Again, a Skinny Nerd, Only Now in 2D: Chris Rock Returns in ‘Everybody Still Hates Chris’

Creator, writer, showrunner and EP Sanjay Shah talks about his new Comedy Central series, an adult animated ‘reimagining’ of Chris Rock’s award-winning live-action series, ‘Everybody Hates Chris,’ that features the ‘Fargo’ and ‘Madagascar’ franchise star narrating a new set of autobiographical stories inspired by his early years in 1980s working-class Brooklyn.

Season 1 of ‘Everybody Still Hates Chris,’ now airing on Comedy Central. All images courtesy of Comedy Central.

For creator, writer, showrunner and EP Sanjay Shah, known for his work as a showrunner and EP on Central Park, the opportunity to reimagine Chris Rock’s Everyone Hates Chris was a project he was happy to take on. Rock’s autobiographical, critically-acclaimed, live-action family series ran for four seasons on UPN then the CW from 2005 – 2009, winning an NAACP Image Award for its writing in 2007. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and several Emmy Awards.

For Shah, that reimagining eventually took shape as Everybody Still Hates Chris, a new, half-hour animated series that was greenlit by Comedy Central in August 2022, and premiered on the network September 25. It will stream sometime in the future on Paramount+. The show is produced by CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ animation arm. Alongside Rock (Chris Rock Enterprises), Ali LeRoi, and Michael Rotenberg and Dave Becky (3 Arts Entertainment) executive produce. Titmouse handles the animation, with Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio and Ben Kalina serving as executive producers. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution outside of the Comedy Central footprint.

The new series features Rock narrating stories inspired by his experiences growing up in a large working-class family in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, during the late 1980s. It stars the voices of original cast members Terry Crews as “Julius,” Chris’ father, a gentle giant with a relentless work ethic, and tightwad approach to life. He grew up dirt poor, so he knows the cost of everything down to the penny. He works two jobs to support the family, and on his days off, he takes on a third job. Tichina Arnold voices “Rochelle,” Chris’ mother, who is smart, strong-willed, and has a nurturing spirit, but can also be hot-headed, especially when it comes to her kids. She tolerates zero nonsense, so she quits more jobs in a month than most people do in a lifetime.

It also stars Tim Johnson Jr. as “Young Chris,” a nerd who wants to be cool but he’s outshined by his younger brother, tortured by his little sister, and foiled by his cheapskate dad; Ozioma Akagha as “Tonya,” Chris’ feisty baby sister, with the face of an angel and the heart of a demon, who gets along with her middle brother Drew but leaps at any chance to get Chris in trouble; Terrence Little Gardenhigh as “Drew,” the golden child of the family who is the epitome of Black Excellence: handsome, athletic, a ladies man, taller and cooler than his older brother Chris; and Gunnar Sizemore as “Greg,” Chris’s only friend at school who is girl-obsessed, status conscious and raised by a single dad.

According to Shah, Rock had been approached about revisiting the original show for many, many years, but “he has really high standards and wanted to find the best way to do it.” Transitioning a new show to animation came up in discussions, and that got his attention because it could “potentially be a fresh and unique way to honor the original show while allowing the new show to be its own thing.” Rock is no stranger to animation, having voiced numerous characters over the years including Marty in a string of successful Madagascar films for DreamWorks Animation. So, courtesy of the experts at Titmouse, animation it was to be.

The production began for Shah when Rock met with him and a group of writers. “He liked my take,” Shah notes. “We shared a vision on how to do it, and he hired me in the room.”

Though Rock maintains a full schedule, Shah shares that he still made himself available to the production. “Chris is a pretty busy guy but finds time to be involved. In addition to returning as the narrator, he watches and notes episodes at different stages of the animation process. It’s so great that animation allows us to take so many stabs are plussing the show throughout the process - roughs, animatics, color, etc. - which is a blessing given Chris’s very busy schedule. So, we figured out how to schedule around him in a way that allows production to stay on schedule too.” 

While many of the series’ locations are based on the original show designs, significantly more detail was added to make it feel historically accurate and expand the characters’ world. According to Shah, “We wanted the same tone of the original show. It’s a period piece and we wanted to be accurate about the way people spoke in 1987. But having Chris Rock as a narrator is our secret weapon because he’s speaking from the present day, so his observations feel more current.”  

Asked what was most challenging getting the new show to the screen, Shah says, “Everything is always challenging, all the time, for every show I’ve worked on or run. In this case, we had the pandemic, a really long writers’ strike, a potential production strike, and a crazy corporate merger to deal with, just to name a few of the challenges we came up against. If you want a job that will give you overwhelming and unending anxiety, pursue TV writing.” 

Despite the hard work, Shah concludes by sharing, “I love animation and have worked on and off in it for almost 2 decades. I cannot wait to continue exploring more of what this medium has to offer to make our episodes unique and memorable.”

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Dan Sarto(link sends e-mail) is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.