Real Friends Classic: A Very Special Episode Alabama Jackson w Seth Green and Friends

We get animated on this week's episode as we dive into the pilot episode of Donald's new show Alabama Jackson! Join us as we break down the time-traveling comedy with the creative minds behind the show, including Seth Green, Chris Waters, 'Harv' Harvatine, Shirley Faison, Ashley Ray, and Lee House.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, guys, this is Joel. Hopefully you know me if
you're here. If not, Hi, executive produced this show. I
am so excited for what we have in store for
you today. Donald has a show, as we've talked about
quite a lot Alabama Jackson. It's out right the heck.
Now you can go listen to it. It's actually a

(00:21):
TV show so you can watch it, which is great,
and we're so excited. He brought so many of his
good friends here and we are elated to have an
opportunity to bring you, guys a sense of comedy and
laughter and of course to uplift our friend Donald. Like guys,
if he worked so hard, put everything everything else on

(00:42):
the back burner to deliver a show that is full
of his passion, full of his drive. It really pushed
him as an artist, you know, and it's I think
he's bearing a lot of his soul in it. It's
an incredible like the laughs per second are through the roof.
You're gonna love it. I digress. We're to talk about
all of that in the show, but before we get
to that, I want to take a little bit of

(01:04):
time to explain why our other best friend, Zach isn't here.
If you follow him on Instagram, then you're aware that
he recently lost a friend to suicide. It's devastating if
you've ever had to go through it, it's a lot
to mentally process, it's a lot to try to examine,

(01:26):
and so he's taking time to grieve and to do that.
It's been a really hard couple of years. Suicide rates
are and all time high, and we just wanted to acknowledge,
first love of that friendship, and second to encourage you
if you're having suicidal thoughts, if you know somebody who's
having suicidal thoughts, to please, please, please, please reach out

(01:50):
for help. You are so worth the time and the
effort to feel better, to have a full and happy life,
and hopefully help isn't too far out of reach. If
you're in America, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
That number is one eight hundred two seven three eight

(02:11):
two five five. Again it's eight hundred two seven three
eight two five five. So our thoughts and love are
with Zach as he's working through this difficult time, and
of course to anybody else you know trying to grieve
a loved one or struggling to lift themselves up. It's

(02:36):
a lot of work. We see you, We love that
you're trying, and we're with you. Okay, now we're going
to do some laughs. You're going to hear a lot
of love between a lot of people who've worked really
hard to bring something special into this world. And I
love that we can share that with you guys. So,

(02:58):
without further ado, please enjoy a very special episode of
Fake Doctor's Real Friends The Alabama Jackson Story. Here's some
stories about show we made about a bunch of doctor nurses, said,

(03:19):
he's the stories. So yeadoo around you. Here, a yadoo
around you. Here a few show m. Well, well well
look at this, look at this, Look at what we

(03:40):
have here, Daniel Joel, I like to introduce you to
Chris and Harbor teen. Pleasure to meet you. This is
These are the stupid buddy guys right here. Harve is
is the is the one of the head hot jest. Yeah,
he's like that. We got we got one of the

(04:01):
owners up on this piece right now. Oh shit, it's
a pleasure to have you both, truly, well, uh it is.
I'm such a huge fan of what you guys do
on the podcasts. And uh yeah, so this is so
cool that that I'm even like, uh um a small
part of this and Donald, you kicked us in that
commercial and how great was it that played? And then

(04:23):
you're played right after right after? That's crazy And I
didn't even know. I didn't know you were in a commercial,
did you? You You didn't tell us, did you? I didn't
tell anyone. Okay, if the first you guys were what
were you guys talking about before we record? What were
you guys talking about? Is that what? Yeah? We were,
so we talked about that as our big news and
the thing that you that you beaked out, okay, because

(04:45):
I was like, damn, I thought maybe uh my mind
went right to doctor Acula. I was like, oh shit,
oh my god, Yo, you're speaking the language. Man, everybody
would go crazy if that's what it. I think doctor
Acculus should be. I think you guys should do a
Doctor Acculus special of the part. But if we did

(05:06):
a Doctor Acculus stop motion animated special, dude, that's what
we get puppets that look like me and Zach and
we freaking make a Doctor Accular movie. I told my
my fifteen year old about this podcast, and she was
she's a huge fan because of Hulu. She watches Scrubs
and she called you guys kings, you and you and

(05:27):
Zach Kings and she like, my dream is for her
to call me a king because she any anyway cool.
So that's like, so I know that you guys thought
it was it was it was more. It was more
because it was his friend's son or whatever. But all
the kids, all the kids in high school are watching Scrubs.
It's it's it's a retro cool, I hope. So, because

(05:51):
it really feels like friends in the office are leading
the way when it comes to what the kids are
watching nowadays. Let me introduce you guys, guys to Harbor
Team and Chris Waters. Uh. These guys both work at
Stupid Buddy Studios. Harbor Team is an owner of Stupid
Buddy Studios. And Chris, what would you say your role
is because you have a bunch of hats in this situation,

(06:14):
Like you and I sat down and we did the
development together and then you jumped on as a writer
after that In Alabama, Jackson, what would I'm just Joel,
I'm all over the place. We should really start by saying,
welcome to fake Doctor's Real Friends special episode of Alabama Jackson,

(06:35):
the new fast paced, stop motion animated comedy series on
Adult Swim's YouTube platform, which premieres today. Wait, thunderous applause,
dential thunderous applause for this tomorrow today is tomorrow. Yeah.

(06:56):
I was like, wait, yeah, yeah, And on the show
we have with us, Harve, who is the king of uh?
I'm gonna call you king? How about that? Who is
the king? You like that it's a little much the
prince of animation? Well, I'm gonna say king because in
this situation, you are the two people that I were

(07:20):
my go to guys, and then Seth when he gets
on here. Also, you guys are champions of the Alabama
Jackson cause. And so you know, I mean a lot
of people could have jumped on, but Harve the fact
that you volunteered to step up and be a part
of this, and Chris the fact that you volunteered to
step up. And then, ladies and gentlemen, let's give a
round of applause. Thunderous round of applause for Seth Green

(07:43):
y'all the applause the period Now thunderous applause, Dan thunderous,
A motherfucking motherfucking we got him on the podcast. Who
else is on this? I see Chris, I see Harve,
I see Joel. Let me introduce you guys. Daniel. That's Daniel,

(08:05):
we call it, we call him Daniel. Daniel. How'd you
get saddled with that long story from a fifth grade start?
Tell us nobody knows, don't worry about it? Shows at
you today? Do you want to talk a little bit
about how Alabama Jackson like came into being and how
these guys got involved. Yeah, okay, so that's a that's

(08:29):
a that's actually a great segue. H Alabama Jackson started.
You know, I'm a huge fan of Raiders at a
Lost Art. Everybody knows that I love Harrison Ford. He's
one of my favorite actors of all time. When I
first started as an actor, I Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington
and Harrison Ford or three people who I tried to

(08:51):
mimic a lot, you know, in my comedy, in my
physical uh movements, and in you know I and then
and then the seriousness of Dential I just wanted to
those were the three that I tried to always be like.
And Indiana Jones just seemed like one of those movies
where I was like, man, there's so much black history

(09:12):
out there, and this dude's chasing after it, like he
chased after the Ark of the Covenant that started. That's
an eat apparently according to myth Now that's in Ethiopia,
according to I don't know if you guys know this, Yeah,
but the art is in Africa. Yeah, but that's I love.
I love the archaeological shit where they where they dig
up the bones and my most the thing I'm the

(09:33):
most passionate about his old civilizations and like instances of
humans on all other parts of the planet and how
the culture seemed to evolve even though there was oceans
between them, which is why there's that whole Pangaea argument
that they weren't moving, that they were all just sort
of in the same region before natural geological phenomenon separated
to the connant. Right, But the like the fact that

(09:56):
a thousand years ago, three thousand years ago, a million
million years ago, another human being was in this spot
to win some shit and now you're standing there. That
blows my mind. It's one of my favorite things. So
I love to travel. Yeah, I love Indiana Jones for
the fantasy, not necessarily the history of it though, you
know what I mean? And I always thought it was
you talk about in the fantasy a punch of Nazis

(10:17):
in the Facebook. Yeah, man, this one dude, this one
dude taking on a freaking whole army by himself with
a bull whip and six bullets. And when a dude
but also gets his ask, which was when made him
lovable right right, because he was stumbling and bumbling his
way through it all. Yeah, And I was like, wouldn't
it be great if we if we created a black
version of this. Here's exactly how it happened. We're all

(10:39):
on this panel and they're like, hey, what are you
guys up to you? What are you doing next? We're
all like, we're doing this. This is the season of
Robot Chicken, and Donald loves stop motion and this that
another thing. And they were like, well, Donald, what would
you do with you? What are you gonna do? And
he goes, you know what I really want to do
is a black Indiana Jones called Alabama Jackson. And then
everybody exploded in laughter, and then we went on to
whatever the next question was. I saw sten Riich's face

(11:01):
on the panel and go like this and then and
he said, hey, do you think that's a show. And
I said, fuck yes, I think that's a show. And
he said, let's call Donald when the second this is over.
So that's what we did. We we called Donald. We're like, hey, dude,

(11:23):
a black Indiana Jones called Alabama Jackson is something. Let's
talk about what you really mean? What do you really mean?
And Donald started talking about how because we were all
in that place of like, I don't know enough about
my own history. You were in fighting about nuance of
like cultures. And what Donald said was I want to
tell the story of a modern black man who has

(11:46):
all of these preconceptions and assumptions and is living the
life of a modern black man, and he gets forced
into a position where he has to learn and appreciate
Black history, like from somebody like Harriet Tubman. And he said,
it's like I wanted to be like Quantum Leap, right,
He's got to go back and learn some shit and
solve some shit. And I was like, have you ever

(12:07):
watched Timeless on NBC because it's a show about right,
but it was an organization of supposed evildoers traveling back
in time to fuck up history. And then the people
that they had stolen the time travel tech from had
their beta model to chase them through time. The rules
of the time travel were very specifically laid out. He

(12:29):
can never return to the same point twice. You can't
like recorrect something that's already been shifted in a timeline.
So it's constantly chasing these these anarchists through time. And
I was like, that's your fucking move, Like you've got
you've got somebody actively trying to destroy Black history. And
Donald looked it up and he's like, well, the worst

(12:49):
motherfucker was Woodrow Wilson. Yeah, but we were like, well,
that's a great villain. That's a great villain. But then
I don't remember who came up with the cap that's
that Ashley Ray will be on the show later on.
She's the one that came up with the Cake caball

(13:10):
and then and then the idea of the Black Cabinet
is an actual historic concept us make it's a there's
a lot of plausible reality in this that an organization
called the Black Cabinet that has time travel is chasing
Woodrow Wilson, who also has time travel and the Cake
Cake caball through time trying to save black history while

(13:32):
it is actively being trying to be destroyed. I'm like,
this is a fucking great show, right, so nobody, but
you're right, nobody wants to give you money, right, very
very exciting. It's very hard to convince somebody on a
pitch that something is good. So our whole thing is, yes,
is always let's make something. Let's make it and show

(13:53):
you exactly what it is, because otherwise it's it's up
to your imagination, your context, and whatever experience you've had
up until that moment. So we talked to adults. Women
were like, hey, how does this get Listen? I know
you won't give us a pilot. I know we're not
going to get a pilot script written. We want to
make a proof of concept that has value to the company.

(14:16):
How do we do that? Then we started talking to
mechanics of it. So it literally came down to us
negotiating for about twenty minutes of content that we could
break up anyway we want it. And we're like, we
do these in shorts, and that way it's not a
single episode. You can show several instances gain minor character
development even in a one to three minute episode that's

(14:37):
going to prove the show. So that's what we've done.
We've got seven episodes. There is a meaningful arc for
each of the characters. Plus you see how it would
work in series. Our goal is a half hour. But
more than anything, I'm so proud of this motherfucker, not
just because he's such a hard worker, not just because

(14:58):
he's so talented, but because he had this idea, he's
been so passionate about it and he's really worked his
ass out. This is hard work, guys, and half his
family which is which is also I gotta give it back.
I gotta give it back though, you know what I
mean Like that, this was one of those things where
it was like, look, you gotta show up every day,

(15:21):
and when you show up, you got to bring something
to the table. I'm not that dude. I'm not the
dude that even shows up. I'm the dude that's like,
what are we doing? Yeah, this is one of those
moments where it was it was a come to moment
where it was like, dude, you gotta be better than
you've ever been. And even though this is a small medium,

(15:41):
like you know what we're doing, We're hoping a lot
of people view it we'll see how it plays out
and stuff. Yeah, the huge idea, I know, But the
window is so small. The window is so small though,
I feel like I do. I do because this is
a moment when people are interested in something like this,
and what we've been able to achieve is something that

(16:02):
is not academically preachy. It's fun. You like this character.
You're getting a very relatable POV from a modern human
being who is you know, we all over the last
couple of years have dealt with a tremendous amount of
forced shame for what we have an experienced, for the

(16:23):
mistakes that we've made, for what we don't already know.
And there used to be a lot more basic forgiveness.
You take one position or another, there's a there's a
way that we get to present this, a way that
we get to make it. And the hack is to
just do it to figure because you try and get
through all these multi layers of the corporation, to all
the different companies, especially as they're getting gobbled by each other,

(16:46):
you have four hundred levels of people who have to
both see it, read it, and sign off on it.
I hate that ship. I can't can't waste time like that.
So like, if you think about how short the turnaround
is from us on that panel tomorrow when this show
is released today, today, today, today, today, today, Daniel, can

(17:10):
you edit that time is a perfect eight. That's why
alamman period can travel. So for the listeners out there,
the three gentlemen that we have on the show today,
I've known for a bit. So I did a movie
called Clueless a while back with Brecken Meyer, who Seth

(17:31):
Green is best friends with, and uh, one night, Uh
this is this is sincerely how it happened. Uh, Seth goes.
Seth says you should go out on a date with
my sister, and I was like, okay, oh my god,
I have no clue. You're a good dude. Man. My

(17:52):
sister was always bringing home like the worst right, But
I had only met you once at this point, you
know what I mean. Like I bought, but we did vide,
but we did vibe, no doubt. Breckon was like, hey,
you're gonna love this kid, And the second I saw you,
I was like, oh yeah right, And so he invites
me on. He invites me on a date with his sister.
We go on the date and after the date, she's

(18:14):
like let's go back to Seth's house and to Seth's apartment.
And this is when the first time we ever, Like
we kicked it a little bit before, but this was
like the time that we really kicked and I got
to tell my jokes. I got to be We're like
twenty I'm not even twenty one yet. Yeah, and then
uh so we hang out and you know, Seth and

(18:35):
I have a we have like a there's a thing
that's happening where we kind of get each other's jokes
and it's like we have the same sense of humor.
We exchange numbers. I go back to New York. I'm
calling Seth Green on the phone like once or twice
a week, you know what I mean. I'm calling Breckin
on the phone once or twice a week, Like, guys, man,
I miss you all. Like, you know, Seth comes to
New York, fucking comes to New York. We're kicking it

(18:58):
in New York. You come someone when I got to
go to your like I was at your mom's on Thanksgiving.
Yeah it was you know, it was a new it
was it was New Year's it was New Year's Eve,
and you can't So that's like nineties seven. Dude, I
don't clueless nineties eight. I think it's the same year
Clueless came out, So I'm not exactly sure it was

(19:21):
that ninety nine even I don't. I don't even know, dude,
I can so I was right. So that New Year's
is probably like ninety six, yeah, because I was here
with Ryan. Yeah. So you come through and my best
friend growing up, this girl Jessica Macardo and Seth hug
And I'm like, how the fuck do you know each other? Guys?

(19:42):
And She's like from auditions back in the day. I
was like, Seth that lives in La Seth goes, I
grew up in Philly. I'm like, oh shit, right, So
the connection was the connection was always there, right, And
so time goes forward, time goes forward, Seth starts doing
this thing called Sweet Jay with Mat and Breckin and
just a little bit of context in In ninety nine,

(20:06):
Sony Digital was trying to develop a linear content precursor
to YouTube. They were convinced that the Internet was a
place where people would be viewing stuff, and everybody was investing,
you know, negligible amounts of money to see what you
could really do. It was still dial up, but we
talked Sony Digital into giving us about forty six thousand

(20:29):
dollars to produce the equivalent of thirty nine minutes of
content and the same thing, like, you can break it
up however you want, like one episode, twenty episodes. So
what we wound up doing was making God, how many
shorts do you remember? It all predates anybody. Matt would
be the only one that knows those stumps. The point

(20:49):
is we made what would become the proof of concept
for Robot Chicken. I made a deal with Sony Digital
lawyers to be able to sell our thing anywhere else,
and then we tried to sell it to SNL, Matt TV,
MTV Comedy. We had a deal with Comedy, and then
September eleventh happened. They were like, hey, we're just not

(21:10):
gonna do this, so all rights reverted. We sat on it.
Matt and I had like three or four years, and
then it was Seth McFarlane making the deal after Family
Guy had been canceled the first time. Seth mcfarlande made
a deal with Mike Lazo, the head of the Adult Swim,
to air the aired and unaired episodes of Family Guy

(21:31):
on Adult Swim. It blew up so big. How it
was even before that Maverick called me. Seth McFarlane calls
me and says, hey, do you know these Adult Swim guys?
And I said, I don't know why I'm doing this,
I said, I said, yeah, we already brought because because
Maverick had done a voice on Sweet j like he
was in our shorts. Because it was just like us

(21:52):
gang banging this independent production together. He called me and said,
YouTube pitch to Adult Swim. I said, we already pitched
the cartoon network. We got passed on and no, no, no no,
there's a whole new thing. They're buying the old episodes.
A family guy go pitch to them. So Matt and
I go pitch to Keith Crawford and Mike Lazo, and
in an unprecedented move, they contracted us to make twenty

(22:16):
quarter hours of what would become the first season of
Robot Chicken. That's the story. That's fucking crazy, dude, because
it's kind of like the same thing in a lot
of ways. You guys would jump through a way more
hoops than I had to. But you are to do this, buddy,
You've had it so fucking easy. None of this shit's

(22:38):
supposed to happen. That's the crazy thing. None of this
shit happens this way. It's a terrible standard for ourselves
by being able to achieve this on this budget. Yeah,
like with the case we're gonna have to make to
anybody for our half hours, We've almost we've almost made
too beautiful of a show. I love that. I love
that we have almost done that, and it's can't wait

(22:59):
for you guys to watch it. You've added very easy though,
And you know what, Donald, that's the only way I wanted.
I want to protect you from all of this. Thank
you for that, and I thank you for that. I
thank you for that. So Harve I met at Shadow Machine, right,
That's where we met, and he was animating on robot Chicken,
Am I correct? And Towner right and Eric and uh

(23:25):
and so you know, as time went on, I really
dot dove into the stop motion animation game, like I
really am trying to become a better stop motion animated.
Like my goal is to be able to animate my
own stuff, you know what I mean, Even though it
takes forever, but like when if Alabama Jackson goes to series,
I'd like to animate it, on it, animate on it,

(23:46):
you know what I mean. That's just how I should right,
That's like, that's like Lucille Ball saying no, no, I've
got to be the one to build his dress. Well,
you know, there are some there are some artists that
I get it, and that I get it and stuff.
Why won't you just let me make a joke? I'm
not I know, I get it. I let you make
a joke. I got it. You got the joke out,

(24:08):
You got the joke out. Passionate artists clearly and so hard.
When I stepped away from Shadow Machine and uh, you
know when Robot Chicken left Shadow Machine. Yeah, you guys,
happen just to consolidate that we had one hundred episode
or rather Shadow had one hundred episode production contract with

(24:30):
Adult Swim, so at the end of five seasons, at
the end of one hundred episodes, Matt and I had
to decide whether we were going to produce a sixth
season at all, and if so, were we going to
do it at Shadow And you know, Matt I had
sort of realized how little actual governance we had over
the mood and the sentiment, and because we were becoming

(24:52):
so close with all these artists, we noticed that there
was a manner in which things were untracted or organized
or built at a core level that we just had
a different philosophy about It's it's it's not a this
way or that way, it's it's just the way you
want to do business, right. So we um decided. We

(25:14):
realized because Harvan Towner had broken off themselves, both successful animators,
very talented artists, had broken off and made a little
boutique production shop like a mini studio with a full
development capability but also the ability to shoot stages and
experiment with shit. And they were doing such like cool

(25:37):
experimental stuff and they were like, I don't know, let's
just try to see if this worked on Oh, let's
just do this. And we were so excited by that.
This was the idea that Matt and I came to
harvardtown Or were like, this is a big risk, guys,
but if the four of us as artists create a
collective that is dedicated to just making these projects as
best we can, creating this ip, developing these concepts, working

(26:00):
with our friends, and most of all, governing the mood,
the manner, the spirit, the culture of the place, that's
what we wanted. So that's where we broke off and
formed SPS, and then we've produced the last six seasons
of Robot There and everything else, Crossing Swords, Buddy, Thunderstruck, everything,
everything's been done here like it's opened up. You guys

(26:23):
are freaking animating for the Mandalorian now, like you guys
are freaking doing your thing. Dude, But Harve, can you
tell us about how you guys started, because it's really
it's a really interesting story. You know, the studio has
a camper as a as a Winnebago as it's one
of its logos and stuff like that. Can you tell

(26:45):
us where that came from? Well, it started with me
and Tanner, who were Buddy System Studios, and we formed
that because in animation and stop motion you can't just
it's hard to do something yourself. You gotta team up
with someone. So we really believed if we team up together,
we get our friends together, like a Buddy System, that
we can do projects. And Matt and Seth were Stupid Monkey,

(27:06):
so when we teamed up together, it's Buddy System meets
Stupid Monkey, so we became Stupid Buddy Studios. That's kind
of where the name came from, and when we all
came together, we'd love the idea of camping and togetherness
and like having an adventure. So the Bago, the Winnebago
became kind of our spirit animal, kind of the true
North and where we're going. It's the it's the real

(27:27):
ride that we're all taken together. So the Winnebago was
kind of like our jam. So that's where I'm sitting
right now, is in in our original Winnebago that me
and toowner had when we were teaming up doing projects
just together on really scrappy budgets. It kind of became
the symbol for the studio, which and that's that's inside
the building that we animated Alamaba Jackson in, right, But

(27:48):
how did you get that inside the How did you
get it inside the door? First of all, well, back
then the doors were big and there was no enclosure,
so we drove it in and then we parked it
over here right next to the window, so I can
see outside of a beautiful burbank. But then we sealed
it up. We sealed up the doors so we can
have a shop and puppet department all that kind of stuff.

(28:09):
So and then we also had to take out the engine,
so this thing is not operational. It's stuck in here.
So whenever we leave this building, we might have to
just to light a match or just walk away. I
don't really know because out of here, well, yeah, we
drank it out. And then so so when you guys

(28:30):
formed the company, Chris, were you there already or did
you come much late? Like how recent? I can't I was.
I joined up in twenty fifteen, and it was actually
originally it was just to help with one project. It
was this insane short that Town and Harvard made a
buddy systems called Micromahan, which is incredible. People just look

(28:51):
that up on Vima. But yeah, so I joined up
to help develop that, and then I love the ethos
of the place. I you know, I had worked a
lot in animation and CG animation and just seeing a
place where you had people like building stuff, you know,
carpenters and grips and like it felt like a little
live action, like a miniature of live action studio, and
I was, I was just fascinated by that. So we

(29:14):
and we hit it off, and slowly but surely I
sort of started taking on more and more projects and
then for the last three years, I've been head of development,
so I had I helped develop all the TV shows
and features and all the fun stuff that we're working
on at the studio because let's go, I teamed up
with these guys because when we might undersell himself, undersell himself.

(29:34):
But Chris is one of the most special people that
I have ever gotten the privilege of working with. And
he's so good at this job and every aspect. It's
a very difficult job to do development because you have
to be both curious and have boundless energy and have
a very patient temperament and be a good You have
to be nice. You have to be nice because you're
convincing people to do shit they don't want to do

(29:55):
all the time. And then you really have to be
able to lead with your heart and get emotionally invested
in something which is scary to do as a person,
especially on behalf of a fucking TV show. So Chris like,
it's it's been a godsend. We feel like we are
making the kind of stuff that we want to make,
that we are putting the right kind of time and
effort in the right place. So and I used to

(30:17):
I used to get jealous when I found out Chris
was working on other projects, no bullshit, because it felt
like it felt like it was just me. When I
was with Chris, you know what I mean. He makes
you feel good. He makes it feel like, dude, it's
just you and me, baby, it's you and me baby.
And then he goes behind my back and he's working

(30:38):
with other people like I I was with. I was
talking about Sorry Donald, I just got off the phone
with Disney. Plus, I was like, wait to say, it's
Donald Donald. It's called polyamory and it's perfectly acceptable. Dude.
He didn't inform me that we were in a polly
relationship over that happen. If I would have known that,
I would have been like, all, I bet it's made.

(31:00):
He made it seem like that it was just me,
And when I found out that it wasn't run Rue,
I wanted him more. Yeah, obviously. Two. This is the
this is the crazy part. It made me realize, Oh,
this motherfucker works harder than I do. This dude works hard.
This is one of the hardest motherfucking workers that I

(31:21):
know right now. And because he would be able to
be so invested in my thing, and then jump on
a call with somebody else and be so invested in
their thing, and then jump on another call with somebody
else and be so invested in their thing, and then
jump on another call. Like the list is endless. I
was like, how many shows do you have about right now?
He's like, I got quite a few in uh that

(31:41):
I'm juggling right now, and Alabama was one of them.
And I just I'll say it is I'll say this, Donald,
you made it easy. Like the only thing we do
at super Body is stuff that we really believe in,
and you were You're so passionate about animation. This is
such a clear idea, Like we always want to get
behind an idea that's just really clear, and it's funny

(32:03):
as how. I think it's perfect for the energy you
bring to every you know, whether you're buying coffee and
donuts for the whole crew or buying lunch for the
whole crew. Like you dove into this and it was
super easy to support you in making this crazy ass show.
So it's been a blast. And yeah, we want to
make more of an adult swim listening adult swim. We're

(32:24):
gonna get started, We're gonna take a break and we'll
be right back. Yo, we're back. We should probably talk
about the show at some point, right, yeah, Hey, how
soon are we allowed to start posting the opening? Right?
Isn't that a thing we're gonna do? Like preview? We

(32:45):
have to we gotta have to talk to adults from
about that. Yeah, you could? You could play theme song?
You can play the theme song, right can? I can
we for people to listen to the Yeah? Yeah, right,
Danil play three song right now? Play theme song right now?
The Jack sign. He's a time trampling man doing a
biss that he came woodbrue Wison hates blacks Harry has

(33:07):
got his back oma sat in black. His story, Alabama
Jackson jets. That's what I'm talking about, y'all. That's what
I'm motherfucking talking about. That's good. Yea facta put up,
put up. I don't think they heard it. Dannel play

(33:27):
one more time? He baba Jack sign. He's a time
trampling man doing a biss that he came woodbrue Wison
hates blacks Harry has got his back oma sat in black.
His story. He Lobamba Jackson, Lama jets. That's one of
the things Donald is like the as this started coming together,

(33:49):
as it really started coming together, like when we got Wanda,
when when I heard the music for the first time,
when I saw the way we're gonna get to use
the monitors and the sliders, and I saw the puppets,
I was like, God, this is really gonna fucking work.
And as we've been putting the footage together, you've been

(34:12):
the exact amount of both patient and hard working. You're
a really good producer. And I know this is an
easy dude, Like I warned you, but you have not
shied away at all from responsibility. I truly followed your
lead man, no doubt, and I think that, Oh I
love you, know I love you. You know I love
you too. What you do. Don't get mushy, don't get mushy,

(34:34):
don't get mushy. Don't you get mushy. Guys, he actually
said it. I say it all the time. Fuck you.
I say it all the time. Every time we hang up,
I say it, every time I see you. I say it.
Don't even because all of so many of our friends
have died that I never missed a chance to tell
you how much I love you. That just got really dark, dude,

(34:54):
did it. Yeah, it kind of did it kind of
did kind of did it kind of did well? You
never with me? Fine, Well you'll always know that, dude.
That's a double negative. What does that mean You'll never
not know never not. Yeah, you'll always never not. I
mean you'll always know, got it? Yeah? Never times it's

(35:15):
appropriate to make a double negative to emphasize you get
it to j D Joel Daniel. Yes, before we have
a very I know, we haven't just edit all this out.
Is there anything is there anything we didn't Is there
anything we didn't cover that we're supposed to cover on
this uh, this first port um, well, you know, I
think you guys you spoke a lot about why you

(35:37):
guys came together and why you you know, like this
initial idea. I think we could probably end on what
you guys are hoping to see from fan reactions, you know,
and and maybe you know, Donald, if there's like maybe
maybe we can get more into that with your mom.
But like what lessons you're hoping people takeaway since you're
dealing with actual history right on. H To be honest

(36:00):
with you, for the for the fans out there, what's
important for me is that you guys just check it out.
I'm sure it'll absorb into your into your into your brains,
and you will. And I really do believe you'll come
back for the next episode, and then the next episode,
and then the next episode. But getting you to watch

(36:24):
the first episode is my goal. That's my true goal.
And then we'll see how it all plays out, you
know what I mean. I think we've got a really
dope show that has a lot of you know, it's
fast paced, it's got it's got action, and then it's
got a little bit of a history lesson in there
for everybody. But it's, as Seth said, it's not preachy.
We're not in your face talking about it, you know.

(36:45):
And so mind you got Donald, plus you got Donald
the want of Pikes, and well then there's Donald and
Seth Green, Right, that's a dynamite cast already, that is it.
And we've also been bringing on a really cool guest cast. Um,
it's I'm so back and proud of this man. I'm
so proud of this, like because it's we we both

(37:08):
grew up on a lot of these shows. The eighties
was a very different time where entertainment programming was focused
on a bit of education, mixed in a little bit
of like basic guidance for how to be a person,
how to be kind, how to not put too much
sauce on your food, or how to even acknowledge when
you've made a mistake and move forward, and because knowing

(37:28):
is half the battle. The more the more you know,
you know. It's somewhat along the two thousands that, like
programming became more about catching eyes from the news to
the tabloids, like it became all about sensationalization, and so
the the the opportunity to give little bits of real history,

(37:52):
like basic history too, in a way that doesn't feel educational,
in a way that feels like you've got an emotional
investment than it, like you need to know more, like
you're learning along with this character from a series of
experts that was a really it's just Ocdonald. It's come
together very well and I can't wait for I'm so
excited for people. I am and with that. And we

(38:14):
did we did take liberties, we did take liberties. So
so I think it's like the great and then it's
an occasionally true story I want everyone to know because
because tell the true first, we're talking about here dogs, right,
I feel like, I feel like we're overpaizing educational components
of this and that. Well, no, that I'm not. There's just,
like I said, there's just a little bit of history

(38:35):
in there that people might not have known or they
did know. You know, a lot a lot of people
don't know that Woodrow Wilson was a very racist president.
He just so happened to be like, yeah, like the racist.
What did the lawyers, what did the lawyers saying that?
When we were trying to get this cleared, the lawyers
were like, well he's here's a notorious racist. So this
is fine. So we're not well documented. Yeah, we're not

(38:56):
well document that he was very racist. So because in
the theme song, if you guys listen, there's a line
Woodrow Wilson hates blacks, and it's true. That's all that's
all needs the same. Yeah, okay, So I love the
most about the theme song. Is it as just the facts? Man? Yeah? Yeah,

(39:16):
doing the best blacks, Harry's got his back history. Come on, yeah,
Alabama Jackson. With that, let's bring in the theme song writer,
uh Bert and my mom. We'll be joining us right now,

(39:37):
Ladies and gentlemen, This zoom and podcast is getting so crowded.
But that's how we do here on Fake Doctors Real Friends.
This is a very special episode of Fake Doctor's Real Friends.
Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Shirley Faison and
Bert Price. Oh, thunders, applause, thunders, applause. Ma, you see

(39:59):
he's on. Are you with me? Yes? Christ see Chris Seth.
When's the last time you saw Seth? We were on
that one zoom early on in real life it's been
quite star Yeah, yeah, yes, Mom, Tell everybody where you're
at right now. I'm in my office. Well, what's what's

(40:20):
this office? That? Okay? Okay, So during the pandemic, I
decided to open my own talent agency thunderous applause dental.
So I'm Seth after a pretty fland child. So, if
you're out there and you need an agent, and you
might be in the metropolitan area or in the Tri

(40:40):
state area, Shirley Phason, what's the name of your agency? Oh,
A Dooty Rose Talent Agency, A Dooney Rose Talent Agency.
Do you want to give them? Is there something a
website or something? Yes, it's called a Dooty Rose Talent

(41:00):
dot com A d U M M I r O
S E. Talent t A l e nt dot com.
Thunderous applause, then thunderous applause for my mom. Okay, and
then we got Bert Price in the house. Now, I'm
gonna be honest with Joe. I've known Bert for how

(41:23):
many years now, thirty years now almost maybe twenty seven, Yes,
and he took my younger brother Olamida under his wing
and taught him the ins and outs of the music industry.
And for people who have listened to fake doctor's real friends,
you've heard some of Olamid's music guests who helped elaminate
with that Bert Price. So when it came time to

(41:44):
freaking make a soundtrack for Alabama Jackson and a theme
for Alabama Jackson, it was only right to go to
the one man that has been doing right by my
family since he met us. But you forgot about forgot
about the records that we did together. Well we made well,
the records we made together, that's we don't don't nobody
want to listen to it anyway. So Bert, my mom

(42:09):
wrote on this with me, and then Bert I somehow
convinced him to probably do more than we paid him
for to make some music for us. And when you
guys watch the show and you listen to the soundtrack
that accompanied the soundtrack that accompanies the show, you're gonna
be very impressed. And I want to thank you both

(42:31):
for being on here with us. Wow, thank you. Shoot
you deserve all the praise. Bert, you deserve all the praise.
Surely this I mean, like I've been saying, how proud
I am MacDonald. I know everyone's exploding with pride. But
also both of your contributions to this invaluable. So thank you,
Thank you so much, no doubt. So let's get into this. Mom,

(42:55):
had you ever written before? When you've done this? When
when I called you up and I was like, you know,
I got one extra slot or a writer, do you
want any Okay? So, so I had never written like
a script for film or television, but I did write

(43:15):
a m a book called If Walls Could Talk, which
was basically um about the Brownstone in Harlem and all
the people who lived in it. So what is your
Your background is pretty much a historian type of like okay, yeah, okay,
you went to college for black history. Yeah, I got

(43:38):
a degree in African American studies. And so we when
when I called you up and I was like, I
need you to write with me personally. It was before
you all the knowledge that you had obtained in college
and stuff like that, and so I was trying to
pick your brain. And so you were actually the one
who came up with the idea of Woodrow Wilson being

(43:59):
the bad I also I was trying to find a
bad guy to be Alabama Jackson's nemesis. And you were like, well,
what about Woodrow Wilson? And I was like, well, what's up?
I had no clue about any of this. This is
what Seth was talking about earlier. Like, for real, as
a young African American male growing up in New York City,

(44:20):
the amount of my own history that I know is
very little, and that's a problem. And I the guilt
that I had when freaking thinking about that is really
also what went into Alabama Jackson. It was like, I
can't be this person anymore. I have to know a
lot more than I know now. And my mom had
all of this knowledge, and I, you know, I used

(44:41):
to laugh that shit off like she could. I remember
one year my mom came at me with the gift
was it was for Christmas, and she literally figured out
the book was like the size of an encyclopedia, and
it was my family's history, my entire family's history. She
got it all the way back to Nigeria to Africa,

(45:01):
like my family's history. And I looked at it like,
oh wow, that's cool, and that was it. But I
had all of this knowledge in front of me, and
I was taking it for granted, and so I wanted
to make sure I didn't do that again. And that's
how that's why I freaking got you. Boy, Mama, Are
you mad at me? Can I look at that book

(45:22):
at some point that it's your mom's house, it's my house.
Can I come by and check that out? Mom? Are
you mad at me for admitting that? Just now? I
mad at you? But when you but I saw, I
gave it to you just laid it down and that
was a lot of hard work. But yeah, but uh,
are you mad? No? I'm not mad? Okay cool? And

(45:44):
then Donald, your mother is the type of person that
understands that human beings will make mistakes and that it's
possible to correct those mistakes simply by learning new information
and making an effort, and boom, there it is. And
I was very happy to have her on board as

(46:06):
a writer. Yeah, are you madma? So of course, okay,
just check it, just check it. But surely do you
do you love me just a little bit more than
shoot a little don't answer that, dow that. Okay, So

(46:28):
you're actually the person that came up with the idea
that Woodrow Wilson was this. I mean, you told me
about it. Can we dig a little bit into that
real quick? Wilson was an interesting person in that UM.
Prior to becoming a president, he was actually president of
a college UM and that elected UH with the black vote,

(46:53):
and he made all these promises and what he did
was basically we and all the promises that he made
UM and there's a transcript of um Uh it was fortune.
UM went to the White House and Woodrow Wilson. They argued,
and then Woodrow Wilson threw him out of the White

(47:15):
House because he didn't live up to his promises. And
one of the things that he did was he was
the president that kind of put the the nail in
the coffin the black history and the contributions that black
people made in this country all the way from like
from what I understand, like that his inauguration, had clansmen there,

(47:36):
and he was you know, Birth of a Nation came out,
gave you Birth of the Nation of the White House,
and if you remember, Birth of the Nation was depicted
black people as yeah, depicted black people as thugs and
rapists and and uh, you know, killers. And after this
movie came out, Yeah, he debuted at the White House

(47:57):
and said it's American treasure. It's a classic. And people
went and saw the movie and then started lynching people
in the street, black people in the street after they
saw this movie. Ah, this is the t this is Yeah.
It was a movie, a kind of a how to
to be the most effectively murderous racist possible. Yeah, and

(48:21):
it and this is where we have a lot of
a lot of the systemic racism that we're dealing with
now in America comes from comes from that. So he
was the perfect bad guy and Seth you played him wonderfully,
thanks man. No doubt. He's kind of a dick, which
is always funny to play, right, we should we should.

(48:43):
We should also say that this show is a comedy, right,
This show is so powered for pound funny that you're
not gonna really think that you're learning anything right, You're
gonna have so much fun watching this show that by
the end of it, when you find yourself out with
your friends and you just randomly recall some incredibly important

(49:03):
African American history facts, people would be like, Damn'd you
go to school for that? You're like, nah, I watched
Alabama Jackson. I can't wait. Man, I'm sorry, I can't
wait either. Okay, so that's how you got involved. Mom,
you were the historian. So when we started writing all
of this, did you ever feel like you were out

(49:24):
of your league? Well? You know what was really interesting?
What's that when I agreed to it, I didn't realize
that we were going to be assumed for eight hours
of the day. So after the first day, I said, okay,
so I'm on the learning curve here, and I bought

(49:47):
this program so that I could actually type in the
script the way that you guys were doing it, and
and I just I just okay, I'm here to learn
and maybe just try to make a contribution. We made

(50:08):
a great contribution. Actually, some of the one of my
favorite episodes is the Nelson Mandela one. I'm getting a
lot of I got. I had to talk with adult
swim today and they were like, Yo, there's a possibility
that people are gonna come at you because of the
Nelson Mandela episode. Is that I know that there's a
lot that we can't talk about because all the SMP

(50:30):
is actually really it's a it's a different level of NBA.
But what are they only scared because it's Mandela? What
are they? What's that? Because honestly, that episode for me
is so it's like, I don't want to spoil this.
But Harriet in that episode because Wanda, again, we recorded

(50:52):
all our episodes at once, so we were kind of
finding it as we went, and we asked her to
just like add live a bunch of stuff and then
we we did in episodes in places, and we inadvertently
gave Harriet her own catchphrase and it reveals in that
episode I can't wait um. And then also I'm at
best plays Mandela and it's brilliant. It's brilliant. So are

(51:17):
they just scared? Like we should? I feel like we
should say that. I feel like we should. We should
say the structure, like how we structure these really short
episodes because there's a there's like a thread from episode.
How we do that? Yeah? Yeah, So the format is, yeah,
because it's only we only have like three minutes to
tell these relatively complex stories. So the format is we

(51:38):
always drop Alabama and Harriet Tubman, Donald and Wanda Sykes
into the middle of whatever is going on, and the
audience just kind of has to catch up. And in
every instance, Woodrow Wilson has done something to try to
subvert Black history, so he's tried to stop it from happening.
And which is you know, which is a metaphor for

(51:59):
like it's happened when we erase black history, right when
Woodrow Wilson said, Okay, we're not gonna we're not gonna
teach anybody about anything that's that's happened with black histories.
So they get dropped into this and then they've got
to figure out a way to stop Woodrow and his
henchmen from subverting Black history. And and so it all
happens really quickly, and there's we feature a major historical

(52:21):
figure in every episode. And like I said, we take liberties.
We've taken some liberties with Nelson Mandela, but the idea
is that we're highlighting these people. We've taken a lot
of Yeah, we've taken a little seat we'll see, but
our point, our point is very clear that Mandela's freedom,

(52:44):
his very his own agency over his own thoughts were
stolen from him for years, and things happened to people
that are imprisoned. I mean, that's why I don't don't
even get me started on that. That's not go any further.
Let's go. But the idea that a man like Mandela

(53:05):
was so specifically intentionally targetedly persecuted gives us a lot
of leeway to demonstrate what that might look like before
he's able to become him really his real self again,
Like we we need our show to kind of show
him at what our imaginable worst would be to give

(53:28):
him room to be saved. He had to show how
much the KK cabal had compromised Mandela for him to
be out of the picture, for aj and Um and
Harriet to have a task right give him back from that. Yeah,
So I'll give an analogy that doesn't ruin an episode
because we didn't use it, but it's a it's an example.
Like everyone talks about Muhammad Ali and like his bike

(53:50):
got stolen, and if his bike hadn't got stolen, he
wouldn't have gone and talked to the cop who ended
up teaching him to be a boxer, right, And so
the idea would be that Woodrow being a time traveling
guy knowing that that's a seminal moment in Muhammad Ali's
life or Cassius Clay at the time, would prevent that
moment from happening. And then there's no Muhammad Muhammad Ali.

(54:12):
There's there's no athlete activists, there's all So that's the
premise of the show is there's these like seminal moments,
some of them actual and some of them that we've
just imagined in all these historical figures lives, and Alabama
and Harriet have to make sure those seminal moments happen
or Black history will change and American history will change
and the global history will change. So that's like there's

(54:32):
super high stakes. But then you also have a character
in Donald playing Alabama Jackson who is not fully committed
to the assignment yet, and then you have Harriet who
is like fully because and that's where that's where the
conflict between the two of them comes in, is she's
trying to be like, look, I sacrificed my entire life
for the cause. You need to get with the program,
and that's that's where their growth, and that's where their

(54:55):
journey goes, and that's what's you know, the chemistry between
the two of them is so fun. Don't give away
to show, Chris, I'm not, but I just I just
realized in this moment it's a little bit like Terminator
too and Harriet Sarah Connor and aj is baby John Connor. Yes, yes, yes, yeah,

(55:15):
because there's a moment where she's like, don't you realize
how serious this is? And he's like, I guess I
like that analogy. Wait, Donald, can you talk a little
bit about what it's like working with your mom. It's
a joy working with my mom. I know, I'm safe
with my mom. I know if I say some dumb
shit should be like that was some dumb shit. Please please,
please forgive my son for saying some dumb shita. My

(55:38):
mom has the sweetest voice ever in the history. And
she's also I mean, she's protecting me pretty much my
whole life. So having her in a writer's room with
a bunch of seasoned writers, and you know, this is
the first thing I've ever written in my life, you know,
and this is the first thing that my mom. This
is the first type of uh. This is the first
scripted format that is that right? Is that the right

(55:59):
way to say? It is the first scripted format that
my mom has ever had to be a part of
in writing, and so we were very new to it.
But thanks to Ashley and Lee, we we got through good.
But I said some dumb shit in the writer's room
and my mom was very good. Yeah, it's a safe
My mom was very good to be like, you know,
you know, she protected me and so it was very

(56:20):
good to work with my mom. And also I was
very nervous because I put my mom in this situation
and I didn't necessarily set her up for success. I
put her. I just threw her to the wolves and
threw her to the sharks, and she was able to
swim easily with them. And I am so I gotta
be honest with you, Mom, I'm so proud of you.

(56:42):
I'm so proud of of the fact that that that
this wasn't something that you were necessarily eager to do,
but you knew I needed you, and you stepped up
because you're my mom and came through like a champ.
And so I'm so proud of you. Thank you. I
thank you. I thank you tremendously, and we'll see how

(57:03):
this all plays out now Bert, But wait, wait, Donald,
can I just say one thing, Because you mentioned your
mother's voice, how important your mother's voices. I would just
like to say that in all the years that I've
known Shirley, I've never heard her raise her voice. She's never,
in my presence or in my experience, needed to raise
her voice. She has a confident, quiet strength that is

(57:24):
both gentle and formidable. So the value of her voice
in the room, like I said earlier, is priceless. Yes,
I'll give you flowers all day. I love you all.
I'm so excited this is happening. I can't wait for
the people to see it. Ladies and gentlemen, say goodbye

(57:47):
to Seth Green, Chris Waters, John Hart, thank me show
you guys are great. And when when Donald told us
Shirley was coming on, I unlike said, I didn't know
his beautiful mother, but I had heard her on the podcast,
and I was like, oh, she could definitely be in
the room. So big Dog's real friend. In all honesty,

(58:13):
the room was closed. We had our two writers, it
was Lee and Ashley and you. Because we made this
thing with like two dimes rubbed together, and Chris, you
said to me, You literally said to me, do you
want to get your mom in there? We should get
your mom in there. And I was like, Yeah, let's
put my mom in there. And that's wait. I think
it's also important to say, Donald, so many people try

(58:34):
and put their family over and the whole thing falls apart,
like not everybody's not everybody's the waynes like, not everybody
can do that. So I'm glad that the people you
brought in all your family that they that they're like
experts at the job, or this would not have worked.
Wait till they wait till they hear you rapped, Wait
till we hear that, like your family came through. You

(58:55):
should play play the guide track. I feel like we
should play it. No, we can't play it. We can't
play it. We can't. Love y'all, love you guy. So
speaking of the rap, Bert, yes, speaking of bringing my family,

(59:15):
and Bert is my family. You are my family member. Uh,
you are actually in the living room that I grew
up in right now, hanging out. Yeah. Bert is a
musical genius. A lot of people don't know this about him,
and those who do know this about him. Those who
do know this about him run to him for music
and help when they need it. And that's who I

(59:37):
ran to when the show needed music. Like if you
watched the show without sound, without music, it's a completely
different show. And Bert stepped in and and and crushed it.
I would really like to I would Bert you crushed it,
Like thank you crushed it. I would really like to
get into how you how how you got into music,

(59:59):
what and then what your idea was when you started
thinking about Alabama Jackson. Wow, Okay, long story short. I
started pretty much like you did. Well, like you inspired
your brothers to do. You came from a family that
sang and performed the same thing with me. I came
My brothers were musicians and I wanted to do it,
and I would always get thrown out of their band practice,

(01:00:21):
you know, all that kind of stuff, until finally I
just got my own stuff and got better than them,
and now they begged me to play with them. But now,
Alabama Jackson, man, when you gave me the idea? First
of all, I have very I mean I have a
background and post production, but justin like doing commercial jingles

(01:00:42):
and stuff like that. Actually, that's one of the ways
we kind of connected to that. John Silberman Music. I
used to work at It's a Jingle House in New York,
and you were your group is over there, so yeah,
we were over there. Yeah yeah, yes, right. So I
worked on the Coca Cola Olympic spot there for ninety
six Olympics and stuff, a lot of things. So I

(01:01:03):
did that kind of stuff, but never for a TV show.
Always wanted to do some kind of scoring, some kind
of a you know, a movie television project. So when
you said yes you heard me, we were like, You're like,
all right, didn't payment. I was like, yes, I'm telling you. Yes.
You're like, yeah, I'm telling you. It doesn't like yeah,
and so the inspirational honestly, you sound like Alabama Jackson.

(01:01:26):
First of all, that's why y'all heard so many banjos.
I don't know why. I just like you said Alabama,
and I grabbed a banjo hanging over there and talk
and that's how it started. And then you sent the
demo of the the theme song, and then I just
we listened to the lyrics. I came up with one
idea kind of so so kind of well we were

(01:01:50):
we were like we were like we kind of wanted
country and you're like, okay, and then you said to us,
you were like, I gotta be honest with you. Shoot
this don't that's that, dude, We gotta Then I just
thought about black exploitation, bro, I love like you know,
like which way is up? Let's do it again. All
of those you know, movies from the seventies, the music

(01:02:12):
was killing. They had Curtis Mayfield, they had James Brown
doing it. So like the whole idea was like, you know,
I did want to keep it period because you're driving
through time. He went to the sixties at one point,
so I got to give it sixties vibe, but eighties vibe,
seventies vibe, whatever. But I still wanted to have that
that seventies black exploitation kind of energy to it. And

(01:02:33):
then you guys also sent the Chips reference like the
you know, the kind of the hokyness of the eighties
a little bit. So a lot of it is tongue
in cheek, but we tried to really do a good
job and make it funky. Your little brothers on guitar
playing all the wild wah stuff, God is on conas
playing off the custom stuff if you really wanted to

(01:02:54):
sound like something straight out of a exploit blaxploitation movie.
So and then we hired and then we hired my
Zelle to write the rap for Alabama Jackson. And you know,
it became a true family affair at that point. Like
it's like I got I got literally my brothers, my
mother don't. I don't even know what to I guess

(01:03:17):
my my my brother, Bert, you are my brother, you know,
even though you date my mother, you are my brother.
I'm just so happy that it all worked out. You know,
it was a pleasure. And you your rap skills point
the shit. Yeah, I'm about to say Alabama's rap skills
are on point. So we're gonna take another break, and

(01:03:39):
then when we come back, we're gonna bring in Ashley
Ray and Lee House and we are back. Ladies and gentlemen,
give it up for Ashley Ray and Lee how stunderous
applaud every time. Great, you haven't seen anything yet either,

(01:04:02):
Huh Nope, I can't wait. I'm have adult swim sending
you guys this stuff. This is a pretty fast turnaround.
I was surprised. Yeah, I was like, okay, I was
like I thought they were still making puppets. Probably no,
we we finished the whole thing. I want to talk
to you guys about it though, too. Like you know,

(01:04:23):
I've known Lee for a really long time, since I
first moved out to Los Angeles and Ashley and I
had a conversation together. I knew right away when meeting
Ashley that she had to be a part of the project.
I knew right away. Chris Waters introduced us and then Lee.
Chris was like, I got a guy named Lee House,

(01:04:45):
And I was like, wait a second, Lee, how Lee House?
Does he go by house? He goes? No, he goes
by Lee But you know, I was like, he doesn't
go I was like, wait, hold on. Lee and I
used to go play paintball together. We used to to smoke,
we together. We used to do a lot of things
back in the day that when we were very young.

(01:05:06):
And then you went on to be like a sag
rep at one point, and you were a writer and
a Why don't you tell us about how you came
into the industry. It's crazy. My first job out here
was actually working with ice Cube, but a Lynch Mob records.
He and I got close over time, and I actually
went on tour with him. So six months of being

(01:05:26):
in La I'm on tour with Q you know, rolling
with the Lynch Mob. I wasn't necessarily cut out for
West Coast gangster rap, so I became a PA. I
did that for a few years, and then I got
a job with the Screen Actors Guild, where I was
an outside field rep and I would go to any
set that the SAG actors were on. I actually went

(01:05:46):
to the scrubs pilot, I remember, I do remember that. Yeah.
After that, I started writing jokes for Flex. He got
one on one. He put me on one on one,
and you know, I've been in this crazy business of
writing ever since. That's nuts. And now, Ashley, you're a
stand up comic. You're a fire stand up comic too,
by the way, no doubt, no doubt. But uh, what

(01:06:10):
brought you to the business? How did you? How did
you find yourself here? I lived in Chicago, That's where
I started doing stand up. I started working for the
Onion back in twenty sixteen, and I loved comedy writing.
I had worked in advertising for a long time, got
kind of sick of it, realized I just wanted to
make people laugh. So I made that that switch realized.

(01:06:31):
I liked being on stage two. I think there's this
expectation that when you're a black woman who performs, you
do like spoken word or like storytelling or something. And
I was like, no, I just want to tell like,
you know, like jokes about butts and stuff. Let's just
focus on the funny stuff. And that's kind of where
I found my lane. I came out to LA and

(01:06:51):
got to work with Maria Bamford. She'd been she was
working on an audiobook and I helped edit it, and
obviously she is amazing with an animation and voice work,
and that got me really into the idea of like
writing an animated pilot, getting more into you know, doing
stuff for adult Swim, and kind of realizing, you know what,
I think a black woman could make these kind of
jokes and like make a show that captures this voice.

(01:07:13):
And that's what I wanted to do, is like make
that kind of black woman, stoner comedy that I saw
in shows like Laser Wolf and stuff. So I was
really excited when this opportunity came up. And I was also,
I want to say, very excited to work with Lee
because I knew his work. You worked with Trevor Moore
from The Whitest Kids, you know, and I was like,
oh my gosh, this is amazing, like just icons, working

(01:07:35):
with icons that inspire me. So yeah, it's always great
when you get to work with people that you love,
that you love to listen to or watch men, and
so that's how I felt about the two of you.
As a matter of fact, I was so proud to
work with somebody that I know, that I knew from
back in the day, who had pushed his way all
the way up and is now freaking working on And

(01:07:55):
then actually, you just come with such with this aura.
You know, there's just something so magnetic and amazing about you.
You know, it's true, you could you could shut it up,
you can laugh it off. I'm excited to work with you,
are you? I know, but there's something really special and
magical about you. Like I said to Chris, I was like, look,
if anything, I have to have Ashley ray on this
bad boy. He's like, all right, all right, we'll see

(01:08:17):
if we can work it out. And then Mom, of
course you're an icon forever to me. You'll always be
an icon to me, no matter what. You know. I think, Yeah,
I'm so I didn't even realize you were. I thought
they said that you were even on the call. Hello.
I am so excited to see you again. Oh my,
like seeing that you were in there, that was when
I was. I just was so excited because for me,

(01:08:38):
it was like the first time I'd been in a
room with like all black writers and it just was this.
I was like, wow, yeah, this is it. Like everyone
just had these different perspectives that were so interesting. I
was so excited from the moment we started. Okay, so
let's get into how we did this. Man. Like, our
first day in the writer's room was a bunch of
story breaking and trying to really you know, I think

(01:08:59):
our first week was that when did we write our
first script? Do you think when was the first script
finally written? Oh? It right? It took a wow, right,
like yeah, you know, we feel like we had hit
out kind of all the beats or different stories we wanted,

(01:09:21):
and then it was like, oh, we gotta we gotta
get this like scripted out because I had already left
for tour by the time. Yeah, you were on tour
by the time we started writing already, and I was
like in my car, like my friends driving me and
I'm like on my laptop like joining in over zoom
in the car. Uh. And so I feel like it
was probably like into the second or third week we
started getting we finally started to get the scripts. That's

(01:09:43):
not usual, I guess. Yeah. I would also say that Donald,
like you as an actor brought so much to the
room because you would act out so much of it
as we were like throwing out ideas that I think
we could all see the scenes like we immediately just
started doing voices and bound off each other and being like, yes,
this is a scene, this is building into it. So
that was a huge help man, because you you know,

(01:10:06):
you would embody Alabama so well, we knew what to
write next, you know, and and how to play off
of you, which is different than most writers room where
you don't have the actor in there. Right. No, Well,
I mean I'm gonna be honest with you, guys. I
felt like a fish out of water because and I
was like, how can I make a contribution to this
because you know, first of all, the two of you

(01:10:27):
are very seasoned, and you know, like I'm gonna tell
you something right now, Both of your scripts didn't get
touched when you see them you'll be like, oh shit,
that's exactly what I wrote. Not it's crazy, dude, first
time ever it's crazy. There might be like a word
here or a word there, but for the most part

(01:10:49):
that shit stayed intact, like you know, both of you
so uh, it's it's it's just it's just you know,
you could tell who the season's season ones were and
who wasn't. And I had to find a way to
fit in, and I was so I was so nervous
for my mom. I was like, how's my mom going
to find a way to fit in? And then she
found her way into and it was just like we

(01:11:09):
got a really good thing going right here. Oh yeah,
let's keep it going. Yo. To me, that was one
of the best rooms I've ever been in. I mean,
everybody got along, everybody was cool, nobody was extra sensitive.
You know, it's it can get crazy in some rooms. Yeah, yeah,
you guys have been in rooms before, so you know. Yeah.
And I think there's like the expectation kind of like oh,

(01:11:32):
adult swim humor and this kind of thing. But I
thought we all just like brought the weirdest ideas, the
funniest that like no one was afraid to really to
really get into, you know, the weirdest stuff that came
to us. It was really a room where I think
we were all just really comfortable. Yeah. Yeah, I gotta
tell you, guys, man, I'm so excited for you to

(01:11:54):
see this show. We got seven episodes. We didn't do
eight episodes. It went from ten to eight to seven.
But they're all very well fleshed out, and the arc
for this is amazing. I would love to I'm gonna
get on a text right now and send them, send you, guys,

(01:12:17):
all of the all of the all of the shows
so you can watch him. Bert got to see everything
from storyboard. Bert was there from storyboard all the way
to uh mix pretty much because yeah, because he was
doing the music on it. So he's got he's gotten
to see he's gotten to see every version of each
one of these scripts. Yeah, I'm so excited. Yeah. But

(01:12:41):
finding out that Wanda Sykes was able to voice Hair,
that to me was like wow, okay, okay, this is
gonna be amazing. I just being in this room it
was so special because I felt like we each had
our own kind of generational connections to different parts of blackness,
and it all like would come together in these interesting ways,
Like when we wanted to do the this episode about

(01:13:02):
like Aliyah, that was like really complicated, yeah, but then
like you told a story about like how you like
she used to prank call you and stuff, and I
was just like, oh my gosh, like to me as
like someone younger. I was like, I can't even imagine that.
And just I think Ashley's calling us old and good.

(01:13:27):
I'm I'm here smiling like yeah, man, that's right, don't
I mean? But there were just so many of these
moments where I was like, oh, this, you know, I
think it can feel so distant, like black culture and
black history, and it's like this was a room where
it was really alive, where it was like, no, this
isn't like something that can just be boiled down to

(01:13:49):
like braids or these things people appropriate. But it was like, no,
we really got to work with the ideas that we
wanted to bring to life. Yeah, and it felt good.
It felt real good. I want to see I can't
wait to see how this plays out, you know, I
really can't wait to see how that's new. That's my
new slogan. Let's see how it plays out, Like I
don't know that it's perfect, and why is that given given? Um?

(01:14:17):
How in Texas and other places they're trying to ban books.
They are banding banning, They're not, they're not they're not
trying to they're doing it. Yeah, right, they're banning books
that deal with black culture, that deal with Jewish culture. Um.
I think it's it's appropriate to come out right now. Okay,

(01:14:41):
I will say this. The great thing about our show.
We talked about it a little bit earlier. The great
thing about our show is that we don't push it
on you though. You know what I mean. You're gonna
get this history through laughter and comedy, and you can't
beat that with a baseball bat. If school was like that,
I would have learned way more because way more invested. Yeah,

(01:15:05):
that would have been amazing if that's how school was
for me back in a day, you know what I mean? Like,
first of all, they didn't teach black history in school
back then either. I remember making a stink about it,
like how come black people only have one page and
this whole fucking textbook, Dude, this whole textbook on one
page that's the black history segment. Yeah. I like, when

(01:15:26):
when I was growing up, I feel like it was
always okay, February, that's your month, Like you know, somebody
get up and read like a dry biography of Harriet Tubman,
like you know, Madam CJ. Walker. It was always the
same people. And we treat I think, black history obviously
with a lot of reverence, and that I think makes
it hard for people to want to make jokes and
to like turn this into stuff that is relatable and funny,

(01:15:49):
because a lot of times people are like, oh, you
can't know, like these these black women, there are heroes
and stuff. You can't make jokes and like, you know,
let them in on the joke and stuff, and it's like, no,
you can't. This is another way of teaching this history
and showing people how important they are. Yeah, Man and Donald,
You're right. Using humor is the best way I think

(01:16:10):
to make the lesson stick. So if somebody doesn't get
bored like I used to, and you know, you can
laugh while you learn, laugh while you learn. Joel, is
there anything we missed out on? Um? The only thing
I wanted to guys to answer is if you guys
have like a favorite I thought it'd be fun if
you guys each commented on something that somebody else wrote

(01:16:30):
that you really liked. If you guys, that's easy for me. Okay,
so they haven't seen the show yet, but I've seen
the show and I'm a huge The Techaba episode is freaking.
It comes off amazing. I don't think anybody, Joel, did
you get to see the Techabo episode. I only got
the pilot. Okay, the Techaba episode is like fire. Deborah

(01:16:53):
Wilson plays Techaba slaves dude, like she's slays. Uh. And
I don't know if any of you out there know
who Deborah Wilson is. If you do, she was on
Mad TV. She's a I know who's Debra Wilson is. Yeah,
that's crazy to me. Wow. Yeah she's hearing of this
and I I'm just I'm grinning so much. Wow. That's

(01:17:17):
almost perfect casting though. Yeah, amazing comedy. I love. And
she came in with so much energy and and and
you know, she because we were gonna hire her. We
had a whole Oprah Winfrey, Uh of course, and we
were like, get Deborah. Let's see if we can get
Deba to do Oprah. But then in doing it, we
were like, we're not gonna do the Oprah thing. Let's
just get let's just get half her playtecha. But and

(01:17:40):
when I tell you she slays, she slays it anyway.
I can't wait for you to see it. That's that's
that favorite. One of my favorites is Alabama Jackson says
rap Yeah, I think for me my favorite, I don't
I don't even know if it made it, but the
Alabama Jackson and the diner sit in that's that's the

(01:18:01):
second episode. Yeah, yeah, that one to me, just we
all like threw in little bits that just were like, oh,
this punch up here would be really good. The overall,
like arching thing was like, yes, this is like what
the show should be about. Like that one I loved
and I love Like whenever we would read that one
out loud, there were just so many little like things
we would throw out that were so funny. I think

(01:18:22):
the thing with the acronyms was one of my favorite jokes.
Right and made it. It made it, made wow, it
made it. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I love grape in
the Frederick Douglas one that was killing yeah grape vine. Yeah,
he's he was funny, so we got we got ed
for him to do several roles in this uh eds

(01:18:44):
an actor. He's been on television, but he's also a rapper.
He was in a what's the name of his band
as group Friends of Culture. I produced a song on it.
I think, yeah, I think they were the first act
on Motown rap act on Motown. Ye Steve mckiva yep.
So we got him on this. We got my nephew.

(01:19:04):
He wrote a rap for this. He's my zel Faison.
He's out there right now. Isaiah Poet. He killed it.
Not trying to sound too sappy. I didn't have a
favorite moment. My favorite moment was the process. Man, you know,
looking up each day and once again it was such
a fun room. I mean it was something that I

(01:19:25):
think each of us look forward to. And then when
we were done, it's like, damn, this has got to
become a series. Yeah that we'll see how Like I said,
my new favorite term, we'll see how it plays out.
We've developed, We've put out a proof of concept that
is like no other. I mean, we turned this little
tiny budget and you know, I called in a couple

(01:19:46):
of favors. Seth called in a couple of favors, and
we really put like, I don't think adult Swim is
ready I don't think Adult Swim is ready for you know,
like if this is the if if they come back
at us and they say, we need you to do
it again for the same money, It's impossible. Let's put
it that way, you know what I mean, It's impossible.

(01:20:07):
I called in all my favorites. I got Burt on here.
I called. That's how I got the music I called.
I called the dude that freaking it's dating my mom. Now, yo,
you got some it's some heavy hitters on here. Man. Yeah,
the music is gonna be awesome. You know you're on there.

(01:20:28):
Want to site, I'm gonna come on man. Yeah, it's amazing.
It's really just like a family affair. I'm so excited
for it to be in the world. All right. Yeah,
well it's out right now for all of you listening.
Once you finished listening to the podcast, please it'll be
in the description below, but go to YouTube the Adult

(01:20:48):
Swim page. It's Alabama Jackson Week Enjoy. Yes, yes, yeah.
I want to thank Ashley Ray. I want to thank
Lee House. I want to thank Shirleyase. I don't want
to thank Bert Price. I want to thank John Harveteen.
I want to thank Chris Waters, and I want to
thank Seth Green for all being a part of the
podcast today. More importantly, I want to thank Joel Monique

(01:21:09):
and Daniel Goodman for putting together this special version of
Fake Doctor's Real Friends. And on that note, we will
go out with the Alabama Jackson theme song one last
Time five six seven eight Alabama Jackson. He's a time
trampling man doing a bist Eddy Tames with Bru Wilson

(01:21:29):
as Blackson.