Advancing the central mystery of Dr. Plouter, Paul’s father and a mad scientist in his own right. Also introducing Giant Robo Landscaping and Robbo, who I’m sure would be hailed as an “entrepreneur disrupting the landscaping supply-demand dynamic” by 2021 standards.
One of the underlying tensions here was that James — a brilliant artist with his own comic sensibilities — was very interested in a daily strip format, in the classic Peanuts style. I, as a narratively ambitious dork, was interested in big serial storytelling and creating a saga.
Sometimes I think it lead to some Daltrey/Townshend magic, where we were pulling in different directions and the whole was greater than the parts. Sometimes, I think the tension kind of ekes through at the edges. So I’d get a bit far up my own butt with the Big Story stuff, and James would pull me back to the fact that this was ultimately a comedy thing. And I’d push James’ limits by seeing how far I could push the gag strip format into serial storytelling.
