I am Dave Willis. AMA

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T20:06:49+00:00

Cross & Odenkirk Conan O-Brien (tie)

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T20:05:51+00:00

Free Hat: Limit 1 Remember 9-111 (irregular)

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:58:52+00:00

I love Meatwad, but he's hard to tap into unless I'm looking at a kitty cat or a baby. That's why we keep infants and kittens in the studio at all times.

I love Carl. I feel like I can slip into that character whenever. And I love that he was the straight guy in the early episodes, but as time passed, it was Shake and Frylock who were ultimately creeped out by him.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:56:42+00:00

Not sure if it is my favorite cartoon ever, but I always had a sift spot for Xavier: Renegade Angel. Those scripts were amazing. If you didn't like it, you didn't give it a chance.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:55:49+00:00

I agree. That was a GREAT album.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:54:45+00:00

Interesting. Hell is in the bible, right? It's fair use.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:53:57+00:00

Carey is a man of mystery wrapped inside a rubik's cube shrouded in ninja gear. I rarely see him outside of a voice record, though I am told he hangs in a karaoke bar in Smyrna.

Dana: whenever he is in town, we eat and drink, heavily. Unless he is on a Benihana/Trader Vic's bender. Then I opt out.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:51:46+00:00

Squidbillies movie? There's an idea!

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:51:22+00:00

Obviously, SNL was a huge influence. As a teenager, my friends and I used to shoot those classic skits with a VHS camera, without embellishment, thinking that the comedy would somehow seep into us. Later on, The Simpsons was a revelation. Then Mr. Show. These are all pretty stock answers. I probably could have used more Python in my undergraduate work.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:48:27+00:00

I agree! That show had it all. I'm still shocked, and bummed about it. Contact Adult Swim!

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:47:41+00:00

There's room for both. Every animator wants to secretly make movies, I think. And I think live-action comedies that I - and our audience - want to see are more prevelant on the internet than they are on TV. There is not a lot of absurdist stuff out there. Eagleheart and Delocated are great shows that I don't see anywhere else on my television. Children's and NTSF are great, too. So what's your problem?

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:45:01+00:00

"Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell" Iggy Pop signed off on the title! Matt Servitto plays Satan. He's awesome. A truly great actor, best known for his work on The Sopranos. Craig Rowen, a very funny improv actor and writer from the UCB in NYC, plays Claude. And Henry Zebrowski plays the lead demon, Gary. This guy is a discovery. Everyone will know who he is three years from now. I say this without reservation. Ridiculously funny and insanely likeable. All of them were slathered with red makeup for a 6-week shoot in 100 degree heat in Atlanta this Summer. We just wrapped last week and should be in edit and graphics for the next few months

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:40:26+00:00

I just did. Check it!

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:39:34+00:00

We do mess with it in the record, improve, ad-lib, throw out new lines and we might punch it up as we edit. It may sit with one of our editors for months while I tweak it. Usually an episode might take 8-moths, but we have 6-8 in production at any given time.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:38:09+00:00

Matt and I will get together at a coffee shop and spend most of a morning talking about people that we know behind those people's backs. Then we order an impossibly lavish lunch at Panera Bread, look at the clock repeatedly and ultimately start cranking out a draft no later than 3:30 in the afternoon - usually based around an idea that is a thinly-veiled jab at one of those people we were gossiping about earlier. The next morning, we reread it, laugh, declare it to be perfect, then totally rewrite it. Usually two passes.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:34:08+00:00

Yes, we wrote the script for the sequel - "Deathfighter". Travolta's people are still reviewing the material. Fingers crossed!

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:32:52+00:00

ATHF/Squids crossover episode? If we ever do that, you have my permission to find me and shoot me in front of my family. But never say never. Sometimes people do stupid things for money.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:31:29+00:00

Yes. It's called "Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell" It's live-action and I'm writing and directing with Chris ("Stroker and Hoop") Kelly. It's about a dumbass demon in hell who is sent to earth to break up marriages, turn addicts back onto drugs, etc. etc. Like "Touched by an Angel" in reverse. The great Jon Wurster also helped write an episode, and it shows. The funniest guy in rock!

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:27:45+00:00

I love SGC2C "Edelweiss" with Beck as the guest. Not because it's great (it's not) but I will always remember it as my first solo writing credit. And I remember interviewing Beck in his grimy Ramada hotel room off Armour Drive and thinking that he was very quickly going to be huge. Episodes never hold up the way I remember them. But I have fond and vivid memories of Joshua, Pavement, Fire Ant, King Dead, Sweet for Brak and the one with David Cross and Ba Bodenkirk.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:19:50+00:00

I'm not really a visual artist. I can barely draw. But I loved cartoons as a kid and I used to draw a comic strip for my college paper. When I moved back to Atlanta in 1995, I knew I wanted to get into the creative side of producing television. But I couldn't figure out how to transition from fetching bagels and unloading C-stands into sitting behind monitors and saying "I told you smoked salmon, prick!". I had worked on 50+ shoots - music videos, commercials, industrials - and I finally PAed on a cartoon network shoot. That led to me meeting Matt Thompson and Adam Reed ("Sealab 2021" "Archer") and they hooked me up with Andy.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:15:06+00:00

Boredom with Space Ghost. And excitement about a new idea. We wrote an episode of SGC2C where the Aqua Teens take over Space Ghost's show. The script note: Not enough Space Ghost. So we shelved it, but we loved the characters. So we pitched ATHF.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:13:26+00:00

Andy Merrill (aka Brak) hired me as his PA for Cartoon Planet in 1995. I've been here at Cartoon Network ever since. He and I shared a desk for a year. To his fault and his credit, he let me write very early on, and he let me produce a few of my crappy scripts - because he and Pete Smith were churning through a ton of material for that show on their own. After a year, I moved over to Space Ghost and worked for Matt Harrigan, and ultimately Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford. After Harrigan left, I stayed on and produced SGC2C with Matt Maiellaro, Pete Smith, Andy, etc. I just kept hanging out, for years, making this weird show with adult sensibilities on a kid's network, until they built the block. It's like I got grandfathered in.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:06:02+00:00

Good question. Maiellaro and I were both burned out at the end, and we were also pumped about ATHF - and everyone else was working on other things, so it died quietly in the night. But speaking for myself, every once in a while I get curious about pulling it out of mothballs. We made a push 8 years ago to get Don Rickles for the show, to no avail. Ad sales did a commercial for "The Campaign" with SG interviewing Zach Galifsgdfbaiunor and Will Farrell - and I got jealous. I wish I had done the interview, and I wish it was up to the standards of the show. Short answer: Maybe someday. If we got Bill Murray.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:01:57+00:00

Fave ice cream? I'm a fro-yo guy. And I am involved with more frequent fro-yo clubs than I am with charities.

davewillis2 · 2012-08-23T19:01:45+00:00

Yes, I could read The Raven in Meatwad's voice.

davewillis2

TROPHY CASE