Short-form content streaming service Quibi debuts its first animated series today: Your Daily Horoscope. There are 12 new two-minute episodes every weekday – one for each of the 12 Zodiac signs. It’s a new feat in animation, and one that showrunner (and popular comedian) Kelly Landry is excited for everyone to take-in.

Jackson Murphy: I saw on your Twitter that you’ve been in your apartment for the past three months, locked-in, working on this show.

Kelly Landry: Yeah, because when I first got brought-on to the show, it was the end of February. The world was still up and running. I was planning on making the series… in a studio with a team all around [me]. Then to try to go remote, it was definitely unexpected. Definitely a challenge. I tell people, “If I woke up tomorrow in a mental institution and they were like, ‘There was no Pandemic. There was no show. You’ve just locked yourself in your apartment and have been talking to yourself for three months,’ I would be like, ‘Yeah, I guess that checked out.’” It’s this bizarre, surreal feeling of being so connected to people all the time on Zoom, on phone calls, watching cuts. But then you turn the computer off, and all of a sudden, you’re by yourself. It’s such a weird feeling.

JM: But do you feel like all that hard work and being locked-in for the past three months has paid-off?

KL: Yes, absolutely. And I actually feel like in some respects it made the show stronger. Every single person on the team had to learn how to communicate so clearly because when you can’t be standing over an animator – when you can’t be in the edit bay – when all of your notes and everything has to be written out online or communicated over the phone – when you have voice actors recording from their apartments and none of them can be together… the direction and the intention have to be so clear from the beginning. And it really forced us to make sure the scripts were solid. Make sure the animation team knew exactly which movements were best with which characters. To have all the teams come together and work on that communication has been really valuable. It’s something that I’m gonna take with me on any show – this new learnt communication level, which we’ve all had to work on.

JM: I think it’s gonna change the game for the rest of time as far as how animated shows are gonna go. What’s so ambitious about what you’re doing [with Your Daily Horoscope] is that it’s 12 stories every day. That is amazing. Did you feel like at any point you were taking-on too much with doing 12 of these little stories a day?

KL: Every day! We were like, “Is this gonna happen? It’s gonna happen! Are we doing this? We’re doing this! Is this gonna work? It’s gonna work!” It was new for everybody. And for the animators, truly… to turn out animation at the rate that they turned it out – and with animators all working remotely – and most of them had never used Adobe Character Animator. It was a new program that [almost] none of them had been trained on. To be turned out really quickly, is really a testament to that team. And it’s partly Adobe Character Animator, the fact that we can build these puppets and then program them with behaviors. It makes it all so much quicker than hand drawing every frame of animation, which we wouldn’t have been able to do in this case.

JM: And where did this concept originally come from?

KL: It actually started before me, before I was brought-onto this project. Jessie Surovell, who’s the Head of TV Development at ATTN: Studios. She is a Cancer and one day she was reading her horoscope and was like, “Oh, I’d love to see a little crab act out my horoscope and get to see my personality play out.” It was really her brainchild. ATTN: developed it and got Will Arnett and Electric Avenue on board. And then Quibi. We’ve never seen the Zodiac played out with characters. We’ve never seen Astrology come to life in this way. And I think Astrology lends itself to comedy because you have to take it with a grain of salt and you have to be a little self-aware. It is a little self-deprecating humor.

We actually have an astrologer working on the show, Aliza Kelly. So I’ve learned so much from her and all the astrological information is from a true astrologer, which is another thing that makes the show so cool.

JM: Yes, because you’re giving real advice. And you take a good portion of each of the two-minute episodes to actually give advice. Was that the toughest component to make sure you got it on the nose – This advice seems accurate to the time and accurate to the story we’re presenting as well?

KL: Having the accurate horoscopes and astrologically correct information is extremely important to me. I will text our astrologer and be like, “Is this the correct phrasing?” because we want fans of astrology to know this is legit. This isn’t us making stuff up. This is legit astrological advice. And then how we translate that to story is like how you would in everyday life. You get a horoscope. You can be presented with information. Does that mean you always use it? Not always. Does that mean you interpret it correctly? Not always. So the fun thing with the storylines is sometimes we show the characters taking the advice of the horoscope and it works out for them. Other times they interpret it totally incorrectly and hilarity ensues. And other times they choose to not take the advice and they suffer the consequences. So the horoscopes truly are the basis of every story. It’s a true meeting of comedy and astrology.

JM: And the office setting you put the characters in lends itself to comedy.

KL: Yeah, it’s the millennial start-up ‘Estreya!’ The office setting is such a great, smart choice. The Zodiac signs inherently lend themselves to office personalities. The office environment is a perfect playground for these personalities because it’s a true, realistic place for them to come out. And I think there’s so much to explore with office humor.

JM: And it’s interesting for people stuck at home to almost escape back to what the office vibe is like.

KL: It’s an escapism. It’s funny that you would want to escape to the office, but in these times it is. It’s like an old, nostalgic life for us.

JM: Obviously Will Arnett has been in animation for a long time, with LEGO Batman and many other voice performances he’s given over the years. What attracted him to this project?

KL: He’s extremely attracted to astrology in animation because it hasn’t been done before. Bringing in this astrological element hasn’t been done in animated comedy. And the rate at which we’re turning out content is something that has never been done before. Then you pair that with Quibi, a totally new platform. How is that not attractive? Arnett and his team have been so amazing. We actually used his casting director that did BoJack Horseman, and that came from Arnett and Electric Avenue. They’ve been helpful in giving us little boosts along the way that we would not have gotten had he not been involved.

JM: I’ve been waiting to see a show that does daily animation content come around for a while now. And it’s you guys, and Quibi makes a whole lot of sense because of the structure. Do you see this as the future or part of the future of animation – more of these daily, necessity animation pieces?

KL: Yeah. I think people should jump on board. Is it a feat? Yes. Is it a feat doing it from home? Even more so. But I think during these times, animation, and I’m so grateful for this, animation is one of the few things that can continue, uninterrupted, from home. We don’t need to go to a set. We don’t need to get a ton of people together in one space. This is a type of content you can view from your home. And that’s gonna be crucial heading into this time. And making it daily is the next step with all the new software that’s come out. Obviously advances in technology that wouldn’t have been possible in the past. Now this is possible and it’s exciting.

And it’s perfect for Daily Essentials on Quibi because a horoscope is a daily essential. People check their horoscope every day. People go to their phone to go to a horoscope app. And now Quibi is providing them with the opportunity to go to Quibi and get their daily horoscope delivered along with all this other entertainment. The stars have aligned.