Here is my interview with JG Quintel, the brilliant mastermind behind Cartoon Network’s Regular Show, a hilarious Emmy-winning cartoon about a Blue Jay named Mordecai, and a raccoon named Rigby who get themselves into crazy adventures all the time.

During the 90’s, did you watch and were you influenced by the Cartoon Network originals that paved the way, such as Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and The Powerpuff Girls?

I actually didn’t watch Cartoon Network because I didn’t have it. I was really influenced by The Simpsons, Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead.

With the continued success of season five, what led you to bringing fan favorite, Don, back?

We’ve been exploring a lot of our past characters. Typically most of our side characters don’t come back, but once we got past 100 eps, we started to see who was still around. Surprisingly, a lot of our favorite characters die by the end of an episode so it makes it tough to reuse them. Don was from way back in season one, and when the story of Rigby trying to get back some lost skills that he used to have as a kid, it was a good opportunity to bring his brother back.

Another notable music influence on the show is that the character, Death, is based off of Motorhead’s Lemmy. What is it that you love about Lemmy?

The Ace of Spades!

What did it mean to you when you found out that not only is Regular Show Chris Jericho’s favorite cartoon, but that he dressed up as Jebediah Townhouse for Halloween this year?

That was pretty crazy. I saw him tweet the picture, and when I saw how many followers he had I realized it was for real. That and the verified logo. It’s just weird to realize that people you’ve seen on TV might be watching things that we’re working on. And then for them to dress up as characters is even crazier, especially since the episode only aired a few weeks prior. His costume was awesome!

Despite not being an actual song and only several seconds long, the opening theme for Regular Show is still memorable. How was that developed?

At the beginning of the series, Cartoon Network wanted the opening credits of their new shows to only be 10 seconds long. So I wanted to have the credits on top along with the song, which meant that it was only going to be about 5 seconds. I borrowed a synthesizer from our P.A. and went into the record booth to record that opening sound. I think my favorite thing about it is seeing that some people are reminded of Regular Show when their stomach growls because they think it sounds like the theme song.

If you could have Mordecai and Rigby meet and interact with any famous cartoon duo in history, which would it be?

Probably Beavis and Butthead. I think the four of them would get into some pretty hilarious situations. Although I’m not sure how long Mordecai and Rigby would deal with them. Beavis and Butthead were pretty dumb.

Since Karaoke Video is a popular episode, do you have any particular memories of doing karaoke?

Yeah, only that I’m really bad at it. It’s kinda hard to listen to myself singing in Regular Show because I really can’t sing at all. I guess it does make it feel more real though, haha.

Where were you and what was your immediate reaction when you first got the news that Regular Show was greenlit by Cartoon Network?

I was at the studio in Rob Sorcher’s office when they told me. I was pretty pumped. I had been waiting to find out for a few months so when they finally told me, I was ready to get started.

If you were to watch Regular Show one final time, which episode would you pick to watch?

That’s really hard. We’ve made a lot of episodes that I’m really proud of. I’d definitely watch all of our specials, Exit 9B, The Christmas Special, and The Thanksgiving Special. I’d maybe watch Eggscellent one more time too, it’s the episode that won us our Emmy.

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