https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTC7wQMHHEA

DEN OF GEEK: How long had you and Nick been developing this idea and trying to do something with it and how much did it end up resembling that original vision that you guys had?

ANDREW GOLDBERG: Nick and I met when we were six. We’ve been friends since the first grade. So that’s when we truly started developing this. But a few years ago I was originally thinking about it as bunch of kids at a Jewish day school and I was calling it Bar Mitzvah Boys. I was talking to Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett—who Nick and I co-created the show with—about all of this and at some point they were like, all these stories you’re telling us are about you and Nick, so let’s get him involved, too.

Once we all got together and started talking about this, it all very quickly came together. The show didn’t change that much from those first conversations. Early on there was the question of if we were going to set it in the past or make it contemporary and Netflix were the ones that really pushed that we make it contemporary. I think that was totally the right call in the end and opens the show up to telling all sorts of stories. Then there was the element of being really adamant about using the animation to represent the angst of puberty and how all of these hormones are flying around. Later the day I said the words “hormone monster” and instantly I got the sense of the entire character.

Talk a little more about the Hormone Monsters because these guys are absolutely wonderful and such a nice presence to the show.

So they came about very quickly from that kernel of an idea. The Hormone Monster came first. When we went out and pitched the show we created a two-minute black and white piece of animation that Nick, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, and a few others were in, but it included the Hormone Monster. So he came very early and then quickly tried to establish the character. Such a big part of that period of growing up is having all of these huge, horny feelings coursing through you, but it’s not socially acceptable to say out loud. So for us to have a monster that can get away with all of that is great. One of my favorites moments from the season is when Andrew and the Hormone Monster are at odds with each other and Andrew’s like, “This is enough,” and the Hormone Monster says, “Hey, I’m here. You must want me around on some level.”