Exclusive: Wild Life Interview With Executive Producers Adam Davies, Dylan Dawson and Alex Plapinger

 

Wild Life is an upcoming animated sitcom about a group of zoo animals who must try to stay sane and – more importantly – entertained in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humans. It’s the first in-house production to come out of Syfy’s new programming block, TZGZ, and executive producers Adam Davies, Dylan Dawson and Alex Plapinger are happy with the results. In this exclusive interview, the guys talk about lumpiness, communism and the power of friendship. We promise it will all make sense. 

Tim: What series on TV serve as an inspiration for Wild Life?

Adam: It’s not a late night stoner show, but Adventure Time has that sense of world building and absurd humor, which was a huge touch stone. It was also about friendship and camaraderie, which was important to us. 

Tim: I don’t know how much you guys are allowed to tell me about the like structure and content of the show, but can we expect a story that’s purely episodic, or will you do what a lot of adult-oriented animation shows have been doing recently where, the story is mostly episodic, but there’s like a tiny throughline woven into it that pops up every now and then?

Alex: I would say it’s the latter. We have, especially in a first season, had episodes that are “a different monster every week” to show you the full range of the world. As we go on, though, we’re starting to sort out that main throughline that we’re all really excited about and hopefully get to play with a lot more.

Dylan: The throughline comes out of the characters, and the more you get to know about them. Sometimes, things organically come up in the script and we decide to pull that thread a little bit. We will introduce what initially appears to be a one-off joke, and then we end up pulling entire episodes—even entire arcs—out of that. 

Tim: The first season is going to have six episodes. Was that number set in stone from the beginning? 

Alex: I think six was always the number. Obviously, when we pitched the show originally, the intention was to do 2000 episodes. But with Syfy, six had been the number of episodes from the get-go, which I think is kind of the perfect amount, partially because we’ve had to produce so much of it remotely. I’m sure other creators you’ve talked to have said the same thing. For us, doing six quarter-hours made the whole process that much more manageable. 

Tim: How many people do you got working on the show in total? 

Alex: I think probably the total number comes out to somewhere between like 40 and 50. It might be even slightly less. It’s a really small team, small and scrappy.  

Tim: Also when compared to other animated shows? 

Alex: Yes. We have a really small team. Everyone wears a lot of hats. We have a real affection for the independent animation world and I think the show reflects that not only in terms of sensibility but also in the way we make it. 

Tim: What are your favorite indie animated shows? 

Alex: For me, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. There’s a whole world out there, especially when it comes to European animation, France, Estonia…In terms of older independent shows…

Adam: The Simpsons? ‘Current indie animators I’m really into are Reka Bucsi, Julia Pott and Don Hertzfeldt, but I also love weirder stuff that’s happening, like Natalie Djurberg, Jeron Braxton and Peter Millard’s work. Going further back, Jim Trainor holds a dear place in my heart as well as Igor Kovolyov and Klasky Csupo… which leads us, of course, to The Simpsons’

Alex: Scrappy little team. 

Adam: I think we’re all Over the Garden Wall fans, too. 

Tim: I’ve interviewed a bunch of creative teams in the past and more often than not, their relationships come off as very professional. But you guys seem to actually genuinely like each other. 

Adam: I I had never imagined making a TV show in my life. And then this I idea came about and several months in I thought to myself: oh, this thing I’m working on is a TV show! For me it’s been more about making a fun sandbox for a lot of people to get in and like, flex their creative muscles. I think that the dream: to make a weird, funny thing with your weird, funny friends. And, yeah, I guess you’re seeing that on the outside. 

Alex: I will say myself – and this a corny, non-cool thing to say for a stoner-y adult, but here I go anyway: every step of the way, we added new friends to the process. Sure, we were trying to make a premium animated show. But at the same time, we wanted to build a community. You can see this clearly with the talent. They don’t just read our lines, they add to the show. We love hanging out with them whether that’s on Zoom or somewhere else. I’ve worked on a lot of different shows over the years so I know this kind of experience is rare. I savor it. 

Alex: Another thing we realized was that the best joke wins. 

Dylan: It’s a very communist organization.

Tim: I’ve heard showrunners do that before, like when they finish a rough draft of a script they sit down with each other, go through every line and say: OK, does anyone have anything funnier than this? 

Alex: Those end up being the best lines, too. The stuff you come up with while you’re recording sometimes, for instance – a couple of lightning strikes just end up making an entire episode. 

Dylan: I often forget who did what, which I think is a good thing. By the end of a script or episode, you’re looking back at the final product you can see yourself in it, your fingerprint, but what you’re watching is the work of a collective. It’s all ours, and that is very nice. 

Adam: Coming back to the different hats we all wear, Dylan kills it in the writing room. It’s always fun to have him in our writing sessions and come up with goofy voices which we then give to that new character we just created. And Alex, being the shredder that he is, has done some music thus far. The multiple-hats thing adds to the fun we have.

Dylan: Great examples of budgetary restrictions can work out in your favor. 

Tim: Friendship aside, has there ever been a moment during the production that creative differences threatened to cause a rift between you guys? 

Adam: I do that a lot. I feel like I come with arbitrary rules for what can appear in this world and what cannot. Like, a character cannot say “Jesus,” but they can say “God.” Other than that, not really. It really comes down to, if it makes us laugh, then the biggest laugh wins. 

Dylan: Personally, I’m always excited when something like that happens. It’s nice to have these constraints on your world. 

Tim: You mentioned earlier that the idea for the show goes back a long way to random doodling with no end goal in mind. Has the art style of the show changes a lot or was it directly influenced by those first rudimentary drawings? 

Adam: In terms of design and style, I don’t think of myself as a gifted draw-er or draw-ist. There is a certain kind of lumpiness and weirdness that I’m drawn to and I don’t know if I totally understand the question, but lumpiness is the answer. 

Alex: When I came on to the show, we had this eleven-page presentation which is fairly similar to what the show is today. The characters were there and it had this unique art that I had never seen before but liked immediately. I showed it to my friends and they had a similar response to it. I think we’ve stayed close to it, to its spirit. Although, the last time I opened that file I did go like: oh, it has changed! Still, I think the spirit is there, and Adam still draws the first parts of any new character before the team will take it and make it production-ready. His hand, his natural inclinations remain very clear and present in the show. 

Adam: The lumpiness. 

Tim: This seems to be the takeaway word from today. 

Alex: I could live with that. 

Tim: If you had to name one thing that distinguishes your show from other adult-oriented animated sitcoms out today, what would it be? 

Alex: I wanna say a combination of hyper-violence and grossness meets heartfelt compassion. 

Dylan: Even though it’s a show set in a post-human society, it isn’t depressive. It’s comfort food in an uncomfortable era. On the edge of anxiety, facing the horrors of our life, and yet it’s a sweet-talking animals. 

Alex: This show is for when you are feeling sad about the state of the world and can say: no worry, because once we botch this planet up all these cute, cuddly zoo animals will get to hang out in paradise! 

Read more of our exclusive interview with the producers of Wild Life here as featured in Bubbleblabber the Magazine which is in stores now!

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Wild Life premieres September 26th @ 1215 am ET/PT, only on Syfy, check your local listings.