Reddit AMA Recap: Robert Smigel talks why he stopped ‘The Jack and Triumph Show’

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Brilliant comedy writer Robert Smigel recently did a Reddit AMA that started on Friday and literally went through the weekend and while he talked about a lot of hysterical points in his illustrious career like Conan, favorite Triumph the Insult Comic Dog bits, and Saturday Night Live, but the real news that came from this conversation was what happened with last year’s Adult Swim darling The Jack and Triumph Show that was so good that we named it the best new series of the year. And while we loved the recent Triumph Election special that happened on Hulu a week or so ago, one couldn’t help but what the hell happened on Adult Swim that the series would get 20 episodes ordered only to not have any of those episodes happen! We get more info from that, and a few other bits we thought were funny.

Any push on the Conspiracy Theory Rock sketch from TV Funhouse

It went up the food chain and was approved for air by Ohlmeyer. Then Bob Wright, the president of NBC saw it and was basically shocked. Years later I asked him (he’s actually a great guy) if we could put it on the Saturday TV Funhouse DVD and he was fine with it.

How did The Ambiguously Gay Duo come about

That would be me, Robert, when I was EPing Dana Carvey’s prime time variety show in 1996. We wanted to to do cartoons on the show, and pretty much anything that make it feel different than SNL. The great writer and deviant Dino Stamatopoulos pitched me something entirely different – what if characters like Wallace and Gromit were clearly having a sexual relationship? I didn’t know much about what would be acceptable to the ABC audience watching after Home Improvement but I correctly identified that as unacceptable. Anyway, for some reason, the AGD idea just came to me at the end of that conversation. What if we did two superheroes and everyone suspects they’re gay? It was always more about the people obsessed with their sexuality than the heroes themselves.

On what went down on Jack and Triumph Show

I was a little surprised. For whatever reason, I had friends and relatives who had no idea it was on TV. It had a “soft launch” by design – there were ads but not many – they had said the next batch of shows would have more ads behind it. But by then, it didn’t feel like it was working there. Not only didn’t it look like an AS show but it was by far their most expensive show at the time, and the scrutiny that came with that was understandable.

More on this…

We were producing the next 13 episodes and it became clear to Koman and myself that the show was a dead end at Adult Swim. So we asked out, I took a buyout on my deal. I didn’t want to waste energy and, more importantly, spend Triumph’s capital/good will, on a project that seemed destined to be over after the guaranteed 20.

On whether we will ever see the other 20 episodes

We had a lot of funny stories but I dunno. The AS people never really bought into the multicam, so we tried to make the stories even crazier to Adult Swim it up. I love AS but on any other network it would have been the craziest show from day one. On AS it was mistaken for hacky because it looked like something from another network.
The easy move would have been to play it up as a parody of a sitcom with more self-aware lameness. But we weren’t interested in parodying sitcoms, we just liked putting Triumph into a conventional format and making it weird just because the storylines were based on Triumph’s debased needs. Some people are interested in another sitcom with Triumph but I don’t know if it’ll ever happen.

We had some great people lined up for our second batch of Jack and Triumph episodes. David Blaine wanted to do a show, Buscemi, Larry King was booked, we even filmed some stuff with Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius, and also some hilarious old TV moms (Marion Ross, Estelle Parsons, Florence Henderson). But it became clear the show was going nowhere on Adult Swim and we bailed.

Why a Triumph movie hasn’t happened yet

I tried to do a movie covering the 2004 campaign. Shot a week in Boston at the Democratic Convention and sent them footage. They panicked and thought “there’s no story!” I tried to remind them we had a story but this was the convention, where you grab what you can. They bailed anyway. Hulu was the opposite, I had all the doubts, and their head, Craig Erwich, constantly encouraged me that it would be great.

Robert had a BUNCH more to say at the AMA, but what happened at Adult Swim was the most important.

About John Schwarz

John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.