September 11th, 2019 
Jackson Murphy 
Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken has been on the air since 2005. Its 10th season kicks off on September 29th. But this Friday, the show could win its second consecutive Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program. I recently caught-up with “RC” co-creator Matthew Senreich to talk Emmys and the upcoming 200th Episode extravaganza.
Matt Senreich: Animation, when I was growing up, wasn’t as broad as it is. There are so many animated shows that are out there. And that’s fantastic because when I was growing up, it was Saturday morning cartoons, and that was it. Now, the fact that there are this many adult cartoons blows my mind.
Jackson Murphy: And the impact that this show has had over the past decade…
MS: You get so put in your bubble when you’re making something that you’re not realizing what the external impact might be. And for us, we just want to make people laugh. I know it’s a simple process, but we just like playing with toys… that’s really all we’re doing. And it’s a bunch of friends hanging out and talking just trying to make each other. And hopefully we’re doing our job.
JM: And that got you another Emmy nomination this year.
MS: (laughs) I don’t know how to react to that. It really makes me smile. And then I see the other things that we’re up against. There are shows that I love. My kids have gone through “Teen Titans Go!” probably eight times each, and I’ve sat there with them watching them. And I think that show is one of the funniest on television. I made a point to reach out to those guys, Aaron and Mike, just to say, “I love your stuff, and how can we play together?” And “Steven Universe”, I think, is brilliant. I like being able to see the other creators and pat them on the back in way where it’s more than that. I think they’re brilliant.
JM: Do you still get nervous on Emmy night?
MS: (laughs) I accept that we’re always gonna lose, and if something else happens, that’s unbelievable. But I am not the one to say it’s going to play out the way it should. I’m always surprised. I go in with my expectations low. I’ve gone every year that we’ve been nominated, and every year that we’re nominated I always have a blast because I get to see all these people. I get to meet people in this industry that I would never have the opportunity to meet. I met a bunch of “The Simpsons” guys many years ago: Al Jean, Michael Price… that’s what triggered us doing those “Simpsons” openers – just from that interaction. We had a blast with them. It was really nice.
JM: So Season 10…
MS: Season 10. We’re trying to do little things differently – little nods to our opening title sequence. And then our 200th Episode will be in this season. I don’t know how much I’m even allowed to talk about yet. It has a through line of sorts that I think people will enjoy… kind of a [“Black Mirror”] “Bandersnatch” kind of episode.
JM: 200 Episodes. That’s an amazing accomplishment. What kind of influence have Adult Swim and Cartoon Network had? Do they give you notes?
MS: Mostly so in the first season. We’ve developed a really great relationship with Adult Swim. Mike Lazzo and Keith Crawford really were supportive right out of the gate. The first season with notes, the smartest thing they said to us was our long sketches should be a little shorter and our short sketches should be a little longer, which always echoes in our mind. And then there’s certain content that they do make comments on.
And now it’s evolved to more chatting and casualness to our notes with them. We’ve been doing this for so long that it really is like a friendship that it’s turned into. When they say things, we really listen because it’s a bunch of friends saying “Hey, you might be doing something wrong.”
JM: Does this ever get old for you?
MS: I always wonder if it’s ever going to, but again I’m playing with toys. I think the biggest thing… it’s not that it gets old for me, but I wonder if I’m getting old for it. Every year we try to bring in younger writers. Look, I’m an ’80s kid. And what I realized a couple seasons ago, especially this season, is our viewership is still young, and the older people are graduating (in a sense) to being older for the show. So the 18-24 year olds that are watching this show don’t know about “He-Man” as much as “Neopets”. So it’s just trying to figure out what are the topics that they have the nostalgia for – and tapping into that, and doing fun things with that. And then on top of that, me having kids, seeing the stuff they’re into I think goes a long way.
JM: They’re sort of your consultants, in a way.
MS: A little bit. It’s been an interesting evolution of the show. And what I love is our writers bring something to it. We rotate writers every four episodes. It’s our same core, Tom [Root] and Doug [Goldstein] have been on it from the beginning. We rotate… to get different viewpoints. And they range from 22 to 33. They can tell us things that we’ve never thought about before.
JM: Good luck on Emmy night. I think I read it’s the show’s 20th Emmy nomination overall.
MS: Is it really? Holy s*it. We’ve had a bunch of animators win, which is great for Individual Achievement. And there are some amazingly talented animators who ended-up pulling stuff off. Seth’s gotten nominated for a couple voiceover ones. Sam Elliot got nominated for a voiceover.
JM: I met him in January when he was Critics Choice nominated for “A Star Is Born”. He was very nice.
MS: He’s fantastic. And he will be in our 200th Episode.
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