[Interview] ‘In The Know’ Takes Aim At Talk Radio

In The Know is the latest animated series from creators Mike Judge, Brandon Gardner, and Zach Woods. The show follows Lauren Caspian (Woods), NPR’s third most popular host. Caspian is something of an odd duck. He often voices his own personal grievances on air while attempting to deal with the chaotic nature of his staff. Oh, and he and his staff also happen to be all puppets. Caspian conducts in-depth interviews with real-world human guests ranging from Norah Jones to Mike Tyson. 

The show features an array of colorful characters who are just as dysfunctional as Caspian. Fabian (Caitlin Reilly) works as Caspian’s fact checker but may need a fact checker herself. Frat bro intern Chase (Charlie Bushnell), brings a party vibe to the entire studio. Barb ( J. Smith-Cameron), attempts to bring stability to the office. There’s also culture critic Sandy (Judge), who might be as odd as Caspian. Audio engineer Carl (Carl Tart), seems a little too good to be mixed in with the rest of his co-workers.  

We sat down with Reilly and Bushnell to discuss their characters, the collaborative spirit on set, and what they’d name their own talk show. In The Know co-creator Brandon Gardner also chatted with us about how the show came together and what it’s like working with such a talented team. 

Caitlin Reilly And Charlie Bushnell Talk About The Fun They Had Making ‘In The Know’

Matthew Swigonski: Fabian and Chase are definitely a couple of characters that are… a couple of characters. What was it like working with Brandon Gardner, Zach Woods, and Mike Judge and finding the voice for each of your characters?

Caitlin Reilly: It was bad [laughs]. No, I’ve been thinking about that….it was so much fun. It was so collaborative. Zach and Brandon wrote a brilliantly funny show and we spent a lot of time recording all in the same room together and they let us improv. And they wanted to know our opinions about the characters and scenes. You know ‘Whatever you want to do. How do you feel about it?’ It was a breeze. It was so much fun.

Charlie Bushnell: Yeah, absolutely. Zach and Brandon just created such amazing characters And the writing was perfect right off the bat so they really kind of made our jobs easy just to play off of that. And then once we got in the studio we were able to just play off each other and improvise and that was so much fun. Bringing these characters to life was definitely a treat. 

Matthew Swigonski: So was there one person on set that would usually crack most jokes and make everyone laugh the most?

Caitlin Reilly: I think I’m the most unprofessional and unserious [laughs]. I wouldn’t necessarily say the funniest. I think we were all just vibing together and I think when we would laugh the hardest it’s when we were recording. We were just having so much fun with our characters.

Charlie Bushnell: Yeah, I think we all sort of equally had some really funny moments just in the studio. We were all just making each other laugh the whole time. It was like 60% of us just laughing the whole time like 40% actually getting the work done. So yeah, it was such a fun experience.

It’s Time To ‘Shut Up And Listen To Me’

Matthew Swigonski: If Fabian and Chase had their own podcast or a radio talk show, what would it be called or what would it be about?

Caitlin Reilly: I think Fabian’s podcast would be called ‘Shut Up And Listen To Me,’ where each episode we would talk about something that everyone’s wrong about. She wouldn’t have any guests. It would just be her and each episode would be about like four hours long. She wouldn’t really feel the need to edit.

Charlie Bushnell: Chase’s podcast would just be called like ‘Hell Yeah’ and we just talk about working out and just typical frat bro things I think. We’d be a pretty chill podcast.

Matthew Swigonski: Is there a favorite moment from the show that you guys can’t wait for the viewers to watch or maybe something beyond the scenes that you cherish the most?

Caitlin Reilly: Oh God. I just have so many favorite moments. I think that Zach’s portrayal of Lauren Caspian is just so so funny. And I think Mike Judge’s portrayal of Sandy is so funny. I mean everybody is. I’m so excited for everyone to see it. There are so many funny moments from every single character. So many little storylines that I love. I just can’t wait for it to come out.

Charlie Bushnell: I’m excited for people just to see the whole thing because, like Caitlin said, there’s just so many funny moments in every single episode and every single scene basically. But I think one particular moment that I personally love is Fabian and her freak out when she’s live on air. She’s just saying all the wrong things. It’s really funny and I’m excited for people to see that. 

‘In The Know’ Co-Creator Brandon Gardner Wanted The Chance To ‘Make Fun Of Ourselves’

Matthew Swigonski: Can you talk about how the show came about and how you guys developed the show?

Brandon Gardner: So Mike Judge had thought that it would be fun to do an animated interview show. And he thought a good setting for that would be public radio. And then he thought about bringing Zach on to help develop it because one, he knows Zach from Silicon Valley to be sort of a great improviser. He knows Zach to be an NPR listener and just someone who has an NPR sort of vibe. And Zach and I have been writing partners for a long time so Zach brought me in to help develop it. 

The thing that Zach and I were really excited about was less making fun of NPR specifically, but that we thought that an NPR studio would be a fun opportunity to make fun of people like ourselves, like me and Zach and our friends, that there’s all sorts of ways in which we have these ideals that we don’t live up to and we’re hypocrites and are absurd in all sorts of ways. And we wanted the chance to make fun of ourselves.

Matthew Swigonski: The animation style is very unique and very distinct. How did that come about? How did you guys decide on that style?

Brandon Gardner: Mike [Judge] had also been the person who had suggested stop motion because it’s something he always liked and never had the chance to make a show with stop motion. And then as we were talking about it, it felt more and more sort of appropriate for the NPR world that it was going to be the stop-motion puppets. 

There’s something sort of twee about this animation. Like in Wes Anderson movies. The characters are very fragile. It felt like, ‘Oh yeah, that does feel like it represents us and our characteristics for better or worse.’ And then I would also say in terms of animation style, something we talked to the people at Shadow Machine about a lot was that we didn’t want the performance style to be broad. We really wanted it to feel grounded. That even though it was animation, we wanted the acting to be really specific and humanistic. And that generally it’s funnier when characters don’t know they’re being funny. In the moment, even if they’re saying something so absurd, they earnestly believe what they’re saying.

Matthew Swigonski: I was just talking to Caitlin and Charlie about that and how the recording was so loose and everyone was cracking jokes and there was a lot of improv.

Brandon Gardner: They get the tone of the show and the characters so well. From the very first time we brought everybody into record. A lot of that first session is the audio that’s actually on the show that they immediately just got who those characters were.

Having Talent At ‘Every Level’

Matthew Swigonski: I love the idea that the celebrity guests are live-action. How did you guys decide on that? Was that something you kind of brainstormed over?

Brandon Gardner: I think that one of the things from the beginning was this idea that the host would be animated and the guest would be live-action. And one practical thing we figured out later was that stop motion takes so long. It would have just taken us years to have animated the guest’s side of it. But then the thing is that the guest reactions in the moment are so funny and specific. They really don’t know what Lauren’s about to say. And so it’s great to be able to show the audience really what that reaction was in the moment rather than take that and try to imitate it with puppets.

Matthew Swigonski: You touched on this just minutes ago, but there’s so much talent involved in the show behind the scenes and with the voice talent. Does that make your job easier as a creator? Just with the level of talent that you’re working with?

Brandon Gardner: For sure. We had it at every level. There were really talented people. For the voice talent, there would be times where we might be like, ‘Oh, we need to record this whole scene today. We don’t have a lot of time.’ So if their first few takes weren’t good, it would have been stressful. But their first takes were always great. Then also if we gave them any adjustments, they could even do those adjustments immediately. Took so much pressure off it. It would be so enjoyable and so surprising. Like, ‘You did this funny thing that I never even imagined in the scene.’

And then on top of the voice talent, the animators themselves. Everything in production was up at a Shadow Machine in Portland. And everyone there is just like the best of the best when it comes to stop-motion animation. And so when you watch the show and you see their costumes or like the hand-painted puppets, all of that, I think, makes the show so much better than it would have been otherwise.

Matthew Swigonski: Is there one celebrity that you want on the show or maybe a dream guest that you’re hoping for?

Brandon Gardner: I would say in the first season Mike Tyson was sort of our dream guest. Zach and I both find him fascinating and just thought it would be so interesting to have this Lauren character speak with him. So we kind of had a dream guest already in the first season. And in the second season, there’s no one in particular. I think there’s so many people that we haven’t talked to that I think are very interesting and would be fun to have in this sort of situation.

In The Know will premiere on Peacock on January 25.