An oral history of TVs favorite alcoholic, narcissistic, self-destructive talking horse.
Excerpted fromBoJack Horseman: The Art Before the Horse.
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I came up with this idea for a show Id like to pitch.
Tell me what you think: BoJack the Depressed Talking Horse.
Lisa Hanawalt:I was like, That sounds too depressing.
Can you make something more fun and whimsical?
And hes like, What aboutThe Spruce Moose and the Juice Caboose?
And I said, Oh great, they can have cocktail waitresses called the Spicy Mice.
I think we should still make that show.
He might have even sent him a link to my blog.
The first meeting was a getting to know you meeting.
Its like our own fire drill: Wall-pound means, Get in here.
So I got off my call and played it like I just casually walked in.
Steve said, This is Raphael.
Steven A. Cohen [executive producer]:Why was it bang-worthy?
A term I already regret!
I dont know if it was specificallyBoJackrelated, but it was probably Raphael related.
Hes well-spoken and he likes to pry at certain things in an interesting way.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:After that general first meeting, my manager called and said, They really liked you.
They want to meet you again because they have something they want to throw at you.
And then my manager called and I was like, I dont know.
I dont think its for me.
And I was like, Awww, now I got to come up with my own ideas?
I should have just said yes to their thing!
And sometimes you really have to do a lot of prep work.
So then I came up with five ideas all different animated projects one of which wasBoJack.
I said, I think the horse one is the one I really like.
And I was thinking, Now I gotta do more work!
And then I just forgot about it.
A month later, Steve found me on Facebook and was like, Hey!
And I was like, Almost done!
And then I was like, I gotta do it!
I gotta do it!
So I wrote this thing and sent it to them.
Originally there was an agent character, who was a man, and an ex-girlfriend character.
In the process of preparing for the formal pitch, I combined them and made the ex-girlfriend the agent.
I think some of the characters had different names and other things like that.
But that was really early.
Thats even before we pitched it to Tornante.
I kind of settled all that down.
Then we met with Michael Eisner, and I was like, Okay, this is for real now.
In a one-minute hallway conversation, I was told three ideas.
That was the meeting to say, This is a project we want to do.
The only times those meetings happen are when were prepared to fight for it.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:The question was: Could it be sports?
Instead of a former sitcom actor, could he be a former racehorse?
And what would that look like?
I think he was impressed by Raphaels conviction, and he was won over.
He can make smart choices; he can do the show right.
I dont know anything about sports or racing!
So it was helpful!
The green light from Michael Eisner to proceed was secured.
I was like, Michael Eisner, former head of Disney?!
I was still living in NYC, and I was visiting L.A. And Lisas like, Im not sure … Im kind of busy.
Lisa Hanawalt:When I first said no, Steve emailed in response, Best of luck.
And I was like, Oooooohhhhhh.
Steven A. Cohen:Is it possible that I just meant, Best of luck?
Noel Bright:This is why I never email people.
Lisa Hanawalt:It had a period instead of an exclamation point.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:I think an exclamation point is insincere: Best of luuUUCKk!
Lisa Hanawalt:It could have meant anything.
Mike Hollingsworth:The worst would have been a question mark: Best of luck?
I made the mistake of not jumping aboard a good thing.
When you eventually agreed, you were ready.
Lisa Hanawalt:I got lucky that you guys came back six months later.
Cause you could have gone with someone else.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:[Laughs.]
We did …
Lisa:Nobody could get the horse right.
Is that what it was?
Noel:We couldnt get the tone right.
No ones going to buy this.
No one wants this.
Lisa Hanawalt:I feel that way about everything before it becomes a thing.
Noel Bright:I remember those conversations with your agent: She will do one set of revisions.
Well, what if we want to change the color of the nose is that a revision?
We wanted to make you feel comfortable.
Lisa Hanawalt:Id never done anything like this, so I was just worried about being exploited.
Noel Bright:Our goal was to make a presentation.
If you make it and cast it and show it, that gives you your best chance.
So I handed them, like, this two-page document.
Now, a typical outline is ten to fifteen pages.
And they looked at it and they were like, Uh … okay.
Um … [laughs].
Yeah, I dont know …
This doesnt really look like an outline that were familiar with.
But I had no experience [laughs].
It was like an outline for an outline.
He said, No … you get paid on different levels.
So send the outline first; you get paid for the outline.
I looked at the scenes in the script and I was like, Okay, whats happening?
I guess this happens, then this happens, then this happens.
In my outline, theres a little paragraph for everything that happens.
Noel Bright:We ended up with two scripts and a presentation script.
The next step in the process was to interview animation production studios.
It took a whole five seconds to call Noel back and say, Were in!
Corey Campodonico [ShadowMachine]:Very few projects make such a strong first impression.
Lets imagine … Look, heres some pictures of rich peoples houses.
So it was like, Okay, now we actually have to make it.
So casting was the next thing.
Linda Lamontagne [casting director]:We just went for really strong actors comedic and dramatic actors.
Casting directors get pigeonholed that way, too.
I loved Lisas designs.
I loved that it was anthropomorphic, I loved that it was different than anything else.
And the script was really smart.
I knew when I read it that it was going to be a fun thing to cast.
Michael Eisners name really goes far.
I got great responses from agents and managers and talent.
And I read it, and I loved it, instantly, of course.
The world, the setting, you know?
In Hollywood, in the industry, where animals and humans co-exist, and theres nothing weird about it.
Its just how it is.
And I read it and I thought it was just so smart.
I thought that was such a brave, cool idea.
Wait we really can get that person?
And then, all of a sudden, Yeah, that person just said yes.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:Keith Olbermann whale, which is what I think the script described it as.
It was just trying to describe the character!
Steven A. Cohen:Right.
We didnt think he was going to be Keith Olbermann.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:Linda said, Lets get Keith Olbermann!
We can do it!
And this is in New York; hes over the phone, and he says, Mmmmmmwrrrrwrwrwwrwr!
[whale noise] and its like, Thats Keith Olbermann!
Making whale noises for our dumb little cartoon!
Netflix wasnt even a buyer at that point.
But in the middle of making the presentation, they announcedHouse of Cards.
But it was interesting: The different places that we went to affected the pitch.
With Netflix, I pitched it as a Netflix show.
Different places got different versions of the pitch.
I ultimately think that the Netflix version was the best possible version it could have been.
Mike Hollingsworth:I remember when you pitched it to Animal Planet you really played up the animal aspects.
The hard part was selling it.
Part of it was that we had to wait a while because Raphael was working in New York again.
We had to wait and find that window when he was done.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:I got hired on a show in New York calledUs & Them.
So I moved back to New York.
The show got canceled before it even aired.
As soon as I heard the news, I booked a flight back to L.A. and pitchedBoJackto Netflix.
This was October 2013.
Number one, we had cast Will Arnett and Aaron Paul.
Both of them were the leads in two of Netflixs most high-profile shows [Arrested DevelopmentandBreaking Bad].
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:At the time they were still taking credit for the popularity ofBreaking Bad.
Noel Bright:Yeah, thats right they were open about it.
That was their most-watched show at the time.
Initially, we could not get Netflix to look at the show because they werent buying animation.
We were very lucky that a personal connection led us to a new executive at Netflix named Blair Fetter.
Every project needs a champion, and Blair very quickly became ours.
Blair Fetter [Netflix]:The proof-of-concept presentation Raphael created with Tornante was undeniably funny.
It felt like I had that video playing on a loop in my office for weeks after.
I was dying to meet the guy that created it.
Even his name [Bob-Waksberg] made me laugh.
We passed this intel on to Raphael, who had always envisionedBoJackas a serialized show with long character arcs.
So it was like, Do kind of something like that.
One episode at a time.
Not just the thumbnails, but the A, B, and C stories, when there were any.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:Every episode had a B and C story at this pitch!
Talk about pressure …
Aaron Paul:I am dear friends with Peter Friedlander.
After the pitch, I called him up and just expressed my love and passion for this project.
But we all knew it was just such a love fest, the moment that pitch was done.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:In a follow-up meeting they said, Can you have the series ready this summer?
We said, Well, I dunno, this summer?
… And they said, This summer or we dont want it.
So we said [singsongy], We sure caaAAaan!
Cindy Holland:When I think aboutBoJack, I think summer doesnt everyone?
We knew it was ambitious, but we believed in the team and they rose to the occasion.
I worked here for a couple of weeks, stayed at Airbnbs.
It was a really crazy time.
I had never done anything like this before.
Lisa Hanawalt:I dont think anyone looked at it.
They didnt have time.
We didnt even have time to hire people.
We just basically rolled people off of another show at ShadowMachine onto ours.
Raphael had to start writing.
Then we started building a writing staff.
Noel Bright:We had a week of prep.
All 12 episodes, in nine different languages.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg:It had to happen.
We signed the thing!
Lisa Hanawalt:And was it going to be good?
Noel Bright:We set up a process.
Raphael Bob-Wakberg:We would have been screwed if we hadnt done that.
So we can reuse that.
Lisa Hanawalt:Yeah, you didnt know we had to redo it.
Lisa Hanawalt:We had to change Todd.
Lisa Hanawalt:Hes ugly.
Aaron Paul:When we first premiered, people didnt understand what they were getting.
I thought that the first season was really special.
But it just didnt perform all that well in the critics eyes.
Because he must have known, People might check out of this.
If I save this turn until the third episode, people might not get there.
But its all the same show.
I think a lot of people just didnt understand, or went, Well, this isnt funny.
Its kind of funny […] And then why am I feeling bad about myself right now?
It was the most honest portrayal of loneliness in Hollywood that Id ever seen.
He just had to be a part of it.
Peoples reactions are just so great.
People are really getting personally affected by this cartoon.
That kind of talent shows up about once a decade.
