'Praise Petey' Creator Anna Drezen Unpacks Her Comedic, Depressing Cult Research Dive

At first glance, Praise Petey seems like a 2D animated version of Tiger King meets Schitts Creek. But the series, structured like a rom-com, touches on much more than humorous gags about cults and their oddball members. It’s an analytical narrative that reflects toxic corporate work environments, how dedication to self-improvement can blind someone to red flags, and how the fervent belief in a solution to better one’s community doesn’t guarantee a successful execution or reciprocation. 

Now streaming on Freeform and Hulu, Praise Petey begins with NYC “It Girl” Petra, or “Petey,” (Annie Murphy) who’s figured everything out… until her well-curated life comes crashing down. As luck would have it, a mysterious gift from her deceased father (Stephen Root) gives her a new lease on life – taking over as leader of his small-town cult New Utopia. As Petey leans into her new role as a “girl boss,” she discovers what it means to be a leader and how to find her voice as she tries to modernize her late father’s small-town flock. 

Created, written, and executive produced by former Saturday Night Live (SNL) head writer Anna Drezen, Praise Petey is produced by Disney Television Studios’ 20th Television Animation, with two new episodes – "Punishment Hole" and "Comet Day" – releasing Friday, August 18. 

AWN chatted with first-time animated series showrunner about the eye-opening research process she embarked on for developing Praise Petey, which included a back-and-forth between soap shows like Heart of Dixie and disheartening cult documentaries like Holy Hell. Drezen shares that not only did creating Praise Petey give her insight into the surprising cult-like experiences she and her fellow writers have experienced in their own lives, but she also learned how grounded, level-headed individuals can find themselves deep into cults or cult-ish situations. 

Victoria Davis: This is the first series you've created yourself. It’s also your first time diving into animation. How's the learning curve been? 

Anna Drezen: Pretty curvy. Coming from SNL, I love and appreciate being thrown into a scenario that's crazy. And my fiancé works in animation, so I had someone in my house who could help explain things. But also, my team was amazing. They were so patient with me. 

I know that a live-action showrunner can send a shutter down the spines of people who work in animation because they can ask for a lot of rewrites, not understanding which things are easy to change and which are going to make the animation studio go out of business. I tried my best to not be that person. Still, you know, I think every showrunner wants more and more and more.

VD: But I think, when you're working with a 2D animated show like this, you get the chance to do more but with less, and I’ve heard that can be more fun for animators.

AD: Oh, yeah. Definitely. So much can be accomplished with just inserting a pause. But it's just one of those experiences where you can get all the advice you can get, but it's always going to be a crazy experience to run your own show. Erik Kenward was a producer on SNL, and he referred to SNL as a “teaching hospital,” where the stakes are incredibly high but it's also a lot of people's first TV job where you’re learning while doing.

VD: So, your clinicals at SNL prepared you for this moment. 

AD: My rotations, yes. I’m basically a doctor. 

VD: Of all your sketches and crazy scenarios created at SNL, had you ever done a cult-centered sketch before? Or was Praise Petey your first time diving into something like that?

AD: I had written a Handmaid’s Tale sketch but, other than that, not really. Most of what I was writing there were joke-heavy monologues where middle aged woman in wigs said a lot of adjectives. So, as somebody who grew up on The X-Files, my favorite movies The Mummy, The Lord of the Rings, things with really dense backstory, I definitely had an appetite for something like this.

VD: Do cult scenarios typically lend themselves to that kind of thing? Or was it more that a cult allowed for the freedom to do whatever you wanted?

AD: The kernel for this actually came from me watching Heart of Dixie, where a big city doctor gal’s life falls apart, and then the dad she never knew left her his rural medical practice and she has to go walk through a swamp in her high heels. It’s great. I highly recommend it. But I wanted to write a parody of that show, because I love those kinds of stories, like Vampire Diaries or Charmed. You know, the really soapy stuff with a whole town full of people with conflicting crushes on each other, pop music playing over a bar while two people have a meaningful conversation. 

So, I thought, “What would be the funniest thing for a woman’s dad to leave her in his will?” This was also around the time when Wild Wild Country came out, so there was some influence from that as well. But I think a lot of people have a fascination with cults, because it's like, “Why would a person do that?” And what I love the most about writing this show was getting to the comments on the way leadership is handed down from our parents' generation – where things were ergonomically designed for a different time – to our generation like it's the best thing in the world and it doesn't always fit.

VD: It’s a situation where the job title is great for the resume, but the chaotic mess you have to sort out is a nightmare. 

AD: Especially when you are an underrepresented member of the upper echelon of leadership.

VD: Approaching issues women face after attaining leadership roles – or the lack of women in leadership roles – can be difficult to bring to the forefront of a conversation. But how do you go about addressing these things in a scenario as out-of-left-field as becoming a new leader of a cult while still getting audiences to care and relate?

AD: I think the metaphor of taking over a cult could be applied to any workplace. Really, it's a metaphor for corporate culture. And what I love about Petey, and what I love about writing this character, is her can-do, girl boss, lean-in energy and thinking around what is possible for one badass chica to accomplish on her own in the face of entrenched power dynamics.

At the same time, it’s interesting to explore the reason why systems don’t always change. You go in, having read all the company reviews, and you say, “I’m going to do things differently,” but then a week later you’re doing all the same stuff as the previous leadership. Petey sees all these human rights issues being violated and is like, “No more human sacrifices.” But that leads to these other eight calamitous results. It’s really easy to tell someone else, “You should just move to New York,” or “Just dump that guy,” when you’re not a resident of someone else’s life. 

VD: You mentioned before the pop-culture influences for this series, and I appreciate that you inserted Easter eggs, like a Midsommar nod, into the show. What were some other references that you were excited to sneak in?

AD: I love Midsommar. It was a huge visual touchstone and there's a bunch of parts of the pilot that mirror the structure of that movie. Also, Doc Hollywood. I still haven't seen it all the way through, but it’s the one where Michael J. Fox is a big city plastic surgeon whose car breaks down somewhere with lot of trees. John Levenstein, one of my co-EPs, introduced the idea of Petey’s shoe being broken, which is supposed to reflect Michael’s car being broken and the reason they have to stay in these towns. 

There’s also references to The Bold Type, which was another Freeform show that I love and has this almost patriotic view of what a girly can do in the office while still wearing fuchsia. There’s also a lot of cult documentaries in there, like Going Clear, where they talk about “squirrel busters,” which are hired private investigators in charge of standing outside of former members’ houses to film them. And that inspired a character in Episode 4 of our show who is this intimidating guy with a camcorder who films anything that looks like good blackmail material.

VD: It sounds like you had a really good time with the research portion of production?

AD: We did have a good time, but then I realized, “Oh, hey, I’m incredibly depressed,” after watching way too many of those documentaries stacked on top of each other. We had to go back and forth between Holy Hell, which is a harrowing cult documentary, and The Devil Wears Prada, then black to The Vow, then back to New in Town. But we also pulled from our own lives. 

We were interviewing everyone, from the writers to the art director and supervising director, asking, “Did you ever have any cult-like experiences?” And everyone would say, “No, not really… well, there was this yoga studio that made me live outside for a year.” Or they remember that one time they paid $1,000 to get some bee pollen. Even the improve classes that many of our writers have taken are like this. You pay a lot of money upfront and are given a lot of promises about what could be possible for you in the future and told, “If you’re dedicated to your betterment, you’ll intern for class credit.” In other words, clean up vomit in an improv theater because maybe, one day, you'll book a Snickers commercial. 

VD: This really speaks to the magic that’s Praise Petey. The trailer shows all the crazy stuff you’d expect from a cult-themed series, but you start watching and, next thing you know, it’s speaking to your reality. 

AD: Even a relationship, or a friendship, or a family can be like a cult. And it can be hilarious. But we also wanted to make sure it didn't get too far into “Let's LOL over cults, which cause actual trauma.”

VD: I imagine that's a hard line to straddle, especially as this show is a comedy. 

AD: You never know what the reaction to something's gonna be. And I think we were concerned about the reaction being, “How on earth could you make a comedy show about cults? Are you kidding me? There are people who've died and lost their livelihoods.” Then I've seen people saying, “Why didn't they go further?” So, I think we found a good sweet spot where it’s always very human.

There’s a cult expert, Steven Hassan, who says that no one joins a cult, everyone thinks that they're just trying to better themselves, and that causes you to act against your own instincts. No one feels like going to the gym every morning, particularly when that's a new practice for you. So, what you're doing is you're going against what feels good. Which explains how someone could confuse warning signs with self-sabotage or getting in your own way. 

VD: It’s tough to pack all that and the bicep canoodling into a 20-or-so minute show. And it’s airing on a network that has not showcased animation before. Praise Petey is a first in many ways. 

AD: Freeform has been such great partners. I'm so thrilled with how trusting they were. I was so surprised that Freeform wanted to make this show. I was so convinced that this would just be a cute spec script that got circulated and that my agent's assistant would be a fan of. The fact that it’s on actual TV is so wild.

Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.