from 2009
STEVE MARMEL
talks about his career before Sonny with a Chance

by Scott Wolf

When I first saw the Disney Channel original series, Sonny with a Chance, I was so impressed with the show that I sought out the creator of the series, Steve Marmel, to learn more about him and the show's origins. If you haven't yet seen it, Sonny cleverly looks at the behind-the-scenes life of the cast of the fictional TV comedy sketch series, So Random. Steve was kind enough to meet with me for an interview, and let me in on how the series came about, how teen sensation Demi Lovato was cast in the title role, how he was tapped to create the series, and other fun tidbits. I'm so pleased to be able to share our conversation with you. 

Scott Wolf: Were you writing for shows when you were doing standup comedy?

Steve Marmel: I wasn't writing TV at that time, but I was writing columns for USA Today. I'd freelance them. Before computers and the Internet and all that stuff, I'd go to a pay phone and I'd read my 400 word column to my editor from horrible, germ laden phones across America. Oh, god. But, it's always been writing. It's always been seeing something, having a weird bend on it, and taking a shot at it in my own way.

SW: How did you end up writing for television?

SM: No, I was doing standup, it was in 1996, and somebody saw me from Hanna Barbera, and they were looking for somebody to write the story bible for Johnny Bravo, so that was my first foray into animation, my first shot at showing that I could do this.

SW: They just saw you on stage?

SM: Yeah, somebody saw me on stage, thought it was funny, thought if I could take that club comedy, the sensibilities of the humor, and dial it back so that it could get on the air for a G-rated show, then I could probably have a career doing that, which I never even thought of until I was given that chance.

SW: And then you ended up writing for Fairly Odd Parents?

SM: I went from Johnny Bravo to Cow and Chicken to I Am Weasel. I don’t know what I was doing on I Am Weasel. There’s two types of cartoons: there’s the script driven cartoon that’s dialogue, fast-paced, script driven, and then there’s I Am Weasel which is the board artists write it. The writer writes an outline, and then the artist takes it from there. Phineas and Ferb is like that, but they have the exact right people for that show, and that’s what makes it so great. If you have a writer on a show that should be for boards, not good, and vice versa. Then, through that, I met Butch Hartman and ended up helping him with the last few Fairly Odd Parents shorts, and then when it went to series I went with it.

SW: And you worked on most of them?

SM: The first 80, up until the baby. I did that, I did Danny Phantom, I had my own little horrible political cartoon. I did six episodes of that on Spike, and it was all over this 4 or 5 year period, and then you just get to a point where it’s time to go ‘What am I going to do next?’ I knew all the buttons, and I knew how to make all the buttons and levers go, but it wasn’t my car. And literally, Disney was like, ‘Well, come over here and you can drive your own car.’ So, I’ve been at Disney for four years now.

SW: I’ve read a lot of your political writings and I’ve seen your standup comedy. Was it challenging going from writing material for adults to more family friendly?

SM: No. Jokes are jokes and comedy’s comedy. Ideally, you’re not doing a joke for a kid, you’re doing a joke that a kid gets, that an adult gets, but an adult wouldn’t be embarrassed that a kid’s seeing. I don’t like writing down to kids, and I think most writers write for themselves. Most writers are writing stuff that they think is funny. The danger when you’re writing for a show that’s primarily for kids is, you end up talking down to them, or you end up thinking, ‘Oh, they won’t get that’ but they get it. You have to be bigger, and more visual, and make sure the context is there, but funny is funny.

SW: When Disney asked you to take a shot at writing a live action show, had you worked on live action shows before?

SM: No, I worked on a live action talk show, I worked on The Arsenio Hall Show.

SW: What did you do on Arsenio? His monologues?

SM: All the topical humor. Yeah, it was all the monologue stuff. All my stand-up was topical, so it just sort of moved right into that.

More from Steve:
All about Sonny with a Chance

See other interviews