“Long Story Short” Cast Breaks Down Their New Animated Family Comedy on Netflix
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After a screening of the new Netflix animated series “Long Story Short,” showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg and the main cast sat down with Los Angeles Times reporter Tracy Brown at the Netflix Tudum Theater on August 18 to talk about how it all came together.
The show “Long Story Short” is a family comedy that explores the dynamics of a Jewish American family over various time periods. The show aims to tell a relatable story in a non-chronological, memory-like structure that allows the audience to get to know the characters deeply over the course of the season.
The animated Netflix series from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of ‘BoJack Horseman,’ centers on a middle-class Jewish family and their interpersonal relationships.
Bob-Waksberg, known for the sitcom “BoJack Horseman,” talked about how he wanted to explore a different kind of dynamic – a biological family with a shared history. He was interested in telling a story over a long period and related the viewing experience to flipping through an old photo album, bouncing between different memories and moments.
The cast had nothing but praise for the show’s writing, and they shared stories about how that collaboration worked. Lisa Edelstein, who plays the mom Naomi, mentioned that she instinctively read her lines with a New York accent. Instead of shutting it down, Bob-Waksberg and the writers loved it and wrote it into her character’s backstory, showing how the actors’ choices helped shape the show.
Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and supervising producer Lisa Hanawalt discuss how the show time-jumps between moments from the 1950s to 2020s, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ben Feldman, who plays Avi, imagines everyone can see their own family in the characters’ loudness, passive-aggressiveness and love. “The beauty of this show, I think, is that it’s so incredibly specific. It feels like it’s about you when you watch it. And I imagine there are people out there that didn’t grow up with an obnoxious Jewish family like me, who still can watch this and be like, oh my God, that’s my mom, that’s my sister,” said Feldman.
The Q&A wrapped up with a question about the end credit that reads, “This program was made by humans.” Bob-Waksberg explained it wasn’t just a gimmick. He feels the joy of creating art comes from the surprises and imperfections that happen when collaborating with other people – something an algorithm can’t replicate. He wanted the show to feel messy, real and a little unpredictable, just like the people who made it.
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