Gene Laufenberg is probably best known for being a writer-producer of such shows as Family Guy, Duckman and the television adaptation of the movie Clueless. In between, he’s written screenplays, pilots and plays in virtually every genre but primarily comedy. He’s even made a forays into directing. And worked on Pinky and the Brain too! Gene’s had quite the journey, including a fascinating transition into the field of psychology.

Currently, he’s executive producer/writer on Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese, a kids’ show seen around the world (here in UK on CBBC). I was able to reach out to Gene and, since he was stuck in lockdown during the Covid pandemic (this interview takes place April 2020), he took my call.

More than this ‘’fancy stuff’, he has been very kind to myself during the entire process of this interview. Showing more than just a helping hand to an unknown aspiring writer, which tells you more about the man than any question in a published interview possibly could.





I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

(Plus he likes Alan Partridge so I already consider him a friend. AHA!)

Gene Laufenberg: Comedy Writer. Was he born or made?

Hah. Or was he created in a really shitty lab? Let’s see, I grew up in New Jersey. Working-class town. I wouldn’t exactly call myself the class clown. Maybe others would. But my best friend was the real class clown and I kinda wrote for him. I’d say, like, “Hey, it’d be funny if you went up to the lunch lady and said ________.” Stupid stuff. But people would laugh. Even the lunch lady would laugh. Usually. And I thought, well, this makes getting through the day a bit more bearable.

I always knew it’d be great to work in entertainment but wasn’t exactly sure what I could do. After college, I took a couple acting classes in NYC. But I couldn’t get into the standard scenes and monologues so I wound up writing my own. I’d get “okay” feedback on my acting but everyone was way more interested in knowing who wrote them. One day, an actual serious acting student asked if he could do one of my scenes. He did and blew everyone away. He did a much better job with it than I ever could. So I took that as yet another sign.

But how did you get from Jersey to LA? It’s quite a difference, I imagine.

Yeah, growing up where and when I did, working in Hollywood was about as real as living on the moon. But if you wanted to write for TV or movies, you had to make the jump. Still, it was pretty daunting so I hesitated. I was singing in rock bands, painting houses, writing record reviews and bad poetry. Basically just killing time, making excuses. Finally, I had a buddy who moved out to be an actor so now I at least knew somebody in California. And I packed my Hyundai and went. Spent a few long long months doing the whole “sleeping on couches, waiting on tables” routine. Very typical. Nothing novel about my so-called struggle.

All the while, I was writing sitcom specs (sample scripts). Didn’t get any work but got enough validation to keep me going. Then I somehow landed a job writing a low budget film for Sam Raimi’s production company (note: Raimi is responsible for, among other things, the Evil Dead and original Spider-Man trilogies). Nothing happened with the project but, again, it gave me validation. Especially now coming from someone like Sam, who is, y’know, a genius. So I wrote more, stumbled into a slightly bigger job which led to a slightly bigger job than that. Then one day, I looked back and realized I had a career. Oh yeah, I also had an incredible amount of LUCK. Talent aside, anyone who makes one single penny in showbiz is lucky. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

“Help, I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!” - The Simpsons are known for predicting world events, but you, Gene, went one step further and in 2005’s episode of Family Guy that you wrote ‘Don’t Make Me Over’ you 'called out' Kevin Spacey in what at the time surely, was just a hilarious gag. How do you look back on that joke now?

Hah. Don’t want to disappoint but I honestly don’t remember writing that particular line. When you’re working on a comedy show with a staff, everybody contributes to everyone’s episodes regardless of who gets the final writing credit. So you can contribute a bunch of jokes/ideas to scripts that are credited to other writers and vice-versa. I think this is the case with that joke. Not totally sure.

I do know the favorite pastime of all writers’ rooms is sharing Hollywood gossip: who’s good to work with; who’s difficult; who’s got whatever personal struggles; etc. And there were always rumors that Spacey had certain, um, predilections. So that was just some throwaway joke that somehow became prescient, in a way. Years before that, I was in an another writers’ room and heard that Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn, wanted to transition. But that wasn’t the kind of show that would make a joke and “go there.” Family Guy was.