Who’s the person in the live-action shot-is it you or Sonic’s voice actor Roger Craig Smith? Unable to escape the guy, the camera cuts back to Sonic in his happy place, then back to where he started…and then another cut…to a live-action shot of a human being in a home-made Sonic costume taking out the trash! The fellow looks at the camera, says “oops, one too many!” before a cut back to the cartoon’s actual story. When the fan somehow follows him there, the camera cuts to Sonic, now in his “happier place,” only to have the fan show up again. In a beautiful “WTF?” moment Sonic mentally retreats to his imaginary “happy place” via a camera cut to escape a pestering fan. As a showrunner, you want your show out there, front and center, and seen by the maximum number of viewers possible. We didn’t get as much promotion as I would’ve liked, but that’s always the case. Sonic Boom aired on Saturday mornings at 7am on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Sonic Boom was a Cartoon Network acquisition (and later ran on Boomerang) what time slot did it air in? Did CN promote it to any degree? But from its conception, Sonic Boom was meant to be a comedy and therefore needed characterizations that leaned more toward the comedic.Īs for Knuckles specifically, my years of experience writing comedy for television taught me the valuable lesson that the dumb guy is your best friend during a late-night rewrite. Were fans upset at the character changes? My partner (who is familiar with the previous animated versions) was at first upset that Knuckles had been reconceived as a dope-until he saw how well it worked in the show’s context. I probably added much of the satire and trope busting because that’s where my sensibility takes me. I was hired because of my experience in comedy and animation. Sega knew it was going to be a comedy when they pitched it, so if there was any reluctance to doing it that way it was settled before I joined the show. The show was developed and sold as a comedy before I was brought on board. Whose idea was it to take the franchise towards the show’s satire and trope busting? Was there any resistance or reluctance from Sega to take this direction? My agent submitted me for the job when the show was picked up and ordered into production. How did you become involved with Sonic Boom ? I had no connections when I got into the business. I get asked that a lot, but the answer is no, I’m not related to him. I’ve been writing, producing, and performing ever since.Īre you any relation to Star Trek/Space 1999 producer Fred Freiberger? Eventually, someone liked a spec Simpsons I had written and hired me as a writer. During this time, I was also writing spec TV and movie scripts. I landed my first creative job as an animation director on Pee-wee’s Playhouse from a producer who had been a writer’s assistant with me. I got a job as a production assistant and was promoted to writer’s assistant the following year. However, I wasn’t a great comedian and decided that I should lead with my strength, so I decided to try and work my way up behind the scenes. My plan was to use stand-up as a steppingstone into television. While I was there, I performed stand-up comedy in New York and on Long Island. I studied Film and Television at New York University. In search of answers I tracked down and pummeled its executive producer Bill Freiberger with questions via Email, who was kind enough to put up with my queries…Ĭan you tell me a bit about your background? A kids’ cartoon referencing everything from Stephen King’s Misery, The Paper Chase, Bye Bye Birdie and even The Shawshank Redemption? With the characters quite aware they’re in a TV show? (Sonic: “Wow, the writers are really phoning it in.”) How did this one ever get by me? And how did it ever come into existence? Not being a gamer, I had no idea the series existed until I stumbled across it on Amazon Prime video earlier this year. Sonic Boom was an independent production, acquired and aired (almost stealthily) by Cartoon Network beginning in 2014, with a later run on their Boomerang channel. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s probably because Boom never received the kind of high-profile publicity The Hub accorded Pony (a produced in-house flagship series of the then-new network) a decade ago. I mean Sonic Boom, the fifth animated iteration of the “gotta go fast” video game star. No, I’m not talking about the beloved, recently wrapped-up My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV series. Did you hear the one about the updated animated version of a classic kids’ franchise that surprised everyone with its comedy, pop culture parodies and winks to a knowing audience?
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