THE PJ'S - AN INTRODUCTION

AN INTRODUCTION

On Thanksgiving Day about three years ago, Executive Producer and star Eddie Murphy found himself watching "Thunderbirds," a series from the 1960s that featured a cast of marionettes. Reminiscing about how he used to watch this type of show all the time, it led him to thinking about the state of situation comedies today and how the worlds that are created for shows are very artificial. "You have people sitting in a living room while you sit in your living room and watch them. Nobody ever knocks, they just come in and out of people's homes," he observed.

Murphy got the idea to take something as artificial as puppets and animate them against a very realistic backdrop like an urban housing project. "I wanted to do a show that would be really interesting and kind of mirror society while keeping it funny and real at the same time," Murphy said. "And that's where the idea came from. The projects would be like a microcosm of society -- you have so many different types of people living there that everybody's represented. I thought it would be interesting to have this one character that would have to deal with all of them," he concluded.

And so began the road to development. Imagine Television Co-Chairman Brian Grazer and Murphy met with FOX to talk to about producing a series set in the projects that would be shot with puppets. After a pitch meeting that included performances of the different characters by the comedian, they were enthusiastic about the project and suggested that they contact stop-motion animation guru Will Vinton, with whom he had recently met about a dimensional animation project for primetime.

Once Will Vinton Studios was on board they were ready to begin creating and designing the characters. It was decided that a four-minute presentation reel would be produced to show FOX some of the core characters and give the network a feel for the tone of the series. Creators and Executive Producers Larry Wilmore & Steve Tompkins were then brought in to the process.

Initially Murphy wanted to do a show that would be edgy and somewhat raw. "His concept was originally along the lines of 'Punch and Judy' or 'The Honeymooners,'" recalled Tompkins. "Eddie felt that when Ralph Kramden says he's going to send Alice to the moon, this time he could really do it and throw her across the room because they're puppets and you could get away with it."

"They were going to be constantly battling each other, but it was just a rough idea," Wilmore added. "In fact, when we came on board it was being called the 'PJs Project,' referring to Punch and Judy. It's not about that anymore, but we really like the name. It's catchy and we use it to refer to the projects."

After signing on, Wilmore and Tompkins met with the comedian to talk about the concept. "We got together with Eddie in his dressing room when he was shooting 'Dr. Doolittle' and he pitched this idea to us about a puppet show in the projects and we thought it was hilarious!" Wilmore recalled. "I couldn't believe that we were in a meeting with Eddie Murphy and he was pitching to us!" added Tompkins .

It was obvious to the pair that they had clicked with Murphy and that this collaboration could work. Wilmore and Tompkins then became involved in the character creation and design phase with the team at Will Vinton Studios. Artists were commissioned to develop designs for the various characters.

"We were really searching for a different look for this project, something very unique," Vinton said. "We literally did hundreds of different drawings. Our experience has been that a character is really never well-defined, or even designed, until it is animated and comes to life. The style of the animation is as important, or in some ways more important, than the physical design of the character. Because of this we insisted on keeping a multi-track development of the characters," he explained.

The different styles were then taken to the maquette stage which is the first time the characters are actually sculpted, and then on to rough animation models. Ultimately three designs for Thurgood were decided upon: one that was highly caricature in nature but at the same time fairly realistic with a detailed, craggy face; one that had a very elemental, cartoon-like look about it; and one that fell somewhere in between the two.

"Everyone liked the realistic design until we animated it," Vinton recalled. "While it was absolutely beautiful and would have been a stunning look, when it came to life it was like some sort of 'bizarro' creature that was really creepy."

With the demo script written and the character prototypes ready, Wilmore, Tompkins and Vinton went to the set of the movie Murphy was shooting in Miami to have the actor lend his voice and comedic talents and bring Thurgood Stubbs to life. After showing the completed demo to FOX the network promptly gave the green light for 13 episodes.

"Steve and I then began to write the pilot and create other characters. It was a combination of characters we felt we needed for the story and those that naturally came as we wrote," Wilmore said.

Production on the series began in February of 1998 with the recording sessions during which Wilmore and Tompkins directed the actors. "First we read each script with the entire cast so that everyone can hear the whole story and get the flow of it," Tompkins explained. "Then in the recording studio we break it down with the actors scene by scene and treat each one like a 'playlet.' We run through it a couple of times and do audio pick-ups for various lines if necessary. Larry and I take all the audio and edit it together so that when we hear it with our eyes shut we can visualize it and get the timing down. It's essentially like working on an old radio show."

"Everything is recorded before it's animated. That way someone like Eddie who is very improvisational can just fly with it as he's performing and the animators will work with what's been recorded," said Wilmore.

While the voices were being recorded in Los Angeles, Will Vinton's team was gearing up at their studios in Portland, Oregon. Under the direction of Supervising Director Mark Gustafson, they began animation tests with the character puppets that were finished. This allowed them to get a feel for how they moved and to come up with characteristics that would distinguish them from one another in terms of movement and attitude.

"Thurgood is kind of a grumpy guy. He always has a slightly bent-kneed sort of stance and has certain signature moves. He moves kind of quickly for a guy his age," Gustafson noted. "Mrs. Avery is another good example. She has a little bit of a shake in her when she turns and some spittle on her lips. They all have their little nuances."

Storyboards are drawn for each episode. They are then shot and cut to the length of the episode using the track as a reference, which is known as an animatic. "We see where each shot fits in the context of the episode. Typically we know one to two weeks in advance what an animator will be shooting. There is a log sheet that has each shot analyzed and broken down frame by frame," explained Gustafson. "I discuss with the animator what I'm looking for from the performance. But these animators are very talented, so there's a lot of give and take -- they have a lot of good ideas."

There are 20 different animators working on the show with four episodes in production concurrently. There are four directors working simultaneously on their respective episodes. "My job is to make sure that there is creative continuity amongst all the directors so I look at everything -- all the storyboards, all the edits," Gustafson said.

Approximately two minutes of footage is shot per week. One episode takes about 12 weeks to animate, which is actually very fast. "For commercials we'll spend four weeks shooting a :30 spot," Gustafson pointed out.

Being the first time a primetime series has been done in this form of animation, the team at Will Vinton Studios found themselves with organizational challenges. "We had to streamline everything. It's a lot more compartmentalized than usual -- there are people who are doing just one thing. Our whole task as directors and producers is to keep the animators shooting all the time," Gustafson remarked. "It is a difficult thing to organize because you have to stay ahead of them all the time and be ready with another set-up they can start on. That's truly been the challenge so far."

THE SHOW

Eddie Murphy's unique brand of comedy comes together with the stop-motion animation expertise of Will Vinton Studios in Imagine Television and Touchstone Television's new comedy The PJs. Shot in "foamation," this cutting-edge satire takes a look at the pitfalls and hidden pleasures of life in a big city housing project.

As superintendent of the Hilton-Jacobs Projects, Thurgood Stubbs (Eddie Murphy) watches over his beloved building with pride. He handles complaints from a colorful cast of characters in a decidedly gruff manner, but the Super's tough exterior just masks how much he cares. He may not be able to put his feelings into words, but he sure can plunge a toilet.

Muriel (Loretta Devine) is Thurgood's wife of 26 years. The salt of the earth, Muriel is the calming force in their household as well as the voice of reason. While she and Thurgood don't have kids of their own--he has weak sperm, she too willingly tells people--they act as surrogate parents to 10-year-old Calvin (Crystal Scales), who looks up to the Super.

Calvin and his portly pal Juicy (Michele Morgan), whose parents are so obese they can't leave the apartment, are good kids although they do get into their share of scrapes. Always looking out for them, Thurgood is alarmed to see the pair skip school one day and sneak into the movies. When Thurgood catches Calvin he decides to teach him a lesson about the importance of going to school and has the boy tag along with him for a day to see what his job is really like. His plan backfires when Calvin decides to be a superintendent just like Thurgood, leaving the Super to find a way to "deglamourize" his job--demoralizing himself in the process.

While Thurgood and Muriel are happily married, they have their ups and downs just like any couple. When Muriel is sick in bed with a horrible flu during the fierce "El Negro" storm, she relies on Thurgood to nurse her back to health. He may know how to fix a running faucet but a runny nose is a whole different story. Tired of her constant demands, he heads down to the boiler room to watch his beloved "Wheel of Fortune" in peace and promptly dozes off. After waking from his slumber hours later Thurgood returns to their apartment, but instead of finding his wife he discovers his brother-in-law Jimmy (Michael Paul Chan). Jimmy tells Thurgood that Bebe (Jenifer Lewis), Muriel's older sister, took her to the hospital for proper care. Thurgood gets a frosty reception from his wife when he finally shows up at the hospital. But he gets the chance to redeem himself by forging out into the storm to try and retrieve his wife's diary when she realizes that it has been lost along the way.

Always a source of frustration for the Super is the combative Mrs. Avery (Ja'net DuBois), a 73-year-old tenant who harbors an abundance of hate toward Thurgood. Nothing he does is ever good enough for her and the old woman's anger typically induces a stroke, which she naturally blames on Thurgood. In spite of their history of mutual hatred, the Super spearheads a building-wide fundraising effort to subsidize her rent when he suspects the septuagenarian has hit hard times. When Mrs. Avery discovers what he's done she hits the roof and his good deed turns into a disaster. But when all is said and done, Thurgood winds up learning something about the seemingly independent tenant and is able to help her in the end.

Haiti Lady (Cheryl Francis Harrington) is the resident voodoo expert and shares Mrs. Avery's displeasure with the Super. Equipped with her juju stick and a curse for every occasion, Haiti Lady has a solution to whatever problem is facing the building. When Thurgood installs a brand-new door for the building, she recommends a curse to protect it from theft that would turn the lungs of anyone who came near it black as coal. The Super quickly points out one little problem with her idea--none of them would be able to get in or out of the building! Provoked by his smug attitude, Haiti Lady sticks another pin in the Thurgood voodoo doll that is always close at hand.

Thurgood enjoys playing chess with Sanchez (Pepe Serna), although his friend's endless droning on about his late wife Esperanza easily wears on Thurgood's nerves. His Korean brother-in-law Jimmy's constant assertions of his own blackness" never fail to get under Thurgood's skin, but nothing sticks in the Super's craw more than the bureaucratic red tape he fights each time he has to deal with the seemingly omnipotent Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

But for all the trials and tribulations the Hilton-Jacobs "family" faces, they never lose their strong sense of community. They may not have a lot living in the projects, but they always have each other.

THE SPECIAL EFFECTS

The award-winning Will Vinton Studios has been building an impressive stable of animated characters in the dimensional genre for years, making them a natural choice to collaborate on Imagine Television and Touchstone Television's The PJs. While these veteran craftspeople bring many years of expertise to the table, they've also blazed new trails through uncharted territory.

"This has never been done before, and every day we're reminded why it's never been done," remarked Paul Harrod, supervising art director on The PJs. "The challenges are just incredible, but it was exciting that for the first time we were presented with the idea of doing a TV show that would be more adult-oriented. For that reason, it would allow us to do a lot of things in the area of character, set and overall production design that you wouldn't normally do with a children's show."

"When we were first approached with the idea we proposed a four-minute short film to introduce at least two or three of our principal characters, as well as some of the set designs for their environment," recalled Harrod. "We handled it pretty much the way we would anything although we were trying to keep our overall costs down as much as possible. We knew that once we started producing a TV series, the budget would be limited compared to what we have for a commercial or a special," he explained.

They decided on a design style for the characters that was playful with a slightly gritty, edgy quality, while at the same time maintaining audience appeal. The set design is a form of realism, or "realism sanded" as it is called. "You take the real world and cut back a little on a certain level of detail and ultimately let paint finish a lot of what we were doing," Harrod said. "One of the really exciting things about the set design was that we could go for a much grittier kind of naturalism with it. It didn't have to be a clean, sparkling, pristine environment which, in fact, wouldn't serve the project at all. We were able to go with an environment that wasn't necessarily all that inviting. The characters were very helpful in bringing us back towards a level of playfulness."

The characters also had a very specific impact on the sets due to their unusual proportions. They have large hands and large heads attached to small bodies so all the sets and props were constructed with that in mind. The sets have a realistic urban look but with very odd proportions. The bathroom sink, for example, is scaled primarily for the character's head and hands because that is the part of the puppet that will work with it. On the other hand, the toilet is scaled for the rest of the body. The end result is an unusually large sink and toilet, but with the characters in place it all ties together.

For a live action series set construction supplies are very easy to come by. But the unique needs of The PJs aren't so easily met, especially considering that some of the key sets were fabricated in multiples of four. "We had to be able to make exact duplicates of each set which we accomplished with mold making and pattern making," Harrod said. "A model maker would build a prop or find one ready-made and then our crew would make a silicon mold of that. This process allowed us to quickly produce multiples of windows, fireplugs, newspaper stands, etc."

Pattern-making was also useful in the manufacture of building textures such as brick. The craftsmen would create a 2' x 2' sheet of brick texture and glue it onto a piece of perforated metal. Through a technique called vacuforming, a sheet of tyrene is heated up and then essentially sucked onto the pattern by a vacuum process. "This allowed us to quickly create sheets and sheets of brick, cinder block and fake wood texture. Because almost every surface in the show is covered in some kind of texture there is no way we could have produced the necessary volume of detailed surface without having this process at our disposal," asserted Harrod.

Another area of art direction that poses a challenge is obtaining props to dress the sets. A typical prop house wouldn't have the kind of scale needed for the world of The PJs, so everything has to be purchased in various locations or specially-made. All of the 40-ounce malt liquor bottles were designed by Harrod himself and then made by a scientific glass blower.

Another consideration that plays an important role in this type of a series is that everything needs to be built. "We do have some real limitations on us so we're trying to keep the show located within some basic areas. But at the same time, I don't want to limit our scope to the point where the show becomes confined or feels as if there isn't a world past these walls," Harrod said. "We're working hard to keep the scope as expansive as possible and give the writers what they ask for whenever we can."

Because of the limitations inherent in this kind of animation the sets were built to be as versatile as possible. Harrod explained that the sets are entirely modular and can be shot from any angle. "This is another thing that makes it very different from any other television series. With most comedies you're always seeing the character's living room from one particular angle, but we're not restricted in that way. One animator can work on Thurgood sitting in his recliner on one set while another animator can work on an over-the-shoulder shot of Thurgood and what he's responding to."

Animating special effects also created a challenge for the Vinton team. Things like fire, smoke and sprays of water are very difficult to rig so computer animation is relied upon to provide these elements if called for in a script. Sweating and pouring, however, can be animated. "Sweat is usually created with glycerin or something along those lines that the animator can actually manipulate on the character's face. Sometimes we make beads of water out of epoxy which is also used to make pours. We can create three or four stages of pouring out of epoxy that, when shot and replaced accordingly, give the illusion of a liquid being poured," noted Harrod.

From set construction to props to special effects, each specialized area contributes something unique and equally important to the production as a whole. "This is a highly collaborative process where no one person can take credit. We've had an incredible crew of about 100 people that have done a tremendous job. I think we have managed to come up with something that is distinctly different from anything that's ever been seen on television before," Harrod concluded.

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