Mongo is Appalled
A podcast covering all novels of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Discussing outlandish ideas and ridiculous notions that no one should have to endure. For those of you that have read all the current books and are just waiting for the next one, this is your respite until the next book for Dungeon Crawler Carl comes along. WARNING: This podcast contains definite spoilers and preposterous ideas that may make your brain melt. Listen responsibly.
Mongo is Appalled
Television Show Speculation
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Mike and Corbett talking about what the television show might be like. It could be good or it could be bad, but odds are pretty good it will be funny.
But in the meantime, welcome to Mongo is Appalled. I am Corbett, and I'm relatively appalled sometimes, but most of the time I am calm.
SPEAKER_00How about you, Mike? Well, being as I feel hip and funky fresh today, I'm hipalled. Eh? See what I did there? Cause the thing, anyway.
SPEAKER_02Play that funky music, pale lad.
SPEAKER_00Lay down the boogie. Anyway.
SPEAKER_02So, Mike, have you watched anything good on TV lately?
SPEAKER_00Uh nothing dungeon-y. Or Crawley? Or Crawley.
SPEAKER_02Because this time around, we are talking about the television show coming out, allegedly. The rumors are pretty heavy at this point, though. I'm sure everybody's heard it at least once that there's a live action, which is a little hard to believe. A live action television show coming out for Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is being made by Fuzzy Door Productions, Seth McFarlane's company, who they currently do Ted, which is on Peacock, which is where they'll be doing this. They also did uh the Orville, Family Guy, American Dad. You get the idea. Seth McFarlane stuff. So, Mike, I think it's fair to say it'll be a funny show because it's funny as is. Seth McFarlane generally makes stuff pretty funny. So let's talk about the bad part of this.
SPEAKER_00What's?
SPEAKER_02I think it's fair to say there's no way in hell you can cram that book into a television show.
SPEAKER_00Uh well, certainly.
SPEAKER_02Not without losing things. Something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Honestly, I'm more concerned about it being live action than I am being on TV. Because when they first started talking about doing it as an animated show, I'm like, okay, yeah, that could work. I I can't wait. That'll be cool. And now, relatively recently in the past couple of weeks, we've heard that it's going to be live action now. I'm leery. Not that I have a problem with Seth McFarlane necessarily, but live action is more expensive. This is true. And if it's more expensive, then there's gonna be greater pressure on numbers, viewing numbers, streaming numbers.
SPEAKER_02I think for a first season, it wouldn't be too bad. I mean, they're obviously gonna have to put in some CGI. I mean, uh it would just have to be because there's no way you can get Donut to fully not turn and talk.
SPEAKER_00Unless you do that old 70s Disney live action where, oh, what was that? It was a show I cannot think of the name of it, but it was Cat from Outer Space.
SPEAKER_02Oh, the cat from Outer Space. Well, that that's where they have light up collar, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but they didn't feel the need to draw in a moving mouth or anything.
SPEAKER_02Well, but they had the collar, it would flash when the cat talked.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, but that was way better, easier than than doing moving lips.
SPEAKER_02I know on Sabrina the Teenage Witch they had the cat that would switch between a real cat and a puppet. Yeah. And I would bet they would stick to real cat and possible CG. But the thing is, it'll be the first two floors, which I would guess would be the first season, and that depends on a lot. Basically the first book. Yeah, the first book is all inside a dungeon, so it'll be dark, kind of easy to throw in CG stuff easily and build up a following. It'll be the second book or the third floor where it gets complicated, where they have outdoor stuff happening.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't have Beacock, but I have heard that they went on and canceled Starfleet Academy, even though they already had a second season done.
SPEAKER_02Uh, there was a lot of general fan separation from it. Well, there were people who loved it, people who hated it, and they all wanted to throw it down immediately. I don't know. I watched the first show, I wasn't enamored by it. Jim watched it and he was totally enamored by it. So Right.
SPEAKER_00And that's the thing, you know. I mean, obviously Deniman is gonna have some input, but how much? Will it transfer well to the screen?
SPEAKER_02No, it's it's a matter of how McFarlane takes it. I think he'll take it and make something fun out of it because it's already fun. So all he has to do is kind of sharpen the sword, basically. There's really no hard area there to like, oh, you've got to come up with all new jokes. Like, not really. These are all pretty well laid in place. The only thing he has to do is make it fit into either a 30-minute format or a one-hour format.
SPEAKER_00But he's not the only feedback this people will have being live action, one gets the impression this is going to be catered to adults rather than kids. True. Which I'm pretty sure the animated would have been the same, but you know, in in this country, there's still a portion of the population that believes, well, if it's animated, it's gotta be for kids. What?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I'm maybe I'm just old and cynical, but I'm more concerned. I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love for a live-action Dungeon Crawler Carl to knock our socks off and get Game of Thrones level seasons out of it. Fine by me.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it would be cool, but I my only big worry is if there's major changes to the storyline that don't have any justification.
SPEAKER_00Well, they certainly can't pull a Game of Thrones. Well, the books aren't well, no, they're not all done, but he's got seven.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's what Game of Thrones did. They started putting them out before the books were finished. In fact, I don't think the books have fin been finished, have they?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02See? Kills the book.
SPEAKER_00Let's face it, if the series could end right now, and you'd still have plenty of TV out of it.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Several years. So Cinnamon's still putting him out pretty fresh, so.
SPEAKER_00And that's not even counting variants like the Florence graphic novel or but here, let me give you a for instance.
SPEAKER_02Just a for instance. And I don't know anything about the show, so don't hold me up to a flame on this. I'm just saying, for instance, a producer goes, hey, it's kind of funny this guy and his cat are running around with a rat guy and figuring out a dungeon. But wouldn't it be better if his girlfriend went in too? Maybe like him and Brad, the Chad, show up and they were out boinking and just showed up just as Carl and the cat go in, and then they go in after and wind up crisscrossing through the dungeon? That'd be a lot funnier, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00Oh, and even better, we'll have the pet biscuit causes Donut and Beatrice to merge into one cat w cat girl character. So we can have a dramatic triangle between Brad and Carl. That's how TV XX think, though.
SPEAKER_02I know. You know how I feel about cat girls.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Which well, that's funnier if she is a cat girl. See?
SPEAKER_02See? See, and that's that's where I worry, is they take a an idea, like, hey, this is gonna be better, because I can see okay, something I was talking to you about before we started the show was that like they'll try to introduce characters sooner because it'll be better for people to get to relate to them. And like Katya is one that I could see them trying to push earlier. Like she gets separated from uh Hecla's team way early and winds up with Carl and Donut before they even fight like the ball of swine. So it's the three of them running to the dungeon.
SPEAKER_00So number one, you have the instant or not even do that, have Katya as one of the nurses at Meadowlark.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, something along those lines. And the whole story with Meadowlark, I don't know. See, that you're looking at if you go with the book as one season, that's two floors in the first book. The the ball of swine would be mid-season hit. The big fight with the bike and the bomb launcher and the demon would be the, of course, climactic moment at the end of the season. So you're talking like what presuming it's a 10-episode season. Man, that's gonna be tight. If it's a 30-minute show, it's really tight.
SPEAKER_00But that's that's a good point. How many episodes are we talking about? Because if it's streaming, it could be anything from six to sixteen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true. So I presume they'll produce up to the ball of swine to kind of like here's what it's gonna be like, and then they'll either cut it or or launch it, and that'll be it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But at least you'll you'll you will have Met Metal Art, so that's pretty exciting. You'll have Met Agatha, kind of cool. Frank and Maggie Mai would have popped in.
SPEAKER_00Or they'll get rid of Frank and Maggie Mai. Oh, that'd be rough. That's a that's a big It would be because not only does it modify the whole thing with Chris, but it also kind of showed you know reduces the obvious example of not every guide is like Mordecai. Yeah. So but hey, you know, we're not the execs. And for books, they may not have a choice. They may be told you need to tell the first book in six episodes. You have an hour, but you have six episodes.
SPEAKER_02If it was BBC, I'd bet good money, it'd be great.
SPEAKER_00Like, possibly. I don't underestimate any studio to screw something up.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, it's true. I think McFarlane, at least at McFarlane Studio, knows how to make something that is funny. So I have no real worries that it it should not be missing any jokes that weren't there already.
SPEAKER_00Certainly not the major ones.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. They're gonna be there, they're gonna be right in in tone and probably work, I will admit. If I think the hard part is you've 100% gotta have donut talking before the end of the first episode, or nobody's gonna pay attention to it.
SPEAKER_00Or right at the end have her turn over Carl and say something, at least. Depending on how tight they are for time, it may have to happen within the first 15-20 minutes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But you're looking at probably losing, oh, the the garbage lady or the bag lady, the first boss they fight. No, no, no, no. The one they first fight. Oh, the first uh the first boss, the hoarder. Yeah. You'll lose her, but you'll probably keep the uh oh, the lizard bro. The juicer Brawl?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The juicer, yeah. Because he's funny. The hoarder is kind of horrifying. Sad and horrifying.
SPEAKER_02Uh the baby thing, they might, I don't know, they gotta have the goblins because you can't have the goblins without having the bicycle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So and that also leads to the whole bit with why the demon needs to be thrown down the stairs. The goblins will probably pop up. Oh man, that's just like so many things that will probably get cut, and so many things that'll probably be thrown in. And then, of course, anything else they feel like throwing in because they they feel like it needs more or they need to put characters in sooner. You know, you meet Meadow Meadowlark, maybe like Team Meadowlark and Carl are all in the same block, so they all go in together.
SPEAKER_00And an example for getting rid of the hoarder is like for a TV show, you may want to build up to the hey, these are real people, rather than having it come right out the gate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That works for a book, but maybe not so much for a TV show.
SPEAKER_02Well, the first couple books, he spends a lot of time reminiscing and going, Oh my gosh, my world's gone. Holy crap, there's nobody left. This is it. Yeah. Later on, he's much more hardfelt, but he's he's kind of always going back to his mantra in the first few books of, you know, you will not break me, I will make this happen. Right. That really builds the character for him. So that's what they gotta focus on, I think, to make it solid. I'm not saying it can't be good. I'm just saying uh it definitely needs a good hand at the weird.
SPEAKER_00Right. And they've got to have the freedom to be able to do it because that's a thing. Gentleman, McFarland, they may be going in this with the absolute best of intentions, but there's all sorts of things that can screw it up. There's Peacock executives, there's here's another thing. What if, because of the actor and actress choices, that whoever they get to play Brandon is way popular?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Then this studio is going to go, show him more.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_00Viewers are gonna go, show him more.
SPEAKER_02And you can't let him go.
SPEAKER_00Right. So well now he has to stay with Carlin Donut, no matter what. He he has to leave Metal Ark because, well, the studio says he's popular, the fans say they love that actor, let's modify it to this. See, there's all sorts of things that can come up when you do TV.
SPEAKER_02And some of it's like you gotta fight for it. I don't know where Matt Dinneman's gonna lay his gauntlet down. Or if he's just like, thanks for the cash and go right off in the sunset on his jet ski.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I've read stuff that yeah, he's one of the executive producers, but there was a couple of Marvel movies, some of the earlier ones, where Stan Lee was listed as an executive producer, and he really admitted in his biographies that basically he showed up, made a couple of comments, they ignored him, so he stopped showing up. So they wanted just be able to put Stan Lee's name as executive producer on this film. I think it was one of the Hulks.
SPEAKER_02But well, we know how those Hulk movies came out. Yeah, I think the difference here though, in comparison, is that the fandom for Dungeon Crawler Carl is pretty whole still. I don't feel like it's subdivided, or we don't like the way they let like this, or they don't like the way like it's still very much hey, you're doing the thing. I I love the thing. We should do more of the thing.
SPEAKER_00They're all galactica was pretty uniform too until the remake came out.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's like when Star Trek changed and the new Some love it, some hate it. Or next generation versus original, newer Trek versus older new track, which somehow is newer than old Trek, then new new track, and oh come on, let's get over that. Same with Star Wars.
SPEAKER_00The the Song of Ice and Fire fans, as opposed to the ones who only knew it from a Game of Thrones, the TV show. Oh, and they were bigger in numbers, I believe, than the people who enjoyed the books. Yeah. So again, I hate to I don't mean to be Debbie Downer here. I'd love to be proven wrong. I'm just very uncertain. Melancholy Mike. I guess we could do it. They might break me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna lean on Seth McFarlane for this. I will blame him to the day uh no, but I think he I think he can appreciate fandom and he can appreciate funny stuff, obviously.
SPEAKER_00Fandom, I think, has more clout in Hollywood than it did even 10-15 years ago. So that might help too.
SPEAKER_02Well, before he did the Orville, he had a there's a famous commentary where he met with Patrick Stewart, like the original cast of The Next Generation. And the whole time he was just like wide-eyed, open-mouthed, looking back and forth while they talked at this dinner. Because he was still a fan.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02He had done Family Guy and all these other because he had Patrick Stewart on uh American Dad as one of the regulars. And he's like, Oh, what why don't you come out and have lunch for this? And they they all go out and and it's just him like fanboying it up like any of us would, going, Oh man, this is so cool. Oh, it's Jordy talking.
SPEAKER_00Like the Wayne Swirl movie.
SPEAKER_01We're not worthy!
SPEAKER_00We're not worthy.
SPEAKER_02He knows the fandom and he appreciates it. And if you watch Orville, you go, Oh, okay, this is somebody who appreciated Star Trek and kind of did his own version, but did not make fun. He didn't go out and make fun of the original. He kind of made fun with it, I guess is the best way to say it. And I think I want to believe that he's gonna come into Dungeon Crawler Carl with the same kind of attitude, maybe a little more brazen because of the fact that he doesn't have nobody's done it before on video, TV, movie, and maybe he'll figure out a plan that'll make it work. You know, we'll do us two or three seasons and we'll do a movie, and then we'll do two or three seasons in a movie or something like that. I'm cool for that. I know he's gonna have to go with nobodies because there's no way you can't get big names. It'll have to be people that are either nobodies or people that are f are friends of Seth McFarlane who are have been in his stuff before, which would be hilarious if Patrick Stewart becomes Mordecai. But that would be something else.
SPEAKER_00I don't know that I'd want him as Mordecai.
SPEAKER_02I'm just saying he has a lot of celebrity friends he has on other animated shows and come through to do the voice acting. But I think Carl is gonna have to be a nobody. Yeah, because I've pointed out so many options that, yeah, that guy would be great. Oh, he's 60. Well, what about that guy? Oh, he's 55. Like, okay, what about that guy? He's 48. Like, oh geez, is there nobody young in Hollywood anymore?
SPEAKER_00No, and they're all people look and they're the people we think of as go-to. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The first go-to I would do for Carl would be Bruce Campbell from 78 to 85, somewhere in there. Perfect. But unfortunately, it's not that time, and he is much, much older.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think one of my next choices was like Ben Browder from Farscape. Totally on par with Carl, but he's in his late 50s.
SPEAKER_00Is he again animated that you could get past a lot of this?
SPEAKER_02That's true. You could get past a lot of this stuff, but anybody who I visually fits in my head doesn't match up by time. Yeah. Now, granted, Donut can be anybody because it'll be a voice. Mordecai can pretty much be anybody because it'll be a voice.
SPEAKER_00It just changes every time anyway.
SPEAKER_02Katcha could almost be anybody, but I presume you'd want to go with a standard face that sort of adjusts. And then the thing is, if you go with Katcha as the Picasso painting from the very first time you meet her, yeah, like through the first season, and then she gets her full face by the end, they might almost go with anybody.
SPEAKER_00Maybe just have one episode where she's Picasso then from then on, so that you don't have as much CGI to have to pay for. Either way, guess we'll see.
SPEAKER_02Oh and the the Maestro. Wasn't that in the first one?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was the first second one. That was the first.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. Because we got the maestro and audette in the first book. Those are whole scenes that could almost be shows under themselves if they're 30 minutes long.
SPEAKER_00I don't think they'll have audit's breasts. I may be unduly pruding, but I just don't think they'll go to that level. No, they could do them. They just have the holsters. They could. Oh, absolutely. I just don't think they will.
SPEAKER_02We'll see. We'll see. There's a the but that's the thing. There's so many elements to it that it takes a lot to put it all together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's where your television show kind of becomes the toss salad that it is. Yeah. Could they make it good? I think it could be good. I think it could be enjoyable. They could make it good. And of course, then everybody who knows the books can go, well, you should really read the books because it's so awesome. Yeah. And and you could be one of those people. How cool is that?
SPEAKER_00Although you're listening to this, we would hope you've already listened to the books or read the books.
SPEAKER_02Oh, they're doing fine. I got the I got the uh cliff notes on the book, so I pretty much know. It'd be hilarious if there were college cliff notes for this. I would love to read the Cliff Notes version of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Is that sad that I I love the book so much? I would go back and read the Cliff Notes version of the book just to see what they say.
SPEAKER_00And then you write your own commentaries on the Cliff Notes.
SPEAKER_02You miss so much.
SPEAKER_00I can't believe how can you possibly say this was what was really going through Carl's mind. It clearly shows on page 97, paragraph four, that's well, that's part of this show that I really love, and Carl in general that I really love.
SPEAKER_02Because there's people who ask, oh, what was it? Somebody said something about Mordecai in one of the comment things, and it was something really obvious. Like, why why hasn't Mordecai just left the dungeon on his own? And everybody, of course, came in with, well, because he has a contract and he is supposed to be able to leave it right at a certain time, blah blah blah. And the typical thing you would expect. But then a few comments down, like, that's a good point. Why didn't he break out? Why didn't he try? Why isn't he doing this? Why isn't he doing that? Everybody speculates. And this show does it way too much, too, probably. But you know there's an obvious answer. I mean, what if Luke had a sister? That'd be crazy, right?
SPEAKER_00And and Han and Leia's kid becomes an ex Vader. What?
SPEAKER_02It's the fun of thinking what could be, and I think part of the the almost childlike innocence of being the in the fandom right now. Maybe it'll be terrible in a couple years, and we'll all be like, oh, that was a dumb idea.
SPEAKER_00Fanfic.net would not exist without this.
SPEAKER_02That's true. Heck, I I keep seeing so many high Zev uh license plates popping up on the internet, people getting high Zev. And it's like so just out there. I sent you that link, didn't I? Uh the or the the commentary from the guy who's like coming back from Canada and Oh, or going into Canada, yeah. Yeah, something like that. And he's what's Zev? He's like, Well, what's Zev? It's from a book, and he doesn't say anything, and then he started the guy leans out and it's a really good book series. If you'd love me to hear about it, I'd be loving, I'd love to tell you about it. And his daughter in the back of the god, no. And then the patrol officer's like, you can go ahead. Have a nice day. Yeah. Because we we are the the the witnesses of Carl, Carl's witnesses. We will proselyte ourselves in in full light of day.
SPEAKER_00The LDC, latter-day crawlers. A church of of crawler Carl and the Latter-day Crawlers.
SPEAKER_02You and me should just go to door-to-door holding up the first book of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Have you heard the good word?
SPEAKER_00But instead of bicycles, we'd be like on motorcycles, but kind of kit bash together weird motorcycles.
SPEAKER_02With a sidecar.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. With a sidecar and a cat in them, because, well, you know, gotta have a cat in them.
SPEAKER_02Well, it just makes sense with the cat.
SPEAKER_00Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense, Mike. What's wrong with this?
SPEAKER_02Oh, you know, that would this would be a breaking point. Any Dungeon Color Carl fan in the fandom watching a TV show version. And I I just want to point this out. I I don't think they'll do this. I have no idea, and I durt certainly don't have. Have a script. What if they go through and test audiences and find out the cat doesn't work? It needs to be a dog. Because I could see that happening. Yeah, yeah, it'll be a dog. And we won't call him Donut, we'll call him Sparky or something like that.
SPEAKER_00And have Arundagore as a cat girl. Oh. So you can have the dogs and cats. Dogs and cats. That's hysteria.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. I think that was my favorite, one of my favorite bits from the last book. What's the tattoo you're putting on? It's a dog. I didn't have to hear it to know in my head. Donut saying, What?
SPEAKER_01This is an outrage.
SPEAKER_02Oh, oh, poor Donut. But I could see them going, oh no, it's gonna be better as a parakeet or better as a somet a pony, something else. Or just make it a little girl. Beatrice. Yeah. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00In a pretty princess outfit. See? Princess Donut. No, don't it's his niece. He has to protect her.
SPEAKER_02See, that seems like something that would happen if it was the 70s. If they made a live action version and they just kind of like, ah, we'll just slip this through and not worry about it. Nobody's gonna care. Like, this is this is something that would be.
SPEAKER_00Because kids need a character to to identify with, otherwise, they won't be interested. Excuse me?
SPEAKER_02Well, that's what Lucia Mars there for.
SPEAKER_00There's a Carol, a kid to identify with.
SPEAKER_02Well, here's hoping. I expect something will be at least a little funny. Hopefully, it'll be a lot funny. Hopefully, we'll all get to see another version of Dungeon Crawler Carl that's just a little different. I'm sure it'll be a little different. And I can live.
SPEAKER_00It would almost have to be a little different.
SPEAKER_02It can't be exactly yeah, just the adjustment to fit on the screen, to make it work, right? Cut this scene or that.
SPEAKER_00You may not know everything that's coming out, but yeah, quite as much introspection on a TV show.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but as we all know, we all have our limitations.
SPEAKER_00And Peacock will not break us. No, no, they won't.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.