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Exclusive: Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer Talk Season 5 of The Ventures Bros., How They Develop New Characters, and Much More

The Venture Bros. is one of the most popular and longest running original animated shows featured on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup. The show originally debuted way back in February 2003 with its first season debuting a short time after in August 2004. Though the show and its creators frequently take brief hiatuses to design new characters and storylines, the demand for new episodes of the series has never been greater than with the debut of The Venture Bros. Season 5 on June 2, 2013 and the recent announcement that the show has been given the green light for a sixth season.

We were fortunate enough to recently sit down and talk with the co-creator, writer and voice actor from The Venture Bros., Doc Hammer, and fellow creator Christopher McCulloch aka Jackson Publick to talk about The Venture Bros. Fans can read on to learn about what the two creators had envisioned for the show from its conception, what it's like to play so many roles on the show and behind the scenes, how long the show could last into the future and more. Check out the entire interview below and make sure to catch all new episodes of The Venture Bros. Season 5 on Adult Swim every Sunday at Midnight!

AMANDA DYAR: Thank you both for taking the time to talk with us. To start off, could you both just introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your job roles on The Venture Bros. show.

Introducing Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer....
JACKSON PUBLICK: I am the co-writer and director of The Venture Bros. and voice actor.

DOC HAMMER: I am from The Venture Bros. Hi.

AMANDA: I guess that pretty much wraps that up. (laughter)

AMANDA: When you were first bringing the show to life, what were some of your main inspirations for it and what did you hope to achieve from that in the long run?

JACKSON: I don’t think we imagined that there would be a long run. (laughter) Inspirations? Johnny Quest is obvious. Mortal Comics is obvious. James Bond. Stuff like that. Pretty much just everything up through our childhood. I don‘t think that we expected to go past the first season (laughter). We just wanted to make some jokes.

Now that was fun, again?!
AMANDA: The Venture Bros. along with other shows on Adult Swim are making it where its okay for adults to watch cartoons again. Was this something you was going for?

JACKSON: Was it something we were going for? Well, it was something we were counting on. I definitely didn’t want to change the original pitch or the pilot to make it kid friendly or anything like that. Comedy Central and Adult Swim were the only two doing snarky adult cartoons. They were not like South Park adult, you know. They were doing cartoons for grown-ups, sure. Strangely, we were more censored than Fox shows were at the beginning. (laughter) I think Adult Swim’s TV-MA is different than Comedy Central’s, because I guess due to the fact that their network is a kid’s network during the day. So their TV-MA and TV-14 are a little stricter than Comedy Central where South Park can say curse words and stuff.

Now this is an adult conversation, ladies.
DOC: We can say curse words, we just don’t.

JACKSON: We get fined for them or something?

DOC: It is self-regulated, but they just decided to regulate.

JACKSON: I know. (laughter)

AMANDA: The new season started on June 2. In your opinion, what is the major difference between the new season and from say Season 1? How has the show developed in that time?

Watch Season 1-4 Recap in 8 Minutes Below!
DOC: The differences between Season 1 and now is that it has developed everything. For us to stay on as long as it has and to keep getting invigorated by our own show then we had to make a lot of changes.

JACKSON: Production wise, visually, it has gotten more sophisticated. It is drawn and animated better.

AMANDA: Besides the freedom, what, to you, is the best part of bringing the show to life? And frankly, how mentally exhausting is it to do as much as you guys do, from writing to voices?

DOC: (laughter) It is not only mentally exhausting--it is physically exhausting.

JACKSON: I am covered in sweat when I do voices. (laughter) I get all the characters that yell a lot. I have to ask for a fresh towel after that. So yeah, even the voices are physically exhausting. Now I don’t remember the first part of the question. 

All the voices..get them out of my head!
AMANDA: It was what is the best part of bringing the show to life?

JACKSON: Getting that stuff out of your head! (laughter) And making it walk and talk, and having other people laugh at it.

DOC: It is the tiny triumphs that nobody notices. You are writing a script and nothing is going well and you finally make a little tiny bridge between the things and you're really proud of yourself. That is the kind of satisfaction that you don’t get outside the creative process which is really cool. A lot of people don’t get that.

AMANDA: Let's talk about the wide variety of characters on the show. What is your process for inventing new characters? I know Doc has stated in previous interviews that when something is invented then the first question people should ask, is can you masturbate to it. So, does that play any part in the character development? (laughter)

JACKSON: (laughter) I never read that interview. I must have not been there for that one.

DOC: I think I was talking about new technology and if you can masturbate to it then it will be a huge success.

JACKSON: Alright. (laughter) I don‘t think that criteria applies.

I'm sexy and I know it!
DOC: I think if there is anyone out there masturbating to Dr. Dugong then they have a problem.

JACKSON: He is very sexy and he is pink.

DOC: And he is hairless. Well, he has a little hair on his upper lip. He looks like a large rolling pin.

JACKSON: I think we make characters when we need them or we have been fantasying on something for a month or whatever time it is.

AMANDA: You guys have been renewed for Season 6. Jackson, you have stated before that you guys are already writing that and it should come out about Fall 2014, so why do you think fans love the show so much and how long would you guys want to keep doing it? Could we say, see a season...30 of the show?

Now, this is fun.
JACKSON: We are taking it season by season and contract by contract. We don’t want do it if it burdens itself.

DOC: We love doing this and want to keep it that way.

JACKSON: Right. So Season 30 sounds ridiculous! No, I think I can go on the record and say there will not be a Season 30. But we will see how this season go and if we are still excited and people still care then maybe there will be more. If it stops being fun or we run out of ideas or if there just something else we are dying to do more, you know. Who knows what will happen in a year or two.

DOC: We want to stay true to it. I think that is why it has managed to stay on for 10 years and still appears fresh and new, because we are still really passionate about it. We really love it.

United as one!
AMANDA: Well you both have said before that you write separately, yet when you see the show, you can't really tell at all. How the hell do you pull that off?

JACKSON: (laughter) It is a magic trick, right?! We would not recommend this to anybody, but we pull it off because we wrote the characters almost identically. So we are amazed by it. We have kept their voices in our heads pretty well at this point you know. It is not like we don't talk to each other--we do write some together and we do discuss the big picture stuff together. Half the season is almost like an exquisite corpse process where one guy will write a script and the next guy will read it and go, 'OH, alright, that is what you did with that guy. I could see taking that in another direction, or picking that up or do something similar to what you just did, or whatever.' We lay unintentional booby traps for each other that are either fun to spring or a kick under the couch. (laughter)

DOC: Like the actual voices, they are the same people in both of our heads. We are lucky and cursed with them.

"I'm cool."
AMANDA: One last question, the character Brock Samson recently was featured in Telltale Games' Poker Night 2. Did you work with them on bringing the character into the game and have you had a chance to play it?

JACKSON: I haven't played it. The network told me that they wanted to do it, and they showed me everything before they did it. They showed me the script, some artwork and stuff like that. Everything looked cool, so I was like yeah sure, go ahead. I mean that might be fun. I mean I like poker, and I like Brock Samson, and I still get paid to make my show, so. (laughter) If they sent us a free one then that would be awesome. I have seen clips of it on YouTube, and it looked like fun. They may have sent me a code for one, but I don't play video games really. So, I will have to check my email see if I have a code for a free one.



AMANDA: Well, thank you guys for taking the time to talk with me. Do you have anything else you would like to add or comment on?

DOC: Not really. Jacks?

"Buy A Shirt, If You Love It!"
JACKSON: Just watch the show and maybe buy a t-shirt if you love it. (laughter) I would like to just say this, I just woke up like half an hour ago.

DOC: And I'm sick.

JACKSON: Is anyone impressed that I just woke up and he is sick and we are right on top of it? (laughter)

AMANDA: Yes, that is very impressive! Well thank you both for talking with us and good luck with the show.

DOC and JACKSON: Thank you.

To learn more, visit the official The Venture Bros. website, stay updated with the latest news at the The Venture Bros. blog, download the shows to your iOS devices, "Like" Adult Swim on Facebook and "Follow" them on Twitter.









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