Nancy Basile: Mainly I wanted to talk to you because you have this incredibly prolific career in animation. Do you have a favorite cartoon that you're involved with right now?
Patrick Warburton: I've always enjoyed doing Kronk (The Emperor's New Groove) in whatever we do, whether it's one of the features or the TV show, that's always fun. I had a great time doing the wolf in Hoodwinked. That was fun.
N.B.: Do you prefer doing so-called kids' fare more than The Venture Brothers or the adult stuff?
Patrick Warburton: I wouldn't say I prefer one over the other. They're both appealing in different ways. The adult stuff can be just as creative. Y'know The Venture Brothers, a lot of the stuff is missed on me. I guess a lot of the stuff with The Venture Brothers is, y'know, comic guys...
N.B.: Right, pop culture kind of stuff...
Patrick Warburton: Right, it's lost on me. I get a kick out of what the characters are doing, what's immediate, as opposed to the nuance stuff that Chris McCulloch (creator of The Venture Brothers) integrates into it, the stuff the comic guys get.
N.B.: I talked to him a few months ago and he is like a walking encyclopedia of pop culture references and comic books. I have a cousin who's into comic books, and he loved you in The Tick.
Patrick Warburton: The Tick was a lot of fun. A lot of people get confused. They think I did the voice and Townsend Coleman did the cartoon. I just did the live-action version of it.
N.B.: Did it hit you hard when that show was cancelled?
Patrick Warburton: It was really disappointing because it just had so much potential. It was so much fun to do and when you get an opportunity like that you want to be able to proceed and we weren't given a shot, y'know. We were done before we were ever put on the air.
N.B.: And Fox messed with the time slots.
Patrick Warburton: They did mess with the time slots, but they did everything they could to kill the show. It turned out to be too expensive. They ordered nine episodes and we came in way over budget. We ended up costing more, like a one hour show. Because we were single camera, we had a lot of overtime. That's why The Tick ended up costing so much. The story was Rupert Murdoch (Chairman of Fox News Corp.) looked at the figures and said there's no way I'm going to spend this much on a show, even though we had great reviews from New York to L.A. He'd already discovered he could make a ton of money doing the reality shows.
N.B.: Oooohhhh...
Patrick Warburton: They weren't going to support us, even though we did nine episodes we felt good about. Although, the show still had plenty of room to grow and evolve. It was a creatively rich genre to get into, so fantasy, you could do a lot with it. Everyone felt decent about the first nine shows, and they were really well reviewed. They held us for a year before they even put us on the air because they knew they weren't going to be able to support the show. They threw us up on Thursday nights against Survivor without promo'ing it.
N.B.: People still talk about that show. It's a shame it got cancelled.
Patrick Warburton: It's good that they do and it's neat that it has a cult following.
N.B.: Were those antennae distracting? Did you know what they were doing while you were acting?
Patrick Warburton: Yeah, sure, yeah. You just kind of had to put it out of your head and forget about it.
N.B.: Do your kids get to see a lot of your work, now that you're doing so much voice work?
Patrick Warburton: They see most of it. They get a kick out of it. I let my eldest son watch The Family Guy.
N.B.: How old are they, your kids?
Patrick Warburton: He's fourteen now. My daugther Lexie's twelve. Shane's eight and Gabriel's six. They don't watch The Family Guy.
N.B.: Are you pretty strict about their TV viewing?
Patrick Warburton: Oh, yeah. I feel like we're pretty strict. My mother would disagree.
N.B.: Do they watch The Simpsons?
Patrick Warburton: They watch The Simpsons every now and then, yeah.
N.B.: I visited your official site on MySpace. Do you spend much time there?
Patrick Warburton: Not too much. I had a buddy set that up.
N.B.: You have a lot of friends at MySpace.
Patrick Warburton: Yeah.
N.B.: Barry Sonnenfeld was involved with The Tick and you've worked with him a few times on films. Are you guys planning on working together again?
Patrick Warburton: I'd love to work with Barry. He's a genius. He's just such a genuinely warm and funny man. I remember watching him on David Letterman one night and just thinking he was the funniest guest I'd ever seen on Letterman. It wasn't a big comic or an actor or a musician, it was Barry Sonnenfeld that gave the most entertaining interview I'd ever seen on Letterman. He's that kind of guy. He's genuinely funny. He's a real clever director. He's just great to work with.
N.B.: You were talking about Family Guy. Do you have much input on that show?
Patrick Warburton: No, it's all set. If you have an idea, you can throw something out every now and then or try a little something different, but it's already been conceived and the script is written and we go in and... Seth (MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy) likes to work fast. I'll go in and... There aren't too many storylines where Joe's really heavy in it, so I can go in and do four shows in about ten minutes, and we just run through 'em.
N.B.: Do you prefer voice work to live-action? Do you get more reward out of live-action work?
