Sitcom Toons, part 2: Grimsburg

You’ve heard that timing is everything, right? I have to put skill and luck right next to it as the Holy Trinity of staying employed in TV animation. You MUST have all three. However, there are moments when one of those factors takes center stage, and I had one of those moments in May 2022.

In February of that year, I signed onto one of the worst productions I’d ever been involved with. From the very beginning, it had been saddled with the most self-sabotaging decisions that could possibly have been made, and working on it was like trying to prop up a building with paper cups. There could only be one possible outcome. I won’t tell you what show it was, because it has since mutated into something else I’m certain you haven’t seen. I will, however, tell you that I DO NOT QUIT under any circumstances. No matter how tough or miserable it gets, I ride out a job to the very end. If an employer decides they don’t want me around, it’s up to them to kick me out. And they did, on Friday, May 13 (a memorable date). At the moment I learned this, it was like that building turned to confetti and blew away in the wind.

I immediately went to LinkedIn and messaged a friend, Director Roy Burdine. He was on another show, and had mentioned a month or so earlier that they needed storyboard artists. Thinking maybe they still did, I told him I was free, and he said, “Perfect timing.” Exactly one week later, I was on the show.

I’d never heard of it before. It was titled Grimsburg, and Roy described it as a comedy detective drama set in a small town modeled on Twin Peaks. It was being produced at Bento Box Studio for prime time on Fox, which was rare ground for me. Bento is well known for animated sitcoms, and I was glad to finally get a chance to work for them. And this had some star power in the voice cast. John Hamm was the lead character, and a stellar roster of comic talent would fill in the rest. I would have been happy with any job at that point, but this was a GIANT step up from the disaster I’d just left behind.


Early promo image, characters still in development. See early press here.

When I signed on, the show was in some disarray. Based on what I heard, it sounded like some elements had gone back into development after the first episode or two were storyboarded. Sometimes that’s just how it goes. It may seem like everything works great on paper, but until you have actors speaking lines and scenes being drawn, you can’t completely anticipate the chemistry. The imperative then is to retool as quickly as possible since the plane is already off the ground. You have no choice but to reconfigure it in flight and hope it flies better.

In the spring of 2022, we were all still in Covid lockdown. Bento Box has a physical studio not far from where I live, but my workspace was right where it had always been, in my home. From 2020 onward, I’ve been drawing storyboards in exactly the same spot regardless of who they’re for. If you need to be around other people to be creative, this is not the job for you. We had Zoom meetings a few times a week, but that’s never going to be the same. As of early 2025, we’re still in that condition. I cannot imagine what it’s like for anyone who got their start during that time. But at least we’re ready for the next pandemic.

On my first day, I was assigned to Episode 2, directed by the supremely talented Caitlin VanArsdale, who was saddled with introducing me to a whole new kind of storyboarding. This wasn’t like the zillion other shows I’d directed and boarded, most of which were meant to imitate live-action. The style for prime time shows is more rigid and narrow, much closer to a newspaper comic strip. It’s what they call “script driven.” The writing dominates the visuals. Therefore, the visuals aren’t meant to be dynamic.

To keep shot compositions within that range, we were given prefab character images (converted into digital “stamps”) to place into a scene and manipulate. So if you had a character standing and talking, you could put the character in place and redraw the mouth. If they had to raise an arm, you’d erase the existing arm and draw a new one in the raised position. We had complete rotations of the main characters to show them from different angles, which was convenient. But to me it felt more like puppetry than drawing, and adapting to it was tougher than I thought.

Caitlin was patient with me and generous with advice, but the experience was humbling. I’d already logged 20 years of storyboarding before she got her first credit, but now I was back in school to relearn my craft and she was my instructor. I’d gotten a taste of prime time storyboarding on Maxine, Sammy, and Futurama, but those were all drawn on paper. Grimsburg was 100% digital, built with tools that I never needed to use before. In the beginning it felt clumsy and awkward. But this plane was in flight and I was on it.

Thankfully, it wasn’t all a struggle. Some scenes came with ease and made it all the way through without revision, particularly an action sequence at the end that had Caitlin stumped. I saw it immediately in my head when I read the script and knocked it out in no time. So when we wrapped up Episode 2, I felt like I at least had a grip on where to go from there.

While this was underway, the development issues got solved and I was transferred over to Roy Burdine’s team to put Episode 1 back in shape. From there, I stayed with him to work on his episodes and occasionally jumped over to others whenever extra help was needed, which brought my total up to eight out of 13 shows.

As things began to wind down in the fall of 2022, I was contacted out of the blue by another studio and hired to direct on another show (Hot Wheels Let’s Race, now on Netflix). It was scheduled to start about a month before Grimsburg wrapped, but I had to take it for the sake of continued employment. I’m very glad I did, because I enjoyed it a lot, but that month of overlap was like inching down the wing of one plane (in flight) to grab onto the wing of another plane. Inevitably, my attention on the last episode of Grimsburg was compromised and Roy got grumbly about it. I made it up to him later by getting him hired on Hot Wheels, and all was well.

After my departure, there was still a long period of post production during which the episode order got scrambled quite a bit. My heaviest contributions were on episodes 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, and 13, but the broadcast order shifted them to become episodes 1-5 and 13. There wasn’t much continuity between them (sitcoms rarely happen in a specific order), but I can only imagine the conditions that forced these decisions. As I’d learned in my earlier sitcom experiences, rewriting happens all the way up to the last minute, even if animation is already done. Then you Frankenstein your shows together in the editing room using whatever parts work for you. It takes a certain kind of mind to thrive on that, which is why not everyone is qualified to make a TV show.

Now then. Since this was a 100% digital production and I saved all the sequences I worked on, I can show you what modern storyboarding really looks like. Below you’ll find every episode of the series in finished form (thanks, Youtube) and movie files of what I did for six of them (I left out two, since my work on them was minor). You’ll see the work in different phases from rough to clean. You’ll also see stuff that didn’t end up in the finished episode, since the scripts were usually overwritten and material had to be cut/shortened/revised/etc. This will be part of the process until budgets get larger and nobody cares how long an episode is any more. For now, it’s my sad duty to tell you that every episode of your favorite animated show has bonus material you’ll never get to see. Sorry.

Season 1 of Grimsburg premiered on Fox January 7, 2024 and can now be found streaming on Hulu. Enjoy.

 

RELATED LINKS

Series trailer | Wikipedia page | Fox website

 

Episodes 1-7

1. Pilot (00:00)

Marvin Flute is a misanthropic detective (played by Jon Hamm) who easily cracks complex cases but struggles to solve one mystery: his family.

2. The Flute Show (21:40)

A film crew comes to Grimsburg to document Flute’s ongoing murder investigation for a true crime series. Meanwhile, Stan becomes close with the actor playing Flute, treating him as a father figure.

3. McSnuff the Mystery Mutt (43:20)

After being forced to take a desk role in the office, Flute decides to lead a double-life and become a dog-themed superhero named McSnuff.

4. The Flute-ive (1:04:58)

Flute enters the Grimsburg Miniature Competition and is accused of murdering the judge after being disqualified. He tries to clear his name by recreating a miniature model of the crime scene.

5. Say Yes to the Death (1:26:37)

Grimsburg PD goes undercover at a wedding to catch the notorious bouquet-catcher killer. But Flute is distracted when Harmony catches the bride’s bouquet, putting her in the killer’s crosshairs.

6. Murder on the Splurt Express (1:48:17)

A murder mystery party becomes all too real when the host is killed. Flute finds himself threatened by Stan’s detective skills, Summers tries flirting with Wynona and Kang and Pentos form an unexpected bond.

7. Camp Slasher (2:09:56)

After a series of counselors are murdered, the department attempts to make the town’s summer camp slasher-proof. Meanwhile, Harmony tries to get Stan outdoors and away from screens.

 

Episode 1 scenes

 

Episode 2 scenes

 

Episode 3 scenes

 

Episode 4 scenes

 

Episode 5 scenes

 

 

Episodes 8-13

8. Manchine (00:00)

In a failed attempt to catch “The Cartwheel Killer,” Flute is eager for a new partner who won’t slow him down. Marvin looks for a partner just like him, if not better.

9. The Funaways (21:40)

In an attempt to stop Flute from forgetting about him, Stan and Dr. Pentos create a diabolical plan staging his disappearance.

10. The Big Trouble With Li’l Betsy (43:19)

Flute comes across Lil Betsy, a former child star turned murder suspect, putting his popularity in jeopardy. Stan and Mr. Flesh film an audition for Stan to replace her with not so hopeful results.

11. And the Winner is…Murder (1:04:58)

Flute goes undercover as a judge for the annual Grimsburg talent show to find the talent show murderer.

12. Younger Games (1:48:17)

In an attempt to become immortal, Flute drinks a special potion that causes rapid de-aging. Meanwhile, the department hires a new lieutenant.

13. The Danish Dilemma (1:48:16)

On a day where murder seems to be on the low, the biggest of Marvin’s problems is his missing danish. The quest for the sweet pastry leads to an explosive case no one saw coming.

 

Episode 13 scenes

 

 

This entry was posted in TV Cartoons , What’s New

2 thoughts on “Sitcom Toons, part 2: Grimsburg

  1. Chris Cianciotta says:

    Hey, so apparently on the show, one of the people you worked with on it is Lyndon Ruddy. A very profilic Canadian/American board artist who worked on a lot of great shows like Arthur, The Backyardigans, Pepper Ann, Total Drama, Kim Possible, Blazing Dragons, Little Bear, Franklin and SO much more. Did you ever get to meet him? What was he like?

    • TimEldred says:

      I heard his name from time to time, but the thing about working remote is that you don’t get much chance to interact with people unless you’re working directly with them. Lyndon and I may have been in the same Zoom meetings here and there, but we never communicated directly. I miss having those opportunities.

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