Welcome to Part Two of what some consider the definitive fan-submitted questionnaire of "The Venture Bros." masterminds, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. A lot of ground gets covered in this installment, like Jackson and Doc's writing process, their thoughts on the internet and the [adult swim fix] and traumatic testicle injuries.
Last season we saw Race Bannon, and we've seen Jonny Quest in the last episode. Will we see Dr. Benton Quest and Hadji in future episodes? - I am Jack's STD
Jackson: Maybe. I was screwing around with an episode premise for the current season that would have featured both Hadji and Jonny, but I never did get around to writing it. As we are uncreative people and largely devoid of original thoughts, I'll probably resurrect that premise for season 3.
What is the process you take in writing an episode? From concepting to execution, what are the different steps you try to take, and how do you know you've really crushed an episode? - Cosmo I.
Jackson: An idea pops into my head on its own or I'm watching a movie, reading a book, or scouring the internet and some funny (to me anyway) angle on whatever piece of information I've just picked up occurs to me. I write this down in a little notebook. Months later, I stumble across the note and think about it a little more, or I'm already writing a completely different episode and I try to shoehorn the anomalous idea into it. Sometimes I doodle a lot, too, and draw little characters saying stuff to each other. Some of these little things they say end up in the script, and some of the doodles end up in the storyboards. Usually when I start a script I have only a basic idea of where it's going, maybe a dozen good lines, and perhaps a few scenes mapped out. I start with the stuff I know and build around it, letting the characters' conversations flow naturally for the situation. More often than not, once I've figured out the rest of my story, the scenes I started with no longer fit and get cut out. Usually I'll write about 30 pages before I realize I have no ending in mind or in sight (unless it's one of those extremely rare stories that I know the ending of before the rest of it), so I print it out the script because I'm sick of looking at a monitor and I start crossing things out and refining what's there. If I'm lucky, an ending occurs to me during this time, which I then write seven pages too long, and so I go back and cut more crap. This process goes on for several weeks until I finally have a script that's still too long but we have to record it anyway because we're late.
Doc: There is no science to it. There may be some ritual, but it's more low-grade OCD than a true method. Like, this last season, I had to use a different chair to write every episode. Ya know, crazy crap. But as far as any real "method", I have none. I just take whatever characters appeal to me and wedge them into a situation that I have an understanding with, and just write... From the first scene forward. I know it sounds trite, but I just let the characters talk and do the crap they do. I have no real plot in mind. I may have a situation or something. But there is no outline or anything that resembles smart planning. Within ten or so pages I notice a plot beginning to develop. A plot that has more avenues for communication and discovery than the talky ten page mess I have before me. So I take any useable jokes from my first draft and put them aside so I can try to use them later, and hit "delete". Now I kinda know where I am going, so when Jackson calls me I don't feel as uncomfortable when I say "Oh sure, it's going fine. Yeah, I'll have it by Friday." By Friday, I'm almost at the act break and I had to get rid of this whole scene with Kim and Dr. Girlfriend. It just wouldn't fit... And I am never gonna put it back in any other script. It was a "now or never" scene. Gone. So here I am, on the day I promised to turn the script in, at the halfway mark and lamenting what was cut. Do you see any method developing? Me neither. The weekend is spent getting the second half of the script typed. I say "typed" only because it is all kinda written out on little notes that were penned while I was writing another scene. You work on one scene and you get all "Wait! if Brock is here, that means that he would..." Bang, you get your follow up. So now you just have to make it a real scene, not just three jokes and a poorly written note about a dungeon that is on the moon with a circle around the word "moon" that says "Billy could be on the moon". The weekend is over and I'm reading through a script that is like eight pages over. And I am in love with every word. To cut one "you know" or trim one "like" would be a form of mutilation. So I change the letting and turn it in long. Jackson reads it first and corrects the spelling so that AS won't think I'm retarded. That's about it. The first draft is already late, so a second draft is out of the question. If we are lucky, Jackson and I punch-up each other's work. But we are usually late on another script by that point. For the most part, you get one draft that was changed so brutally during the writing process, a second draft would just be a few cuts and a couple more jokes. Within about a week of handing in the script I'm disgusted with it. I have even apologized to Jackson for my incompetence. By the next week, I am repeating the process outlined above, with the addition of the mantra "I have to make up for that steaming pile of crap I handed in before".
When Jackson and I write a script together.. Another long story.
Jackson again: ...which has much to do with darts, "wish lists," conversations in-character, and something called "Bon Jour."
Patrick Warburton is the best fit voice for Brock. How did Patrick end up being the voice for him and was he your first choice? Were there any other people that were up for the part? - Michael D.
Jackson: Patrick played The Tick in Fox's eponymous live action television series, which I wrote for. So we met on the set. He used to kind of linger around my office with that now-famous "Warburton hangdog" expression of his, doubtless trying to finagle me into giving him more lines in my scripts. While fetching me coffee, he clumsily spilled some (the giant blue rubber pants he wore on the show had precarious platforms built into the soles) on the as-yet-unproduced Venture Bros. pilot script that lay on my desk and, as he blow-dried each individual page (as instructed), he both learned to read and started reading it. Needless to say he was hooked, and while nothing about his work up till then led me to believe he had any comedic chops whatsoever, I remembered him, several years later, and took a chance on the eager boy when he asked for an audition.
Do you guys have a definitive storyline you want to tell over a long stretch of time or do you guys just think tank each episode and play it as you go along? - wwpranma
Jackson: Yes.
The reference to Bauhaus on the Christmas Special Episode was incredible. Pretty much all the musical references are awesome. Do you actually like Bauhaus and the other bands you mention, or are you just poking fun at them. What are your favorite bands, and do you think there may ever actually get a guest musician to do a voice on the Venture Bros? - Adam S.
Doc: We mention bands for an effect. The effects needed vary, and therefore the bands must follow in kind. Hank quoting "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" is funny. And as a bonus, Hank inspires a small nostalgic moment that the viewer may have attached to that song. And in my case, it's one of "Oh yeah, I remember that song... I haven't thought about it in years. Man, I hated that band. " It's not like we are goofing on the band. Ya see, every viewer will have a different emotional response to the reference. Some will be magically whisked away to a high school dance where that song played as the background to a romantic kiss that happened outside the girl's bathroom. Others may ask themselves why they ever stopped listening to the up-beat majesty of "Two Princes". But in each case the effect was still achieved. This effect is to surprise the viewer with something they didn't expect to hear. And when they do hear it, they are given a moment of nostalgia. This "surprise" is what comedy is based on. If we indeed like the band we reference is not the issue. The issue is "Why we mentioned the band." But yeah, when I was a kid, the sun rose and set on Bauhaus. I still keep my Danial Ash sideburns.
That argument between the Monarch's henchmen in the first season about the Smurfs... was that spawned from a real life argument between the two of you? - Jack the Grin
Doc: No. Jackson and I would most certainly agree on whatever class Smurfs fall under [Jackson adds: "mammals, obviously"]. But the idea of a spirited argument over a subject that is completely inane is something that has happened with me and every person I have known. Jackson and I once had a shouting match over the sexual preference of a Hollywood star. And it was a star that neither of us could care less about. But man, did we get into it. I must have called him "Insane!" like fifty times. You know what I mean. It was like we forgot how stupid the topic was and just went at it for the sake of noble Truth. We were arguing no longer as feel-good rhetoric slingers, but as heroes, fighting the fight for righteousness. And yes, when it died down there was a pall over the Astrobase. We should have hugged. That simple connection would have snapped us back into accepting our frail commonality. But sadly, we are too proud and too awkwardly straight to hug one another. Shame... I know that now.
Is that thing where both your testicles did like a full 360 and you needed to get them operated on by your father's "friends", is that actually a real occurrence that could happen in real life to a male? - Spiker2
Doc: Yes, it happened to a real male... Me. When I was around 16, I was riding my Torker around (I here add that I still ride that thing, but I replaced the Tuff Wheels with regular rims. And furthermore, I add that I look like an awkward fool riding a child's bike). And like out of nowhere, my gut started to kill. You know the feeling... It's that kind of stomach pain that starts at your knees and ends in Michigan. So I hobbled home and locked myself in the bathroom. From there, I issued a steady stream of complaints as my fleshy luggage doubled in size. My mom eventually tried to help with this suggestion "I'm gonna call Mrs. Best. She's a nurse." And my response was "Yes, that is what I want. I want your friend to manhandle my junk. No, please call her. And tell her to bring a camera." So, the event was drawn from life, but not directly. My surgeon had a normal sized head.
What has your reaction to your show being broadcast ahead of time on this wonderful interweb of ours? - Chris H.
J: Reluctant and pissed at first, because it blew the surprise of our big season premiere, but then I thought "how many people really watch TV shows on the internet anyway?" Then I found out the answer is "kind of a lot," so I got a little annoyed again, until I realized that having a lot of people watch anything I make, regardless of where and how they watch it, is a probably a good thing. I like that people who don't have cable or can't be home on Sunday night, or can't be bothered to set a VCR (do they still make those?) or Tivo get to see the show. It's almost as good as when people who can't find any Venture Bros. merchandise go out and make some of their own and then sell it on eBay.
Doc: My knee-jerk reaction was one of "Why spoil the fun of Christmas-like anticipation by watching this crappy little version?" But now I don't care. It hasn't changed anything that I can perceive. I just kinda think that people who watch "The Fix" will watch it again when it premiers. And I trust that they will appreciate the show again, and maybe catch a few things they missed. Plus, it gives the cable deprived a chance to dine on the Venture bounty.
I'm sure you're often asked when we are going to see Dean and Hank's mother. I'm more curious as to when we may see Rusty and Jonas Jr.'s mom. Other than her womb, I mean. Outside of that, she's barely even mentioned in the show. Was it a conscious decision to give Doc Venture nothing but daddy issues? - Matt W.
Jackson: Daddy issues and missing mommies are definitely the cornerstones of our world, which is why our characters have such shaky foundations. Some day, perhaps, someone will talk about Mrs. Venture (if there ever was such a person), but Jonny Quest didn't seem to have a mom, and neither do I, so you do the math.
After the end of the first season, it seemed like Jonas Jr. would become Dr. Venture's ultimate nemesis. Then, at the beginning of the second season, I was surprised to see JJ acting all buddy-buddy with his brother. Although I like the relationship between these two characters, I was wondering why you decided to have JJ become good rather than evil. - Breno M
Jackson: Au contraire, they had already reached a sort of grudging détante by the episode's end. Dr. Venture would hardly give his prized chifforobe to his ultimate nemesis, would he? Besides, Jonas Jr. can inflict far more damage to Doc's ego this way than he ever could chasing him around with robots and stuff.
I was just watching every episode of the first season over again and I noticed that in the episode 'The Trial of the Monarch' one of the jurors looks like Doc Hammer, is it him? - Christian O.
Doc: Yeah, it's me. And the guy sitting next to me is Jackson Publick. As a matter of fact, there are more "insiders" in the stands. That kinda thing happens in cartoons. It's half homage, half "we need guys". I'm not exactly gracious when it comes to those kind of tributes. When I first saw it, I looked over at Jackson and was all "I look like Orpheus with a broom on my head. My hair is blond and black! That guy's is like yellow and brown. Man, that's completely unflattering. And I don't even own a navy, chalk-stripped suit. Wait, you own one! And you are wearing my black one. [Jackson adds: actually, they put me in my brown one] You stole my suit!" But to be honest, I would have been quietly sad If I was not included.
What is the name of Doc Hammer's band? Is it his band that does the music for the Venture Brothers episodes? - Meg
Doc: I was in a little band called "Kiss". You probably don't remember them, and even if you do, you wouldn't recognize me... We wore stage makeup. I was the one who had a gazelle theme to my costume. The music for the show is done by Jim Thirwell. Now Jim was in a few bands himself. You may just want to google his name and get a fat eyeful of his accomplishments. But I can tell you this... Ahem... He was not in "Kiss".
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