Reddit AMA Recap: Gabriel DeFrancesco

Gabriel DeFrancesco came by recently to do a Reddit AMA about his new project, Chow-Fuhn. The Simpsons producer talked up working on the greatest animated series of all time, as well as his new endeavor. Check out some highlights below:

This is what he does for a living:

Sorry! Each episode goes through a few phases. First phase is production; the script is written, the director and animators flesh it out – it’s then sent overseas to be fully animated. About 5 months later the episode returns! The writers, producers, supervising director (Mike B. Anderson), David Silverman, the episode director and myself meet at FOX. The writers make their changes, and the episode is handed over to me to make those changes before it airs. I hope that’s “clearer”.

On is his favorite Simpsons episode:

Colonel Homer! Which was written by Matt Groening! It’s packed with great character drama – really an astoundingly heart felt episode.

How his new project got a stellar cast so damn quick:

Two words: LINDA LAMONTAGNE – she is like my fairy god-mother. Linda casts for FAMILY GUY (where I started) – and it’ll all started with a project called TRADING UP – I sent Linda the script – and said who I’d like and honestly asking for Snoop Dogg, Lavell Crawford, Joe Lo Truglio, Harland Williams and Kaitlin Olson seemed like wishful thinking – but she got them! That momentum just kept building with ROMAN HOLIDAY and now CHOW-FUHN. Jon is one of my heroes! And it took a lot of effort to not cry when he walked in to record.

On his favorite Simpsons Character:

Homer. Dan Castellaneta is a genius – he brings so much warmth to Homer. The writing and acting for Homer (to me) is legendary.

How he came up with the concept for his new series “Chow Fuhn”:

The first time I decided “I’m going to get food from a food truck” I was served something I didn’t order – and the guy in the window yelled, “Sneak Attack!” I thought it was a game – like the joke was on me – I really didn’t know what the hell was happening. They explained that they were out of food (in their defense I was the last person to order, and it was right before they were leaving) – so we had some laughs, and I ate it! But later I felt like I had a Seinfeld experience (ala the Soup Nazi) – and it just started spinning in my head. I sketched COLONEL CHOW and that’s where it started.

 

Read more of Gabe’s AMA here.