BoJack Horseman

BoJack Horseman is an American adult animated web television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. Set primarily in Los Angeles, the series tells the story of an anthropomorphic horse named BoJack Horseman (Arnett), the washed-up star of a 1990s sitcom who plans his return to celebrity relevance with an autobiography to be written by ghostwriter Diane Nguyen (Brie). He also has to contend with his agent Princess Carolyn (Sedaris), roommate Todd Chavez (Paul), and former rival Mr. Peanutbutter (Tompkins), as well as his struggles with depression and addiction. The show is designed by cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt, who has been friends with Bob-Waksberg since high school and had previously worked with him on the webcomic ''Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out. ''

The series premiered on Netflix on August 22, 2014, and ended on January 31, 2020, with a total of 77 episodes over six seasons. The first five seasons consist of 12 episodes each, while the sixth and final season consists of 16 episodes divided into two parts of eight episodes each. A one-off Christmas special was also released on December 19, 2014.

Despite mixed reviews upon its debut, critics were significantly more positive towards the second half of the first season, and the subsequent seasons received widespread critical acclaim.[13][14] Rolling Stone has called Bojack Horseman "phenomenal," while GQ Magazine hailed the show as one of the best of the decade, declaring it to be "the benchmark by which all comedies of the decade can be judged."[16] IndieWire ranked BoJack Horseman as the greatest animated TV show of all time. The show has been lauded for its realistic take on dealing with depression, trauma, addiction, self-destructive behavior, racism, sexism, sexuality, and the human condition.

The series received numerous accolades, including four Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Animated Series, three Annie Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards. It was also nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Outstanding Animated Program.

Premise
The series is set in an alternate world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, taking place mostly in Hollywood (later known as "Hollywoo" after the "D" in the Hollywood Sign is stolen and destroyed). BoJack Horseman is the washed-up star of the 1990s sitcom Horsin' Around, which centered around a young bachelor horse trying to raise three human children who had been orphaned. Now living in relative obscurity in his Hollywood Hills mansion, BoJack plans a monumental comeback to celebrity relevance with a tell-all autobiography to be written by ghostwriter Diane Nguyen. At the same time, he deals with his addiction to drugs, alcohol, and the resulting recklessness. Bojack also has to contend with the demands of his agent and on-again-off-again girlfriend Princess Carolyn, the misguided antics of his freeloading roommate Todd Chavez, and his former rival Mr. Peanutbutter.

Conception
After moving to L.A. for the first time, writer Raphael Bob-Waksberg unsuccessfully pitched ideas for shows to different networks. Among them was the idea for a family comedy set during the Reign of Terror called The Good Times Are Killing Me, which Waksberg described as "All in the Family but in France, [...] where the Dad was guillotine salesman and business was booming, but he couldn't get his wacky family in order." Around the same time, he moved into a friend's house up in the Hollywood Hills, living in what he described as "a glorified closet in a beautiful mansion". On his first night there, he "look[ed] out on the deck over all of Hollywood, and simultaneously on top of the world and never more isolated and alone." This was the beginning of the idea that would become BoJack Horseman.

Raphael Bob-Waksberg and illustrator Lisa Hanawalt had met in high school and the two would often joke about creating an animated series together. The two eventually went their separate ways, with Bob-Waksberg moving to LA and Hanawalt moving to New York, but stayed in touch, working together on the web comic Tip Me Over, Pull Me Out. In March 2010, Bob-Waksberg emailed Hanawalt asking for a drawing of one of the "horse-guys" she had been sketching, outlining a pitch for a show he titled "BoJack the Depressed Talking Horse". This early pitch hewed closely to the final product except for some minor differences - Todd was called Topher and was BoJack's childhood friend; Diane was a development executive instead of a ghostwriter; and Mr. Peanutbutter was BoJack's agent instead of Princess Carolyn, with his role as BoJack's rival instead filled by a horse called Honeybucket. Hanawalt joked that the concept sounded too depressing.

Development history
In late 2010, Bob-Waksberg met with producer Steven A. Cohen of the Tornante Company and pitched five different animated projects, including BoJack Horseman. After the pitch, Cohen asked Bob-Waksberg which project interested him most, and Bob-Waksberg chose BoJack Horseman. He wrote up a treatment for the series which was then pitched to the Tornante Company CEO Michael Eisner, who suggested that the show center around a former racehorse rather than a former sitcom actor. While Bob-Waksberg successfully pushed for the show-business angle, this contributed to a storyline in which BoJack later played the titular racehorse in the fictional movie Secretariat in the show's second season.

Hanawalt was approached to come on board to design the show. She initially turned down the offer. "I’d just finished illustrating a children’s book and it was kind of a bad experience. It took six months of work and felt endless, and I didn’t want to commit to another big project. I made the mistake of not jumping aboard a good thing". Production went ahead with various other artists coming on board to design the show and characters, but none captured Hanawalt's unique style. Six months later, Hanawalt was again approached to design the show, and this time agreed. She then worked with animation production studio ShadowMachine to develop the show's visual style. The production team put together a brief pilot presentation of the show which was used to shop the show to networks.

Bob-Waksberg and the team eventually pitched to Netflix in October 2013, and the show was picked up on the condition that the series launch in time for summer 2014. As a result, the 12-episode first season was produced in just 35 weeks; the first three episodes were written by Bob-Waksberg before a full writing staff were hired, and the first table read was held in the first week of production. The original plan had been to use the footage from the original pilot presentation in the season's first episode, however the decision was made to start from scratch (partially due to the decision to completely redesign the character of Todd Chavez from as he appeared in the pilot). The series premiered on August 22, 2014. Four days later, the series was renewed for a second season which released on July 17, 2015. A third season was announced July 28, 2015, and premiered July 22, 2016, with a fourth season announced the same day. The fourth season launched on Netflix on September 8, 2017. A fifth season was announced on September 21, 2017. and launched on September 14, 2018. Each season contained twelve episodes. Writers for BoJack Horseman included Bob-Waksberg, Joe Lawson, Kate Purdy, Elijah Aron, Jordan Young, Mehar Sethi and Joanna Calo. Directors include Amy Winfrey, J.C. Gonzalez, Mike Hollingsworth, Aaron Long and Anne Walker Farrell.

The show's first season intentionally told a self-contained story in case the show was not picked up for a second season. Netflix asked Bob-Waksberg to leave some threads hanging to set up a potential second season, and Bob-Waksberg asked that, should Bojack Horseman get cancelled, Netflix warn him in advance so he could end the series properly. After the release of the fifth season, Netflix told Bob-Waksberg that the upcoming sixth season would be the show's last. "They don’t have to do that, obviously. But I said I would appreciate it if I could have the forewarning to give the show a proper finale, and not set up some cliffhangers that will never pay off. So when they picked up season six, they said, ‘Hey, remember how you asked for that heads-up? We think that this is your heads-up.’ So I'm very grateful that we got that notice.” An extended sixth and final season of sixteen episodes was released in two parts of eight episodes each. The first half released on October 25, 2019, and the second on January 31, 2020.

Addressing social issues
Since its first season, BoJack has addressed many hot-button sociopolitical issues. Its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, once said that he considered the concept of "political correctness" something that other comedians and media creators should view as more of a responsibility: In a 2017 interview with Vice, he said,

A notable example is the episode "Hank After Dark" (season two, episode seven), commonly referred to as "the Cosby episode", which follows Diane and BoJack on a book tour as they field questions regarding allegations that have just surfaced about a comedy legend, Hank Hippopopalous. In the episode "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew" (season three, episode six), Diane accidentally announces she is getting an abortion via pop starlet Sextina Aquafina's Twitter account, and Hollywoo gets swept up in talks about the practice. The season four episode "Thoughts and Prayers" took a similar satirical approach towards the frequency of mass shootings and the gun debate in America, after Diane fires a gun for the first time and one of Princess Carolyn's projects get caught in the crossfire, launching a debate on whether or not women should own and use guns.

The fifth season has been praised for its handling of sexual harassment and powerful men following the Me Too movement. Emily VanDerWerff wrote that it "just might be the best artistic rumination on #MeToo and an age of terrible men yet."

The show also explores Todd Chavez's open asexuality, which is addressed throughout the latter three seasons. In the last episode of the third season, Todd says "I'm not gay... I mean, I don't think I am, but I don't think I'm straight, either. I don't know what I am. I think I might be nothing." In season 6, Todd forms a relationship with a rabbit named Maude, whom he meets on the asexual dating app his childhood friend and Ex-Girlfriend created for him, "All About That Ace".