One of the hardest things to do in an established show or universe is to introduce new characters to the mix, and have the audience embrace them in the same way they embraced the “OGs.” That’s exactly what the crew of Big City Greens is doing this season, though, shaking things up by introducing some new characters, new locations, and even a big twist on one of the series’ existing locations. So, how do you do it without creating a Cousin Oliver or Scrappy Doo, who are widely understood to have been a huge liability to the very shows they were brought in to spruce up?
According to Shane and Chris Houghton, very carefully. Still, with the show’s third season no underway, we asked the Houghtons what they took into account when bringing new faces to a beloved show.
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“A long-running series presents these kinds of new challenges, and that’s certainly one you know and that’s one we’ve encountered: ‘Okay, how do we introduce some new fun characters or something to freshen things up a little bit?’” Chris Houghton admitted. “We’ve all seen the worst examples of that, where, ‘the show was great until the neighbor character was introduced,’ or whatever, but um I am proud to say, I think we found a unique way to to do a little switch up in season three that kind of checks that box, in a way that I haven’t really seen another show do.”
“In the writers room Chris often like to say whether we’re talking about a new character or introducing a new character that that character has to earn their place,” Shane Houghton told ComicBook. “If the the function in that story of that character is to do something one of our established characters can do, it feels like we owe it to our established characters to have them service that plot point. So when we’re creating a new character for the series, we really ask, where are the deficits in the show? Where are the holes that we want to fill, and can we create a character that can do something that nobody else that we’ve established can do? That’s usually a high bar for introducing a new, recurring character into Big City Greens, but there are a few new characters in season three. I think we wanted to challenge ourselves with expanding the world expanding the community of Big City Greens.”
You can see new episodes of Big City Greens on Thursdays on the Disney Channel. Check your local listings for times.
