Before landing a job at BoJack Horseman, TV writer Nick Adams has four writing credits, including the episode title Xerox Of A Xerox which won him a WGA award for Best Animation Writing. He worked on popular TV shows like New Girl, Truth Be Told, and Tuca & Bertie. By moving to streamers, he hoped to avoid some of the seasonal staffing rat race at the broadcast networks.
While working on People of Earth for TBS, he was able to move to BoJack Horseman, where he felt like he fit into the show they were trying to build. “I always say if you’re going to do it, do it big. I felt the show had a lot of guts and a lot of courage.”
In the first episode of Bojack Horseman Adams wrote on, called “Thoughts and Prayers,” the episode dealt with a PR nightmare for Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) after a mass shooting at a mall.
“If you like some excitement and controversy, here’s an episode with both,” joked Adams about his first gig for the series. “I do also have knowledge of LA… and I think for that show, you have to know the city before you can make fun of the city.”
BoJack Horseman: A Traumatized Character
On a show like BoJack Horseman, the quality of the writing is everything. “I think, for me, the emotional journey BoJack goes on is an empathetic one. Despite everything you know about BoJack, maybe he’s going to do the right thing.”
Nick Adams
According to Adams, BoJack realizes how bad of a being he is, how flawed he is, and really takes a deeper look at himself. At the same time, however, the other characters see he’s almost beyond redemption. “There’s a darkness here that maybe I didn’t even know about. I think that’s why the episode Xerox Of A Xerox resonates with people. It was really hard for me to watch, because you know he’s going to blow his [PR crisis management] interview and he doesn’t.”
The screenwriter describes BoJack as flawed, perhaps more than is even represented on the TV show. “This came up in the TV writers room. I said, there’s no way, with the parents that he had, he could ever turn out normal. You could make the argument there was no way for him to become a good person.”
In the TV writers’ room, to make the series work, the writers treat the character as a real person, which means they view his life as traumatic. “That’s what we saw, so there’s probably a whole iceberg below the surface.” In one example, Adams added, “If you see a parent yelling at their child in public and that’s how they behave in public, you know it’s probably worse than that in private.”
“The things that make him good are so interpersonal. He can be funny or self-deprecating, but if your relationship requires more of him, he’s incapable of doing that. He’s someone that needs more boundaries, not less,” said Adams about BoJack’s decadent Hollywood lifestyle.
The Redemption Timeline
In the screenwriter’s award-winning episode, Xerox of a Xerox, BoJack is at a point one might consider redemption because he may come clean, but in reality, there’s no real redemption for him. “For him to have peace and to be honest, he’s got to tell the truth about Sarah Lynn’s death, and that might destroy him. It’s sort of like when you procrastinate, and the night before, you think about how much you procrastinated rather than just working on the thing.”
In this particular episode, BoJack is forced to give a live interview and discuss the reality of his downward-spiraling lifestyle to the world. “Maybe this forced him to own up to it? But the show is also messy so there’s no proof he would be better if came clean. He definitely had to acknowledge and wallow in it.”
“In the overall character arc of BoJack,” said Adams, “I think that’s the episode where he’s forced to look at the overall train wreck of his life and the fact that his friends have all pretty much abandoned him. You would have to be a deeply psychotic person not to take stock. You’d have to be truly delusional not to acknowledge that.”
All in all, Adams believes the character is a victim of the Hollywood machine, but also his upbringing. “It’s the type of person he is. I think there are people who could handle the lifestyle better. The self doubt. The scrutiny. I always go back to those actors that just do the movie, then go back to their home towns rather than wallow in this.”
“BoJack would have been okay if he was a Daniel Day-Lewis type, but he’s a sitcom star. He needs the spotlight to thrive. He needs love. He doesn’t want you to see him alone. He wants to be charming.” Stardom fills a gap of self-loathing.
Xerox Of A Xerox
“Like a lot of stuff on the show, a lot of the episode titles will have a theme or it’s a line from the show. Early in that episode, [Showrunner] Raphael Bob-Waksberg pitched that line as something he wanted BoJack to say.”
Xerox of a Xerox is how BoJack sees himself in his fragile mind space. “He’s so guarded and has this persona, but then you see him say he’s never really felt like a person, just play-acting what he thinks a person is supposed to be. He doesn’t know how to graciously accept a compliment.”
Judah Mannowdog (Diedrich Bader) & Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris)
BoJack doesn’t really know how to be a friend, a father, or a person. He feels diluted, fading away, like a copy of a copy. “There’s so much going on in that episode that when he does finally say that, you as a viewer are looking for an explanation.”
He continued, “This is a celebrity everyone has been predisposed to like, and to hear him say he’s just going through the motions is pretty powerful. Despite knowing him, you feel bad for him.”
At the same time, the TV series also wanted to show that characters grow apart and just because you need someone in the moment, that person might not be good for you for a lifetime. “It’s not until the end that Diane Nguyen (Alison Brie) and Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) realize they’re not going to completely cut him off, but they don’t have to be friends with him either.”
Understanding Charisma
“It’s hard to understand what fame and that level of charisma is like,” said the writer about Diane’s relationship with the protagonist. She still yearns for BoJack despite moving to Chicago with her new beau. She can’t move on with her life.
“Someone like Will Arnett, who is tall, good looking, with an impressive voice, has money, is worldly… and fame is just like an an aphrodisiac.”
In real life, the writer has been out with actors like BoJack and there’s a “buzz of electricity” surrounding them. He added, “In order to have a conversation, I have to fight off droves of people because they’re just drawn to celebrities.”
Diane is in this position. “She learns that a little bit, but if there’s a famous person who considers you their friend, you’re going to give that person more slack with their bad behavior.”
These two characters move from a work relationship to a romantic relationship to a friendship, and because of these various elements, it’s harder for her to move on. “I think she was confused about what BoJack was and why she cares.” Perhaps she believed some of BoJack’s success might rub off onto her?
There’s also the pull of the Los Angeles lifestyle where things feel particularly important in one area, but do not matter to the rest of the world. Industry insider jokes are important. “When you leave LA, those things don’t mean anything to anybody,” joked the writer.
At that same time, there’s the unusual character of Todd (Aaron Paul), who is very intelligent, but unable to become successful. “Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter are the most cartoonish. He’s naïve, but can be really deep. I think there is something about the show where Todd provides comic relief, but he also reflects the sadness of BoJack’s life.”
With this in mind, Todd is the antidote to those chasing fame. “Todd doesn’t have a filter and he’s just a dude on BoJack’s couch. He’s not a yes-man, and the show needed someone like that.”
Lessons Learned
While working on shows like BoJack Horseman and New Girl, Adams learned what he had to do and what he didn’t have to do as a writer. “The writing is important, but New Girl worked because of those six charismatic characters. We worked hard to break those stories, but you learn quickly how important the writing is and how important it isn’t. Great writers need great actors.”
“I think that’s also why shows like Seinfeld stand the test of time. Those stories are pretty simple. Complexity is not what makes a good story.”
“You can agonize over an episode, but it’s going to turn out like it’s going to turn out. There’s an assembly line process of it. A lot of people have good ideas, but if it’s a network show, you have to write twenty-two episodes. It’s not a blueprint, but a basis. The bones are straight-forward. With BoJack, it’s what you put on top of it.”
