How the 'BoJack Horseman' creator got real with 'Long Story Short'

Raphael Bob-Waksberg's animated family comedy Long Story Short premiered on Netflix in mid-August, which is arguably the single slowest stretch of the TV calendar. People are traveling, getting ready for kids to go to school, and otherwise occupied by things other than checking out new television shows. When I spoke with Bob-Waksberg a few weeks ago, he was already working on the second season with his writing staff, so it's not like the show is in short-term jeopardy. Nonetheless, it's too good to be dropped from the pop culture conversation just because of when those episodes first came out. 

If you haven't already gotten to see and enjoy it, Bob-Waksberg — creator of BoJack Horseman, co-creator of Undone, and producer of Tuca & Bertie, all of them pushing boundaries of what kinds of stories can be told in TV animation — follows a Jewish-American family across multiple generations and time periods. The earliest moment of the first season took place in 1959, and the most recent in 2022. We see the three Schwooper siblings as kids, teenagers, and adults, bouncing back and forth to depict how their relationships with one another, with their parents, and with their partners, have evolved over the years. Like Bob-Waksberg's other series, there is a remarkable blend of ridiculous comedy and genuine pathos. It's a gem. 

Bob-Waksberg and I talked about how explicitly Jewish Long Story Short is compared to TV's frequent vagueness on the subject, how he balances tones so well, how he has to approach structuring a series in a streaming economy where shows make far fewer seasons than in the BoJack days, and a lot more. If you haven't already watched the show, there are no real spoilers, though we do talk about the family dynamics a bit.