Composed by Carl King. http://www.carlkingdom.com
The Oracle of Outer Space is an Adult Swim-style animated TV show pilot so-far starring Dweezil Zappa, Jon Schnepp (Metalocalypse & Space Ghost Coast To Coast) and created and scored by Carl King. Written by Carl King + HisCheapMoves + Level Nivelo, and animated by Lance Myers (Lead Animator of A Scanner Darkly).
Hello, I’m Carl King.
I’ve made a bunch of music, written some books, worked in documentary films, and now I’m making an Adult Swim -style cartoon.
It’s called The Oracle of Outer Space — and it’s a show about 5 bizarre radio hosts who struggle to operate the last remaining AM radio station -- which is probably about to explode and crash into the earth any moment.
It’s inspired by Art Bell’s Coast To Coast AM, WKRP In Cincinnati, and somehow even... Frasier.
I’ve recruited Lance Myers, lead animator of A Scanner Darkly to bring this thing to life, in a 12-minute pilot episode.
An AM radio station in outer space wouldn’t be complete without a team of demented sci-fi / fantasy radio hosts. We’ve got:
The Neurotic Station Manager, Gary Shostotonovonovich.
Arcana Thrice, The Polymorphous Space Sorceress
Barney Theodore “TorTor” Bluudgor / The Butcher of Body Odor
The always uplifting Dream Girl #11 of 9
And...
Dr. Zeroz The Planetary Master
My writing team that wrote the dialog for Sir Millard Mulch's "How To Sell..." and Grand Architects of the Universe are already hard at work on the pilot episode script — and I’ll be composing the musical score.
I’m proud to announce that Dweezil Zappa will be lending his voice talents to this show.
And the uncanny Jon Schnepp of Metalocalypse and Space Ghost Coast To Coast has also offered to do some voice acting. Astute fans will remember his award-winning performances as The Wisdom Cube and The Creature from Plaque Lagoon on Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
...and more SPECIAL SUPERSTAR VOICE ACTOR GUESTS will be announced as the campaign progresses.
The cost to finish this pilot episode is going to be $10,000, and all of that goes straight to the animation process.
A typical Adult Swim-style pilot episode can cost anywhere between $80k and $500k to produce through an animation studio (Source: PowerhouseAnimation.com), with dozens or even hundreds of people working on it. To guarantee we get this thing completed, we’re going to keep the costs down and do it all in-house.
IF we can raise more than that initial goal, we can do things like: pay Lance Myers his normal rate, hire a second animator, get more voice actors, and produce more episodes using our same punk rock budget skills.
Getting an animated TV show made through the traditional studio and network system can be a confusing and frustrating nightmare, especially for an introvert like me. You have to go to the right Hollywood parties, wade through the fakes and frauds, impress the right people, somehow get an agent, submit scripts, maybe get to pitch your show someday, beg, get rejected, beg some more, pitch another show, fight daily to defend your ideas from some random person’s wife from changing them, and ultimately someone else is going to tell you how and even IF it’s going to get made, because they own it. And that’s in the best case scenario.
We all know that at any point, even with a successful TV show, it can just get cancelled on a whim, even if it’s highly successful. (Metalocalypse, Firefly). They just pull the plug one day and there’s nothing you can do.
So with your help, we can creatively do anything we want.
We can even put a Mr. Bungle T-shirt on the station manager without having a meeting with the network about it. (Hey, Disco Volante is his favorite album.)
Maybe if this thing takes off, we could produce a whole season ourselves -- and later, get it distributed through Hulu or Netflix.
Please help us make this weird show happen by supporting us on Kickstarter.
THANK YOU!
-Carl.
