April 11th, 2019 
Jackson Murphy 
The Loud House continues to make a lot of noise. While production is beginning for Season 4 of Nickelodeon’s hit comedy, so is work on the recently-announced, The Loud House Movie, which will find a home on Netflix. Oh, and the show just picked-up a trio of 2019 Daytime Emmy Award nominations, the most in the three years of the series. Exciting times, indeed, for Executive Producer Mike Rubiner.
Mike Rubiner: Honestly I had sort of forgotten that it was even time for that. I just heard excited voices around the office and stuck my head out the door. I was like, “What’s going on?” And I found out that we were nominated for three Emmys. So in a way that’s the best way to find out – when you’re not waiting for it and it just, kind of, catches you by surprise.
Jackson Murphy: Did you have a little celebration?
MR: We did. I think there might’ve been some bubbly of some sort opened up. Everybody was super excited. I think we were nominated for one or two last year, but this was the most that we’ve gotten. And the fact that it was three really significant categories was pretty exciting.
JM: Let’s start with Outstanding Children’s Animated Series. Producer Karen Malach is credited. When you’re going through the process of submitting for this category… are you part of that? And which episode did you guys submit for this?
MR: Yeah. I am part of it. And we submitted, I think in all of our categories, we ended-up submitting the same half-hour special, Really Loud Music. It was a two-parter, 22-minute episode that features Luna, our rocker teen, but also very much features the whole family – and it’s got a lot of music. It was a much bigger episode, not just length-wise, but also visually as well. It had a lot of music video elements to it and was a lot of fun. So we felt like that episode was firing on all cylinders, so that’s the one that we submitted.
JM: I agree with you completely. A lot of components to that episode. I interviewed Michelle Lewis and Doug Rockwell, the songwriters, around November when that episode aired. And they’re nominated for Outstanding Music Direction & Composition. I could tell that they were thrilled with how the episode turned out.
MR: We all were. Working with Doug and Michelle was amazing. They brought so much to the episode, not just writing the songs (and I think, pretty much, all the lyrics came from them) – really hooked into all the characters and what they were about. They found ways to express those characters through song, and it kind of blew all our minds what an amazing job they did. If production-wise, it was not such a beast that nearly killed us all, we’d love to do more musical episodes.
JM: That’s what they said. They told me they would love to do more music-themed episodes, so we’ll see what happens. You were nominated last year, as you are this year, as Story Editor in the Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program category. There are five writers credited as well. Did you go to the Creative Arts Emmys last year?
MR: Yes, we did go last year. And that was really cool. That was my first time going to the Emmys, and I think for a lot of our writers as well. So it was super fun. We didn’t go home with the award, but it was still pretty awesome, and there were great before and after parties.
JM: And I’m sure it has to be an amazing experience to be among others in the animation community.
MR: Yeah, totally. It’s like a “This is Your Life” experience, where you see everybody you’ve ever worked with. A lot of my career was in New York, so I’ve only been in L.A. for six years or so, which seems almost like a heartbeat. For some of the other people I’ve worked with who have been here for decades, it’s like a big family reunion.
JM: And what would it mean to you to win this year in the Writing category?
MR: It would be a really great honor. We’re up against some really strong shows. The Loud House is very much a script-driven show, as opposed to a board-driven show. We put a lot of care and a lot of thought into our scripts. To have that recognized would be really awesome, and we have a really strong team. We work with a Writer’s Room, as opposed to freelancing stuff out, so we have a very strong group of writers who have been with us for a number of years – who really know these characters. I think that’s been a great way to run the show.
JM: And all the scripts you write are so complex because you have so many characters. Maybe the Emmy community should reward you because you’re writing for so many characters in every episode.
MR: Yeah, definitely. A family of 13, plus our ever-growing group of friends and school characters, and characters around the neighborhood: it’s grown into quite a big world, which is a lot of fun. And I think that’s part of the fun of working on a show that lasts numerous seasons like this one does. You get to keep expanding the world. When we all started on this show, knowing that we were writing for 13 characters, it was a little bit daunting. But it has actually turned out to be a real boon to the writing because it just gives you so many different places to go for ideas, comedy and stories.
JM: You say “expanding the world”. Do you think that’s the main reason why the show has grown over the years?
MR: We started out, in the first season, having this very Lincoln-centric (because of the whole concept of one boy with 10 sisters). So for the first season, almost all the stories were Lincoln’s point of view, and also the notion of the “Loud House”. Everything is in this small house with all these people crammed in it. So that first season, we really tried to milk all the story we could out of that concept. But I think we knew that by the second season, we had to open things up.
We started doing more stories about the sisters – even stories that wouldn’t have Lincoln in them. And then we expanded out to locations across the town and region (specifically suburban Detroit/southeastern Michigan). And I think every season we have expanded a little bit more and gotten to know characters who are not even part of our family, like Lincoln’s best friend, Clyde, and his two dads and all the girls’ friends. There are a lot of places to go, and I feel like we still can keep expanding that world. That’s the great thing about this show – it’s diversity.
JM: When you said, “making it Lincoln-centric”, that made me think about “The Simpsons”. That show started out with a lot of episodes about Bart the first couple of seasons, and then it expanded out to the world of Springfield. Were there other animated family shows that have inspired The Loud House?
MR: Yeah. I think a lot of the inspiration came from old comic strips, things like “Peanuts”. It has a little bit of that retro look about it. Though we’ve ended-up situating the kids in a very modern world with all our technology. So it has a little bit of that retro feel, but also I think is very relatable to present day kids. The other touchpoint for I think a lot of us on the staff and the writing is “The Brady Bunch”, oddly enough.
JM: I love it!
MR: It was a live-action show, and quite a while ago, but we were all influenced by it and that whole notion of a big family and the chaotic-ness of it – but the warmth of it and a lot of heart as well. So that was another inspiration for us.
JM: So many people have called The Loud House Nickelodeon’s most successful animated series since “SpongeBob”. How does hearing a statement like that feel to you?
MR: Pretty incredible. “SpongeBob” is such a massive phenomenon. To be in the footsteps of that is pretty great. I feel really fortunate to be part of this show, and I think we all knew from the beginning that it was something special. And we have a really amazing and very carefully picked group of people that we work with: our cast and crew. So it’s been an amazing experience for me – definitely the most exciting experience I’ve had working on a show.
JM: And I think it’s been resonating, not only with kids in the key 2-11 demo at Nickelodeon, but also older audiences.
MR: That’s super fulfilling to hear that. That’s the kind of ultimate thing that you want to hear: that kids can watch it with their parents, and the parents are not cringing or running from the room – but actually enjoying it. And that’s really satisfying for all of us. And I don’t even think we consciously think, “Okay. We need to have those two-levels” that you look for sometimes in kids shows: there’s the kid level, and there’s the adult level. We kind of take the approach of not writing down to kids at all and looking for stories that we feel are funny. Of course, we want to be sure there’s something that kids relate to in these stories, but… we want to make ourselves laugh as well. So I think that’s how it comes about.
JM: I’m a ratings guy: love looking at those stats. The ratings have been fantastic: around 1.5 million viewers for the first airings of each new episode. But the beauty of Nickelodeon is that the episodes get to air over and over again. So how important are the ratings for the first airings, or does it not really matter because they’re gonna be airing over and over again?
MR: We do re-air a lot. The Loud House is on numerous times almost every day. And I think one of the things that really makes the network happy about The Loud House is that it does really well in its premieres but also does really well in the re-airings. It keeps a really solid number throughout the day and throughout the week. And that’s what you hope and dream for with the show.
JM: So it has been announced that a movie is in the works. And we know that Season 4 is also in the works. Several shows like “SpongeBob” and “The Simpsons” – and “Bob’s Burgers” is dealing with it right now – doing production of the series at the same time as making a movie. How are you guys going about doing that?
MR: Good question. Well, we’re not putting a pause on the series to do the movie. We’ll just be hiring a separate team, basically. One of our The Loud House writers who’s been with us for a long time is going to be writing the movie, and we have some other staff members from our team who will migrate over to the movie – who will help us keep all the important aspects of the series consistent with the movie. But we’ll also have a lot of new people and a director and producers. They’ll be some overlap with our team, but we won’t be asking our team to make a movie at the same time as they’re making a TV series, which would kill everybody, I’m sure. I think we’ve found a way to have the best of both worlds.
JM: That’s good. I’m sure the fans will be happy with that strategy. So for the Daytime Emmys, do you have a speech ready?
MR: I do not have a speech ready. I can tell you that I will try to keep it short because I remember how long the Emmys was last year. It will be short, succinct, really just thanking the amazing team that I work with here if we’re lucky enough to win.
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