Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hi, y'all. Welcome back to the Cosmic Cafe, the companion podcast to the cosmic circus.com. We have a fun episode today because we're talking to the folks behind Disney's the Ghost in Molly McGee. We have Bill Motts and Bob Roth on the show. I hope you enjoy. Here we go.
Speaker 2 00:00:25 All right. Well, hi. Thank you so much for being here. Um, thank you. Well, thank
Speaker 3 00:00:28 You for having us.
Speaker 2 00:00:29 Yeah. So I'm, I'm Mileah Ruby from the Cosmic Circus, and you know, I have Bill Motts and Bob Roth here, and I was hoping you guys could tell me a little bit about yourselves before we got started. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:00:39 You wanna kick it off, bill? Go ahead.
Speaker 4 00:00:41 I'll kick it off. Um, Bob and I met at a U S C Summer Production Workshop back in the aughts of, uh, 1990 <laugh> in the summer <laugh>. And, uh, we bonded over our mutual love of Star Wars, which mm-hmm. You know, was, uh, of course where George Lucas went to school. Right. So we, that's why we did the summer production workshop. Uh, we made a short film together, uh, live action, which in retrospect, really looked like a, uh, a live action. It
Speaker 3 00:01:09 Was a live action cartoon. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:01:10 <laugh>. And, uh, but we, we really worked well together. We meshed well. And, uh, Bob moved to la uh, the following year, I guess. Right. And,
Speaker 3 00:01:21 Yeah, 90 summer of 91.
Speaker 4 00:01:23 Right. And then I ended up moving, we started working together. I, I'd fly out from Colorado to Bob's place in LA and we'd work on script Right
Speaker 3 00:01:33 On the floor of my studio apartment.
Speaker 4 00:01:35 Yes, exactly. And then, uh, Disney hired us on staff in, uh, I guess early of 92. Yeah, right. Yeah. And we
Speaker 3 00:01:45 On Dark Wing Duck
Speaker 4 00:01:46 <laugh>, so I moved my, uh, my very pregnant wife to la uh, for us to start working at Disney. And my son was b born during the LA Riot, so it was just a real strange beginning <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:01:59 Oh, wow. Well, I'm, you know, I, dark wing duck was my childhood, so I am Awesome. I'm so excited to, to talk to you guys. And I know we're not talking about that, but like, I'm very happy for that show. Star
Speaker 3 00:02:11 Holds a special place
Speaker 4 00:02:13 In our Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:15 Um, so, you know, we're, we're here to talk about the ghost in Molly McGee. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, you know, I was hoping you kind of tell us a little bit about, you know, what the show is. 'cause it's amazing, first of all. Um, oh, thank you. Like, how would you, how would you describe it if, if someone didn't know about it? <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:02:30 So the first line of our series Bible is, uh, this is the story of a ghost and the girl who brings him back to life, <laugh>. And, uh, that, that really sums up the show quickly. It's about, you know, this bright, optimistic girl named Molly McGee. She moves to this new town, she's very excited to turn the, her, her parents have bought this fixer upper house, and she's very excited to turn the, the attic into her loft art space bedroom. It's gonna be the coolest thing. The problem is there's already a ghost who lives there, and he's not willing to give up his room. Uh, so they battle it out. They come, you know, come to loggerheads. He's not gonna leave. She's not gonna leave. And so he says, fine, Molly McGee, I'm gonna put a curse on you. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be there haunting you, tormenting you, making your every living moment on a living nightmare.
Speaker 3 00:03:17 And then she goes, wait, so you're gonna be everywhere I go and do everything I do that sounds like a best friend to me. This is fantastic. And, and his reaction is, wait, what? That, that's not what I intended. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. <laugh>. And so now he's dragged along on all her misadventures she has as a tween girl. Um, and the funny thing is, is, um, he eventually, or not even eventually, pretty quickly, is charmed by her. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and become, they become best friends. So it's a buddy comedy about these two unlikely friends, uh, one living, one dead, and how they go through life in the afterlife together. And that's the like, elevator pitch of the show. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:03:54 Now this is season two that's starting in April. Yeah. Um, you know, there are some new characters coming. There's a lot of cool stuff happening, and I'm gonna kind of jump right into it because I know there's been a lot of talk and excitement about, um, a character that's coming that's neurodivergent mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and, you know, I saw the pilot, or, and not the pilot, I saw the first episode Sure. Of the, um, the second season. And I was wondering if you guys were able to talk about that without being, you know, too, too spoilery or, you know, talk about the reaction.
Speaker 3 00:04:24 No, we can't say anything about it. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Speaker 2 00:04:26 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:04:27 Uh, so, uh, you're talking about June Chen, who is the, uh, the, the Chens are the new neighbors who move in across the street in, in the first episode of season two. And they really, uh, turn Molly and Scratch's world upside down. They, the, the Chens themselves seem like they're gonna be the perfect fit for the McGees. There are these, these great people who, uh, mesh completely with the McGee family, except the problem is they're ghost hunters, <laugh>. Um, and, uh, the, the youngest of the Chens is a girl named June Chen. Um, and she is autistic, and she's played by Sue Ann Pian, who, uh, is likewise autistic and brought her authenticity to the role. And, um, we all just love <laugh> love June, there's some, you, you get some tastes of her in the first episode, the new paranormal. There's some stuff coming up with her. She has some of the funniest moments, I think, of the season where, um, I, I don't wanna spoil what happens. <laugh> June is a special character. She sparkles at every scene she's in mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Speaker 4 00:05:30 And, uh, and, and she and Darrell mm-hmm. <affirmative> have a special bond. They kind of, uh, yeah. Fi find their way through together, which
Speaker 3 00:05:38 Is find their mischief together. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:40 And can you talk about, um, you know, I, I think representation is so important. I think it's awesome to see characters like you on the screen and, you know, also characters that are not like you. Can you talk about, um, the process and the thought behind, like, what, what made you wanna bring, you know, June to life? Can you talk about that? Sure.
Speaker 3 00:05:57 You wanna take it Bill, or you want me?
Speaker 4 00:05:58 Well, I, I mean, we can both jump in on this <laugh>, but, uh, I think part of it was that, um, yeah, we did think it was important to have that representation. We certainly have people on our team that, uh, are autistic and wanted to sort of see themselves as well in the show. Um, and I, I know, I think we just kind of felt like there was a nice opportunity to sort of round out our world with just mm-hmm. <affirmative> more interesting real characters that reflect, uh, our world. And, uh, I know, Bob, do you remember exactly what the origin was? That's what I was trying to think.
Speaker 3 00:06:40 I hard to, it was two years ago, so
Speaker 4 00:06:44 <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:06:45 And in pandemic time, so everything Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:06:47 A blur. It's like 20 years at this. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 00:06:50 Uh, but you know, the, the, the kind of mantra of it all for the, the whole show is, you know, that specificity breeds universality, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, the more specific you get with your characters, the more interesting quirks or sides or facets of them you find, uh, the more they, they play for a bigger audience. And paradoxically, um, the more you know, the more you find things that are interesting that you haven't seen a hundred times before with a character, the more that makes them stand out and be unique, which weirdly enough makes them more of a magnet for people's attention. Um, mm-hmm. <affirmative> people start to see themselves, even if they're not, um, neurodivergent or autistic. Um,
Speaker 4 00:07:26 And we, we made that decision, uh, before the show even premiered. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we were deep, deep into second season before, uh, the show even premiered originally for season one. So th this was something that just came organically out of the show itself. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And one of the things that's been very nice is the get feedback from our fans to say how much they appreciate seeing themselves on screen in different ways, or how relatable it is to see characters that are, uh, like them and refreshing.
Speaker 3 00:07:56 Yeah. Just seeing on social media, how many people are excited by the few little glimpses they've seen of you mm-hmm. So far. And they're like, this is fantastic. I'm autistic. I'm seeing myself on screen. Um, means so much to me. Like I, I can't wait for them to get more tastes of June. 'cause she's, she's
Speaker 4 00:08:14 At
Speaker 3 00:08:14 Delight. She's so charming and wonderful.
Speaker 2 00:08:16 I I can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for her. And, you know, in addition to the, the new family across the street mm-hmm. Some big things are happening for scratch without, you know, spoilers, um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, are we gonna learn more about him? And, you know, his, his background before he became a ghost. This Yes. This season. Yeah,
Speaker 4 00:08:36 Absolutely are. I think that's part of the fun. Uh, we, uh,
Speaker 3 00:08:39 Not much we can say without spoilers. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4 00:08:42 Spoil, one of the things that we have always wanted to do was to sort of explore a little bit about Scratch's past, a little more about Scratch's story. And we get that opportunity in season two, so we're pretty, pretty excited about that.
Speaker 2 00:08:58 Awesome. Um, so they're, they're guest stars. I think Tony Hale is a guest star. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, can you, you know, is there anything, um, really exciting with the guest stars that Sure. That you can share <laugh>?
Speaker 3 00:09:09 Yeah. Um, Tony Hale is fantastic. Uh, I don't wanna spoil too much about his role. Uh, who else? We got a man, we got a bunch of Yeah. Don Earl Brown. I don't wanna, the problem is we can't say too much about any of the <crosstalk>
Speaker 4 00:09:22 Yeah, I know. Which is just really funny. But Jim Rash,
Speaker 3 00:09:24 Jim Rash, Oscar Winter, Jim Rash is gonna be on the show as a dance instructor, and he is hysterical. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:09:32 Oh, wow. Yeah. Brilliantly funny. Vincent Rodriguez will be a reoccurring character throughout the season and is brilliant. Um, I, I don't know, it, it's kind of fun, but what's nice about these guest characters coming in and bringing, uh, extra new energy into the series mm-hmm. <affirmative> is, uh, there's always a little bit of the unexpected of what they will bring to a goal. <laugh> and I, and I, I think we have a lot of fun with that.
Speaker 2 00:10:00 Oh, absolutely. Um, so I, I actually have some other questions about season one, because one, you know, there your mind there, there's one thing that really stuck out for me from season one, and that was, I think the episode Game Night. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and there's like, that's one
Speaker 4 00:10:13 Of our favorite, our favorites.
Speaker 2 00:10:15 It was like Mega City, I think was the name Yes. Of the game. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So do one of you guys have like a mockup of this game somewhere in the office? You know, I wish, wish
Speaker 3 00:10:25 We, I wish we would. I mean, here's the problem. If we did, we would waste all our time just playing <crosstalk>
Speaker 4 00:10:30 <laugh>. Um,
Speaker 3 00:10:31 I, I love, uh, shout out to, uh, Sarah Keeley and, uh mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, um, I'm blinking, I Tara's last name Tara. Our, our, uh, our awesome prop designers, uh, they bring so much detail and specificity to everything we asked them to design. Yeah. And they really went to town on Mega City, so <laugh>, um, there was a lot in the script. Um, uh, uh, I think, uh, um, we, we had a lot in there for them to draw on, but they took it even further with like, little, little tiny details that I get just, I, I desperately wanna play it like you do <laugh>.
Speaker 4 00:11:06 What's so fun about all of our designers is they just, plus everything at every turn, and I'm still catching little details, even episodes I've seen, you know, over and over and over again. I suddenly go, wait, wait, what's, what's that little thing? The
Speaker 3 00:11:21 Show is designed for your pause button. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:11:23 And it's just so funny to just read all sorts of things. There was just actually an episode we were just, uh, reviewing yesterday that I, I caught this little detail I had never seen before, and I, it just made me laugh.
Speaker 2 00:11:36 Oh, wow. Um, so, so you guys mentioned that, you know, there's a lot of stuff in the script. There's a lot of like, details and, and all of that in the scripts, but, um, I'm, I'm, I'm so curious about, you know, how you get from the kernel of an idea to, you know, to a script. Sure. To, you know, how that process starts, especially with animation. Like, do you guys have a writer's room? Do you, do you pitch? What's, what's the deal?
Speaker 3 00:12:00 We absolutely do have a writer's room. Um, and you know, the, the process, I'll take it back even further than you asked. Like, when we sit down at the beginning of a season, we know we've got 40 stories we've gotta fill mm-hmm. <affirmative> roughly 40, like, you know, some of them are gonna be two parters that take up 22 minutes, but we know we gotta fill these 40, 11 minute slots with something. Um, so we talk about what are the arcs for the season gonna be? What are they gonna be the through lines that take us from episode one all the way to the end. Um, we talk about, you know, what, what kind of things we just sort of blue sky like, Hey, what kind of stories do we want to talk about? What, what, what sort of topics do we wanna hit? What sort of just silliness do we wanna do?
Speaker 3 00:12:39 We wanna do a bunch of that are just silly romps. What are, what are those gonna be? Um, so once we get those and we, we like to leave ourselves a little wiggle room by the end of that <affirmative>. So like, once we get like 36 of those, we feel like, okay, that gives us room to, you know, improvises. The season moves forward. All right. So now we're in the season, we're chugging along scripts, premises outlines are all moving. Um, we, as the writer's room, we, we start working our way through 'em. Somebody says, Hey, I wanna take a shot at that story up there. The one where, um, Molly can only say yes and Scratch can only say no, just for instance, <laugh>. So, uh, and that one was written by Sammy Crowley. Shout out to her. She's awesome. Uh, Sammy, uh, would write a one page premise of it, just sort of like, Hey, here's the beginning, here's the middle, here's the end.
Speaker 3 00:13:28 Nothing's thought out in too much detail, but you should get the gist of the story from that. Um, mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we approve it, the executives give their thoughts on it. From there, it goes to an outline that is like five, four to five pages long. It's a little more detailed mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and from there, same process. We approve it, we give our suggestions, tell them what we want, what we don't want. Uh, and from there, Sammy would take the script and again, the executives would give their thoughts. Now they're seeing more detail and getting where we're going. Even sharper picture. From there, it goes to a pretty complete script, which runs about 13, 14 pages. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 00:14:04 <affirmative>
Speaker 3 00:14:05 Then, eh, I can keep going if you want me to <laugh>.
Speaker 4 00:14:07 No, no. But yeah, well then, no, it's not yet. Right, because we, we then we punch it up. So Yeah. Uh, we all, all
Speaker 3 00:14:15 <crosstalk>, we do a few drafts of the script, and then it goes to punch up where, go ahead, bill. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 4 00:14:19 Then they pitch out any ideas, thoughts, jokes that they have. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, now that script balloons into a giant document of what, like 60 pages. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:14:28 <laugh>, the script becomes unwieldy large. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:14:31 <laugh>, I
Speaker 3 00:14:31 Sit at this desk right here, go and then
Speaker 4 00:14:35 Yeah, then no,
Speaker 3 00:14:36 No. Yes. Down, no, yes, no, get it back down to 14 pages. Um,
Speaker 4 00:14:42 But then similarly then, you know, what happens is we record this, the script, the actors also have room to mm-hmm. <affirmative> improvise. And, and
Speaker 3 00:14:51 Dana and Ashley are great at that, so
Speaker 4 00:14:53 Yeah. Which is so funny.
Speaker 3 00:14:54 Well, I always wanna make sure there's room for them to add their flourishes and add
Speaker 4 00:14:57 Then board artists likewise add their flourishes and, and pluses. And then when we, it's all put together in animatic, we go through again, we decide is that working? Should that be this or that? And we revise it again if they have to in, sometimes
Speaker 3 00:15:11 It's just the way you imagined it and works better than you could ever imagine. And sometimes it's like, oh boy, we got some work to do. <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:15:18 <laugh>. Now I know we're, I know we're getting close on time, so I wanted to, I, I have so many questions, but I, I really quickly wanted to ask, um,
Speaker 3 00:15:26 Fighting Round
Speaker 2 00:15:27 <laugh>. So season three, you know, is that maybe on the horizon? Are you still kind of hoping? Well,
Speaker 3 00:15:33 Here's, so here's the thing. We're like every other TV show on earth. If enough people watch season two, yeah, we'll make a season three. We would happily do it. Um, but we need people to tune in to the Disney Channel April 1st, and Disney Plus on April 2nd. And also we heard just the other day we're gonna be live on YouTube for the first episode. Oh, wow. Episode April 1st. So, um,
Speaker 2 00:15:53 That's awesome. If you,
Speaker 3 00:15:54 If you love watch, watch all of them simultaneously. <laugh> excellent. Uh, all
Speaker 2 00:16:00 Of all of the screens. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:01 All of the screens going all the time. 24 7. Uh, yeah, we would love to make a season three. Enough people need to watch season two to make that happen.
Speaker 2 00:16:09 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's fair. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, is there anything else about the show that, you know, you, you want people to know either about season two or just overall, um, that we haven't talked about that you really wanna get out there?
Speaker 4 00:16:22 I think the show's core is about hope. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, Bob and I like doing, uh, humor, uh, heart and hope in our shows. And I think there's no cynicism in this show that we're <laugh> life. Life is tricky enough, right? Mm-hmm. There's enough that's going on. So the idea that maybe, uh, even if we don't do it perfectly, we can make a little difference in the world. That's something we like to put out there. And hopefully the audience will be able to watch the show and say, yeah, maybe in my community, my family, my area, something I can make some small difference that could make lead to bigger changes. This
Speaker 3 00:17:00 Show is gonna make you happy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get to the end of it and feel like, Ugh, I'm depressed. I watched that.
Speaker 2 00:17:06 My, my daughter loves Molly. So I think, I think the show, you know, totally, totally fits that. Um, oh, fantastic.
Speaker 3 00:17:14 That's you, you've made our day <laugh>. Yep.
Speaker 4 00:17:16 Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 00:17:17 Yeah. I mean, I, I, I love this 'cause I get to watch all these shows with her and, you know, I get to do it under the guise of, of work, but it's, it's also awesome <laugh> and you can make
Speaker 3 00:17:25 Work, play. It's
Speaker 2 00:17:27 The best. Exactly. Um, can you guys talk about anything you're working on next? Or, or, you know, what, what's in the horizon for you
Speaker 3 00:17:34 Right now? We're,
Speaker 4 00:17:35 We're always dabbling, right? So, uh, I think as creators and writers you are, you are constantly, like Molly McGee was in our head, it turns out. Mm-hmm. What it's been 15 years since we first came up with the, the germ of an idea for that, that we've been likewise working on a graphic novel with Oh, A Buddy that's also
Speaker 3 00:17:54 About the same amount of time. <laugh>
Speaker 4 00:17:55 Almost the same amount of time. Um,
Speaker 3 00:17:58 It's very different from Molly.
Speaker 4 00:17:59 Very different. It's a more ya, sci-fi kind of thing. And it's, it's very fun. Uh, we are also, it'll probably
Speaker 3 00:18:07 Be another 15 years before we're done with that. So
Speaker 4 00:18:09 <laugh>, and we're pitching around a four quadrant, uh, family animated sitcom.
Speaker 2 00:18:15 Oh. Oh, that sounds exciting. Yeah. Um, well thank you so
Speaker 3 00:18:20 Much. But also, right now there's a lot of, there's a lot of wood left to chop on Molly mcg. Yeah,
Speaker 4 00:18:24 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:18:25 There's stories left to tell. Oh
Speaker 4 00:18:27 Yeah. Oh yes.
Speaker 2 00:18:29 Okay. That's awesome. Um, and I think we're at time, so I wanna make sure I'm, I'm respecting that. So thank you both so much. Thank you so
Speaker 3 00:18:36 Much. E it was great meeting you. Delightful. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:18:38 It lovely be meeting you. Yeah. Hopefully we'll watch your stuff again. I'll, well we're gonna watch, you know, the rest of the episodes 'cause we didn't quite finish season one together, so Oh,
Speaker 4 00:18:48 Oh, good on it.
Speaker 3 00:18:50 Get on it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:18:51 <laugh> <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:18:52 Alright, well thank you so much. Thank
Speaker 4 00:18:54 You so much.
Speaker 0 00:18:57 Thank you for listening. You can find the companion article for this podcast along with all the other news for those who like superheroes, science fiction and fantasy films, TV shows, and other
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