May 4th, 2020 
Jackson Murphy 
Josh Bycel is the EP of the new animated series Solar Opposites, premiering this Friday May 8th on Hulu. Bycel talks about working with the Rick and Morty team on this sci-fi comedy. He also shares his thoughts on being a part of the Trolls and American Dad! families… and his unique connections to Frasier.
Jackson Murphy: Way back in August 2018, it was announced that not only this show was going to be picked-up by Hulu – but for two seasons. Were you surprised by that?
Josh Bycel: There were a couple factors that went into it. First, I think they really believed in Justin [Roiland] and Mike [McMahan] and the show and the script. Obviously those guys have a great track record with Rick and Morty. And I think Hulu has been an amazing partner for us. They believed in the show. They saw its possibilities. And with animation, once you get up and running, you never wanna stop. If we pick-up two seasons, that gives the guys the ability to really look at 16 episodes instead of 8 episodes. So I was a little surprised but now it’s starting to be the norm a little bit. We thought it would be a great opportunity to hit the ground running.
JM: Solar Opposites has had a lot of buzz since San Diego Comic-Con. I went to it for the first time last July. It was such a wild experience. How was it for you promoting this show there?
JB: I hadn’t been there in a while. I went once with American Dad! and maybe once with “Psych”. It’s amazing, first of all, how gigantic it is now. But we were excited that no one knew what the show was. We only had a short clip to play. But to have that many people packed into that ballroom and to watch them experience the clip in that way was amazing. It was so exciting. Even last summer, we were like, “We gotta get the show out as soon as we can.”
JM: Then it’s gotta feel great to now finally get this out there.
JB: This is not the first animated thing I’ve been involved with, but this to me is so unique. It’s the first time I’ve been able to do a show where all the episodes would drop at once. You don’t normally see that in animation. So for us, we took that as a challenge not only to have each episode be funny and episodic on its own but to really create this through-line that we’ve done with this show.
JM: What I noticed in watching the first episode, which is really funny and edgy, is that while there have been a lot of aliens/creatures coming to Earth shows and films over the years, “Solar Opposites” separates itself from all of them with the quick, sharp dialogue. How did you come-up with a character like Funbucket for the episode?
JB: Way back when, Justin or Mike (I can’t remember who) had this idea… especially for someone like Korvo who, on the surface, says he doesn’t like Earth or America. It’s craft. It’s commercial. We wanted to create a classic, Saturday morning cartoon… TV character. That’s really where Funbucket came from and is someone Korvo could immediately fall in love with because it seems, on the surface at least, that he’s not from Earth. He also feels different from everyone else. And then, obviously, it takes a dark turn.
JM: Did you or someone you know have a crazy “Meeting Santa or the Easter Bunny or a Character at a Mall” experience that went wrong?
JB: I personally don’t have one, but we talked a lot about that in the writers’ room – and the thin line between kids believing they’re really the Easter Bunny and Santa and the mall situation and how all of that is so ripe to always go wrong. We knew there would be fun to play with that.
JM: You incorporate so many funny pop culture references, including the Dick Wolf t-shirt that Terry wears. What kinds of research goes into coming-up with all of those entertainment-related details and having them make sense within the story?
JB: First of all, I think the Dick Wolf shirt is my favorite. Terry wears a bunch of different shirts. And one of our writers came-up with that. To me, I can’t believe that’s not a shirt. We were like, “We should just be selling those shirts. We’d be making so much money.” I love reference-heavy stuff. It just places you in the world and in a time. But I also love being able to do references that work over lots of time. We have a combination of very up-to-date stuff and then stuff that was funny 15 years ago. If you’re someone… who consumes all this media, your whole world revolves around pop culture references. So it was really important for us to make sure that we put that stuff in the show.
JM: And the funny stuff includes when Terry questions whether Frasier [Crane] is real. Now I will tell you Josh: Frasier is real. In fact, Frasier is so real that Kelsey Grammer came to a bar about 20 minutes outside of where I live in January, and he served his Faith American Ale at this bar. And hundreds of people were there for it. So having Frasier in a bar…
JB: Really?!
JM: Yes. So he is real.
JB: Where do you live? You can just tell me the area because all your fans may show-up at your house, which you won’t want.
JM: (laughs) This was in Schenectady, NY – just outside of Albany, the Capital. Kelsey’s in the Catskills and has been working on this for a while. So tell Terry that Frasier is real.
JB: Wow. I will. I worked on a show on the Paramount lot years ago that was right next door to where the “Frasier” stage was. And Kelsey Grammer and Dr. Phil are the only two people I’ve ever seen get to park right at their stages at the Paramount lot. And then I actually just shot a show that [recently] premiered on Netflix that we shot on the “Frasier” stage. It was really cool.
JM: Is that “The Big Show Show”?
JB: Yeah.
JM: Were there interesting vibes doing it on that set?
JB: Oh yeah. Very successful, interesting vibes. And they have pictures. “Frasier” was the perfect one for us. I think it was a Mike McMahan joke. Of course Terry would love “Frasier” and feel like he has to be real.
JM: I noticed that little creatures come-out of Korvo and Terry’s heads when they cry. How did you decide on that?
JB: They’re little stress creatures called Gooblers. That’s their sweat. When they’re stressed or freaking out, Gooblers come-out of their skin. And we actually have a later episode where we dive into what the Gooblers are and what it means for their bodies. The theme is: stress can literally kill you. Especially for Mike and Justin, it was really important for them to have these little sci-fi things throughout it. All those little touches, I always love because they add the little sci-fi element to the show.
JM: You’ve done a lot of other things with animation, including co-writing the Trolls Holiday special that aired on NBC a few years ago. Have you seen Trolls World Tour yet, and what do you think about the VOD success the film has had?
JB: My old writing partner and I worked on Father of the Pride, which was [DreamWorks] first CGI show. So we had done a lot of work for DreamWorks for years, and we knew the producers, and they had us come-in and punch-up some of the first “Trolls” movie. When this came about, our kids were a little younger and we thought this would be a great idea. It was so much fun. It’s on Netflix now. It’s crazy how many emails I still get from people saying, “Oh my God, I watched the Trolls Holiday special with the kids.”
I have seen Trolls World Tour. I think it was genius. I don’t think every movie could do it, but that movie especially is… families are home. I’ve seen it with “The Big Show Show”, which is a family sitcom: people are dying to look for stuff to watch with their kids. I don’t think you could do it with Fast & Furious 9, but Trolls is the perfect movie to test that because so many families wanted to see that movie. I thought it was great.
When they brought us in to work on the first Trolls, I didn’t know what to expect. And then I saw it and I was like, “God, this is such a delightful movie. They did such a good job.” And I think the second one expands upon it.
JM: And you mentioned American Dad! – you were a supervising producer on that show. Can you believe that in September, they’re gonna air the 300th Episode?
JB: No, it’s amazing. I worked on that for a couple years. I love the show. It’s one of the most underrated animated shows in a long, long time. “Family Guy” is a massive, huge hit show. And I think a lot people, especially early on, just thought it was another “Family Guy” – when in truth, it’s very different. I’m so happy for the guys on “American Dad!” that it’s lived on on TBS. I think there’s a couple writers that have been there the whole time. Solar is that second show from the creator of the first one. That’s why I love Solar so much because it has some of the greatness that makes “Rick and Morty” so great, but it’s also very different. And I think that was very important for them to make it as different as possible while also [allowing] the “Rick and Morty” fans to watch it and go, “I love this too”.
JM: Where are you in terms of production? Is everyone working on the show at home right now?
JB: Yes, we are. The scripts have all [pretty much] been written and all the animators are working away. We’re seeing cuts of animatics and storyboards. Everyone’s working from home. Animation, it took a moment, but the great thing about animation is you can actually keep going. So everyone’s working away for the second season. We don’t know when it’s gonna be out yet but we haven’t had to slow down much at all. A lot of the voice work had already been recorded, and what we haven’t gotten we’ll get farther down the line.
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