On Friday, July 23rd, at 4:00pm, Bob’s Burgers hosted their yearly panel at the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC). The cast on the panel consists of Jon Benjamin (Bob Belcher), John Roberts (Linda Belcher), Kristen Schael (Louise Belcher), Eugene Mirman (Gene Belcher), Dan Mintz (Tina Belcher), and Larry Murphy, who plays miscellaneous characters but mostly plays Teddy.
Not only did the major cast of Bob’s Burgers appear on stage but so did the creator and executive producer, Loren Bouchard, other executive producers Nora Smith and Holly Schlesinmger and finally, supervising director Bernard Derriman.
The cast and crew dropped major news for the upcoming 15th season of the show. It will air on September 29th of this year, airing 13 episodes consecutively, unlike the inconsistent schedule they had during the previous season.
Bouchard introduced the cast and crew at the start of the panel, and announced that this season is “packed” and “making up for lost time as the pandemic and strike; it’s sort of made everything wobbly and we are now really trying to bring you an enormous number of episodes in a relatively short period of time.” He shared that there will be an unusual Halloween episode, stating that it’ll be a dollhouse murder mystery; a truly interesting concept that fans in the audience gasped at.
He also announced a Christmas episode where Gene will give dark chocolate to a puppy on Christmas Day. After this news, he announced a host of voice actors that will appear in the upcoming season, reprising their recurring character appearances such as Jim Gaffigan, Tina Fey, John Oliver and Jenny Slate, among many others he listed off in rapid fire succession.
During the panel, the cast have a fun time bantering off one another in a fun, news-packed panel, along with a Q&A session from the fans, asking questions about the show and cast and praising them for their work over the years. Fans also enjoyed receiving free pins from the panel and seeing the cast and crew speaking live and matching beloved characters to their real life counterparts.
However, what it all means for the fans is that the show will continue to grow and evolve and change in ways that the fans will be pleased with. Bouchard and the cast continue to push the envelope of the shop and grow with the ever-changing times to stay relevant and as funny as ever. The unique Halloween special that he hinted at proves that they will continue the creativity and style behind what makes Bob’s Burgers special.
The show is nearly 15 years old at this point, first airing in 2011, but despite this, the longevity of the show proves that it changes over time and does it extremely well.
Bouchard and the cast also did a live interview with Entertainment Weekly during SDCC. One of the questions the host asked was how often does the cast actually see each other during production and recording their lines. The cast answered that they record at the same time but often in different locations, and they have iPads set up so they can see each other. Mirman explained that some of them are located in NYC, LA, and Boston. They don’t see each other often but Schael had a funny quip that she was excited for Comic Con because it would “lure these men out to me.”
There was also a brief discussion if they think the show has evolved since the early days and Bouchard explains that he believes it has and shows have to change and evolve or they die completely. He believes however that the show has evolved but stayed true to its original concept and voices.
I’ve always enjoyed the show despite not having seen too much of it, but maybe this special announcement made of new episode storylines and a more cohesive release schedule will finally entice me to watch the show more often and truly see it for the humor and genius it really is.
