Game Over: An Interview With the Show's Creator

A little last-minute controversy won't keep UPN's new animated sitcom off the air. Check out a video of what the network doesn't want you to see.

What's so funny about video games? David Sacks, the creator of UPN's new animated sitcom Game Over (Wednesdays at 8, starting March 10 -- check your local listings), has a simple and straightforward answer: "Totally insane behavior is presented as normal."

Count on it: The show follows the animated adventures of the Smashenburns, your everyday suburban family in the video game universe. Clan patriarch Rip (voiced by Patrick Warburton of Seinfeld and The Tick) is a race car driver with a penchant for hitting walls; wife/mom Raquel (Kill Bill's Lucy Liu) is a sexy Lara-Croft-meets-Joanna-Dark secret agent who leaves for work every day via helicopter (not to mention the kitchen window). Socially conscious 15-year-old Alice (SNL's Rachel Dratch) protests sexy volleyball games, while Billy (E.G. Daily -- aka Powerpuff Girl Buttercup) is just your average awkward 13-year-old hip-hop wannabe, and the family pet Turbo (voiced by Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange) chomps cigars and robs parking meters.

For gamers, it's great to see in-jokes and cameos -- like when the entire cast of Oddworld shows up in the first episode. But is prime time ready for a gaming 'toon? Sacks has an answer for that, too.

UPDATE: With the current flap about "cleaning up the airwaves," even Game Over has fallen prey to network censors. A few lines had to be redubbed before the show's premiere, and a scene featuring a naked rendered rear-end will reportedly be cut from the show's debut. If you'd like to see what you're missing, check out a few sample scenes from the original edit of the first episode, then tune in to compare.

GamePro: What are the main differences between the Smashenburns' gaming world and the "real" one? David Sacks: One of the things that really intrigues me is that in Vice City (to name just one example), it's socially acceptable to walk down a sunny sidewalk by a beach and punch the next person who walks by you in the face. In the "real" world that's certainly not alright. I wanted to see what it would be like to actually live and raise a family in a world where there are all these dysfunctional modes of relating to each other. Having said that, the differences between the gaming world and the real world are becoming more and more minor. On the plus side, this is an environment that is still nuttier than our world and that's not a small thing.

GP: Is this intended more for mainstream sitcom viewers or enthusiast gamers? And how do you balance pleasing one audience without alienating the other? Have there been gaming jokes that were deemed "too inside"?

DS: So far we've been thrilled to find that everyone: men, women, younger, older, gamers, non-gamers have been responding enthusiastically. Our approach from the outset was to make jokes that everyone could get even if we have to "multi-level" them. For instance, there is a segment in episode two where Billy goes on this surrealistic date with an anime Japanese exchange student. In anime, if you get a nosebleed it's a sign of being aroused. Now most people don't know this, so before he starts bleeding, a fish smacks in face -- that is, before it kisses him on the lips. Truth be told it?s a bizarre moment either way, but everyone can get it. On further thought?you might have to actually see this one.

GP: Why go CGI rendered instead of traditional animation, or even live action?

DS: The show is about the real life of video game characters - so to sell that, it's really important for the show to look like a real video game.

GP: How you decide which game characters are cameo-worthy, and then how do you go about getting permission to use them?

DS: We never want to sneak something in unless it fits, so mainly we wait for inspiration for a great cross-over moment and hope we can get the rights in time to do the joke. In the beginning we had difficulty with that. We had a billboard of Mrs. Pac Man in lingerie as an aging prostitute that said "will work for fruit." Couldn't clear that one.

GP: Any you can reveal as coming up soon?

DS: How?s Lara Croft? She's on tap?

GP: Everyone here really enjoyed the second episode more than the first, and we're eager to see how the show progresses and develops if given the chance beyond its initial six episodes.

DS: We feel like we're just scratching the surface. More than anything we want a show that doesn't just have cool video game references, but is actually set in video game reality. If we get more episodes look for scenes set in the actual environments of Halo, Rachet and Clank, Blinx, and a bunch of others. [Editors' note: Game Over has been picked up for an additional six episodes.]

GP: You and co-developer David Goetsch boast Ivy League educations. So...do they play a lot of video games at Harvard and Yale?

DS: Those school are pretty damn expensive, so if they are, they better get back to work. After all, someone's got to cure cancer.

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