Back in 2005, Matt Senreich co-created "Robot Chicken," a satirical stop-motion animation sketch comedy that has gone on to become one of Adult Swim's biggest hits. In 2009, Senreich teamed up with fellow 'Robot Chicken' writer Tom Root to create "Titan Maximum," a new comedy series that parodies several giant robot shows from the '70s and '80s.
To celebrate the recent release of "Titan Maximum" on DVD, Crave Online recently caught up with Senreich and Root to discuss the genesis of the series and whether it will come back for another season before moving on to the new season of "Robot Chicken," the third "Robot Chicken: Star Wars" special, Senreich's new "Star Wars" animated series and a potential animated project for Fox!
Crave Online: Tom, our first question is for you. How did you come to work with Shadow Machine and the rest of the "Robot Chicken" guys?
Tom Root: I kind of came here the same way a lot of us did. We were working at Wizard Magazine years and years ago and we met Seth [Green] and we just started work-shopping stop-motion sketch comedy ideas. One thing led to another and we all ended up on the west coast making TV shows.
Crave Online: Matt, what was the inspiration behind "Titan Maximum"?
Matt Senreich: For "Titan" it's one of these projects that Tom and I have been talking about since '98. We've been joking around about a giant robot show and never really took it seriously until more recently. We drew a bunch of things up on our dry erase board here at the office within the last couple of years that have just kind of stayed up there. When Adult Swim was out here they saw it and said "What's that?"
We loosely pitched them the show and they seemed intrigued. We saw an opportunity and just jumped on it. We actually started working on this show that... really was a joke concept that we just took a little further...
Tom Root: And then developed, which was great. It was a passion project, if you will.
Crave Online: Were there any giant robot shows in particular that you drew influence from?
Matt Senreich: You know, we all watched "Voltron" and "Battle of the Planets." We all had "Gundam" figures. It's one of those things where I think it's all of them. For us, we thought it was interesting how every robot show trusted teenagers to fly the most powerful weapon around. And we thought that was preposterous.
Crave Online: Where did the Betty and Veronica style rivalry between Jodi and Sasha come from?
Tom Root: I think... as we were coming up with our cast and characters, we were just sort of drawing them on our dry erase board. The first lineup that I did... we knew we wanted a heroic guy, we knew we wanted a nerdy guy and we knew we wanted a monkey. And then a lot of those robot teams just have the token female and we didn't want to do that. So we added two female characters and I think it was just sort of a natural thing to make one really aggressive and nasty and the other one really maternal and with it.
Crave Online: So, it wasn't a specific Betty and Veronica dynamic you were going for then?
Matt Senreich: Not necessarily. I mean Betty and Veronica are always fighting over Archie. Our characters are not fighting over Palmer.
Tom Root: I think the only similarity is hair color, but you know... the thing about our females (especially with Sasha) is that you can drop them into any situation and things start happening very quickly. They really start to drive whatever room their in... which is what I like about them.
Crave Online: Alright, let's talk about Palmer. What was the inspiration behind making him such a complete ass?
Tom Root: (Laughs) Palmer... a lot of his character came from... all of those old robot shows had one guy who was like the "Tom Cruise" character. [Someone] who was the alpha male, the natural leader, everyone looked up to him... We knew we wanted a character like that and we thought it would be funny if that character was a colossal a**hole because at that age with that much power and that much fame and attention, I think that would naturally happen to a lot of people. He's like a star athlete who's had everything handed to him.
Crave Online: Out of the first season, do you guys have any favorite episodes?
Matt Senreich: I have a few favorites. I don't know about you.
Tom Root: I really like episode 2 because it introduces Admiral Bitchface and it introduces Claire and it's got really good action in it. I think our pilot is a very complete episode, but episode 2 for me really moved.
Matt Senreich: For me, I really enjoy like [episodes] 7 through 9, just how they fit together. I don't think as individuals they may be as strong, but if you watch the three of them together it plays out really well.
Crave Online: Do you have any favorite jokes from the first season?
Matt Senreich: I think every line of dialog that Sasha has makes me laugh.
Tom Root: For me it was [Leon's grandparents] covering his eyes. That was one of my favorites. Because Breckin [Meyer] does a lot of voices for us, every time he came in to record Palmer we'd have to play back the Palmer that he'd already done. And the one clip we played over and over was him singing his theme song from the pilot. That still really makes me laugh.
Crave Online: Okay guys, I guess the big question for "Titan Maximum" is will there be a second season?
Matt Senreich: [Laughs] Everyone keeps asking us about this. And it's kind of a cop out to say that it's about finding the time to do it only because we're so strapped for time with "Robot Chicken" right now. The good thing about doing "Titan" was we snuck it in-between "Robot Chicken" seasons and that was even tricky to do. For us it's a matter of "can we pull it off between seasons 5 and 6 [of "Robot Chicken"]. We're still trying to see if that's possible. I can't imagine us not doing a second season.
Tom Root: We want to do a second season.
Matt Senreich: I think it will happen before too much longer. It's just our schedule...
Tom Root: Yeah, because right now we're working on "Robot Chicken" season 5 and we've got the "Robot Chicken: Star Wars" special coming up. We're in the thick of production so it's a balancing act. Because we're always so hands on with both shows, we don't want either one to suffer by us not paying attention to it.
Crave Online: What's coming up in the next season of "Robot Chicken"?
Matt Senreich: Oh boy...
Tom Root: A lot of "Twilight" jokes.
Matt Senreich: Actually, not really.
Tom Root: No "Twilight" jokes. "Avatar..." There's a great "Avatar" musical number that's going to be coming up.
Matt Senreich: We're launching the season with "Robot Chicken: Star Wars III," which is what we're working on right now. That will lead into our fifth season and we have a great Christmas special too.
Crave Online: I understand that this "Star Wars" special is different than the other two that you did. Can you elaborate on that?
Tom Root: Yeah, it's going to be 44 minutes. We're telling more of a linear story even with our channel flipping format. We're kind of focusing more on characters: the Emperor, Darth Vader, Boba Fett and our stormtropper Gary. It's just kind of seeing the universe through their eyes. Through more sketches if you will.
Matt Senreich: It pretty much starts before the prequels and ends after "Return of the Jedi."
Tom Root: It's pretty all-encompassing. It hits pretty much everything.
Matt Senreich: Yeah, we hit the whole timeline.
Tom Root: We tried to stick some expanded universe stuff in there, but I'm not sure if it made the final cut or not.
Matt Senreich: I don't think it did.
Crave Online: That's funny, I was actually just about to ask you about expanded universe stuff and sneaking Mara Jade into the background.
Tom Root: It'll be on the DVD, probably. Because I think we unfortunately cut it for time.
Matt Senreich: One of my visions was that I wanted Mara Jade in our show and it came close.
Tom Root: It was very close. But it'll be on the DVD.
Crave Online: That's great! Who did you get to voice Mara Jade?
Tom Root: Rachael Leigh Cook did it.
Crave Online: She does a lot for you guys.
Tom Root: Yeah, she does. She's awesome.
Crave Online: Tom, I know Matt is involved with the other "Star Wars" series. Are you involved with that as well?
Tom Root: ...I have no comment one way or the other.
Matt Senreich: (Laughs)
Crave Online: Okay. Matt, what can you tell us about that other "Star Wars" series that you're working on?
Matt Senreich: It's one of those things where it's still so early on... I could say it's going to be a fun comedy and we're aiming to make people proud. I think I'll get shot in the back of the head if I say anything [more].
Crave Online: Do you know what the animation style will be like?
Matt Senreich: That I can say. It's going to be CG. They're doing all of the animation up at Lucasfilm.
Crave Online: It's not going to be the supermarionation style we've been getting from "Clone Wars," is it?
Matt Senreich: I can't even comment on it. I'm sorry. I'm giddy to talk about it because it's really exciting. But it's still so early on in the process that everything is still changing in its looks. It could be 2013 before this thing comes out.
Crave Online: You mentioned earlier how busy your schedule is. Where would that show fall into your schedule?
Matt Senreich: The good thing about that show is that Seth [Green] and I are acting as consultants. We're working on it in that capacity. It's a lot of work and then there's little work and there's a lot of work and then there's little work. It makes for some very late nights sometimes. And a lot of traveling back and forth from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Crave Online: You said that it may not be out until 2013?
Matt Senreich: I don't know. We don't know when it's going to come out. It could come out tomorrow...
Tom Root: It could come out tomorrow?! (Laughs)
Matt Senreich: Honestly, it's one of those things that could come out who knows when. I was just using that as an example of "I don't know when."
Crave Online: Do you guys have any other projects that you're working on?
Matt Senreich: The biggest thing we're working on right now is a Fox pilot called "Mount Pleasant." We're really excited about it, we think it looks awesome and we're about to turn it in [to Fox] in September. So, fingers crossed!
