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How The Walking Dead's Cast Wound Up Starring In Their Own Robot Chicken Parody
Like so many great and terrible ideas, The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who's Walking was born at San Diego Comic-Con. Robot Chicken Executive Producer and co-writer Matthew Senreich was having dinner with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman--an annual tradition among a close group of friends who got their starts together in comics--when, according to Senreich, Kirkman leaned over for a bit of gentle ribbing.
"Why'd you do [a DC special] and not Walking Dead?" Kirkman asked him.
"And I was just like, 'I dunno!' And that's how fast the special happened," Senreich told GameSpot during a group interview in LA. "It was just us kind of joking around at this dinner, and we called up immediately after and made this thing happen."
Robot Chicken's half-hour specials have become a semi-regular television event for Adult Swim, focusing on various holidays, Star Wars, DC universe characters, and more. The Walking Dead Special, which airs this weekend, is the tenth. It's set long after the events of the Walking Dead comics and show, where everyday citizens of a rebuilt civilization visit a Walking Dead museum to absorb history lessons about Rick, Carl, and the rest of the characters' exploits.
"Most of our specials really just start with us kind of joking around with these people, big smiles on our faces, saying 'Let's make something funny,'" Senreich said.
The really amazing thing about the Walking Dead Special is that most of the actors from the show actually showed up to record ridiculous new lines--and songs!--with the Robot Chicken crew. That includes Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Norman Reedus (Daryl), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Melissa McBride (Carol), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori), Michael Rooker (Merle), and more.
"I don't know that this has ever been done--having a parody version of a show performed by all of the actual cast while the regular show is still on the air. I've never seen anything like it," said Robot Chicken creator Seth Green. "The show itself is so indelible, the performances are so impressive, and the characters are so well-drawn, that it doesn't detract anything from the gravity of the real show to make this kind of parody. We were just excited that everybody came to play with us."
"Both AMC and Adult Swim were really cool at playing together, and that's why this exists," he said.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has a song and dance number highlighting one of his character Negan's most memorable quirks--the little "dip" he does when he's threatening people, bending at the knees and tilting his torso backward slightly, with his razor-wrapped bat Lucille usually resting on one shoulder. That's the kind of humor the special captures.
"Being able to find the completely nonchalant, mundane, human moments within this outrageousness, that's where we think the best jokes are," Green explained.
Robot Chicken's writers didn't only pull from The Walking Dead's most recent episodes, though. They went as far back as the show's 2010 pilot, where Rick wakes up alone in a post-apocalyptic hospital.
"Rick finds that horse, and then rides that horse into town like a proud sheriff, and then that horse is literally torn apart in a crane shot," Green recalled, laughing. "We were like, 'Oh, we're for sure doing that with our unicorn.'"
Eat Your Heart Out
Michael Rooker's big cameo comes when he sings a heart-rending melody about how his character Merle, a fan favorite who died in an earlier season, will always be alone because of how racist and sexist he is. It's surprisingly emotional. Rooker, who had been one of the last actors to confirm he'd reprise his role for the special, had told Green and the show's other producers that he can't sing. They were prepared to do multiple takes and even record the song one line at a time to make it easier on the actor.
"I was really expecting this to be terrible," Green said. "The very first take, he sings the whole song all the way through, pitch f***ing perfect, and we were just like, 'You're playing with us! This is a joke that you're playing with us!"
"He has the voice of a goddamn angel," added Robot Chicken Director Tom Sheppard.
"And of course, I'm thinking, they're joking with me," Rooker, who had also joined the group interview last minute, humbly explained. "They're really being kind to me, and there's no way! I thought you were all joking. Even to this moment, I thought you were just goofing with me."
"You don't know at this point how deeply I love you?" Green teased him.
AMC gave the Robot Chicken crew a lot of freedom for the special, but they didn't create it unsupervised. Robert Kirkman and The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple even joined them in the writers room. "They would come in and goof around with us, and like or s*** on our jokes," Senreich said.
Kirkman and Gimple had some guidelines, like not allowing Carl to curse, even when the special portrays him as an adult. For one scene in the special that pokes fun at an event from the most recent Walking Dead season--when a baseball bat stops a bullet--the Robot Chicken writers felt they had gone slightly too far.
"We got into a long conversation with Scott Gimple about it," Senreich said. "We don't understand how a bullet would be stopped by a baseball bat."
"We tested it in the writers room with a Nerf gun, and it's bulls***," Breckin Meyer, a writer and actor on the show, added. "Every now and then we get so giddy, and you make fun of stuff, you forget that the showrunner of the damn show you're lampooning is right there. You go, 'Maybe we should stop. He doesn't seem to be laughing anymore.'"
A large percentage of the special's jokes center on Carl's full head of shiny, shoulder-length hair, which Breckin seems slightly obsessed with. "The fact that he grows his hair long in this rebellious way is great, but it's tough for a post-apocalyptic world," the writer and actor said. "He manages to keep it bouncy and full-bodied."
Another gag swings for the question of Lucille's origin story, landing on a Superman-style tale in which the baseball bat arrives on earth after fleeing from its home planet. It's taken in by a fatherly figure also voiced by Rooker, making for yet more heartfelt scenes--which Rooker didn't remember performing.
"This is my favorite part about anybody coming in for voiceover--is inevitably, a month later, they have zero recollection of what they said because we record people line-by-line. It's usually three takes of each line, and that's usually it. So if they get it fast, there's not a lot of reason to retain it," Green explained.
"When I told carrie Fisher that I had a great time working with her on Robot Chicken she was like, 'What are you talking about?'" He continued.
What Might Have Been
In addition to The Walking Dead Special, Robot Chicken returns soon for Season 9. As always, the jokes will be the timeliest on TV, outside of South Park episodes referencing yesterday's headlines. When something exits the wider cultural consciousness, Green and crew generally leave it where it lies, they said.
Green shared an example of one that got left on the cutting room floor thanks simply to timing: a sketch involving everyone's favorite teenaged would-be Sith Lord, Emo Kylo Ren.
"The pitch was Kylo Ren, like, typing on his computer, and saying like, 'Parents are fighting again!' And the other person's like, 'That sucks, it's so hard to be a kid,' and he's like, 'I hate being a kid!' And then the other guy's like, 'You ever heard of the Sith?' And he's like 'I guess. My granddad was into it.' And they're like 'Sith is where it's at!'" Green described. "And in the background the entire time, you can just hear Han Solo and Princess Leia fighting. I thought that would be hilarious. And he's just like, cutting himself with a lightsaber."
"In the background, you just hear Princess Leia go, 'I hate you!'" Breckin added, laughing. "[Han Solo]'s like, 'I know.'"
You never know--if Adam Driver is half as game to guest star as the cast of The Walking Dead was, that could turn out pretty special too.
The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who's Walking airs Oct. 8 on Adult Swim.
More...
"Why'd you do [a DC special] and not Walking Dead?" Kirkman asked him.
"And I was just like, 'I dunno!' And that's how fast the special happened," Senreich told GameSpot during a group interview in LA. "It was just us kind of joking around at this dinner, and we called up immediately after and made this thing happen."
Robot Chicken's half-hour specials have become a semi-regular television event for Adult Swim, focusing on various holidays, Star Wars, DC universe characters, and more. The Walking Dead Special, which airs this weekend, is the tenth. It's set long after the events of the Walking Dead comics and show, where everyday citizens of a rebuilt civilization visit a Walking Dead museum to absorb history lessons about Rick, Carl, and the rest of the characters' exploits.
"Most of our specials really just start with us kind of joking around with these people, big smiles on our faces, saying 'Let's make something funny,'" Senreich said.
The really amazing thing about the Walking Dead Special is that most of the actors from the show actually showed up to record ridiculous new lines--and songs!--with the Robot Chicken crew. That includes Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Norman Reedus (Daryl), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Melissa McBride (Carol), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori), Michael Rooker (Merle), and more.
"I don't know that this has ever been done--having a parody version of a show performed by all of the actual cast while the regular show is still on the air. I've never seen anything like it," said Robot Chicken creator Seth Green. "The show itself is so indelible, the performances are so impressive, and the characters are so well-drawn, that it doesn't detract anything from the gravity of the real show to make this kind of parody. We were just excited that everybody came to play with us."
"Both AMC and Adult Swim were really cool at playing together, and that's why this exists," he said.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has a song and dance number highlighting one of his character Negan's most memorable quirks--the little "dip" he does when he's threatening people, bending at the knees and tilting his torso backward slightly, with his razor-wrapped bat Lucille usually resting on one shoulder. That's the kind of humor the special captures.
"Being able to find the completely nonchalant, mundane, human moments within this outrageousness, that's where we think the best jokes are," Green explained.
Robot Chicken's writers didn't only pull from The Walking Dead's most recent episodes, though. They went as far back as the show's 2010 pilot, where Rick wakes up alone in a post-apocalyptic hospital.
"Rick finds that horse, and then rides that horse into town like a proud sheriff, and then that horse is literally torn apart in a crane shot," Green recalled, laughing. "We were like, 'Oh, we're for sure doing that with our unicorn.'"
Eat Your Heart Out
Michael Rooker's big cameo comes when he sings a heart-rending melody about how his character Merle, a fan favorite who died in an earlier season, will always be alone because of how racist and sexist he is. It's surprisingly emotional. Rooker, who had been one of the last actors to confirm he'd reprise his role for the special, had told Green and the show's other producers that he can't sing. They were prepared to do multiple takes and even record the song one line at a time to make it easier on the actor.
"I was really expecting this to be terrible," Green said. "The very first take, he sings the whole song all the way through, pitch f***ing perfect, and we were just like, 'You're playing with us! This is a joke that you're playing with us!"
"He has the voice of a goddamn angel," added Robot Chicken Director Tom Sheppard.
"And of course, I'm thinking, they're joking with me," Rooker, who had also joined the group interview last minute, humbly explained. "They're really being kind to me, and there's no way! I thought you were all joking. Even to this moment, I thought you were just goofing with me."
"You don't know at this point how deeply I love you?" Green teased him.
AMC gave the Robot Chicken crew a lot of freedom for the special, but they didn't create it unsupervised. Robert Kirkman and The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple even joined them in the writers room. "They would come in and goof around with us, and like or s*** on our jokes," Senreich said.Kirkman and Gimple had some guidelines, like not allowing Carl to curse, even when the special portrays him as an adult. For one scene in the special that pokes fun at an event from the most recent Walking Dead season--when a baseball bat stops a bullet--the Robot Chicken writers felt they had gone slightly too far.
"We got into a long conversation with Scott Gimple about it," Senreich said. "We don't understand how a bullet would be stopped by a baseball bat."
"We tested it in the writers room with a Nerf gun, and it's bulls***," Breckin Meyer, a writer and actor on the show, added. "Every now and then we get so giddy, and you make fun of stuff, you forget that the showrunner of the damn show you're lampooning is right there. You go, 'Maybe we should stop. He doesn't seem to be laughing anymore.'"
A large percentage of the special's jokes center on Carl's full head of shiny, shoulder-length hair, which Breckin seems slightly obsessed with. "The fact that he grows his hair long in this rebellious way is great, but it's tough for a post-apocalyptic world," the writer and actor said. "He manages to keep it bouncy and full-bodied."
Another gag swings for the question of Lucille's origin story, landing on a Superman-style tale in which the baseball bat arrives on earth after fleeing from its home planet. It's taken in by a fatherly figure also voiced by Rooker, making for yet more heartfelt scenes--which Rooker didn't remember performing."This is my favorite part about anybody coming in for voiceover--is inevitably, a month later, they have zero recollection of what they said because we record people line-by-line. It's usually three takes of each line, and that's usually it. So if they get it fast, there's not a lot of reason to retain it," Green explained.
"When I told carrie Fisher that I had a great time working with her on Robot Chicken she was like, 'What are you talking about?'" He continued.
What Might Have Been
In addition to The Walking Dead Special, Robot Chicken returns soon for Season 9. As always, the jokes will be the timeliest on TV, outside of South Park episodes referencing yesterday's headlines. When something exits the wider cultural consciousness, Green and crew generally leave it where it lies, they said.
Green shared an example of one that got left on the cutting room floor thanks simply to timing: a sketch involving everyone's favorite teenaged would-be Sith Lord, Emo Kylo Ren.
"The pitch was Kylo Ren, like, typing on his computer, and saying like, 'Parents are fighting again!' And the other person's like, 'That sucks, it's so hard to be a kid,' and he's like, 'I hate being a kid!' And then the other guy's like, 'You ever heard of the Sith?' And he's like 'I guess. My granddad was into it.' And they're like 'Sith is where it's at!'" Green described. "And in the background the entire time, you can just hear Han Solo and Princess Leia fighting. I thought that would be hilarious. And he's just like, cutting himself with a lightsaber."
"In the background, you just hear Princess Leia go, 'I hate you!'" Breckin added, laughing. "[Han Solo]'s like, 'I know.'"
You never know--if Adam Driver is half as game to guest star as the cast of The Walking Dead was, that could turn out pretty special too.
The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who's Walking airs Oct. 8 on Adult Swim.
More...