Sit Down, Shut Up is an ambitious new Fox animated series by Arrested Development nucleus Mitchell Hurwitz. Featuring the voices of Jason Bateman, Will Forte, Will Arnett, Cheri Oteri, Kristen Wiig and the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, "Sit Down" revolves around a wildly out-of-touch faculty at a Florida high school.
There's an eagerly ambitious comic thread that runs throughout the show, and its unique production technique (animated characters against a real-life backdrop) definitely warrants a look for ingenuity's sake alone. The protagonists are entirely too self-absorbed and clueless to be believable as real people, but that's precisely the charm of it. If Will Arnett were half the asshole he's so good at playing, he'd have his own recurring role on "The Hills" by now.
Co-creator Mitch Hurwitz, who's best known as executive producer for "Arrested Development" aims for the show to possess a real comic gravity that takes aim at the freakshow culture war we call America, with an appetite for toe-stepping and double-takes.
We caught up with Will and Mitch to discuss the new show, as well as the upcoming Arrested Development movie - and Forte's hilarious SNL character, MacGruber.
CraveOnline: How did you develop the personalities for the different characters on the show? Was everything set from the beginning, or was it more of a back and forth among everyone?
Mitch Hurwitz: Absolutely back and forth. I mean, in a funny way, the back and forth even starts before they come in. It’s like once we found out that we had a chance of getting Will Forte, who happens to be on this call…
Will Forte: Hello.
Mitch Hurwitz: Hello. We just started writing to what we’ve seen him do and what we think he can do. And then as he starts ad-libbing and putting his own stuff, we kind of end up copying that. You know, a lot of what Will does that’s really hilarious, he doesn’t realize he’s doing. He’s just a very very foolish man. Is that fair to say Will? I mean, does that hurt your feelings?
Will Forte: I would say, if you start at a point of dip-shittiness, you’re starting at the right place.
CraveOnline: There’s a great “South Park” episode I wanted to reference called ‘Simpsons Did It,’ where every plot point could be traced back to a “Simpsons” episode. Applying that to the show, do you worry about that factor, being that you’re sandwiched between the “Family Guy” and the “Simpsons”?
Mitch Hurwitz: Two nights ago we did the mix on the first episode. And every time Will - every time you said I need a catch phrase, we put in this little smattering of applause as if there was this off-camera audience. And it was very funny and it made us laugh and everything. By the third time, the applause was a little less - people were tired of the joke. And then as I was walking out to my car, somebody just says, you know, I think they did that on Family Guy. Like fuck, they did?
But as far as that goes, obviously Trey (Parker) and Matt (Stone) ran into the same problem. And that’s why they were like let’s just own it, you know? And in a shorter period of time, “Family Guy” does 10 episodes worth of comedic material on every episode. So they kind of capture everything. I think what we’re doing to start off is exploring our characters.
I think it’s much more character-based. But, you know, it might not be. Because I’m sure that "Family Guy" and "Simpsons" have done it - even that too. But it just seems like, you know, when you’re exploring your characters, it’s just like meeting new people.
CraveOnline: This question is a two-parter for Will. First off, I’m a huge huge huge fan of your work on Saturday Night Live.
Will Forte: Oh thank you.
CraveOnline: I was wondering we were going to get to see some more MacGruber skits? And on top of that, you’re also known for being particularly animated with your voice, you know, in front of a camera. How you prepare differently to convey all of your emotion through your voice?
Will Forte: Number one, I’m sure we’ll do more MacGrubers. We love doing them. I write with these guys - Jorma Tacone and John Solomon, and we just usually kind of wait until we think of another good idea. So, once one of those hits, we’ll definitely do another one. As far as voice stuff, it’s so different than acting. Because you don’t realize - you forget that people can’t see your face. So you get into this booth and there would be times when I would think that I was like getting across this - the various emotional displays that are supposed to be coming across, but you really have to ramp it up. They advised me to kind of make weird bigger facial expressions when you’re talking, and it really - it really kind of helps.
Mitch Hurwitz: I love MacGruber.
Will Forte: That’s very nice to hear. But I, you know, I have no idea. Do people want to see it? It’s very nice to hear you say. But like, I’m kind of a pessimist. So in my head I’m like, I don’t know. I’m sure people don’t like it.
CraveOnline: Trust me, we do. Ok this question’s for Mitch - we’ve been reading up on the Arrested Development movie, and every little thing that you say about it is scrutinized. But I haven’t seen anything yet in terms of a broad scope of plot, or any sense of direction that the film might go in. I know you’ve got little pieces put together, but is there any big picture sense that you’ve seen yet?
Mitch Hurwitz: You know, I haven’t seen it either. I’m very disappointed in both of us. (laughs) No, actually, you know - all that information got out so early. And it’s one of the reasons I was like trying to keep it quiet. Because all we'd really done is board the idea of doing the move and seeing whether the cast is interested and that kind of thing. And we hadn’t broken a story or any of those things.
I have some elements of the story. But just as we were ready to get going with it, it took so long to get everybody onboard. And you know, my partners and I - we’ve got a few pilots going at the same time. One of which I wrote, and six others that I’m producing. So it’s been really a 'round the clock thing right now.
I’m super eager to get to the Arrested movie, though. And I do have a lot of ideas. And if "Family Guy" and "Simpsons" doesn’t beat me to them, they’ll stay valid. As soon as this pilot season wraps up, we’re going to hopefully dive into it.
CraveOnline: Alright, one last question guys. There seems to be a really great time for comedy. Where would you like to see this movement go?
Mitch Hurwitz: Well it’s interesting. I mean me personally I think there’s a lot of, you know, sometimes when there are big changes, people get a lot more conservative. Especially as comedy gets more and more adventurous, you know? But there are a lot of great comedic voices. Great comedic voices that are coming up through Adult Swim and that kind of thing, and they're improving everything.
But as that’s happening, I think the networks are getting more conservative in a way. And, you know, this pilot season has a lot of multi-camera shows going on, which is kind of the audience comedy. The corporations that own the networks are making decisions about like what they think the right voice is going to be. And it all tends to be going to more comforting, more familiar. So, in a way it drives some of those comedic voices underground. And maybe that’s good for comedy in a way. But I - I personally think there’s so many talented people out there.
It would be very hard I think, today, to do "Arrested Development" on television. I think that would be a tough show to get on the air, but there are a lot of other venues to do it on. You could do it on cable. Just as part of broadcast television. And you could do those kinds of things online. So I don’t know. In a way I think it’s separating. It’s probably like in the 60’s when Bob Dylan came along and, you know, was such an earnest voice. And meanwhile they were like cranking out Perry Como albums. You know what I mean?
Will Forte: Oh there are amazing people I see all over the place. But the exciting thing about it is how there’s so many outlets now for people. If you want to be singing, you know, on the Internet and Adult Swim, there - there are so many opportunities that people get to be funny. And it’s a great time to be a comedian. I guess it’s always a great time to be a comedian. Fun - it’s a fun job.
