The Great North Creators on Season 3 Finale Part 1 & Writers’ Strike

The Great North wraps up its third season with a two-part finale, and in celebration of the season wrap-up, I got to chat with series creators, Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin. The Molyneux sisters, who work on Bob’s Burgers, began the series back in 2021 and approach a fourth season with hope and insight regarding the current writer’s strike. The FOX TV animated series celebrates some milestones as the creators and look ahead at the industry’s future in part one of my two-part interview with the duo.

As the creators of  “The Great North,” what are you hoping for when it comes to the results of this writers’ strike and, specifically, animation going forward? 

Wendy: Well, it’s interesting. Animation isn’t like sort of front and center necessarily in this strike, although I will say there are concerns that adult animation, in particular, is creeping back towards not being covered by the guild. That’s definitely a concern for those of us who work on t of legacy animation shows that are covered by the guild. But front and center to this strike for sure are things that could affect animation. Now there are these things called mini rooms and, shorter orders, no spam protection for writers. All of that affects animation, comedy, drama, and every type of writer all across the board. We have a lot of trust in our guild leadership that the things that they’ve asked for are fair and are going to help everyone going forward, including protecting everyone from having robots do our work, from having them just feeding the phrase “Beef Farts” into chat gpt and seeing if it can kick out an episode about Beef farting. Would I like to see just a whole episode of him farting? Sure. But we don’t want the robot to do that. I want Lizzie to do it.

Lizzie: I think that there’s a lot of talk about sort of this being like a really pivotal moment for writers. I think it is because writing as a career, the episode orders have gotten shorter, and there’s less time in rooms, less time on set, and less time on post for a lot of writers. What all of that does, aside from providing more money to each individual over the course of the year, it also provides a system where young or newer writers learn sort of not only the writing process but also how shows are made and each step of the process. So I think we’re all hopeful that that system can maintain, even in sort of the newer model with streaming shows. It’s a great way for you to sort of develop your career if you have the desire to go on and make your own show someday. It’s a way to learn how to do it and then sort of pay that forward when you hire your own staff someday. That’s one of the big goals, I think, is just sort of keep writing as a profession for people and give more people the chance to sort of live in this lifestyle for as long as they want to.

Wendy: I think the strike could be viewed from the outside as something sort of aggressive or just being about money or something. And I think the strike is actually about hope and optimism for writers and for the medium of television. I had a conversation with my dad recently; I think he’s 76, I want him to be a lot younger, but he’s 76. It’s been a big surprise to him that TV has emerged as this artistic medium that he gets so much from that, where it used to be movies, and then TV was a bit secondary. You have these incredible works of art, like the show ‘Beef’ that was just on Netflix, that you particularly enjoy, and we’re striking in a way to keep that kind of work going. To make sure that we’re protecting artists and the younger people with incredible ideas who are coming into the industry. They’re never going to get to the point where they get their own show unless we hopefully and optimistically strike in the hopes that we can protect this thing that we’ve made. 

What is most important when it comes to supporting your writers during the strike?

Lizzie: I would say the wonderful thing about being in the guild is that by uniting as writers, we are, hopefully, providing a service and a better future for any writer. I think for a lot of writers, like Wendy and I, we’ve been on a show for so long, we’ve been in the system, and we’ve gotten to experience and learn a lot of things in our career. I think by just being a part of the strike, being out there every day, being strong is, you know, I think the best thing for all of us. That’s sort of the power of our collective, and I think that’s just the best thing that we can do at this time.

There is some great indigenous representation in this two-part finale for “The Great North” season 3. In what ways have you pushed and made room for indigenous voices, both behind the scenes and on-screen? 

Wendy: It’s been always the intent of the show to include more Alaska Native voices both in our writers’ room and then on-screen. You don’t see faces, but you hear the voices. What’s really been interesting and fun has been working with our casting associates, with Julie Ashton, who’s our casting person, to say, “Hey, we’re not going to approximate having Alaska Native voices on our show or hide behind the animation.” We said, “We really want to find more Alaska Native actors to be on the show.” And that has meant really casting from up in Alaska, people who are living there, they’re actors and comedians. They’ve done a great job of finding these younger actors or maybe newer actors. It might be their first job, those who are Alaska natives, to be on the show. It’s been so fun to work with people we haven’t worked with before. And then some people who have more of a presence in the industry already, like Brian Wescott and Princess Daazhraii Johnson, who play Kima’s parents, and Walt (Wescott), has a big part in this episode and goes on a very dangerous adventure with beef. And that’s been really fun to explore as well. Our job is to sort of sit back a little bit and hear what people who are Alaska natives have on their minds or want to express in the show in terms of the fact, rather than dictating it out.

In “For Whom the Smell Tolls Adventure: Part One,” there are some really interesting characters, but the first one that we’re introduced to is this kind of zany character who features in the cold open. What was the inspiration behind his character?

Lizzie: We definitely took inspiration from a lot of those sort of bigger global action movies that I think we’ve all seen and are sort of familiar to everyone. There was a little bit of a touch of inspiration from those to create this sort of wildcard character that kind of sets things in motion. I think you see it in something like Jeff Goldblum in “Jurassic Park.” There’s usually this sort of character that is aware of what’s sort of going on, this mysterious thing that’s happening in this world that no one else is really privy to yet. They end up being a sort of the key to figuring out the solution. We have such a touch point with Wolf and Honeybee being such big movie fans that they are really into sort of all of these big blockbuster films like that. So I think that was sort of the jumping-off point. And it’s always fun to bring in a new character to sort of help propel the action in these bigger episodes. It’s something that’s not an average day in the news. It’s always nice to bring in somebody new to sort of get it in motion and make it feel a little bigger and a little different than your average episode.

Wendy: When it came to casting the character who’s known as Looney Louie, I had been listening to so much of the Dead Eyes podcast. It’s hosted by this actor, Connor Ratliff. And the entire time that I was listening to the podcast, I was like, “We got to get this guy on “The Great North.” He has an incredible voice, but what character?” Then when we were working on these two episodes, this big season finale, and there’s this kind of trickster character, came into play. Lizzie and I were immediately like, “Connor Ratliff. We finally have his part.” So that was kind of fun to bring him in because his voice really lent to the drawing a lot. The minute you hear his voice, he’s just perfect for this kind of wacky or outside character that he plays.