Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is back with a season that defies categorization. Unless, of course, you are categorizing it as new. In that case, you are dead on. For it is a new season, a fact that has been established by the very paragraph you are reading with annoying redundancy. But never mind that! Look for new episodes each Sunday at 11:45 p.m. Also, we know the phone numbers of the show creators, Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter. So we called them. And the things that flew out of their mouths were like words with wings, seeking merely a page on which to nest. So help us God.
So what's in store for this season?
Michael: We introduce Birdgirl, who's voiced by Paget Brewster. And she's hilarious. She's actually Phil's daughter, but when she's in the Birdgirl costume Phil doesn't recognize her. And he sort of has a crush on her and keeps asking her out. So way more incest jokes than before.
Erik: That was actually a directive.
Michael: Also, we just recorded Lewis Black as the Deadly Duplicator.
Oh, nice!
Michael: The Deadly Duplicator makes copies of people with his glasses.
You just recorded him? Did he rant a lot?
Erik: He showed up...I was out front and predictably it was about Los Angeles traffic--about two minutes of it. Which was perfect. And, yeah, the character is writing itself.
Michael: Yeah, it's pretty much Lewis.
So, Birdgirl and the Deadly Duplicator, are they from the original Hanna-Barbera series?
Michael: Both of them are in the original. Birdgirl was like some gymnast or something who was hypnotized by a guy and he put her in a costume and she was trying to one-up Birdman. The new Birdgirl is Phil's daughter, whom he brings in on Take Your Daughter To Work Day. And, uh, she wants to be Birdman. So, it's different, you know--she's more of a pathological person.
Erik: Kind of Single White Female stuff.
Michael: And then Duplicator was in the original ones as well.
What else happens this season?
Michael: There's Captain Caveman. Captain Caveman's son goes to a school where they're not going to teach evolution.
Erik: Animal cruelty with Magilla. An animal rights group frees Magilla and it all turns bad.
Michael: X gets the crest, finally. He actually wins the crest and his life turns around.
Erik: What happens with Potamus?
Michael: There's a lot that happens with Potamus. He prosecutes a case for Harvey and he defends Harvey.
Erik: And Mentok steals Spyro's mind and forgets where he put it.
Oh, good. So Spyro's making a comeback?
Michael: Spryo comes back, yeah.
Have you guys purchased the new action figures?
Michael: I have three boxes right here. God, they're stunning.
You like 'em? You're happy with them?
Michael: The interesting thing is I brought it home to show my wife and my 5-year-old went right for it. And his favorite part is the urinal.
Erik: Yeah!
Michael: "Look, he has a potty."
The bear, for the record, is on my coffee table at home.
Michael: There's a nice singing one this season and you'll see the bear in this sort of Disney type sequence that Erik sings.
What are the origins of the bear?
Erik: Well, the bear was in "Apache Chief." And he originally was pointing up at Apache in Yosemite or something as people drove between his legs. And we had to create the bear model to…
Michael: He was just pointing up.
Erik: Yeah, he was just pointing up because everyone else was pointing up. But in the process, Vince Waller, the guy who was directing, created that model. I think it was Vincent.
Michael: Yeah, it absolutely was Vincent.
Erik: And he has the sweetest, most hilarious expression on his face. Michael and I immediately both said, "That bear is genius." And so at the end everyone claps and the bear looks embarrassed, then everyone laughs and the bear looks happy. It was one of the things that came back just impeccably timed. You remember that, Michael?
Michael: Yes, the classic sequence.
Erik: Perfect from square one.
Michael: Whereas everything else was timed kind of questionably, that was amazing.
Erik: That might be the origin, too, of sort of haphazardly throwing in characters from old shows, where they just pop up and say their line and then they're not there anymore.
Michael: Yeah, the bear was the first recurring random character. And I don't know that he means anything to us in a way we can articulate. But in a sort of zen way he means a lot to us.
When can we expect a second DVD set? Do you know?
Michael: We're talking about it. Hopefully by next May, which is when we'll have another round of premieres.
Have either of you ever been sued?
Erik: Now, Chip, you should know the answer to that.
Michael: Didn't you guys resolve that?
Erik: Other than the restraining order, I think we're all squared away.
Michael: Personally never sued, Chip.
Tell us something embarrassing about Stephen Colbert.
Michael: There's nothing embarrassing about him. The embarrassing thing is that he's a loving father and he's the nicest man and he's as funny as you think he is.
Lame!
Erik: It's boring how amiable and nice everyone is on the show. Take Lewis Black. I mean, he's flown to Los Angeles for like 36 hours to shoot this movie on his three days off from The Daily Show. Then he comes over and does our thing and is nothing but, you know, "Thanks so much for having me, guys."
Who would win in a fight: Judge Judy, Judge Mightor or Judge Reinhold?
Michael: Judy.
Erik: I'm going to go with Reinhold, just for the masturbation scene.
Thank you.
Michael: Judy. She'd win by annoying everyone.
What product associated with your show have you been most appalled by?
Michael: As a 14-year vegetarian, it has to be the all-meat pizza.
Erik: There was an all-meat pizza?!
Michael: Yeah, at the very beginning of Adult Swim. It was a sponsorship thing. And there was a very nervous meeting with somebody here, God bless 'em, who had to tell me that the Sealab guys got the cheese pizza and Birdman was going to be on the all-meat pizza. And I was kind of like, "Really? Can't we switch it?"
I personally think you guys have come out of this pretty well. Just considering, like, you know, the talking Brak Radio, which was pretty awful. And I count that Sealab clock, too. Did you guys ever see that?
Michael: Yeah.
Erik: I didn't. No, I didn't see that.
Michael: It's that liquid one. There are two funny manufacturing things. One is the Birdman clock. If you actually use it, it will over time render you deaf. It is the loudest clock...and also reminds you of mortality. Also, the Birdman maquette, which is gorgeous, but his legs aren't wide enough and you have to do a wishbone maneuver to get him on the pedestal.
What's the most obscure character you've ever considered for a plot line?
Michael: There's certain ones that people want us to use that we just never can, like The Snorks.
Erik: Or Smurfs, things we don't own.
If you download the show theme from our site, it's credited to Reg Tilsley. Who is that?
Erik: I never got confirmation on this, but supposedly he was Tom Jones' arranger. Like he was Tom Jones' Nelson Riddle. And the Turner library had a disc full of these beautiful sixties' instrumentals by him. So Reg Tilsley is an actual man and I bet he hates us as much as everybody else does.
Was there a real person who served as the inspiration behind "Did you get that thing I sent you?"
Erik: It was a bathroom thing. And don't you hate the people…
Michael: Who talk...
Erik: Who talk to you while you're in another stall?
Michael: Yeah, that's definitely who he is.
Erik: So there was a series of grunts. And at the end you hear a flush and it's like, "Birdman, that you? You get that thing I sent you?" And that was it. It was just a line and it became more.
Michael: In the early shows, he'd always be in the bathroom. He's the guy who is always conducting business in the bathroom.
Any talk about a feature length movie? Aqua Teen is on the way. Why not?
Michael: That's such a set up question. Erik told you to ask that.
No, he didn't.
Michael: We'd love to. We wanted to do, like, a Sunday night mystery movie mystery for a long time.
Erik: The McMillan & Wife stuff?
Michael: Yeah. And our cast is so well suited to be live-action versions of it. We've put Gary Cole in the cowl and he looks awesome. So it would make an awesome live action film.
We think so, too.
Michael: But there's no talk of it that we know of.
Any guest stars you guys have tried to get but couldn't?
Michael: When we cast for Birdgirl we thought it would be really fun for Stephen if we cast Amy Sedaris to be Birdgirl. And she turned us down.
Erik: There's never any expectation on our part that anyone would actually say yes. In fact, we're shocked when anyone does. But we've had, you know, extraordinary good luck. And Lewis Black is another example of that.
Michael: And Paget for Birdgirl turned out to be a gift. She totally understands what we're trying to do and just nails it. So, it usually works out. Like, if someone passes it's usually for the better.
Can either of you tell me the name of the theme song to 1986's Legal Eagles, starring Debra Winger, Robert Redford and Daryl Hannah?
Michael: Uh, where's Google? Hold on, what was it?
Erik: "Feel Like Making Law."
Come on, guys! You really don't know?
Erik: It wasn't the theme to St. Elmo's Fire?
Michael: (Sings) "Look at what's happenin' to me/I can't believe it myself." That one?
No.
Erik: When you get caught between the moon and New York City?
It's Love Touch, by Rod Stewart. As in "I'm going to give you my Love Touch."
Michael: Ah, Love Touch, yeah!
Erik: Are you disappointed that neither of us had any idea?
I really wanted you guys to nail that one right away.
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