This past month, I was fortunate enough to interview the incomparable, Matthew Senreich, who along with Seth Green, created one of Adult Swim's longest running shows, Robot Chicken. Senreich is a New York City native, the creator of production company: Stoopid Monkey Stoodios, and for an afternoon, he was a fantastic interview subject. Together, we got to discuss his career, George Lucas, Mr. Beast, and the future of television.
Rua: "Okay, good afternoon, could we start with you introducing yourself?"
Senreich: "Of course, I'm Matthew Senreich, I'm one of the co-creators of Robot Chicken and one of the co-owners of Stoopid Monkey Stoodios."
Rua: "Amazing! So, like a lot of people, I grew up watching Adult Swim and some of the incredible things it has to offer, is there any project or projects from the station that you wish you'd been apart of?"
Senreich: "Well, first and foremost, it's 18-24 year olds so you were definitely watching it before your time."
Rua: "I know, but right after Regular Show it would switch stations and my curiosity got the better of me!"
Senreich: "Exactly! Oh gosh, as far as other shows go, I always say the best part about Adult Swim is that you know all the other creators, they did such a good job of creating such an amazing community of creators. And y'know you got to hang out with them and get to know them and play with them in different ways. As far as projects I'd want to be apart of, I've got to be apart of a lot of those and gotten to know people like The Venture Brothers guys and Tim and Eric and Matt and Dave who did Aqua Teen Hunger Force, it's a very close-knit group and that's what I love about it. So as far as missing one, I'm loving Smiling Friends right now..."
Rua: "I love Smiling Friends!"
Senreich: "Yeah, so maybe I'll toy around with them at some point, y'know anything is possible!"
Rua: "I just made my brother finish one of my favorite series, Moral Orel!"
Senreich: "Did you know I had an office right across from me when they were making that show?"
Rua: "Dino Stamatopoulos is like one of my dream interview subjects."
Senreich: "He's quite an amazing person, I'll say that."
Rua: "So when it comes to Robot Chicken, I can't imagine the pitch was very orthodox..."
Senreich: "Y'know, there actually wasn't much of a pitch oddly, Robot Chicken's start was in the early days of Adult Swim. We had made twelve animated shorts for Sony Digital when it was called Screenblast, it was like dial-up. So it was like twelve animated shorts on dial-up that no one could really see, so when that got to Adult Swim, it got there two ways, through a guy named Sam Register At Warner Brothers who I'd known from my comic book days. And also Seth McFarlane, it was after the time Family Guy was cancelled and they said they were re-airing these episodes of his on Adult Swim and so it got to Mike Laszlo who was running the network at the time, and when we sat down to meet with him for the first time, his first lines were: 'I don't like stop-motion but I think your show is funny,' And we were like "okay, what does this mean?' and we just told him about how we wanted to make a sketch comedy show using toys!"
Rua: "I'm literally taking my first animation class in the fall because of all the shows I love on Adult Swim. So what do you attribute Robot Chicken's success to with it being such an unusual show?"
Senreich: "I think it hit at the right time, it was the early days of the internet, it's ADD TV when that didn't exist. It was SNL but in a shorter, faster mentality and when pop culture was hitting that wave where action figures and toys were super popular. I think it was just a convergence of all these things hitting at once. I was just watching something where luck plays a factor into what makes something successful and it's hard to believe but it is true, you never know what's going to hit because the right time and right place really makes a difference."
Rua: "Do you think it could've been made today?"
Senreich: "Thats a good question. I think it could be made today, I think it would've gone in another direction, I think it would've been digital. When I meet my kids friends who are like 11-15 who should not be watching this show, they say that they're watching it on Tiktok and Youtube. I find that weird but it's not about the episode itself it's about the sketches."
Rua: "Yeah, a lot of the cutaway gags find their way onto Tiktok."
Senreich: "Exactly, and everybody I talk to doesn't have the same favorite sketch, which always makes me smile. What's your favorite sketch?"
Rua: "Ooh, I love the Annie's Sweet 16 one."
Senreich: "See, that's the first time I've ever heard that one!"
Rua: "I mean, everyone loves the Star Wars specials!"
Senreich: "That one's very near and dear to me. That third Star Wars special to me is my favorite episode."
Rua: "I actually was just at Cannes with George Lucas and I've always thought he just never registered that he's famous."
Senreich: "Having gotten to know him, he does, he's just grounded and normal."
Rua: "Before I even saw him there I knew exactly what he was going to be wearing because I've never seen him not in jeans and a checkered shirt."
Senreich: "One of the best conversations I had with him he was like: 'where do you want to be? For me I hit a certain age and it was hoodies and cargo pants and you don't need to change that,' and I was like 'I'll take your advice on this."
Rua: "These days, I feel like I can't go five scrolls without seeing a video on Tiktok that's like a split screen of a mobile game and then a South Park clip. It's clearly a symptom of attention spans getting shorter so how do you think our society's shrinking attention span is going to affect television moving forward?"
Senreich: "Oh gosh that's a big question. I don't know yet, because you look at where people are watching content these days. Are people watching Youtube more than they're watching everything else? What's the kind of content they want to see? I don't know, I think it's already having an effect and we're seeing where people are starting to watch stuff. My kids don't watch the same things I watch, when you're young you have that fast-paced mentality. I think we at Robot Chicken were some of the first people to lean into it, that ADD sensibility, but it's only gonna get crazier. Like, I'll say it: I love Mr. Beast! I watch everything he puts out. Even saying that now, if I said that five years ago, which I did, I was ahead of the curve..."
Rua: "I was watching him five years ago when he was making videos in his backyard."
Senreich: "Exactly, and when I say it now it's like I'm just following a trend. Now people will say we're past that, and I'm like 'no we're not,' he's got more subscribers than Pewdiepie now."
Rua: "I was the same way with Bo Burnham's content. I was watching him in like 2015 and he just exploded in popularity in 2021."
Senreich: "Yeah, I watch Hacks and it's about this older comedian and a younger writer and what that relationship is about. And the last episode talks about how she was underground and when she became super popular she thought: 'dammit! I lost her!' And it's like, no you didn't lose her, you're sharing her. It's not about owning and controlling that, it's okay that the rest of the world gets to see that, it doesn't make you less cool or anything."
Rua: "There's been a debate as to the necessity of film school in order to find success in the industry. Where do you stand on this?"
Senreich: "I think you need to learn what you need to do to accomplish these things. Me at Wesleyan, I learned what I needed to learn, I couldn't write so I took screenwriting classes. I knew how to write but I didn't know structure, I didn't take film classes but I learned how to video edit with the guy in the home video department. I think you need to learn this stuff because if you don't you're taking a shot in the dark. Without structure for a story, it's not going to work. Can you learn it online? Maybe, but probably not as well than you would with teachers. I think having teachers helps, I had many people that were my teachers through internships who helped me immensely, and I now help I'm doing that with people who are younger than me, I want to pass that on."
Rua: "This might be a but controversial but what are your thoughts on nepo babies?"
Senreich: "Is it terrible that I don't think about them that much? There are too many people who have legs up in this world but you just need to think of how to make yourself stand out, don't compare yourself to others. When people compare me to other people I just don't care, I just focus on improving myself. I had Seth Green by accident later on and I'm sure that helped me in the long run but before that I was working in comic books at Marvel because I got an internship by pure luck. By the time I got out of college I had jobs and opportunities waiting for me and it was all because I threw everything I had into my work."
Rua: "Do you believe that mentality is something you've always had or something you've acquired with age?"
Senreich: "That's a good question. I think I started learning it while I was young and working at Marvel and definitely more-so as I got older. When you're young, it's hard to break into the industry but there are so many directions to go, a lot of people do it the traditional way through agencies. I always smile when I think of this but I did this dinner Comic Con where it was just me and a bunch of other interns with no money, we do it every year and it's about to be my 28th time going. We were just nobodies and now there are all these wonderful human beings who are now running companies and when we hang out it's never about what we're up to it's just about hanging out with these people that I love. It's like...do what you like! For me it was comic books as a kid and getting made fun of!"
Rua: "That's incredible! The last question I like to ask all my guests is 'what is your favorite swear word' and I think it's particularly fitting to ask the showrunner of one of the most vulgar shows on television."
Senreich: "Huh...oddly enough I don't curse as much as most people do. The one thing I do imitate is "shit fuck cock balls" from Earmuffs, so it's kind of a foursome if you will. My other writers curse plenty but I'm actually the clean one of the group. I'm gonna reverse this and ask you a question, if we were to bring one person on Robot Chicken who would it be? We've had over 800 actors on our show, who do you want to see?"
Rua: "Wow, I've never been asked a question during these. God that's hard...Ric Flair!
Senreich: "Ric Flair, I think we've had him...either that or I've at least worked with him before. We used his action figure when Hulk Hogan was on but he didn't do the voice."
Rua: "There is nothing that could make me hate Ric Flair, that's my answer. Woo!"
Senreich: "Well thank you so much for your time!"
Rua: "Thank you for your time! Have a good one!"
Once again, thank you so much to Matthew Senreich, and Katelyn Hempstead who helped make this interview happen. Robot Chicken as well as the rest of Adult Swim's catalogue are available for streaming on HBO MAX! Thanks for supporting Cinemasters.net and remember to never stop watching!