Teen Titans Go! is about to show it's 100th episode. "And the Award For Sound Design Goes to Rob" actually airs today, Friday July 3, at 6/5C on Cartoon Network. The show has had a mix in reaction but there's no denying the success it's reached. Going in some strange territories at times, you never really know what to expect with each episode.
To mark this monumental episode, we spoke with co-producer, Michael Jelenic, about the show and what can we expect after this.
COMIC VINE: Do you remember how Teen Titans Go! was first described when you signed on as producer?
MICHAEL JELENIC: It wasn’t anything at that time. I think they just wanted to bring back the franchise. I think they wanted to bring back the characters in a more comedic take. I don’t think what the show became was exactly what in mind. I think it was probably going to be something close to Super Hero Squad, something that had a little bit of a mix of comedy and action. Maybe skewed a little bit younger but then it just naturally became something completely different.
CV: You’ve worked in the DC Animated Universe before with Batman: The Brave and the Bold and The Batman. Does working on Teen Titans Go! feel different?
JELENIC: Definitely. There’s a little bit of insanity that goes with working on Teen Titans Go! Every time we think we go a little bit too far or get too absurd, we discover that the show can get even weirder. I think those other shows were always sort of grounded in some sort of superhero reality. With this show, we try to pull as far away from the superhero stuff as possible. We rely on those characters and who they are.
CV: How’s it feel having the 100th episode ready to air?
JELENIC: It’s been sort of a whirlwind. We’ve been just pumping these episodes out at an incredible speed. It’s hard for us to even take a moment and enjoy it. In production, we’re already almost fifty past 100. This show is like an incredible machine but it’s exciting to have gotten this far and see the show still doing well, 100 episodes in.
CV: Is it a regular episode or are there plans to celebrate the milestone?
JELENIC: We did not plan something specific for the hundredth episode but it’s actually one of my favorite episodes. It’s a very high concept story. Raven makes a deal with a magical creature because the Titans are too loud for her so she gets rid of all the sounds in the world. The story culminates with all the sounds in the world being replaced by the Titans making sounds for everything from a door opening to a punch to whatever. The cast ends up doing the musical score, an acapella musical score. All the sounds FXs are produced by those guys so it’s a fun high concept episode.
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CV: Trying to think back to all the episodes that have aired, was there ever one that you thought might be too crazy to air?
JELENIC: I knew they would all ‘make it.’ There’s always the question Aaron [Horvath], the other producer, and I are asking, whether or not we’re going to lose the audience on any particular idea. Is this idea just too weird? My sensibility leans more towards absurd and weird stuff so nothing’s too weird for me. Then I’ll see some of the reactions online and I think people are wondering how we’re coming up with these things. We had an episode where the Titans replaced money with bees. That didn’t seem too crazy to me but apparently people online were like, “Huh, this is pretty weird.” We’re always concerned but we don’t necessarily let that stop us from going to the weird places.
CV: This might be hard but are there any episodes that stand out for you?
JELENIC: Just because we’re popping them out so fast, I literally forget about the episode seconds after it’s turned in and recorded. If I had to pick one that sort of stands out, it’s the “Let’s Get Serious” episode where the characters try to get more serious. It was sort of the response to the criticism of the show. Apparently that whipped up quite a reaction online. It was kind of fun to see people talking about the show, both positively and negatively. That was a fun one for us to watch go out into the world.
CV: Any thoughts or plans on releasing a soundtrack with the different songs from the show?
JELENIC: I don’t know if there is. I do know we’re going to continue making a lot of musical numbers. I think the third season has a ton of them. We have a whole episode, in Season 3, that’s based around one of the songs we’ve used. It wasn’t a song we wrote but it’s called “Night Begins to Shine.” It appears for like ten seconds in one episode. Cyborg basically lip syncs to it. Despite only being on screen for ten seconds, people reacted to it online so we decided to do an entire episode around an 80s power ballad. So we’ll have stuff like that and continue to put in fun musical numbers. I imagine at some point there’s going to be an album but I don’t think there’s a plan right now.
CV: You worked on the “Music Meister” episode of Brave and the Bold, right?
JELENIC: Yes. That was a great experience. The music on this show is done in a completely different manner. With the Music Meister, we had a full orchestra and everything. That was a fun experience.
CV: You mentioned you’re already a bunch of episodes beyond the hundredth one, with episode 101, was it just business as usual? Can we expect more of the same in the next 100?
JELENIC: I think the show continues to evolve. I talked to the crew about the third season. They say half the episodes are stuff we saw, not that we’re repeating ourselves, but with the tone of Season 2. The other half is going into a completely different area. We’re doing a lot of weird interesting stuff. I think that’s exciting with as many episodes that we’ve done, the show continues to grow. We’re not just churning out exactly the same thing over and over.
Be sure to watch or set your DVR for tonight's 100th episode. If you haven't already, just set your DVR to record all the episodes. And make sure you watch the clip for the episode up above.
