HouseBroken AP Weston Jacoby Talks Fox Series Development & More

This episode is actually written by our fantastic Writers’ Assistant and Script Coordinator. These two writers were attending an Edit Session later in Post and proposed to Gaby that maybe they could add some of Flapjack’s dialogue to a psychedelic beat to enhance the hilarious weirdness of this character’s raw sexual energy. This even led to laying down some new sultry tunes in the booth with Will Forte, which resulted in adding some great laughs to a couple of montages in the show. Jen & Gaby’s encouragement for this kind of collaboration, bringing writers and team members into the room to plus-up the episodes to the highest level of excellence, helps make the show better on every level.

In addition, our casting director, Scott Muller, along with his associate Patrick Laffoon, make both casting and coordinating schedules with talent as easy as possible. Scott and Patrick are consummate professionals with an extensive web of connections in the industry and a reputation for being extremely on top of their work. This makes it very smooth for us to book high-profile talent on a regular basis. We also have the great fortune of having both Clea DuVall [Co-Creator] and Sharon Horgan as Executive Producers on ‘HouseBroken,’ both of whom are brilliant and wonderful, and a lot of our guest stars work with us because they trust and admire Jen, Gaby, Clea, and Sharon!

One of the most challenging aspects of ‘HouseBroken’ is that we have the good fortune of working with an expansive cast, but they tend to be working all over the world constantly. This means that we have both the hurdle and the gift of meeting so many new recording studio teams all over the country and the world, recording everywhere from Lake Geneva, WI, to Rome to Dublin to New Zealand. We would reach out to these excellent facilities and make sure all of the technical sides of things were worked out before inviting our talent into their facilities. Also, in the age of Zoom, we’re able to switch between a record session in Wellington, NZ, to a record session in London at the click of a button, so we’re often recording in multiple countries back-to-back in a single day.

What’s the process been like for you during the making of “HouseBroken” season two? Any favorite moments or fun facts audiences might not know about?

The process of making Season 2 of ‘HouseBroken’ has been exciting, challenging, and quite rewarding. During Season 1, we had so much love and belief for the show, but there’s a lot that needs to be ironed out during the pipeline of a Season 1 show, especially a comedy with such a large ensemble of fantastic characters. During Season 2, we’ve been able to finesse the pipeline and really give the show excellent finishing touches at every turn.

In terms of favorite moments, a large portion of the team gets together with our Showrunners for Edit Sessions, which makes them a natural place for both shaping the show and bonding as a team. One of my favorite running bits in Post Production Edits this season was the introduction of “bananas” as a unit of measurement for cutting or adding time to a scene. Our Retake Director, Greg Araya, oversees all animation adjustments in Post-Production. He let us know that he’d been taught that each letter of a “banana” amounts to roughly 1 frame of animation, so with 24 frames making up a second, you can say “banana” 4 times to count out a second. Jen & Gaby liked this tool, so we’d have a lot of fun in Edit sessions with the EPs asking the Editors to “add half a banana” or “let’s cut a banana” (indicating cutting 5 frames).

Since we work remotely, we also had a lot of fun this season showing up to Edit Sessions with virtual Zoom backgrounds on-theme with the episode, like pictures of giant hairless cats inspired by the hairless cat voiced by Pedro Pascal in “Who’s a Homeowner?”, or tie dye cat imagery for “Who’s Trippin’?” Also, one of our Editors would dress up according to the theme of the episode, such as wearing a lab coat for edits on the upcoming episode “Who’s Nocturnal?” where Raccoon runs an underground pharmacy out of his shed. These are a few small examples of fun moments that also show the enthusiasm and passion exhibited by every member of the HouseBroken Team, who all make this show excellent with their dedication and passion.

You’ve supervised Zoom Table Reads with the cast for all “HouseBroken” Season 1 & 2 episodes. What has been important for you when running meetings like those? Any special or funny memories from a table read?

In terms of supervising Zoom Table Reads, it’s wild to think back because our first Table Read was supposed to be in person the same week that we all started working remotely in March 2020. As a result, we were the first show at Bento Box to figure out a full Zoom Table Read. I remember running a lot of tests and learning the best lighting for Virtual Backgrounds, etc., with Joel Kuwahara [Animation Executive Producer], Andi Raab [Supervising Producer], Jeff Bradfield [Director of Production], and others as we paved the way for the first Zoom Table Read at the company. In those early Table Reads, we got to know the cast and the writers really well since everyone was so happy to be spending time seeing each other, and we were very grateful to be able to continue working in that very difficult time. In terms of a couple of highlights of important prep for Table Reads, it’s key to make sure that we’ve had a chance to do a sound check with the talent beforehand and remind talent to hold for laughs so that Zoom doesn’t override their audio with laughter – Clea DuVall always used to tease me by asking if the actors should stay silent for 5 or 10 minutes or more after each joke.

Here are a few special/funny memories from these Table Reads: We give the cast Character Backgrounds to use on Zoom that has an image of their character along with the character’s name to help the audience keep track and to show off some of our fantastic character designs. One of my special memories is that during Season 1, every time Will Forte signed on, for whatever reason, his Zoom Background would act up, and he’d end up taking us on a little Zoom tour walk around his house while he got set up in a new or different location with better lighting or a different color wall. We’d go from hallway to office, to bedroom, back to the hallway, and all over to help make the background show up better. It became a favorite pastime of the cast and writers to follow Will’s journey before each Table Read.

Additionally, Maria Bamford [voice of Jill, Small Fun Raccoon, Darla] has a way of putting her face right up in the camera when she says certain lines and the facial expressions she’s making that fill the Zoom box are uniquely hilarious. Table Reads also mean people get to witness the sheer genius of Sam Richardson [voice of Chico] doing authentic cat noises live, a skill that’s aided the show constantly, as you may have noticed when Chico gives birth in Season 1 or fends off a SWAT Team in “Who’s a Homeowner?”. And, of course, Lisa Kudrow is a whip-smart comedian, always thinking on her feet to make the show better, and she has a quite contagious laugh, which adds great energy to the room for Table Reads! 

Is there a specific pet or animal you’d love to see on a future episode of “HouseBroken”? If so, why that one in particular, and who’d be your choice for voicing them?

We’ve had the great opportunity this season to give voice to a lot of celebrity pets, including Molly Ringwald‘s dog Milly, Steve-O‘s dog Wendy, and Nicole Richie‘s chickens: Ivy, Mama Cass, and Tallulah. I think our next foray might have to be in historically famous animals like Balto, the husky who ran the last leg of the trail to get the serum for diphtheria to Nome, Alaska, in 1925. He might have a big head since he’s got a statue in Central Park. Oscar Isaac feels like he could do a great Balto voice. Side note: I know that Kevin Bacon already voiced Balto in an animated movie, but this would, of course, be a different take on the character.

Technology connects us more than ever; how has it helped you as an Associate Producer and in post-production work on “HouseBroken”?

In terms of technological connection, Zoom, of course, has been a major benefit, but we’ve also been able to take advantage of a lot of fantastic software that’s grown and expanded during our time working remotely. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did our first Edit Sessions with our Editor literally pointing his iPad at his computer screen while he edited. We could see the session in real-time since Screen Sharing had too much lag. Now, we use RGS Systems for our Editors. This means that the Editors are actually remote-accessing high-powered systems at a facility in Burbank in order to get the most power out of their machines without having to have those super high-powered machines in their home offices [it also means that those systems can be serviced by I.T. without I.T. running to every Editor’s home].

A hamster and what looks to be a Tasir with an umbrella go head to head. Source: FOX

Chief (left) and Honey (right). Source: FOX

The Editors then use a system called NDI-to-Zoom for our Picture Edit Sessions, which allows us to see their screens in real-time during Edit Sessions, which has been a fantastic gift to us while working remotely. We’re also able to Online the episodes using the RGS system, giving us real-time access to view the episode at a higher resolution in a larger file size for Quality Control purposes. Additionally, for our audio Mixes, we use another tool called Evercast that allows us to witness the audio edits in real time. Major credit to Jeff Bradfield [Bento Box Director of Post Production], Landon McCool [Director of I.T.], and many other Bento Box team members for helping discover, test, and grow this excellent software for our animation pipeline.

What’s a character from the series whose development you’ve been the most excited about and why?

Will Forte’s character of Shel, the sex-positive tortoise, goes through a lot of development in Season 2 as he sees what it means to be married and have children while still having a lot of…urges. Shel loves Darla [voiced by Bamford] deeply, but sometimes he needs to be reminded of that love – one of the many reasons he’s in group therapy! I won’t give anything away, but we see Shel not only explore some life-or-death situations this season that lead him back towards his family, but we also see him grappling with his daddy issues in an excellent episode where Will Forte voices 3 generations of Shel’s family in the same episode.

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