GTB FAQ - Updated August 2012

GREG THE BUNNY / WARREN THE APE FAQ

Hey everybody, we’ve put this FAQ together to answer a few frequent fan questions. We know we’ve had several different shows over the years and sometimes it can be a bit confusing. So scroll down to find answers to our most commonly asked questions!

You can also find COMPLETE LISTINGS OF EPISODES, CHARACTER BIOS and PRODUCTION BLOGS in the FORUMS and BLOGS sections of this site.

HISTORY OF THE SHOWS SO FAR:

Greg the Bunny started as a character on our New York City public access show, JUNKTAPE. Soon after, we were hired by THE INDEPENDENT FILM CHANNEL (IFC) to do short films for their network with our puppet characters. After about two years of doing short movies and other content for IFC, we were given the chance to do a sitcom for the FOX NETWORK, which was unfortunately cancelled after it’s first season.

Following that, we returned to THE INDEPENDENT FILM CHANNEL (IFC) to do a half-hour special (called “Fur on the Asphalt: A Greg The Bunny Reunion Special”) and two seasons worth of “Greg the Bunny Parodies,” which recently aired in 2005-6 and are available on DVD from SHOUT FACTORY! Home Video.

Season one consisted of six, brand-new shows and six of our old shows (pre-Fox) which were re-edited to air as part of the new series. Season two contained six all-new shows. We also made a short series of webisodes for IFC, which were shown as part of season two.

In 2009, MTV commissioned a pilot presentation for a Greg the Bunny themed reality show, which was eventually centered around the character of Greg's foil, Warren the Ape.   And so in 2010, "Warren the Ape" ran for 12 episodes on MTV Networks.   The show would reunite many of the FOX actors, as well as a few faces from the IFC days.  

The show was promptly cancelled but is currently being featured on both Itunes and HuluPlus media services.


WHERE CAN WE GET GREG THE BUNNY MERCHANDISE?

We've tried for years to get GTB merchandise into the marketplace but it has been very difficult. Currently, we are utilizing Zazzle.com to create SWAG for people based on our most popular characters.  While some have expressed frustration with Zazzle's shipping policies, they DO make what we believe to be the highest quality product at the most affordable price.

We are constantly working to try and provide better options for fans, so if you have a bad experience or can recommend a better way for us to provide you with SWAG, PLEASE CONTACT US.

Keep in mind that ZAZZLE's prices can be adjusted based on customization - so if you find a shirt too expensive, try the same design on another type of material...

IS GREG THE BUNNY ON DVD?

Currently, there are three officially-licensed DVD sets available on commercial DVD.
The first one released was the two-disc set of our Fox sitcom, released by 20th Century Fox. It contains all the episodes of our cancelled Fox show and a ton of cool extras – including interviews, commentaries and tons of deleted goodies.

In 2006, SHOUT! Factory released a two-disc set which contained the first “season” of film parodies shown on the Independent Film Channel, containing twelve episodes (many in an extended and uncensored format). Extras include commentaries on all episodes, deleted scenes and gag reel, along with a wealth of easter eggs and two featurettes.

In 2008, they released a second volume on a one-disc set, which contains the episodes from our second season, as well as a TON of cool extras.

IS WARREN THE APE ON DVD?

Not yet and we are quite frustrated that nobody at MTV seems eager to help get it in stores, though HuluPlus and iTunes currently have the show available on their media services.   For a DVD, check the booth at your local media convention for a bootleg.  :)

WHAT ABOUT "JUNKTAPE" ON DVD?

We are working on generating a DVD of our Junktape material, but understand that this public access show, hosted by Greg, originally featured many clips from copyrighted sources. While it was legal to air them on the public airwaves, we cannot legally sell DVDs of this material without paying for the rights to all the copyrighted material.

So while we CAN show you the segments that included our puppets, we unfortunately cannot show the episodes in their original, uncut form.

BUT -- there is a fan-made, bootleg DVD of "Junktape" available on Ebay and at some conventions. Since the public access show contains copyrighted material, we are unable to release them ourselves in their original form, so while we don't necessarily condone the bootleggers, we also don't see any way of releasing these shows ourselves. So, if you can find it - we're happy for you to see Greg's first show, in its uncut form.

WHY ARE SOME CHARACTERS FROM THE FOX SHOW NOT ON THE NEWER SERIES?

When we first made a deal with Fox, we owned the rights to Greg the Bunny, Count Blah and Warren the Ape. Any other character who was created solely for the Fox series, such as TARDY TURTLE, SUSAN THE MONSTER and the human cast, are owned by Fox.

While we are working to obtain rights to characters like Tardy, we cannot legally include these characters as part of our new shows. Though we DO often have cameos by people like Seth Green and Sarah Silverman (playing themselves).


IS TARDY TURTLE REALLY MISSING?

As we say above, we do not yet own the exclusive rights to this character and therefore cannot include him in our new shows. Also, many of you might have heard from our web sources or our Fox DVD that Tardy was “stolen.” This is absolutely true – when we went to pick up our puppets from Fox Studios, we found that Tardy and Susan the Monster were missing. Technically, Fox did own these puppets at the time, so they were not illegally taken. But they WERE taken without our knowledge and so far nobody has told us where they can be found.

In 2007 Victor Yerrid and Dan Milano commissioned the building of a new Tardy puppet, who can be seen in the VIDEOS section of our website. The original Tardy remains lost.


HOW IS SETH GREEN INVOLVED?

Seth starred on our Fox series as Greg’s best friend and room-mate, Jimmy Bender. Since then he has made cameo appearances on our new show as himself. Seth is not a producer of our show. But he DID co-create the series, “Robot Chicken” with Matt Senreich, a show on which he has hired Dan Milano (Greg) to do some voices and writing over the years.


WHO ARE “SEAN AND SPENCER” ?

Along with Dan Milano, Sean Baker and Spencer Chinoy are the co-creators, producers and directors of “Greg the Bunny.” Back on our original public access and cable shows, Sean and Spencer often appeared in the shows with the puppets. We never showed their faces, but they were often heard interacting with the puppets, directing them, yelling at them, etc. This gave the original series a more documentary-style feel.

Since the Fox series was a fictional narrative and not a documentary, it was made up of human characters like Gil Bender (Eugene Levy) and Alison Kaiser (Sarah Silverman). Therefore, Spencer and Sean were not featured as characters on the show.

Since our return to IFC, which was very much also a return to our original style, Sean and Spencer returned to interact with the puppets. They were even "murdered" by Warren in our parody of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, available on our second DVD from SHOUT! Factory Home Video.


WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH GREG’S EYES?

On our original public access and cable series, Greg always had button eyes and a mouth that did not move. Once we started the Fox series, a brand-new Greg puppet was built. It was quite large compared to the original, and had a moving mouth.

Though the network wanted Greg’s eyes changed, the button eyes were allowed to stay for the first six episodes produced. Unfortunately, test audiences did not respond warmly to Greg and the network mandated that his button eyes be removed in favor of glass eyes with blinking eyelids.

This caused a lot of confusion because half our Fox shows featured a button-eyed Greg, while the other half featured the glass eyes. Worse, these shows were not shown in the order that they were shot, and therefore Greg’s eyes seemed to change from episode to episode. They did not even allow us to create an episode to EXPLAIN this situation. It was one of many creative frustrations we had at the time. Fortunately, the Fox DVD shows the episodes in the order in which they were produced, making it a little easier to see this evolution take place.

Finally, when the Fox show was cancelled and we created a NEW Greg puppet for the IFC, we made sure to go back to the original button eyes. While the glass eyes did give the Fox Greg puppet some interesting expressions, it simply wasn’t the Greg the creators knew and loved. So the buttons are now back and here to stay.


AND WHAT ABOUT HIS MOUTH?

Greg’s mouth no longer moves like it did on the Fox series. The creators have decided to make the Greg puppet look exactly like he was when originally created. This means no moving mouth, and a return for his button eyes. Though is mouth DOES move in our half-hour IFC special, our new season features Greg with a closed mouth, which is how he will likely stay.


WHY IS COUNT BLAH DIFFERENT ON THE FOX SERIES THAN ON IFC AND WARREN THE APE?

We love both versions of Count Blah. Like Greg the Bunny, the Blah puppet has been restored to how he originally looked and spoke before the Fox series. On Fox, Blah was made to look more “human” and was given a chubby, articulate face. The original Blah was much more shark-like and grotesque. In developing a brand-new series the creators decided to restore Blah to his former appearance.

In addition, Dan Milano was the voice and puppeteer for Count Blah (and all the characters) on the original series. For the Fox show, Dan was quite swamped with not only playing Greg and Warren, but also having to juggle his job as a writer and producer. Therefore, Dan hired puppeteer Drew Massey to take on the role. Drew performed Blah for all the episodes of the Fox series.

Now that the Fox show has been cancelled, Dan has resumed taking on the character of Count Blah for the new series. There is no rivalry between Dan and Drew, they are good friends and still work together on each other’s projects. We enjoy both versions of Count Blah and don’t really consider one to be better than the other. It’s the same Blah, just with slightly different looks and voices.


WHO ANSWERS THE TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND WEB MAIL?

The characters’ offical MySpace pages are managed personally by the creators of the show and their close friends. Responses made by the characters are most commonly made by Dan Milano and/or longtime G the B puppeteer and collaborator, Chris Bergoch.

WHY AREN'T YOU ON COMEDY CENTRAL OR ADULT SWIM?

So many of you have suggested Comedy Central, MTV's corporate cousin, or Adult Swim as a
potentially better network for our brand of humor.  We can assure you
that we have done all we can to try and explore this possibility, but at
this time they have not expressed interest.


WHAT COULD BE NEXT FOR WARREN?

Keep in mind this is our fourth show (counting public access) on three networks over the last ten years, and as long as we control the creative
rights to Warren and his pals, there is always the possibility of new
life. Such is the spirit of the Fabricated American, even a drunken one.