INTERVIEW: Douglas Goldstein Fires Up SYFY’S “Devil May Care” – Animation Scoop

INTERVIEW: Douglas Goldstein Fires Up SYFY’S “Devil May Care”

Three-time Emmy winner and two-time Annie Awards winner Douglas Goldstein (Robot Chicken) is the creator of the latest animated comedy series to debut on SYFY’s TZGZ lineup. Devil May Care, premiering this Saturday Feb. 6th at Midnight (technically Sunday morning), stars Alan Tudyk as the voice of the Devil, who gets a new, young assistant in Hell. In this Email Q&A, Goldstein shares some insights and funny responses about his new series.

Jackson Murphy: How was it putting together an animated series about Hell during a year many people thought was Hell?

Douglas Goldstein: Hell is other people so for me, being locked in my home office the whole time was pretty cool. I’ve showered maybe once every other month and I haven’t put on pants in a year. It’s paradise.

JM: What made “social media manager” the right occupation to go with for Beans?

DG: I knew that the bureaucracy in Hell was going to make Beans Devil’s new assistant – for reasons that won’t be immediately revealed – but Devil needed a reason to keep him. I tried to think what a young guy would bring from his time on Earth that might be new-ish to Devil, and the fact that Devil wants Hell to be as cool as possible made the whole social media thing click. Social media turned out to be so much worse than anyone thought it could be, it’s a perfect addition to Hell’s crazy society.

JM: What surprised you about what Alan Tudyk brings to Devil?

DG: Alan made Devil possible, really. On the page, Devil is not “evil,” but he’s got this detached “boss from Hell” attitude with child-like spontaneity. Someone who is an ass and fun at the same time. When Alan came aboard, I described all this and he got it in a millisecond. It was insane. I was like “okay I guess I don’t have to work as hard writing the scripts because Alan’s making it great for me.”

JM: What’s the inspiration behind using President McKinley (did you remember learning about him in school)?

DG: I liked the idea of someone who was at the top of the food chain when alive would be Devil’s “left-hand man,” and it’s always intrigued me how America’s had like two dozen old-timey Presidents that all wore black coats and hats and have been forgotten by the average guy. I went through them on Wikipedia and when I got to McKinley, his picture is so intense that he was obviously going to be my guy. The picture sold it.

JM: I know several people who still use flip phones. Do you? (And why flip phones for the series?)

DG: There’s a reason why certain things are found in Hell and some are not that’ll be explained in the show. I wish I had one, I’m addicted to my iPhone 11 and if I had the willpower to get a phone that couldn’t do much I’d have like 5 hours a day returned to my life.

JM: So I guess there’s a three large popcorn minimum when you go to the movies in Hell. Wow! What’s your go-to movie food?

DG: A box of nonpareils for sure, though I don’t see them for sale as much as I used to. After that I’d say “dinner.” I don’t know about the rest of the country, but most theaters in Los Angeles offer full menu dinners to eat at your seat. It’s awesome.

JM: Do you have an organizing system of trying to spread out Hell and Devil-related phrases and puns over the course of the season?

DG: I try to minimize it, because we know we’re in Hell, I don’t want to beat you over the head with it every two seconds. Basically anything I think would make my dad laugh gets re-written.

JM: If there are TVs in Hell, do you think residents should watch Devil May Care?

DG: There are certainly TVs in Hell. Can you picture Hell without “Bachelor” re-runs? I can’t. I’m sure they’d want to watch anything other than “Bachelor” re-runs, but no. Just “Bachelor” re-runs.

Jackson Murphy
Share
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.