knock on wood.

Noah- We have a half hour special that we can’t divulge, pretty action packed. Bunch of new characters. This show is all about keeping people on their toes. We don’t want to define pattern. We really wanted these guys to have an honest teenage boy friendship and making all the while making fun of each of their moms. They are sweet boys that care about each other. Then we ball that up in weirdness.

Joel- For the rest of the season we will make a lot of new fans and probably a few enemies. We go out of our way to make sure the random stuff we do is tie up those parts to the story. One mandate Disney has that story HAS to be there. There is a story in every one of these because Disney doesn’t tolerate just random stuff.

John Blabber: On returning and more guest stars for the rest of Pickle and Peanut Season One 

Joel- Patton Oswalt makes a few more appearances. We have a GIANT guest star coming up but we can’t spoil.

Noah- Stinky Patty, in a couple of episodes that she is the special character. Laser and McSweats make bigger contributions. We’ve created a bunch of characters that will never see the light of day. 

 

John Blabber: What can fans expect to see from you two in the future. Anything in development that we need to know?

Noah-We are working on a bunch of fragrances based on our scents. Think of how good the ladies are going to smell! 

Joel-Different parts of our body would make different fragrances. We’re talking to TJ Maxx, Marshall’s….

Pickle and Peanut’s first season is set to return in 2016 on Disney XD.