Jennifer Crittenden, Gabrielle Allan and Clea DuVall are the creators of the new FOX animated series HouseBroken. It premieres this Monday May 31st at 9pm. All three discuss the challenges of making this pet comedy, from story ideas and character designs to pivoting during COVID and fitting in the FOX brand. (Conversation with Crittenden and Allan was conducted over Zoom. DuVall’s answers were submitted through an Email Q&A.)

Jackson Murphy: This Animation Domination brand is so iconic. Jen, was there a really challenging process or a competitive process behind getting a show greenlit and getting it on this iconic lineup?

Jennifer Crittenden: It’s exactly where you wanna be. If you’re coming up with an animated show, your dream is to be on FOX. There was no process except this was our first choice and it happened. (laughs) We pitched it to FOX first and we were ready to continue to pitch elsewhere but when they decided they wanted it, we just stopped shopping around because there’s nowhere better.

JM: Wow. That’s great. Now because FOX is expanding to Monday nights with you and Duncanville [Season 2], what do you think that says about how FOX values animation right now?

Clea DuVall: FOX has been a pioneer in adult animation for decades, and they’ve continued to push the envelope with the stories they tell. Expanding to Mondays is an exciting move that allows FOX to do more of what they do so masterfully.

Gabrielle Allan: I think it says a lot about how they value animation. And I think one of the… I hate to even call it a silver lining because COVID is and was really horrifying… but we didn’t skip a beat, production-wise, where so many people had to shut down, sadly. We went from working at our office to, literally the next day, working at our home. And Bento Box are incredible partners, and they just figured out seamlessly and very quickly how to do everything online. I think the value of animation for everybody, but FOX because they’re already so entrenched in it, realized we already have this amazing commodity in our Animation Domination because we’re the only people in production for months. We at FOX and all the other animated shows were able to continue to work. So I think its value shot up quite a bit because of COVID.

We were also able to have Zoom table reads and we were able to gather this amazing cast that we have that we probably wouldn’t have been able to gather in-person for every table read. We would’ve been lucky to have 50% of our cast at any table read. But because it was Zoom… the upside was every table read we had our entire cast, which was really fun and great. We could really hear what was working and start to hone the characters.

JM: Jen, as I was watching the first couple episodes… I saw as many as 12 animals in the same frame. Is that as difficult as it seems to animate having 12 in the same shot?

JC: We learned that yes it is. That’s another way that Bento has been incredibly supportive. One animal with four legs is already complicated and then to have more and more. One of the benefits of animation is that you can keep improving and rewriting and punching up jokes and doing better incrementally all along the way. And one of the last things that we thought would be really fun in the Pilot involved a swarm of bees. And we just thought that was so funny. We’re used to just being able to write what we imagine and then have it appear. [The animators] did an incredible job, and it was only afterwards that they explained how complicated a swarm of bees is. I felt so inconsiderate just casually writing ‘a swarm of bees’ when it takes hours and hours and hours to animate. They have been making our dreams appear with animals dancing and talking and moving all at once. It’s a big job.

JM: And Gaby, how long did it exactly take to come-up with the specific pet designs?

GA: That took a while. One of the differences between our shows and the legacy shows on FOX is that those creators are animators. They come at it with already fully-formed drawings or some versions. Loren Bouchard, Seth MacFarlane and Matt Groening – these animators have this vision and then they write around that vision. And we, being solely writers and not animators, came in with a written vision. We saw animals, obviously, but we didn’t really have a visual yet. We definitely did some research and had some ideas when we went in to pitch. So it took a while for us to hone in on what these animals should like. And they also needed to fit in the FOX world. They needed to look like animals that would be on FOX. They have to fit in that family. That was another challenge too – that we needed to think in that way.

There were quite a few incarnations and it took many months. We worked the most on Honey because we were working around her. Once we cracked Honey, it was easier to build a style out from her. First she was a poodle, but then she was an afghan hound for a little bit. Then she went back to being a poodle. And I’m glad she ended-up a poodle.

JC: A poodle mix!

GA: She’s not a purebred, but she’s a rescue poodle.

JM: And she’s your central figure, so that’s important that you wanna make sure she’s as good as she can be. And Jen, in listening to Lisa Kudrow, was it deja vu for her in a sense because of Web Therapy and getting back into this similar mindframe?

JC: I think that’s really funny. I love Web Therapy. When we heard that we were able to cast Lisa Kudrow, I was so excited. And I was like, “Oh my gosh! We have to make sure it’s nothing like Web Therapy!” And it’s nothing like Web Therapy. So it’s fine. I think it’s a totally different character for her to play. Lisa is a person who’s interested in therapy, just like Gaby and I are. So it’s an interesting place for her, but it doesn’t feel like a similar character in a way.

But I just wanted to chime in on designing the characters. We have this amazing supervising director, Mark Kirkland. He was on The Simpsons for decades. And in fact, Mark and I were on The Simpsons at the same time together. And he worked there forever after until he came to us. He infused the characters with… that kind of FOX quality but also an incredible sweetness and humor. You just look at them and they make you laugh. He did an incredible job of bringing out the personality through the physicality. He says he’s really proud of Honey’s eyebrows. Everything about Honey is adorable and funny and quirky. He gave her the little tooth that sticks out. He did an amazing job.

CDV: I felt very challenged by the design process. Not only do I have zero artistic ability, but I also don’t speak the visual arts language. We had the amazing fortune of working with many talented artists and animators who very patiently and tirelessly worked hard to help bring the characters from our minds onto the screen.

JM: I like the look of the characters a lot, and in watching them, they have to balance these humanlike characteristics with their pet behaviors. Gaby, how was that in writing the episodes… trying to balance these two things for these characters?

GA: It’s tricky, but it’s a really fun challenge. And that’s something the animators really helped us with. That’s one of the biggest learning curves for everybody. And that’s where Bento really stepped in. The animals express themselves in a totally different way, but you do need to assign some human qualities so that we relate. Their facial expressions need to convey something that we as humans are going to relate to or have empathy. That was tricky and that took a little while to find with animals. But to Mark’s credit and everyone at Bento, they really found it. We saw a difference – a jump – from the first episode to where we are now. The personalities that they were able to find and infuse the characters with was challenging and took a while, but they did it. They have all these fun little things… that make a huge difference to sell the jokes and make sure that everything is landing.

JM: Oh yeah. People always notice the details in animation. All of your characters have distinct personalities, and that’s what you want from an ensemble comedy series. Jen, how do you get the rights to use the names of celebrities like George Clooney and Judi Dench in your scripts? [Specifically for Max the Pig’s dialogue] Do you need their permission to do that?

JC: I think that because they’re public figures we don’t need their permission, and we wouldn’t say anything derogatory about them so I think it’s okay. And it’s a comedy. If we were saying George Clooney tortured his pig – or something like that… first of all, we wouldn’t. But I think there would be issues because it’s not true and it’s libel. But since we’re just saying facts and assumptions and jokes and nothing negative, it’s all fine. So far. (laughs)

JM: Gaby, is there a lot of personal inspiration (pet stories) that come from the two of you and the crew that’s inserted in this first season?

GA: Yes. So much! That’s what’s so fun. Jen and I are crazy pet lovers. Always have been. When Clea started chatting to us about this… obviously we’re in therapy because we’re writers, but…

JC: (laughs)

GA: But also we are giant pet lovers. We both grew up with cats and dogs and now are proud dog owners. That combination was perfect. Jen has this adorable terrier, little Molly. She is the inspiration for Diablo… and has that fantastic underbite because of Molly. I have a dog named Carter, my cockapoo, who is very troubled and had a very traumatic childhood, and he’s mean and he bites people. That’s heavily featured in episode five as Carter the troubled dog. He keeps getting in trouble at the boarding place where Chief and Honey are being boarded while Jill’s out of town. The hamster, Nibbles, her personality was born out of a horrible story. We were collaborating on a project and our poor friend and collaborator had to take a call from her son, who was beside himself. He was telling her on the phone that his hamster was eating his other hamster’s face while on the phone.

JM & JC: (laughs)

GA: Jen and I were like, “That’s hilarious.” I mean, sad and awful…

JM: But material you can use!

GA: We like to watch animal videos. Shell and that croc was just completely lifted from the internet. The inspiration was certainly that YouTube video of that tortoise and that croc just having a great old time.

JM: And they do on this show, too!

GA: And that’s one of the most fun parts of the show.

JC: And we get to hear the stories of the writers and their animals and pets, too. One of our writers, Ethan Sandler… had a relative who would have to wear long knee high socks on her arms when her bird was out because it would land on her and attack.

JM: Wow. Taking real life inspiration is the best! Will your pets watch the show with you?

JC: Oh yeah! We’re gonna have dog champagne. We definitely have to have them watch. Although they’ve been watching cuts all along and table reads. They’re fully present for all of these things.

GA: Yeah, get your pets to watch! Animals watching TV was also a big inspiration for story and character for us, too. It all comes full circle. Some of what they know they only know because they watch television with their owners. Chico, our cat who’s neglected and Kevin his owner who’s always out of town, always leaves the TV on. He’s constantly watching television. And The Gray One is always watching romantic comedies. So that is a big part of some of what shapes the animals’ knowledge and personalities.

JM: Clea, what surprised you the most about working in the world of animation – and did more of the surprises come from producing or voicing Elsa?

CDV: The entire animation process surprised me. I had heard that animation takes a long time, but I didn’t realize it would take SO long. But I really enjoyed learning how it all worked, and what freedoms and limitations there were in each stage of the process. It was also amazing to be able to continue to hone stories/characters/jokes as we got to know the show better.

In terms of voicing Elsa— I was VERY nervous. I had never done voice acting and I really didn’t want to screw it up. In the beginning I felt very stiff and would obsess on every line. It was also devastating to realize that I would say a line 3 times, thinking I was doing something different each time, then listen back only to find they all sounded the same. It was very humbling. I had to let the obsession go and allow myself the freedom to go big. The more I did it, the more relaxed I became and was able to let go and have fun and be as silly as I could. Now I love it and would like to voice Elsa until I’m 80.