The Great North Exclusive: Charlie Kelly Discusses Upcoming “Ham” Episode, Ron DeSantis’ Take On LGBTQIA In Cartoons, And More

John Schwarz: I feel like this season of The Great North has truly started to separate itself and not just be “Bob’s Burgers in Alaska”, what has this process been like?

Charlie Kelly: Yeah, totally. I mean, I feel like in some ways, that’s like a better question for Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux, who are my bosses and created this show. And from day one, they’ve, you know, had a real roadmap for a way to make The Great North feel, I think, like, familiar and satisfying to people who are lifelong Bob’s Burgers, fans, and I’m one of them, and definitely feel that way. But to have it also, you know, really shine with its own unique voice. And I guess for me, like, I feel like our comedy is sometime it’s a little, like, more whimsical or wacky or a little sort of, like weirder and takes bigger risks than some of the some of the bogs and you know, I think one thing that we don’t do a lot of that’s a big part of Bob’s Burgers is sort of like the, you know, the financial like, insecurity of being a small business owner, which is like a big story engine on, on Bob’s Burgers. And we, you know, totally could do because Beef Tobin own a business being a fisherman. But yeah, that’s not like, we don’t do that kind of story area. And, you know, there’s, I think the, the family dynamic on our show is like, a little more non traditional, you know, the mama the Tobin family, Kathleen,as you learned in the pilot, like, left her family behind to be with her new lover, Marcus and Pennsylvania, and I feel like, you know, that’s a kind of, it just sets a tone that’s different, and then maybe a little more contemporary or something, then Bob’s, but yeah, but they’re definitely still, you know, similar. And, you know, we’re led by Wendy and Lizzie who’ve written on Bob’s Burgers for twelve years now. So there’s definitely some, some total overlap for sure.

Last season, it was big news when Crispin and Ham had their first kiss, as that hadn’t really been done before on broadcast animated television. How important was it for you to have that moment and are their other LGBTQ firsts that you would like to see come down the pike for The Great North?

Yeah, that’s, I mean, that’s such a cool question to be able to respond to and you know, that was important for me, personally, to be a small part of like putting that moment on TV and especially on like, you know, network TV and in adult animation, which is a medium that sometimes has a history of kind of punching down or sort of making fun of queer-coded characters. And it was, yeah, that was one of the coolest things that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of in, in my career. And, again, that was all, you know, definitely a team effort. And as we started to talk about the idea, the support in trying to give that moment to, Ham was, you know, 100%, there from, my bosses, and from the studio and the network, and it was definitely like, something we all wanted to do. Together. And, you know, I feel weird, like, censoring myself in that, but yeah, I, you know it was cool. And I think just in general, the type of representation that Ham brings to the show, it’s not something you see a lot of and, you know, one thing I say a lot about him is that he is able to kind of exist in these gay stories are these queer stories, like of consequence, where, you know, real stuff does happen, and he has his first kiss, and he finds himself in this sort of silly, you know, bizarre situation where he and his sister have a crush on the same guy, and they have to figure out how to how to navigate that. But they’re gay stories about consequences where, you know, nobody is getting bullied, nobody’s getting, you know, estranged from their families or dealing with shame. And I think that’s been a real mission of the show since day one is to try to, you know, not treat Hans gayness as a source of drama or conflict or distress for him, but instead as just the, you know, a small part of who he is. And I think in some ways, like, that’s something you don’t see a lot of, on, on TV, it’s much easier, I think, to tell gay stories were the kind of tropes of like, the, you know, the struggles that come along with being there are like, centered in a character’s story and have a cool example of kind of how simple it can be to lead a queer life. And I love that about him.

What I like about what The Great North does with “Ham” is put such a relatable character on television that people at home watching could potentially relate to and see themselves in in just being a gay teenager going through the bumps in the road that come after one comes out.

Yea totally I mean, that’s been like a goal of ours, I think, from the beginning is to, you know, try and create this sort of role model for us who, like you said, might be going through a similar thing. You know, and there are a lot of coming out stories out there. And I think, to your point, they often kind of focus on and center on what can be difficult about the process, like what can go wrong, what can be dramatic about it, what can be upsetting about coming out? And as we started to think about this story, we wanted to sort of do one that looked at what would happen if it was like, almost too easy for a person and they were kind of like, you know, because of all those coming out stories that exist in movies and TV shows and books. They were sort of like conditioned to expect something bad or dramatic. And that’s sort of the stepping off point for Sunday’s episode, it’s about him having this realization with his boyfriend that he’s coming out with, like, so free of drama. And, you know, it’s established in the pilot of the show that he’s come out to his family a bunch of times. And he realizes in Sunday’s episode that he actually like, can’t even remember the first time and that, you know, it was always just met with sort of, like, calm and like love and acceptance. And, you know, his, boyfriend offers up that maybe the reason he keeps coming out is that he never got the sort of like, gasp filled, you know, dramatic moment that we’re all at least a little bit trained to expect from like, you know, all the all the dramatic comings out that we see on screen. And so, you know, he tries to sort of recreate that drama for him that he never got, and it backfires and doesn’t go great. And that’s the kind of stepping off point for this story. And, you know, I think, I guess, we’ve kind of hoped that the takeaway from it is like, it just, it doesn’t have to be a monumentous or dramatic or, you know, difficult thing to do. And it might be and if it is, that’s also okay. And, you know, it’s such a cliche at this point, but it really does get better. And it’s, you know, if it is difficult, it’s okay, but I think we’re in a moment where people are kind of ready to imagine like, oh, maybe maybe it isn’t a big deal. And maybe it’s okay to just kind of, you know, stake that claim in your identity and then move on from it and not have it be this Supercharged or super dramatic moment in a person’s life. And yeah, we’re hoping that sticks with people and takes away some of the, like, anxiety or fear, about coming out.

The Great North has this tradition in that each week the episode features “adventure” in the title, and this Sunday’s seems to continue the “adventure” of Ham’s coming out journey, even though the definition of an adventure can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Yeah, totally. And I think, I mean, those are story areas that lend themselves really well to our show setting, in Alaska, and so, you know, even the sort of quote, unquote, like “smaller”, more emotionally driven episodes that we’ve done, they’re still set in this place where everything kind of feels adventurous to show our characters I think. Yeah, I mean, I think that’s, that’s another sort of big way in which for me, this show feels you know, related to but different from Bob’s Burgers is that you know, we do I guess we do more, you know, action packed kind of stories and you know, this place that our show lives in Alaska is like always top of mind for us and yeah that, you know, we hope lends itself to these kinds of more, adventure-filled, big kind of stories and that’s definitely the case for Sunday’s episode. This week the whole family kind of gets roped into this plan and find themselves in not not such a great situation and it sort of ends up being an episode and a story about like a family coming together to get out of a tough spot that they’ve you know, been been put in when their kid goes looking for some some drama that he never got. And yeah, that’s definitely the sense of adventure that is like a big part of our show for sure.

We’re in an interesting time in this discussion, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis has said that Disney is injecting sexuality in cartoons and of course he passed the Don’t Say Gay Bill. As a writer that works for Disney, what’s your take on this situation?

Totally. I mean, I think like we were all raised on you know, in more in like the kids animation space, like we were all raised on romantic stories that took place between, you know, straight people. And for me those comments, it really laid out his homophobia and his bigotry sort of right there for all of us to see. Because, you know, he’s not coming after the, you know, hundreds of kind of, you know, Princess and Prince movies that we all watched countless times when we were kids, he’s, you know, only coming after, you know, shows and movies that display, like, same sex or queer romance in them. And it’s really upsetting. I mean, sometimes, it’s not really a laughing matter. So I feel kind of silly even doing this about it. But I do sometimes think about Beauty and the Beast, like she makes out with a, like an animal. Like she kisses a monster, she falls in love with animals we’ve covered in fur, and that gets a free pass. And like, we have, you know, a very sweet and like non, you know, not like a sexy kiss between two teenage cartoon characters. And I remember when that episode came out, season one being like, sort of being afraid that it was going to be dragged in that way by people, like by my good friend, Ron, for being sort of like gay propaganda, or whatever. And it is a question that people that, you know, people should ask themselves and parents who have that kind of reaction to queer romance in an animated content should be asking themselves, you know, like, why is it that I’m fine with Cinderella? Why is it that I’m fine with Beauty and the Beast, but like this most vague kind of romance that existed between the two male characters, and even Luca was, like, really upsetting to some people. And those are prejudices. And I think, you know, I grew up in a in a really conservative pocket of kind of like small town America and I don’t think that it’s not people in those communities who want to hold like hateful ideals or anything like that. I think it’s just often something they haven’t taken the time to, you know, step back and look at and think about, you know, and really ask themselves, Well, why am I having that reaction to this when, you know, I felt totally comfortable putting on yeah, Cinderella or the Beauty and the Beast or whatever for my kid when they were younger? But yeah, a crazy thing about me is I don’t love this DeSantis. He’s not my favorite guy.

I don’t think he’s anybody’s favorite guy. I don’t think anybody would put him in any of their top 10. How far off do you think we are from having a fully gay adult animated sitcom on broadcast TV?

I think that it’s not a far way off. And I think, you know, in the end, and Lizzie’s credit, and to everyone who worked from The Great North‘s credit, like we’ve taken like, that first real step. And The Simpsons also had a really great sort of queer-coded episode that came out where Smithers takes his first lover, and he’s always sort of been, like, identified as gay, but they’ve, they’ve never really taken the leap to actually, like, look at his, like, sexuality or center in a story or anything like that. And I think it’s, you know, I do think that the world is, is ready for it. And I think, part of the silver lining for like, you know, these difficult things that we see happening right now, like, what happened in Florida, is that it it kind of moves the conversation forward, and it brings those issues up, and it brings them into kind of, like, the center of the news cycle and stuff like that. And, you know, I think, for a lot of people, it would mean a lot to see that. On a lot of these shows, there is a history of kind of like mining laughs off of sort of, you know, stereotypical gay characters. And I think, you know, that it’s nice to see that that’s less accepted than it was before. And I think, yeah, a great next step would be to have more queer content in in the medium. And, you know, our show, you know, is, it’s taken a huge step towards the ends, I think that’s awesome. And I’m just, it’s such a cool thing to be able to be a part of, I’m so grateful.

At the end of the month we have a full-length feature film inspired by Bob’s Burgers, has The Great North team had the conversation internally, like, yea we can do a movie inspired by The Great North?

The Great North is kind of still a baby show in the spectrum of these like really long running, you know, animated sitcoms. I personally would love to watch a The Great North movie, and I think that would be so cool. But you know, I think the main focus right now is trying to make the show as cool and meaningful as we can for fans, and yeah, if that is in the works it’s far above my pay-grade but definitely would be really cool.

The Great North is all-new this Sunday Night @ 830 pm ET on FOX, check your local listings. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.