Exclusive Interview with Superjail! Producers Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbrick

 

Season Four Preview

Originally posted in Bubbleblabber the Magazine #2

I bet even while reading this you can hear it. Yep…you can. What exactly? It goes something like this…

Oh, Life on the outside ain’t what it used to be.

Y’know, the world’s gone crazy,

and it ain’t safe on the streets.

Well, it’s a drag, I know,

there’s only one place to go.

Baby, back where I come from,

I’m comin’ home.

 

Usually if you see a full-on Superjail! panel at a Comic Con, an entire crowd of people will sing every lyric and note to the opening theme of an episode note for note. Hell, I’ve even seen an episode of Superjail! at a Comic Con with NO audio and the entire crowd still sang the ENTIRE opening with no help whatsoever.

That was a long time ago actually…back in 2011 when Superjail! was getting ready to launch its second season for Adult Swim, a season that saw the network’s most violent animated series take a step back and introduce a more character-centric series. Characters like Stingray and the Mistress went from having bit parts to having fully-fleshed out episodes starring just them, the gays would go on to get married, and at the conclusion of the series we were left with a cliffhanger that had viewers begging for more right up until the Season Three premier. ‘’Early on I think there was a lot of trying to figure this show out’’ says co-creator Christy Karacas, ‘’I think when Adult Swim first picked us up they knew it was going to be a more visual show, but then they’d get the scripts and say they weren’t very good. It wasn’t until they got animatics of the first episode where they really got to see what the show was all about.’’

Adult Swim is one of the only networks on television nowadays that still takes REAL chances in animated television and they’ve been that way since pretty much its inception taking on television shows about extreme music (Metalocalypse), featuring fast-food characters (Aqua Teen), and those perfecting the art of stop-motion animation (Robot Chicken).  Karacas sums it up in a rather succinct way ‘’Adult Swim shows are so fucking different, they are all fucking different, and I love every one of them and I love Adult Swim. We could never take these jokes elsewhere.’’

Like the other Adult Swim shows, Superjail! really does have a style all its own. The series is painstakingly hand-drawn and finding talent that can grasp some of the methods that go along with the craft are hard to find in NYC where the producers of Superjail! call home, ‘’One thing people may not realize about Superjail is that when the show takes breaks in between seasons, we sometimes get saddled with a new crew. This season we were lucky as we were able to bring back a lot of the same people from season three to season four, but there’s always new recruits that you have to put through a sort of boot camp, and what sucks is when everything just starts to click we finish the ten episodes!’’

Superjail! does indeed employ one of the best studios in the business in Titmouse, but with a NYC-based office, it could be a challenge to find really good layout  and storyboard artists that like to be overtly creative and gag-oriented. It’s usually ingredients like these that feed the DNA that gives us  Superjail!, ‘’Our show is very animated and very gag heavy. Getting the best storyboard people is harder to do in NYC because most of them go to California.’’ says Karacas. ‘’Can you imagine if we only had 6 Days to Air?’’ notes co-creator Stephen Warbrick referring to the popular South Park documentary that showcases Comedy Central’s leading lady’s production cycle ‘’we would have about four seconds done!’’

The reasoning is because Superjail! is a traditionally animated series that prides itself on developing gag-heavy scenes usually during the storyboard process as opposed to the scripting stage. ‘’Writing the script for Superjail!, that’s the easy part’’ says Warbrick ‘’and there’s very little in terms of (voice) directing.’’ The latter can be attributed to the sterling voice contributions featuring the likes of industry vets like David Wain (Wanderlust) as The Warden, Jackson Publick (Venture Bros.) and Eric Bauza (Uncle Grandpa).’’ It’s not a dialogue heavy show, and David and Chris are the only ones that can leverage that.’’ notes Karacas.

Where Superjail! does its dirty work is the fast-paced and violent imagery that accompanies each episode, a method that has been the bread and butter for the series since season one. But, that doesn’t mean the show hasn’t developed other areas of its repertoire, rather quite the opposite. Long time fans of the series may have noticed that season three was certainly an amalgamation of the more violent-intensive episodes of Superjail! season one with the more character-focused efforts of season two. Says Karacas, ‘’The second half of Superjail! season three features some the tightest episodes that we had ever done. I always love it when both the  inmates and staff are in it. I love when all the staff and inmates have something to do because it just feels more complete.’’

The evolution continues in Superjail! season four, ‘’It’s some of the craziest stuff we’ve ever done’’ notes Karacas who makes mention of the fact that he had just started watching anime again which has ever so slightly peaked his interest in taking on different camera angles during the mass carnage scenes. ‘’(Animation Director) Mike Carlo  has been doing a great job of making the show not look too computery as we much prefer the hand drawn look. It feels right and it looks great too. But we used to do episodes that were directed rather flat, in other words we would just pan the scenes up, down, left and right.  This season we’ve been doing more angles and have been moving things around. I JUST started watching anime again and that’s influenced some more spatial direction.’’

Season two saw the inclusion of Venture Bros. creator Jackson Publick as a story consultant and the results were certainly noticeable by season three says Karacas, ‘’He’s added so much to the show in terms of his characters like Ash and Paul. Some of the best dialogue over the seasons featuring Paul and Jean has come from Jackson just ad-libbing lines.’ For season four, Jackson was unable to contribute as much due to him producing the Venture Bros.’’  fifthfor Adult Swim, however it’s worth noting that he was still very involved in script meetings and it just so happens that Venture and Superjail! are produced in the same building,albeit a bit differently, yet both ingrained in the hand-drawn style. In season four the growth of bit characters continues, but you may have to really reach back to remember when and where you first saw a few of them. Bit characters that were at one point or another used in really short scenes in prior seasons of Superjail!, are repurposed and used for integral storylines and running gags with the obvious caveat being that a producer now has to give these characters unique personalities. Such was the case last season with Ultraprison (and yes we get to see more Ultraprison in the upcoming season.) ‘’Superjail! never feels small even though it is’’ says Warbrick. ‘’If you notice whenever we do scenes it’s in the yard or inside.’’

Oh yea, and remember that Comic Con I mentioned earlier? Welp, a year later Superjail! would return in 2012 for Adult Swim as the third season was JUST getting underway, and right at the end of the Q&A an elderly man would walk up to the microphone right after the screening and ask a question that may or may not be on your mind depending on what walk of life you adhere to. The gentleman would take the mic and calmly ask, ‘’Why does this show have to be so violent?’’ It’s a question that I personally have mulled over and surprisingly enough Christy remembered the occasion and as such proceeded to set the record straight, ‘’If something’s really good, no matter what, some people are going to love it and others are going to hate it. Obviously, I want people to like the show, but I’m not going to convince those who just don’t get it. I’m afraid of dying, but not in any of the ways in which Superjail! conveys. It’s just a funny cartoon, it’s not a deep thing, it’s just the thing you would draw in your notebook as a kid when bored in class. A lot of times the violence isn’t even realistic. If a guy’s head explodes, the blood might teardrop or splatter like a firework, but its stripped down, at a crude and frenetic pace.’’

Although Christy’s answer was probably the right one, I actually preferred Stephen’s answer as he put it way more bluntly, ‘’If that guy took the time to stay in on that panel for that long only to go up and wait the entire time to ask a question like that, then there’s something a little bit off about him.’’

Don’t let the opinions of others worry you about how awe-inspiring Superjail! really is as Karacas isn’t one to be easily offended, rather he’s more worried about making more show for the buck.’’ It’s fun to do a Looney Tunes type animation where its very cartooney and silly. However, there’s also this struggle to stay funny and fresh, but also to make sure the show feels the same (despite staff changes).  We are always trying to step it up when it comes to gags and and to keep all of the crazy scenes with the story elements. This season we worked really hard to not cut a lot. There are things that have become conventions for the show, but we are still trying to shock and surprise people.’’

The one thing that should not come as a surprise to anyone who is a fan of Superjail!, is when Adult Swim renews the show for a fifth season. For most of us, it’s a home-coming.

Superjail Season Four debuts  June 15th on Adult Swim, check your local listings!

 

 

Superjail! Season Four premiers this Sunday Night on Adult Swim @ 11:45 pm ET/PT, check your local listings.