Many consider the early 2010s a seminal period for Cartoon Network for it was during this time that a number of revolutionary animated shows that embraced the absurd debuted such as Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball, and of course Regular Show. Premiering on Labor Day in 2010, Regular Show was the creation of J.G. Quintel and followed best friends Mordecai and Rigby and their mundane lives working at the local park that spiral into surreal adventures. The show was undeniable hit encompassing eight seasons before coming to an end in 2018. However, nearly a decade later, the show is set to return next month on Cartoon Network with a revival series entitled Regular Show: The Lost Tapes.
During WonderCon, The Beat had the chance to sit down with the cast and crew including creator and executive producer J. G. Quintel who also provides the voice of Mordecai, executive producer Sean Szeles, head writer Matt Price, and voice actors William Salyers (Rigby) and Sam Marin (Benson, Muscle Man, Pops). By their own admission, they’re keeping much of the show close to the vest for as long as possible. Nevertheless, they were able to reveal how the decision to return to the landmark series came about and even discussed the overlapping similarities between Regular Show and Stranger Things!
Taimur Dar: It’s funny, after the Stranger Things finale came out a lot of people on social media were sharing clips the Regular Show finale because Stranger Things final season end credits used the David Bowie song “Heroes” to close out the series just like Regular Show did. I’m curious if you saw the comparisons people online were making or had your own feelings about Stranger Things using the song “Heroes” when you saw it?
J.G. Quintel: I haven’t seen it, but I remember when we got that song at the end for the finale of Regular Show. It was just the perfect ending for that moment. And it hooked up so well with everything that we were trying to wrap up. We really like licensing songs. We were doing that all throughout Regular Show which was super cool [that] the studio would even do that for us. We were really excited to get that song.
Sean Szeles: But the Stranger Things guys did copy us.
[Laugher]
Matt Price: It’s funny because I watched the finale recently and Eleven like Pops disappears.
William Salyers: Spoiler alert!
Matt Price: You didn’t see the finale of Regular Show?
William Salyers: I saw that
[Laughter]
Matt Price: I won’t tell any more but there are similarities in plotlines. Rigby is now in Stranger Things. [Laughs].
William Salyers: I think it’s cool that the smaller pluckier projects are following our lead.
[Laughter]
Taimur Dar: It’s no exaggeration to say there’s been a deluge of these revivals, reboots, etc. in recent years. As a viewer, I always approach them with some trepidation since they can be either hits or misses. Something like The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball is just as good as, if not better than, the original series. For Regular Show: The Lost Tapes, was there any hesitation about going back to the proverbial well?
J.G. Quintel: When we first started talking about whether or not we would even do it, I remember calling Sean and saying, “We can’t do this unless we’re going to do it right. We don’t want any of the episodes to be bad.” Everything we did was very important to us and was really hard to make. It’s not easy to make those things so to come seven or eight years later, you don’t want to damage what you built. We thought really hard about it before deciding to go into it. Having that much time [in between] you come back to it with fresh eyes and realize you have so many more ideas you never would’ve had back in the original run because you’re a different person. It’s really cool to see what we came up with out of that and all the people that we work with.
Sam Marin: It’s also a lot of the same writers and story artists and people involved. That’s rare.
J.G. Quintel: Now they’ve worked on other shows, so everyone has leveled up. It felt like we could do a really good job on this.
William Salyers: I haven’t done anything since that last session. I’m really excited to get the phone call.
[Laughter]
Sean Szeles: To your point, we were cognizant of not wanting to screw up anything that we did. We figured out what felt like the perfect ending. We had to sit there and rack our brains how we were going to bring it back. We came up with a good way to do it and were happy with it. Once we got everyone back in the room it became so much fun to revisit the characters and work with everybody again.
Matt Price: I thought that was so bold about it because the finale was so epic and you had that closure. It seemed like we left and were like, “We did it!” It’s rare to get that opportunity to work on something and then close it out. To revisit it in such a delightful way is even more epic.
Taimur Dar: There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding Regular Show: The Lost Tapes. Obviously, it takes place before the finale. Can you share anything else about it?
J.G. Quintel:It’s really funny because we’ve been trying so hard to keep as much of it a secret for as long as possible. I know a lot of people enjoy seeing trailers and knowing what they’re about to get into. I always get bummed out when a trailer gives away all the plot and tells you what you’re going to see. So why am I even going to this movie? Some of my favorite movies have been ones where I didn’t even see the trailer and went in without any preconceived notion of what it was. We have been asking the studio to keep as much back as possible up until the very last moment. So people can hopefully not spend too much time trying to guess until it’s too late. The Lost Tapes is the first little piece. And even that came out early accidentally. They were posting for internships and we were like, “Why did you say that?” But we’re also really happy with how it turned out. People are going to get to see it for the first time once so we’re hoping they get to enjoy it without any spoilers and have it hit them as hard as possible.
Sean Szeles: You’re going to see a lot of fun stuff with Mordecai and Rigby and the characters we love. I’ll leave it at that.
[Laughter]
Taimur Dar: I have a huge admiration for voice directors such as Kris Zimmerman Salter. Obviously it was a great experience having her on Regular Show since she was also involved in Close Enough. I don’t know if you can say whether or not she is also back for The Lost Tapes and I’d love to hear what was it like having her as a voice director?
William Salyers: Kris is great. She’s always been solid not just in terms of the technical stuff but also knowing how to direct us to get what she needs.
Sam Marin: She had different ways of directing. There was one time she had me doing something with Muscle Man and wanted it to be more like a drill sergeant. So she said, “Put your hands behind your back.”
J.G. Quintel: I remember early days when we first started the show, we had never done it professionally, and her getting me to project. I’m a pretty quiet person and she helped teach me to get the energy that it needed for the role. She was super patient about that. The original characters were just us at school [voicing them].
Taimur Dar: I believe for the original series you recorded as an ensemble. These days it’s harder to do group records, so I’m curious if you still recorded together for Regular Show: The Lost Tapes or was it done individually or remotely?
J.G. Quintel: We do ensembles.
Sean Szeles: All old school. All these guys back in the room together.
William Salyers: I did a stage production at Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon. I flew back every Monday to record.
Taimur Dar: Any last things you want to convey to get fans excited for the premiere of Regular Show: The Lost Tapes?
J.G. Quintel: We’re trying to decide when we show something more substantial. I’m just really excited for people to see the new stuff. I don’t think they’re going to be disappointed. I feel like we got it. And we were really making it for ourselves to try to be funny to each other, which is what we did on the original run..
Sean Szeles: I think we’ve come up with the funniest stuff. These guys are on the top of their game and it gelled together so well.
Matt Price: I’ll say this. Having worked on all of them, hearing what you came up with to do the new version, I was like, “Whoa!” That was exciting. I hope that fans have the same reaction. And it’s a lot like Stranger Things!
[Laughter]
Regular Show: The Lost Tapes premieres on Monday, May 11 and arrive on HBO Max and Hulu later this year
