INTERVIEW: Follow three friends into the not-so-distant future on ‘Oh My God … Yes!’
Photo: Oh My God … Yes! follows the adventures of Sunny, Tulip and Ladi. Art courtesy of Adult Swim / Provided by press rep with permission.
The new quarter-hour comedy from Adult Swim, Oh My God … Yes!, recently premiered on the animated network, and all seven episodes of the inaugural season are now available on digital from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment. The show follows three friends — Sunny, Tulip and Ladi — as they navigate life in South Central, Los Angeles, approximately 75 years in the future.
The show was created and is executive produced by Adele “Supreme” Williams, who loves the chance to tell some stories about a neighborhood she knows well. She grew up in South Central, and by setting the action in the not-so-distant future, she can offer some commentary on today’s world and what this part of Southern California might look like in a few years.
“I actually wanted it to be much further in the future, but Adult Swim was like, ‘That’s too far,'” Williams said in a recent Zoom interview. “It was actually an executive decision made by the network, but I think when we had our first [writers’] room, and we wrote our first few episodes, we decided collectively that what we’re talking about and how we’re talking about it feels a bit closer than we imagined.”
Williams, known for My Dad the Bounty Hunter, was quick to credit another creative team member with the specific year of Oh My God … Yes! Ultimately they decided on 2102, which is about 1,000 years shy from where Willams wanted to be, but she seems perfectly content with this new setting and telling this story about three characters who are quite personal to her.
“Each of the characters is just a piece of me,” she said. “Sunny is the part of me that can intellectualize my bullshit and my bad decisions. Tulip is the part of me that is spiritual and compassionate and will, as I like to say, run red lights. … And Ladi is the gut feeling that I often have and I ignore — the part of me that knows this isn’t a good idea, no-nonsense, very steadfast in my decision-making. She doesn’t flounder. I imagine each of these parts of me being an entire person, which is really fun.”
To place Sunny, Tulip and Ladi in a fitting environment, Williams thought back to her childhood in South Central. She wanted to depict the neighborhood in a positive, fun way, which is not always how this section of Los Angeles has been portrayed in various movies and TV shows.
“I feel like lately we’ve had a lot of creators, such as Issa Rae, who set their shows and films in South Central and have depicted it in a way that defied stereotypes that we grew up seeing in the ‘90s,” Williams said. “South Central was always [seen as] a haven of drugs and crime, and having grown up there, it’s like, yeah, yeah, these things are taking place. But it was also fun. It was a great time. The sense of community was so warm, and culture was robust. So I was really excited to be able to shine a light on how colorful the place is and to honor the geography of it, which was something that was super important to me, with a bit of a cyber-punk flair. … I grew up watching The Jetsons, and I used to always imagine, wouldn’t it be cool if they lived here? So this show was an opportunity to explore that.”
With the time period set and the location confirmed, Williams was ready to start creating, but there was another mountain to climb: Would this be a 15-minute comedy or 30-minute comedy? Adult Swim does both. At first, she wanted longer episodes — what executive producer wouldn’t — but she has come around to the idea of what can be achieved in less time.
“We all desire the full 30 minutes, but when we were given a quarter hour, it was a fun challenge,” she said. “It was fun packing in all that we packed in to the 11-13 pages of real estate that we were given. I think it is what kind of informs the ride it takes the viewer on. Sometimes people watch it, and they’re like, ‘I have to watch that again. What the f— just happened?’ It’s a bit of whiplash, and it’s robust. You can tell a lot is being said, but it happens so fast, you’ve got to watch it again just to take it in a second time. And I’m actually really glad it’s only a quarter hour. If we’re lucky enough to see a second season, I want it to stay here. I think it’s going to become the show’s signature, that whiplash of a ride, it being filled to the brim with jokes and environmental comedy.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Oh My God … Yes!, created and executive produced by Adele “Supreme” Williams, airs new episodes Sundays at 12:15 a.m. on Adult Swim. The seven episodes of the inaugural season are also available digitally. Click here for more information.
