I had the privilege of speaking with Patrick Rieger (Frog and Toad, Batwheels) on character creation, specifically within the realm of kids animation. His "kickoff into the creative world" came when he was given the job of selecting the comics that would go into The Norman Transcript at age 10. His subsequent interest in comics and cartoons, along with his knack for writing, led him to study playwriting and screenwriting in college. Two of his biggest inspirations are Calvin and Hobbes & Teen Titans.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT WHEN CREATING A CHARACTER?
Patrick: "I think specificity is really good. You're used to very broad tropes with characters, and the more you're able to hone in on really specific details from your own life, the more they're going to really pop on the page. The worst thing that you can do is have bland characters with bland dialog. So, you're always looking for lived in experiences..."
Additionally, specificity is a power for us as writers "because we're in a season now where you as a writer may get assigned to a character that doesn't share your life experience. They may have a very different background to what you're used to. They could be a bad guy - hopefully we're not that bad guys - and so a lot of times you're thinking, 'Okay, how can I find a way in for this character, even though I may not be anything like this character?' I had that on a show called DC Superhero Girls. I'm not a teen girl, but how can I write for something like that?
Well, there are characters on the show that are nerds that enjoy science museums. So, I had a connection to that. My background is when I came out to Los Angeles, I spent the first five years working at a company called Mad Science, Los Angeles, where I did a lot of birthday parties and big school events. So, I had all of this weird, in-depth science knowledge that I could bring to episodes. So, even though I wasn't a teen girl, I could take all of that nerdy, lived-in experience and apply it to the characters I was writing for. So, I think the result...is you get something that feels very real to the characters."
WHAT ABOUT CHARACTERS ARE KIDS DRAWN TOWARD IN GENERAL?
Patrick: "...they love the smartest person in the room; they love the dumbest person in the room. So you're always trying to work with those extremes. There's a lot of different tropes, too, that we use in Batwheels that I think are good examples of this. So we have one character on that show called 'Buff,' and Buff is kind of the pop out star of the show because he's a big monster truck that is very soft spoken and timid, but he has a heart of gold. And initially we were writing him very dumb, and the feedback that we got in testing is that...kids don't actually like that he's dumb, but they really like that he's a giant truck that is very sweet. So, we started writing more to his sweetness rather than his dumbness, and because of that, it actually broadened the character even more. It made moments when he was really smart pop out in the script and become fun, endearing moments when he was in those scenes.
Same thing with the antagonist in Batwheels - it's this character called 'Bad Computer.' It was this terrible, maniacal computer that's inside a giant stadium billboard. We found that the running joke...is that he'd have these grandiose plans of success, and then he'd get interrupted by a weird stadium announcement or ad blaring on the screen. So, there's something really fun about interrupting the really smart, over-it characters, and something really fun about taking very dumb characters and adding some kind of sweetness to them. So, I think playing with extremes is very helpful for kids. I think they're always looking for something...that goes extreme, but then something that's relatable to them."
WHEN BEING BROUGHT ON TO AN EXISTING SHOW, HOW DO YOU PREPARE YOURSELF TO WRITE PRE-ESTABLISHED CHARACTERS?
Patrick: "It kind of depends on what you're being brought in for. If you're coming in and your goal as the writer is to just know the show, to know all of the little details, to know all the Reddit boards, to know where fan theories are going and all that - that's what you can bring then.
Sometimes it'll be just an epic research day where I'm just [listening and watching a show]. ...I'll have Octonauts episodes playing, and I'm just listening and getting an ear for the characters so I know how they talk, and I'm doing that while I'm coming up with Octonauts episodes. And I think a big part of that is the more you're able to get the voice of the characters, the more you can then riff on that. And that's helpful when you're in a room and you're like, 'What's the backstory here?' or 'What's a fun little quirk of these characters that hasn't been explored yet?' So, I'm always trying to look and listen for that.
There are other instances, though, where maybe you're brought in to what's called a 'bake off situation,' where you're being considered to be the showrunner of a series. They want something that's completely different than anything that's been seen before. They want a new take on Transformers or Green Lantern...so you have to add that in and go, 'Okay, backing away from the lore that's existed before this, what do I want to explore with this character? What's something burning in me that I feel like I can voice through these characters and find a new direction for it?'
[It's] the classic: You have to know the assignment before you go in for these meetings. Sometimes...you're going to be that detail person that kind of knows everything, and sometimes you're coming in and going, 'Hey, here's a fresh take. Here's something very different that might spurn these characters in a different direction and make their voices different as a result.'"
ARE YOU EVER GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO ADD YOUR OWN 'TOUCH' TO THE PRE-ESTABLISHED CHARACTERS, OR ARE THEY USUALLY SET IN STONE?
Patrick: "I think you want to bring as much specificity of your own voice as possible when you're in these situations. I think the reason that so many writers get hired is because there's an editor or producer that sees something in that writer's voice that they think would be a good fit for a character. I think the best examples - whether it's comics or TV shows or animation - where it really feels like it pops off the page, is when you have a character that's very established, and they're getting the voice of a writer that helps it go in new, exciting directions.
I think that one of the best examples...that's come out over the last 30 years is Justice League Unlimited. If you go back, the head writer of that show was Dwayne McDuffie (and he's a legend in comics and animation now); he brought something to that show, and a depth, and a worldview that was very different than a lot of the ways the comics were played before. And to this day, I think it's up there as one of the best shows that Warner Brothers has ever produced, and it's because they brought in someone and took a chance on someone that really had something to say."
DJ: So then how do you balance that, for example, with a show like SpongeBob...how do you go about bringing your own touch to something that's so established, where typically the studio may not want to veer away?
Patrick: "I think the key with shows like that are the ideas that you're bringing in - the initial loglines and premises - because the characters themselves aren't going to change too much, but they are going to react in their natural way to whatever the cool idea is. So, I think you as a writer have a voice to where SpongeBob is going to go and what he's going to do. A classic example of this is The Simpsons. They've had episodes of The Simpsons where Homer and Marge get divorced, but in the end they come back, or Lisa becomes a vegetarian... Someone had to have the lived-in experience to think of pitching an idea like that - and then whatever the idea is, the family reacts and adapts to that situation.
So, you as the writer have a lot of leverage of what you can bring to a room. So, the more lived-in, specific experiences you have, the better the chance is that something is going to fly through the room, because authenticity usually is the thing that always cuts through in the end. People in a writer's room or an audience don't like tropes of things they've seen before, but they do like something that feels like someone has lived something incredibly specific. And so it tends to cut through any pitch session you're in, any round of writers notes that you're getting, and then once it actually arrives on air, the things that become critical favorites that we remember are the things that feel very organic and authentic."
I hope you enjoyed this knowledgable insight from Patrick! Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn, and be sure to check back again soon for Pt. 2 of this interview!
Major Take-Aways:
1. Specificity and Authenticity are key
2. Kids love extremes, especially smart and dumb characters
3. Knowing the voice of your characters offers you a greater understanding of their
personality
4. Though you may not always be able to change the characters you're working with,
you can always put them in new situations for them to react to
5. Know your assignment; conduct the proper amount and type of research for your
role
