It’s been nearly 15 years since Bob’s Burgers launched on Fox with a pilot called “Human Flesh.” Since then, the charmingly chaotic cartoon has blossomed into 16 seasons, hitting its 300th episode this year. For Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, the show’s continued success — which included The Bob’s Burgers Movie spinoff — has been a joy and a responsibility.
In a virtual interview with Mashable Entertainment Editor (and Bob’s Burgers fan since its start), Kristy Puchko, Bouchard joined Say More to talk about the show’s evolution and the fandom that spurred it on. In this clip, he reminisces about the show’s start, when the numbers weren’t great, but the love from fans could not be ignored.
“What Bob’s was was…maybe a bubble show,” Bouchard said, “It wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t a ratings smash. I liked those days. And I’ll say why. I don’t like it from the point of view of just the sheer fear, you know, you make so many decisions a day, working on a show like this. And you don’t want to have the fear that if you make the wrong decision, everyone loses their job. That’s an uncomfortable amount of stakes, I would say. But it does make you sharper. I think it adds a little adrenaline.”
He continued, explaining how every detail feels crucial in that headspace: “It’s that emergency room vibe, where it might be the stupidest thing — we’re in the AVID editing suite, and we’re moving a fart two frames to the left or to the right. But you know what, at that moment, where that fart goes is like, feels life-threatening and life-saving.”
In the longer form interview, which you can watch on YouTube, Bouchard also spoke about what drives him now that the fear of being cancelled is gone. It’s the fans, especially those who were there from the start. He doesn’t want to let us down.
In the clip above, he shared, “I will say something about you early fans: That was amazing for us to know that we were just starting out, but that we could still pack the room at Comic Con. It meant a lot to us. It meant a lot to the network and the studio too. They were witness to, not necessarily these, you know, boffo ratings, but incredible love.”
He went on, “When it became clear that we had passionate fans, even though we weren’t a ratings hit, I saw the network in the studio basically say something along the lines of, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll try and keep you on the air. We want this. This is what we want when the fans react like this.’
“So thank you,” Bouchard said, speaking to the fans, “Thank you to you, early fans. You helped, you know, make it possible for us to be here now.”
For more on Bob’s Burgers, including Bouchard’s thoughts on Bob as a bicon and the development of fan favorite Marshmallow, check out the full interview on YouTube.
Bob’s Burgers is now streaming on Hulu.
