IR Interview: Sam Means & Robert Carlock (Showrunners) For "Mulligan" [Netflix-S2] - Part II
Showrunners Sam Means & Robert Carlock talk to The Inside Reel about expectations, voices, challenges and evolution of the concept in regards to the 2nd season of their animated series: "Mulligan" on Netflix.
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00:00So take it from our face, we know you're gonna like this place.
00:24But you get the essence of satire, that's the thing is that with Holly, like Holly Hunter
00:28playing that one character, really, because you would bring in everything from Raising
00:32Arizona and broadcast news, and all those things and sort of, but then put her in as
00:36sort of a cruise director, per se.
00:39It's awesome.
00:40You know, it just is it is it writing to that?
00:43And is it seeing how that works versus the actual situation you're putting them in?
00:48Well, I think, you know, we have to be aware of all those expectations coming to a character.
00:53And I think that's, you know, where the fun starts is, how do we expand and play with
00:58and let them play with who they are and who they want to be in this.
01:03And, you know, Daniel Radcliffe on the show plays a, you know, an English off party boy,
01:11which is not him at all, but he's enjoying playing with those those expectations.
01:15And then we also on the cruise ship, we, we leaned into the fact that he's a he's a smoker,
01:22and let that rasp come out as he plays, you know, just a Florida dirt bag.
01:28And so yeah, like, who they are and who they could be as a yeah, and I think that level
01:33that you're identifying Tim is also part of what you're you asked about so eloquently
01:37before of like, this is a show about human nature and about our expectations for each
01:41other and that there is an almost meta level at which the the actors inform our experience
01:48of that.
01:49I almost died today.
01:50I almost died today.
01:52I mean, what would America even do without its president?
01:55It'd be like when my little league coach got a DUI on the way to a game.
01:59It was chaos.
02:00Everyone played shortstop.
02:01Well, the Constitution dictates a clear line of succession.
02:04We've been over this.
02:05Do you not listen to me at all?
02:06Just push ups mostly.
02:07Thanks for noticing.
02:08Remember, Maddie, if the president dies, the vice president takes over.
02:12Then if he dies, his vice president takes over and so on and so forth.
02:17Wait, if you die, Mr. Lamar takes over.
02:21So why hasn't he killed you yet?
02:22No one would ever kill the president.
02:24He's like America's favorite guy.
02:26What?
02:27Why are you all looking at me like that, Maddie?
02:31Even I know that a bunch of presidents have been shot.
02:33Isn't JFK your hero?
02:35JFK didn't get shot in Boston Public Schools.
02:37We learned that he just went to live on a farm in Vermont with his brother.
02:40Right.
02:41Right.
02:43But it also has to do with, and just to ask you, because both of you as creative forces
02:47and doing everything you have, it's also looking at your expectation of what you want to do
02:52using this medium to do so, but then taking everything that you've learned and applying
02:58it in this sort of scenario.
02:59Can you talk about that?
03:01Because that's always the thing, because you can't second guess yourself, but your instinct
03:06at this point is refined.
03:08Could you talk about that?
03:09Both of you.
03:10Interesting.
03:11Your last question.
03:12The one person we didn't have any expectations about was Iowa Debrie, because she was just
03:16a writer.
03:17A really funny writer.
03:18Yeah.
03:19So we gave her the voice of Jason, the teenage boy pretending to be a middle-aged general.
03:25But there was no baggage there.
03:26She was just being funny.
03:28And now, of course, people expect different things from her.
03:31Well, she's going to hire us.
03:32It's going to work out great.
03:34No, but I'm talking also in terms of the bigger idea of the show, considering where you guys
03:39have come from.
03:40Yeah.
03:41I'm going to let you go.
03:42I'm sorry.
03:43No, no.
03:44That's okay.
03:45It's just you're asking very good and probing questions.
03:47Indeed.
03:48Well, you know, as we've thought about it, we have been writing animated shows in one
03:55way or another.
03:56In terms of tempo.
03:57Yeah.
03:58Our whole career.
03:59Huh?
04:00Oh.
04:01Farts.
04:02I thought you'd all left.
04:03Everyone else did, but you'll never catch me on some stupid boat.
04:05Ugh.
04:06Non-yacht boats are horrid.
04:07Sure.
04:08They're great when you're trying to send your convicts to an island full of spiders, but
04:11then sometimes people come back from Australia.
04:14They're gone.
04:15All our citizens.
04:16What am I going to fill our prisons with?
04:19If it's any comfort, we English know what it's like to have America turn its back on
04:23you.
04:24And for what?
04:25Delaware?
04:26How did they beat us?
04:27They're too drunk to hit a toilet, but they somehow built a dad-gum utopia.
04:32Was I wrong about everything?
04:34Who cares?
04:35I don't want to be president of a mug.
04:37Don't bother taking down the flag, your highness.
04:40America survived a civil war, two Catholic presidents, and an alien invasion.
04:44But now it's over.
04:46Y'all can have it back.
04:47Oh, capital.
04:48And now that this is England, the official sport is football.
04:52Real football.
04:53Play for me.
04:54Yes.
04:55Oh, wonderful.
04:56You know, in some ways, this was a natural next step.
05:04It was to take, okay, the shows we've written, that pace, that joke density, that tone in
05:11some ways of people butting heads with different perspectives, and how can you expand that?
05:16How does actually getting to draw it instead of being constrained by the sets you can build
05:22or the puppets you can make in certain situations hold you back?
05:26And I think in many ways, we've stayed true to the kind of show we write.
05:34If on 30 Rock, they weren't putting on a variety show, they were trying to rewrite the Constitution
05:40and rebuild human government from scratch.
05:44It's the same sort of dynamics at play, just in a much bigger world.
05:50And playing with the life or death stakes of that, and hopefully getting viewers to
05:55care in the way that, gosh, to pick the most successful show of all time,
05:59but The Simpsons makes you care about those cartoon characters, which is an amazing
06:04accomplishment and a different set of challenges for us, because you got to draw it.
06:25Wow.
06:34How much can you let, we're talking about The Simpsons, we're talking about this, how
06:37much can you let your actors rip?
06:39You know, I've met Dana, I know what Dana can do, and I know what a lot of these people
06:42can do.
06:43How much is the adherence to the word when you're doing animation in this sense versus
06:49getting those nuggets of joy that you would get on 30 Rock or places like that?
06:54Yeah, it's a balance.
06:55I mean, look, we get it on paper the way we think we want it.
06:59And we want to make sure we get two takes of that.
07:02If people have other ideas, or if there are serendipitous mistakes or things, or something
07:06has changed since we put it on paper, you know, just in the real world.
07:10I mean, we had some jokes about, a couple of jokes about Will Smith being weird, and
07:15then he got weirder as we leaned into that even more.
07:21That it's always a balance.
07:23You have more room to play in a recording booth, but you still are paying by the hour.
07:28And you know, you can't make the whole thing, you know, silly make them ups.
07:32But there, you know, you let people if something isn't right in someone's mouth, they're
07:36stumbling like, fine, round it off, say it how you want to say it.
07:39And let's see if it's still funny.
07:41Right.
07:41You don't have to strike the set and relight for 30 minutes every time you might even take.
07:46Right.
07:46Just try it again.
07:47And yeah, you know, fortunately, we were able to write everything, at least, you know,
07:52season one, season two, before we started drawing them.
07:57We weren't, so we could draw to what we think we wanted.
07:59We were very diligent about getting our audio edits to where we thought we wanted it to
08:03be so that we weren't, we were, we were taking as good advantage as we could of the artist's
08:10time.
08:10Because what you don't want to be doing is saying, oh, that's all wrong.
08:14We screwed up on the page, you know, or we don't, we don't have the performance.
08:20And, you know, so working ahead is the best you can do.
08:25And I think, you know, that's a hard thing to stay on top of.
08:28We hope you realize we're really neato guys.
08:34We know you'll understand how great it is on land.
08:41The feral kids are nice, but they will give you lies.