Archer type TV Show network FX genre Animated

Spy

Where does Bob’s Burgers take place? Who’s a better kid, Gene or Louise? (Sorry, Tina!) And does cilantro suck? Bob’s showrunner Loren Bouchard and star H. Jon Benjamin answer these questions, and more.

Bouchard on the show’s setting: “It’s a semi-Springfield. It can’t be San Francisco, which is what many people think. It has all that Victorian architecture from San Francisco because I was living there when we developed the show, but we set it firmly in the Northeast because of the way Linda sounds, and Teddy. There’s just so much East Coast in those voices, we just couldn’t take it out. It would’ve been too weird to have her doing that voice — you’d have to constantly be explaining that she’s a transplant or whatever. And because it’s this seaside, past-it’s-prime, dusty old town, we kind of felt like that puts it pretty close to those Coney Island, New York-New Jersey shore parts. I grew up in the New England area, and there were lots of beach towns like it, though we don’t want to be in New England party because Family Guy has Rhode Island sewn up. But basically I picture it somewhere in the outer boroughs or on the northern Jersey shore.”

Benjamin on the show’s Best Animated Series Emmy nomination: “I feel like I had very little to do with it. I can’t say that I’m excited [about it personally], but I am excited for the show. I think it’s great. And actually, I’m surprised [Benjamin’s other show] Archer wasn’t nominated too — that was a big blow. I actually found out about Bob’s Burgers [getting nominated] from [Archer showrunner] Adam Reed because we were recording Archer the morning they did the announcements. It was like 10 a.m., and I hadn’t heard anything about it, because I guess they do it at like, what, 5 a.m., or some other ridiculous time in the morning. So I was in the studio and he was like, ‘Congratulations!’ — but kind of bitterly. And I’m like, “Wha? Huh?” I had no idea, I didn’t even consider it.”

Benjamin on watching the show with his son: “He’s a huge Bob’s Burgers fan, so I’ll occasionally watch it with him. But he watches sh-t on, like, Hulu — you know how kids are these days. He’s a total completest. He’s watched every episode like 45 times. I try to get him to watch it the old way [on TV], like, ‘You’re missing all the commercials. Like, how’re you going to go to Wendy’s? You’re not going to know what to do. Or what to order.'”

Benjamin on who he thinks Bob’s favorite child is: “Speaking for Bob, I think Louise [Kristen Schaal]. I think Gene [Eugene Mirman] is just, like, too annoying, and probably I feel like he’s just a disappointment as the male heir. I mean, I like Gene and I like Eugene, but I think Bob bonds with Louise the most. I think she’s a real self-starter. And she’s intrinsically anti-authoritarian, so I think she’s probably the one who impresses Bob the most, because she’s always the one who’s devising a scheme that will lead to some solution, whether it be wrong or right. So I think he’s always most impressed by her. Like, ‘How’d you do that? That’s cool. That’s a cool idea. You came up with that. You’re my kid.’ And, personally, Louise is my favorite for the same reasons.”

Benjamin on whether he’s ever tried to actually eat any of the show’s burger specials: “I assume fans have done that, to try and make those burgers, like the ‘We’re Here, We’re Gruyere, Deal With It’ burger. But I will say that some of them sound really unappetizing. And a few of them have definitely made me take pause. Like, with rock kale or whatever. But I guess some of the choices are just for the pun — they’re really not very appetizing.”

Benjamin on how he likes his burger prepared: “I like them to be made by, like, a big, heavyset African-American prostitute. [laughs] No, no — I actually don’t eat a ton of burgers, but I’d say Shake Shack would be the high-water mark. I get the the classic Shack Burger.”

Benjamin on cilantro, which figures into one of next seasons’ burger specials, The Say It Ain’t Cilantro Burger (Comes With No Cilantro Because Cilantro Is Terrible): “I like cilantro. There are people who are very, very adamantly against cilantro. I’m not one of those people; I really like it. I’m on the pro-cilantro side. But I’ve had like heated arguments with people about cilantro. Some people are like, “That’s garbage. Why would you eat that?” It’s not bad at all. It’s not — it’s a f–king herb. And they’ll still be like, ‘No, it’s the worst.’ I guess there’s something about it being the lazy man’s parsley.”

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