Exclusive: Duncanville Showrunners Talk About What’s In Store For The Rest Of Season Two And Upcoming Season Three

Duncanville returns Monday, August 15th @ 930 with a brand new episode and we had a chance to speak with husband-wife producing duo Mike and Julie Scully. The two former writers for The Simpsons teamed up with Amy Poehler to create a primetime animated comedy that has been a smash-hit on both Hulu and linear television. In my opinion (and I’ve said this in other pieces), the series is the funniest of the new crop of Animation Domination series over the last couple of years. Why is that? Well, Mike Scully had this to say,

“I think it’s the characters and the cast for sure. I know the writing is. It’s a good marriage.  Note, Duncanville is one of the first series to truly bring about writers from both Family Guy and The Simpsons. While softened in recent years, the early days of both series had a bit of a fun rivalry which Mike notes “was way overblown”. One of the writers from Family Guy that has made a successful home at Duncanville, is John Viener.

“We’ve known John for many years, and we wanted him to be part of the staff. He just brings a very funny , John does bring some Family Guy’s sensibilities with him, we bring some from The Simpsons, and they kind of mesh together really well. Plus the bonuses. He’s such a hilarious voice actor in addition to being a great writer. You know, he’s just a lot of fun to have in a room. And he’s way better looking than any comedy writer has the right to be.”

Additional sensibilities from The Simpsons comes in the way of Joel Kuwahara’s Bento Box Entertainment. For those that don’t know, Joel used to be a longtime animation producer for The Simpsons, and although the studio is busier than ever right now, Joel makes it a point to show up on table reads, sound mixes, and he’ll give notes. “It’s almost like having an extra partner and the relationship has been very collaborative in that regard. ”

The note speaks well to the fact that every level FOX’s Duncanville has worked, in the upcoming episode entitled “Off To The Braces”,Kimberly gets her braces off and finds new popularity while Jack accidentally has his ponytail cut and embraces his new persona of authority. With the removal of Kimberly’s braces comes with it a musical rendition and who better to do that than the voice of Kimberly herself, Garfunkel and Oates’ Riki Lindhome who also voices the character. The end of the episode will also feature a continuation of the song, this time with rap superstar Wiz Khalifa who also happens to be the voice of “Mr.Mitch”, “we went to her (“Riki”) and said, “We want to write a we want a song about what it’s like for a girl that age to finally get her braces off”. And, you know, we kicked around a few ideas and then she said, I, you know, let Kate and I work on it. And we thought, you know, they would come back in a month or two with something it was like five days later”.

The FOX network has shown a ton of support for Duncanville, evidence of this is the fact the series with only one season under it’s belt was tasked with carrying a second Animation Domination block that would premiere Monday nights along with freshman comedy Housebroken. The result has seen Housebroken getting picked up for a second season and Duncaville, a third,  Charlie Collier and Michael Thorne told us from the beginning that they were committed to expanding the Animation Domination lineup, which is actually ironically, something we tried to get Fox to do. Back in 2011, we were doing a animated version of Napoleon Dynamite, and we had talked to the network about expanding to a second night or doing like, some original programming in the summer. At that time, couldn’t get anybody interested. And now that Charlie and Michael are in charge, they’ve been very committed to expanding the brand. So that’s been a huge help for us”.

Women’s representation is very much at the forefront of Duncanville. The animated comedy created by Amy Poehler features the incredibly accomplished actor take on both lead roles as “Duncan” and “Annie”, in addition to a cast and crew that is one of the best represented of women in animation in the business today with the cast being majority women fielding both male and female characters. Julie notes the level importance to have women well-represented in the animated comedy, “my family and I have five daughters. Amy is very, is very pro women, which is good. So we all came at it, making sure that women’s voices were heard”.

Adds Mike, “In The Simpsons, you know, the started out as kind of a riff on the 1950’s family sitcom. And that’s kind of a turf that we had mined very successfully. So starting as a new show, we thought, well, we have a chance to do a more contemporary version of a family where the moms are out in the working world and out of the house a lot like and like Julie was saying, just have strong female characters in the world. Women be just as funny as a man and the same thing as a man and they can also be just as dumb.”

As for the show’s future, COVID-19 restrictions are still in tow which Mike and Julie admits presented it’s initial challenges, but have been able to pull off producing Duncanville with no noted hiccups or delays. So much so, that production for the show’s third season is still very much underway and we’ve got some fun episodes to look forward to which includes a guest star appearance featuring gaming superstar Ninja and a season two finale that gives us another dip in the “Witch Day” pool. Furthermore, the producers note that episodes will continue to explore characters like Betsy Sodaro’s “Bex”, Yassir Lester’s “Yangzi”, and other minute characters that are going to be given a very “Springfield-esque” time to shine.

Duncanville premieres new episodes every Monday Night @ 930 pm ET/PT, only on FOX, check your local listings. This interview was edited and condensed for clarity. 

Synopsis:

From Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner Amy Poehler and Emmy Award winners Mike and Julie Scully, comes DUNCANVILLE, an animated family comedy centered around a spectacularly average 15-year-old boy, his family and friends. In the series, DUNCAN (Poehler) can see adulthood on the horizon: money, freedom, cars, girls…but the reality is more like: always being broke, driving with your mom sitting shotgun and babysitting your little sister.

Duncan’s mom, ANNIE (Poehler), a parking enforcement officer who dreams of someday being a detective, lives in perpetual fear that her teenage son is one bad decision away from ruining his life and will do anything to stop him from doing so. Duncan’s father, JACK (Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell), husband to Annie, is a classic-rock-obsessed plumber who’s determined to be a better dad than the one he had. He’s constantly posting wonderful things about his family on Facebook and annoyed that his kids won’t friend him.

Duncan’s 12-year-old sister, KIMBERLY (Riki Lindhome), is awkward, emotional and can hold grudges forever, while waiting patiently for revenge. She’s all emotions all the time and nobody’s problems are bigger than hers. JING (Joy Osmanski), Duncan’s six-year-old sister, likes to shout “Watch me!” before executing the world’s slowest cartwheel.

Duncan hangs with his friend and class clown, BEX (Betsy Sodaro), his stylish and swaggy friend, YANGZI (Yassir Lester), and his reckless, unsupervised friend, WOLF (Zach Cherry). MIA (Emmy Award nominee Rashida Jones) is Duncan’s on-again, off-again crush, who never met a cause to which she wouldn’t dedicate her life; and MR. MITCH (Golden Globe nominee Wiz Khalifa), is their cool teacher/guidance counselor/occasional school nurse.

The adventures continue in the Season Two premiere of DUNCANVILLE when the Harris family takes its first vacation. The episode features a “Parks and Recreation” reunion, as guest voices Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza, Retta and Nick Offerman join Poehler and Jones. Finn Wolfhard (“Stranger Things”, “It”) also guest-voices in the premiere. Other storylines in the new season include Duncan saying the one thing no kid should ever say to their dad, which shifts their power dynamic; Duncan and Kimberly being sent to therapy camp; Jing and Jack starting a child birthday band together (guest-voice appearance by Stephen King); and Duncan and Annie racing stock cars.

DUNCANVILLE is produced by 20th Television Animation; Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group; and FOX Entertainment. Mike Scully, Julie Scully and Amy Poehler co-created and executive-produce the series with executive producer Dave Becky. The series is animated by Bento Box Entertainment.