This was the panel I had been waiting eagerly for all day. China, IL had just recently premiered and it had turned out to be just amazing, one of my favorite shows on television right now, so this was something I couldn’t wait to observe.
The panel was listed as a “Screening and Q&A”, so the first thing that we got to do in this panel was watch an upcoming episode of the show entitled “Secret Society”. In the episode, Steve becomes a tenured professor, which gives him the perks of being virtually unfirable, and almost rich. After saving the Dean from an angry strip club owner, Pony also blackmails Dean into making her tenured as well. Steve finds quickly that being tenured kind of sucks– there are no consequences for his actions, and he can’t be fired, so being a rebel is kind of boring now. Dean tells him about a secret society for tenured professors to make their lives a bit more exciting, which Pony also blackmails her way into. The tenured professors of China, IL meet in a secret building and drink an elixir that turns them all into animals and sends them into a wild sex craze turned wild animal orgy. Steve becomes obsessed with the elixir and starts taking more despite warnings of permanent effects, and the professors all begin to consume way more than they should, turning the campus into a zoo. It is then up to Pony, Frank, and Baby Cakes to save the professors and the school.
The episode airs, or aired October 30th at midnight.
The Q&A session was dominated by questions pertaining to the transition from old Neely cartoons to this, and about old work from Brad Neely as a whole. The panelists (creator Brad Neely, executive producer Daniel Weidenfeld, and Dave Newberg) spoke about the transition, especially Brad Neely who thought it was a learning experience working with Titmouse and everyone else to change the characters into what they are in the new show. Old Brad Neely cartoons had characters without pupils in their eyes, and there was no animation– just still frames timed with voice acting. Neely said that the change from his old style to the new fluid animation in the Adult Swim show was mainly because the old style wasn’t exactly an artistic choice, but one he had to make with his lack of animation experience, and the addition of pupils in the characters’ eyes was a cosmetic choice because without, they all look zombie-esque, which doesn’t work very well with fluid animation.
They spoke about upcoming episodes, including a few focusing on Baby Cakes which will include songs by the character. Old Brad Neely characters will be making cameos and old songs will be showing up soon too. The old format of Professor Brothers cartoons with lectures by the two brothers is gone for good, as is the old still image format Neely used.
They also spoke about Standards & Practices, which is a department constantly spoken about in a negative light (a good example is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s description of S&P in the episode Gee Whiz). They said quite the opposite, that S&P sends less criticism about vulgarity than it does constructive criticism about story and structure, and whether or not things are consistent and make sense. They seem to act more like quality control for the show than a censor.
Two Professor Brothers cosplayers were at the panel. They were able to ask Neely questions, as well as the actual Frank and Steve. It was pretty cool.
Check out our China, IL NYCC ’11 Gallery Here!
Press Hour Notes from Sentroid91:
- As with the Delocated Press Hour, there were only four other people (Calvin included) asking questions to Brad and Daniel.
- For some reason, Brad had with him a Hershey’s bar, which he broke into pieces and eventually threw pieces (or maybe the garbage, not sure) into an empty cup. I also noticed he broke out some Altoids which I believe also made it in there… I’m weird.
- Brad said that the “college is a backdrop” for the story.
- They knew they wanted to cast Hulk Hogan as the Dean. They said he was very willing to say what they wanted (Brad brings up the part where he screams about there being “No God,” which Hogan apparently adlibbed himself.)
- Other guests (who may or may not have been on already) include: Jeffrey Tambor as Babycakes’ Dad, Jason Alexander, and Natasha Leggerro.
- They both felt the show was like “Seinfeld in Springfield.”
- Brad may revisit some other themes from his Super Deluxe cartoons.
- They compared the show to a “Reverse Animal House.” Mainly because the premise “seemed fresh.”
- Brad went through a small timeline that started with the time he made the SD shorts, moving to L.A. to write on South Park, and then making the China, IL pilot.
- Tommy Blacha (Metalocalypse, Mongo Wrestling Alliance) was the voice of the Mayor. They said the character was inspired by the Ultimate Warrior. They actually wanted Macho Man “Randy Savage” to voice him, before his passing earlier this year.
- The show is done entirely in Flash (No Koreans are involved.)
- Brad felt the show would never have made it to the network without Daniel.
- According to Daniel, the show will have minimal continuity (“There’s always a reset button.”)
- I was singled out by Brad towards the end, having had no questions (mostly due to Comic-Con burn-out. x_x) My only question was “How did you guys cast Hulk Hogan?” which had been asked by someone previous. I changed the question to “How did you guys cast Dave Coulier?” to which the simple answer was “He auditioned.”
