Moonbeam City, the Hot-Pink Product of its Environment

Nobody can argue that Moonbeam City’s aesthetic is what sets the series apart from the pack. Obviously there’s the paradoxical elements laden throughout the series, poking fun at 1980s action TV shows like Miami Vice, but is that really that odd? Elements popular in the ‘80s are still absolutely relevant today. Turn on SiriusXM Alt Nation (dubbed “today’s alternative”), and you’ll hear hours upon hours of music with clear influences from Depeche Mode, O.M.D., and the Psychedelic Furs in musical acts like Chvrches, MGMT, and College.

College is a band that should sound familiar to fans of the movie Drive, a 2011 independent film starring the brilliant Ryan Gosling as a part-time driver for the movies, as well as a part-time getaway driver. The film’s title track is arguably the song “Real Hero”, which combined with the costumes and vehicles used in the film, helped shape a setting that was clearly infused with elements from the 1980s. “I think that movie is largely responsible for bands like Chvrches being popular today,” says Moonbeam City director Mark Brooks.

Such is the perfect storm that ensued at Titmouse Inc., when co-founder Chris Prynoski decided to attend a gig in Los Angeles one evening. “Chris P. showed up to one of the first shows I did with Night Club [a synth-pop group he co-founded with Emily Kavanaugh],” Brooks said. “I didn’t even ask him to, but he did, and I was really stoked that he showed up.” Having personally met Chris Prynoski, that’s definitely the guy he is, and I can attest to the fact that there are people on that studio team willing to run through walls for their studio head.

Months later, Chris would remember that performance by the group, and ask them to come up with a musical score for a pilot he was producing with creator Scott Gairdner (Conan). “I think Scott knew that we understood the direction he wanted to go in, and I think that’s why he picked Titmouse studios,” Brooks explained. That pilot would become the impetus that is now Moonbeam City. It didn’t take long before Gairdner would eventually team up with Titmouse for the continued production of the pilot with Mark Brooks as director.

Moonbeam City is undoubtedly a product of a past environment; effectively a time capsule for an era that is just now re-entering the veins of American pop culture. The much younger half (by almost a decade) of the Night Club duo, Emily Kavanaugh, has drawn her musical influences from both present day and classic pop artists ranging from Britney Spears to the Greek composer Vangelis, the latter of whom would be the one she and Brooks would bond over when starting their group.

In the interest of connecting all the dots, care to guess which film was one of Scott’s major aesthetic influences when it came to producing the world of Moonbeam City? “Drive was definitely a huge influence; I thought they did a great job using the tone of the ‘80s, without it being a period piece, [instead] using its own unique aesthetic.”

Continuing on that trend, Gairdner actually doesn’t mention a ton of TV shows when talking up stylistic influences for Moonbeam City, instead mentioning classic sci-fi film fare from the ‘80s like Tron, Back to the Future, and Blade Runner – with Mark Brooks and Emily Kavanaugh crediting John Carpenter movies as additional musical influences for the Moonbeam score. For my money, the world of Tron is probably my favorite comparison, because here’s a dark world with neon colors and a Wendy Carlos produced soundtrack that you couldn’t imagine anyone else doing. (Daft Punk was definitely eschewing that soundtrack when composing for Tron: Legacy, again reinforcing the ‘80s influences in today’s music). “There’s something about a neon pink on black that is just super striking,” Brooks said. “Whenever you see a good use of that color scheme, it jumps out at you.” Similarly, Gairdner’s local neighborhood laundromat featured a poster that might as well have been from the ‘80s, and he couldn’t help but feel the piercing eyes of the model jumping off of the fading paper, a concept that certainly helped in sculpting the design of the show’s principal characters: Dazzle Novak, Rad Cunningham, Pizzaz Miller, and Chrysalis.

While the setting looks like just as thorough of a throwback, if not more so, than the one used in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – rife with blacks and magentas and pinks (neon being the city’s most valuable resource) – the characters still blend in just fine with their pastel flesh tones, wild hair, and tacky sweaters, all wrapped in latex and leather that would seem right at home in a Motley Crue video.

That said, each of the characters are unique in personality, which is showcased in their attire. While Dazzle Novak (voiced by Rob Lowe) definitely features the demure, down-to-business motif that Gosling ensues in the previously-mentioned effort, it’s sugar-coated with a man that is actually terrible at his job and influxed with a Quagmire-esque libido. Gairdner credits listening to Rob’s audio books as the catalyst that inspired his invitation to come onboard as the leading role. Rad Cunningham (voiced by Will Forte) is constantly trying to catch up to Dazzle, even in appearance, but his clothing is way more tacky, looking more like a poor imitation of Andrew Dice Clay. Don’t worry though, as the season goes on, he certainly gets his fair share of comeuppance to counteract his ostentatious displays. “When we finished the pilot, we couldn’t help but really HATE Rad,” Gairdner admitted, “so when we were writing for the rest of the ten episodes, we wanted to come up with ways that would punish him in the worst way possible.”

Fans of Forte’s work will note he’s at his best when he’s a whiner. Roles like MacGruber and in a more subtle way, FOX’s hit series Last Man on Earth, show Will as someone that goes to great efforts to get what he wants, but when he screws up, his bawling about it is comedy gold. “Of all of the characters, Will’s influence as an actor is felt even more so as the season goes on, because we didn’t write with him signed on yet … when he did sign on and we finished the pilot, we were very excited to go into the writers’ room and write for Will as Rad,” Brooks added.

Ironically enough, when producing the Chrysalis character, Scott would have almost the exact opposite approach. “I always thought of Chrysalis as Zoe Barnes, so when Kate Mara sent in an audition tape I was blown away,” he said, referencing Mara’s role in the award-winning Netflix series House of Cards. Chrysalis is probably the most sensible and modern character in the department, especially when compared to Pizzaz Miller (voiced by Elizabeth Banks). Fans hoping for an easy-going police chief are going to be disappointed, because it’s fairly evident in the first few episodes that Chrysalis has a Lois Einhorn-like attitude (remember Ace Ventura?) that sees Pizzaz constantly threatening to fire Dazzle every chance she gets. “You’ll eventually see why she’s like that, and in fact, is a product of her environment due to her contentious upbringing because her sisters are worse than she is,” Brooks said.

And that’s what it all comes down to. The ‘80s may be remembered as being about electronic music, neon colors, and silly stylistic choices, but contemporary society mainly functions by taking the abundance of culture in our environment – from near and far, past and present – and combining everything to make a unique form of expression. Every one of us does this in our daily lives, whether we’re writing for a website, playing in a band, or creating the next big animated series for Comedy Central.

Moonbeam City airs Wednesday Nights @ 10:30 pm ET/PT, only on Comedy Central