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Aaron McGruder Brings "The Boondocks," His Provocative and Politically-Charged Social Commentary to the Small Screen, Diving into Adult Swim on November 6
posted on Nov 5, 2005
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| Aaron McGruder |
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| Huey of "The Boondocks" |
Aaron McGruder's award-winning, politically-charged comic strip "The Boondocks" premieres on November 6 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim as an animated series. With its provocative and nervy irreverence and liberal use of the "N" word, "The Boondocks" move to the small screen is certain to be as controversial as the strip itself.
McGruder first brought Huey and Riley Freeman to life in April 1999. "The Boondocks" comic strip was published in over 150 newspapers, making it the second largest launch for a strip ever. Within its first few months in print, "The Boondocks" quickly made its way into 200 publications and today the groundbreaking strip can be seen in more than 350 newspapers nationwide. Through his adolescent characters - Huey and Riley -- McGruder tackles topics such as race relations, interracial marriage, bi-racial identity and juvenile delinquency, in addition to political happenings and current events. Not surprisingly, it's McGruder's edgy take on these issues that often draws criticism, and has even resulted in the strip being pulled from newspapers or moved to their op-ed pages.
The road to Adult Swim has been a long one for McGruder who originally developed the project for network television. "I had been attempting to sell this for five years and I had been close to a deal several times. It's been a long ride," he says. The project had been all over Hollywood - at MTV, Showtime, even HBO Family early on. McGruder produced a six minute presentation for Fox who passed on it. McGruder ultimately found a home on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. "Working in cable has been very creatively liberating and we virtually had no restrictions," he says. "Adult Swim prefers funny. The show for Fox was very sitcom-y and very structured. From a storytelling perspective, it was almost as confining as the strip. When it was all said and done, it' wasn't that good of a show, and we knew it was never going to air."
McGruder adds, "It's really hard to make things funny. There are a million ways for them to be unfunny and sometimes you have to hit a pretty exact mark, especially when you're talking about race and politics. Cable in the only place where you can still be honest and actually have fun. And Adult Swim has been supportive throughout the process."
Like the comic strip, "The Boondocks" is a provocative family-based comedy brimming with social relevance and satire. When Robert "Granddad" Freeman becomes the legal guardian of his rambunctious grandkids, he moves the family from the south side of Chicago to the quiet and safety of "The Boondocks" - aka suburban Woodcrest - in hopes that he can ignore the kids altogether and enjoy the fourth quarter of his life in peace. But neither Huey, a ten-year-old leftist revolutionary nor his eight-year-old misfit brother, Riley are thrilled about the new environment. Although the boys torture each other and provoke the neighborhood, they are still no match for Granddad, who is eccentric even by "crazy-ass-old-black-man" standards.
Regina King is voicing brothers Huey Freeman and Riley Freeman, the two characters central to the strip and series, while Witherspoon voices Robert Jebediah Freeman aka 'Granddad,' the boys' cantankerous grandfather. Rounding out the cast are Gary Anthony Williams, Cedric Yarbrough, Jill Talley and Gabby Soleil. Williams voices several characters on the show including Granddad's curmudgeonly associate Uncle Ruckus who has a fervent dislike of black people. He's a mainstay in Woodcrest - turning up ubiquitously as a valet, waiter, and hospital janitor, among other things. Cedric Yarbrough also voices several characters including Tom DuBois, an earnest do-good, law abiding District Attorney. While Gabby Soleil voices DuBois's daughter Jazmine, the adorable but naive girl next door, Meanwhile, Quincy Jones, Ed Asner ("Elf") and Charlie Murphy ("Chappelle's Show") are among the eclectic mix of actors who have been enlisted to voice guest characters on the show.
"The Boondocks" was created and is executive produced by Aaron McGruder. Reginald Hudlin also serves as an executive producer. The series is produced by Rebel Base in association with Sony Pictures Television.
The success of the strip led McGruder to a multiple book publishing deal with the first volume, The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper, which was released in October 2000. The second installment, Fresh 01…You Suckas, compiled nine months of the popular strip and hit bookstore shelves in July 2001. The third installment, A Right to be Hostile, was released in October 2003 with a forward written by filmmaker Michael Moore and was an immediate best seller. Additionally, McGruder co-wrote the political comedy "Birth of A Nation" which was published as a graphic novel by Crown Publishing in August 2004. And finally, McGruder's Public Enemy #2: An All-New Boondocks Collection is due in bookstores in March 2005.
McGruder has also entered into an agreement with Sony Pictures Animation for an animated film version of "The Boondocks."
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