Tim Heidecker: Adult Swim actually asks us to get weirder
Tim Heidecker is enjoying some unprecedented creative freedom over at Adult Swim. In fact, his bosses at the late-night entertainment destination often chide him and his creative team for not pushing the envelope enough.
Heidecker got his start on Adult Swim with "Tom Goes to the Mayor" and "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" In his more than 12 years working with the network, he and creative partner Eric Wareheim have developed a reputation for absurdist, intentionally low-budget comedy that has attracted a loyal fan-base.
This weekend sees the premiere of two of his series: "Decker: Unclassified" -- starring Heidecker as a Jack Bauer-like super-spy -- and "Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule" -- starring a game-for-anything John C. Reilly. And, as Heidecker tells CBS News, neither character has experienced much in the way of growth.
"Decker: Unclassified" picks up the character you started as a web series and moves him to TV. What's new about this look at the Decker character?
What's new? He's the same old Decker. I mean, the more you make a show, there's an evolution to the character, I guess. Or you learn more about what works and what doesn't work. There's not a lot of depth there, so he's pretty much a "what you see is what you get" kind of guy.
What have you learned about him over the seasons?
Not much. I mean, he's picked up a few traits and a few go-to moves that we like to use, but he's pretty dumb so there's not much to say. I think the difference of this season is it was a little more of a budget, a little more production behind it. We took it a little more seriously. We're trying 10 percent more.
Are you at all influenced by the fact that "24" is coming back?
Oh, I didn't even know that. But we look at those kinds of shows for influence and for ideas. They sort of inspire us a little bit, for sure, but there's a whole pile of shows like this and movies that we draw from.
Are you able to still enjoy watching stuff like that now, or are you always looking at them in terms of material you can mine?
Yeah, I'm able to just watch stuff as an escapist moment to break up my night, to forget about life. But if I'm in the mode of when we're writing the show or getting ready, there's definitely going to be part of my brain that's picking up on certain elements of the show and seeing how we can use them.
Working with Adult Swim you seem to have an enviable amount of creative freedom. What do notes from the network look like?
In general, they're just encouraging us to go further or to be more experimental or weirder. It's a very healthy relationship, and there is a dialogue. We value and appreciate the feedback, because sometimes it's nice to have a perspective on it.
With John C. Reilly as Steve Brule, do you run into people recognizing him more and more as the series goes on?
We've been pretty lucky. We kind of go into areas that are probably not in general going to be so familiar with him and the character, and then we just create a little bit of a cushion, a little bit of a safe space. It hasn't been too bad. I mean, there's going to be a few odd onlookers and stuff. But the other thing is we're not really trying to fool anybody or pull a prank. The way we work it, it's very manipulative later on in the editing, but when we're there it's less of trying to fool anybody.
"Decker: Unclassified" and "Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule" premiere June 17 on Adult Swim.