We kick off our first story from SDCC 2014 with the Aquabats! Super Show! that invaded SDCC this year and they brought along a special guest host Triumph The Insult Comic Dog (and later Robert Smigel) to introduce the show. It was a packed room on Friday night and the room had a great mix of fans of all ages.
Here is the introduction from Triumph himself.
Then the cast came in to talk about what is going on with the show and it’s future. We have sadly found out that The Hub Network has in fact cancelled the show. The good news is that the band owns the show and is currently shopping the show around to studios and networks to try to get it back on the air. The cost of each episode is $300,000 and that is extremely inexpensive compared to most shows that have a budget of over a million dollars on the low-end. They shoot the show non-union to save money. THey main reason for that is that everyone can pitch in to do whatever is needed. They usually do about 150 set up per day compared to about 30 for a studio show. The most important thing in doing the show is that the quality must be the highest priority.
They all work on the script and songs for the show. Most of the time with the songs it’s sort of bake-off type of situation. They have collaborated on the music with other artist. Most notably Gerard Way who co-wrote the songs and co-directed the episode The AntiBat. Smigel has known the band for over 10 years and both him and his kids are big fans of the show. They had lots of fun stories from the show that they shared and they treated the room to deleted scenes from the show and a blooper reel.
They mentioned that Shout Factory had put out the first season of the show on DVD. (I had talked to Shout earlier during the convention about the show and if they were going to release the remaining 2nd and 3rd season shows and they stated that the sales were not as good as they had hoped for the first season. And with the change in ownership would require them to make a whole new deal it seem pretty unlikely). Earlier in the day I was walking behind the convention center and spotted the Aquabats! van and would have taken it for a spin but it was guarded, foiled again!
They ended the panel with a table read of one of the scripted episodes that was going to be used in the 3rd season. I was able to record the reading and you will have to excuse some of the camera work because I forgot to bring the tripod to the panel.
It was a really good panel and everyone had a great time. For Aquabats! fans it’s good to know that the group wants the show back on the air as much as the fans do. They are trying their hardest to make that happen. The other great thing is that after the panel the band and Smigel stayed and talked to their fans and took photos and Crash even recorded a video message for someone.
I got to take my picture with both MC Bat Commander and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.
Here are the photos that I took during the panel.
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