Momma Named Me Sheriff Showrunners Reveal the Show's Breakneck Pacing Tricks

During an interview with CBR, Momma Named Me Sheriff showrunners Will Carsola and Dave Stewart spoke about some of the ways the franchise has changed since the first season of Mr. Pickles, what makes Dispatch a compelling character and teased some of the bonkers elements of the show's upcoming new season.

Momma Named Me Sheriff is the spin-off of an earlier Adult Swim series set in the same universe, Mr. Pickels. The original series centered around the Goodman family, their home in the rural Old Town and the titular demonic dog that keeps the Goodmans alive: Mr. Pickels. Since the demise of the character in the fourth season premiere, the show has since shifted to focus on one of the show's side-characters, Sheriff, the bumbling-but-well-meaning Sheriff of Old Town.

Momma Named Me Sheriff still employs the same fast-paced and ridiculous set-ups that Mr. Pickels was known for, with episodes quickly escalating from questions about the authority afforded to hats to the risks of global extinction. Discussing how they determine which plot-beats make it into the show, Carsola admitted that "we explore so many different storylines. Right when we first start writing, that's kind of where we start is just putting some ideas on index cards. And then I would say 99% of the ideas don't ever make it.

"After the initial idea, we kind of need to see if there's a story to make around it, a story that helps us get to know these characters better and a story that can have all the different story structure points in it. And the story is always best when you can show something new about a character and when it can show us more of all the supporting characters in Old Town and Old Town in general. So yeah, and then all of a sudden you get invisible hats."

Some of these ideas end up becoming major factors in the upcoming season however, Stewart explained. "We decide on a handful of things that we definitely want to get to every season. So with that in mind, when we're pursuing story ideas, we'll try to make sure that some of those things can work, like a dinosaur STD, that's got to make it into the scene -- and it did. We settle on these real major points that have a lot of social interest."

"A lot of storylines will also kind of merge," Carsola added. "We'll have this one story and see where that goes, it'll either work or it won't. And then maybe a month later, we'll come back to that story. And then by then, we've got some other ideas, separate ideas that then fit into that story. Things like that happen a lot." But it's a surprisingly tricky balancing act, as Stewart revealed. "It's always a difficulty getting [the pacing] figured out. [Carola] and I have often said we're framing like basically a 30-minute show in a quarter-hour. So finding the pacing and getting all the stories working, it's always a bit of a challenge. But I think that's kind of the fun of it, too."

With Momma Named Me Sheriff essentially the fifth season of their exploration of this cast and setting, Carsola reflected on how those pacing issues have affected the development of the show over the years. "I think the first season of Mr. Pickles was by far the [fastest-paced]," he explained. "And then season two, from then on into where we are now with Momma Named Me Sheriff, we tried to slow it down a little bit more, really hone in on the story structure. It's still fast-paced because they're still 11-minute episodes, and they have a full movie structure in there. So it's still fast-paced, but there's definitely an art to knowing what to let go of and what you can let go of as far as story or tropes. We like it being fast-paced but also like to tell a good story."

Sheriff was one of the comic highlights of Mr. Pickels. The character's distinct mix of good intentions and a bizarre world-view cemented him as the kind of character the show could easily switch its central focus to. Talking about how they kept the character emotionally grounded instead of playing too far into his goofier side, Carsola said that "I think at the root of it, Sheriff is a good guy... he's always trying. So I think what's important with Sheriff is to always show new sides of him, whether it's something new that he's doing or something that we're revealing about him.

"When you explore a character so in-depth as we have, it's almost like the character starts to have his own soul. At least that's how I see certain characters, and Sheriff's one of them. And I think that the key there is just to constantly be exploring new ideas and new emotions of the character and stay fresh and it'll help grow the character."

Looking forward to Mama Named Me Sheriff, both creators were excited to talk about one of their favorite aspects of the season: the dynamic that's developed between Sheriff, the constantly put-upon Stanley Goodman and the wannabee-gangster Dispatch. "This season," Carsola revealed, "we really wanted to focus on Sheriff Goodman and Dispatch as a team, seeing them work together as a way to explore more of who they are... They're all very different."

Stewart -- who voices Dispatch, as well other characters on the show -- spoke about he and Carsola "wanted to kind of bring the whole dynamic of everybody together. I think adding Dispatch in, he adores and looks up to Sheriff. Sheriff's a little bit oblivious to that. But in Dispatch's eyes, I feel like Sheriff can do no wrong. Maybe he's doing wrong by Goodman. Dispatch will always champion what Sheriff wants to do. And for me, I feel like that brings a lot of fun to the whole dynamic, just like the banter. And then Sheriff and Dispatch kind of egg each other on. Dispatch is just like ready to go with anything Sheriff is willing to do, and Sheriff doesn't always make the best decisions. But Dispatch will get right behind it."

Reflecting on their time with Adult Swim -- with the pilot for Mr. Pickels premiering all the way back in 2013 -- the two expressed their love for the programming block and their chance to collaborate with them. "Adult Swim is amazing to work with," Carsola said. "Whenever they give notes, they're notes that help. And they're very good at giving creators creative freedom, but also at giving notes that help the development process of each episode.

"They're very fun to work with, very good at what they do." Stewart agreed, saying "they give a lot of creative freedom too, they really kind of trust in us, in our style of comedy to run with things. So they don't often tell us no or that we can't do something." Carsola went so far as to say that "I don't think we could have made Mr. Pickles anywhere else," which Stewart agreed with completely. "It's right at home with Adult Swim."

Momma Named Me Sheriff, starring Will Carsola, Dave Stewart, Jay Johnston, Kaitlyn Robrock, Brooke Shields, Frank Collison, and Alex Desert, returns to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on Feb. 8.