Animal Talking with Gary Whitta

Animal Talking With Gary Whitta is a web television virtual talk show hosted by Gary Whitta on Twitch. The show is executive-produced by Leah Whitta, and is livestreamed entirely from a talk-show set built in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Animal Talking premiered on April 25, 2020. It features Adam Nickerson as the bandleader.

Animal Talking with Gary Whitta
Also known as	Animal Talking
Genre	Late-night talk show Variety show
Created by	Gary Whitta
Written by	Gary Whitta
Presented by	Gary Whitta
Starring	Gary Whitta Adam Nickerson
Theme music composer	Kenny Fong
Opening theme	"Animal Talking Theme Music"
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer	Leah Whitta
Producer	Gary Whitta & Adam Nickerson
Production location	Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Editor	Adam Nickerson
Running time	approx. 90-200 minutes
Distributor	Twitch
Release
Original network	Twitch YouTube
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Original release	April 25, 2020 – present
External links
Website

Background

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Gary Whitta began streaming himself playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons daily a month before Animal Talking began, in the form of Animal Crossing Mornings. The show helped the channel gain a growing audience and identity. During his playthrough, Whitta came up with an idea to create a talk show set that paid homage to his favorite shows of the genre, such as The Tonight Show, The Larry Sanders Show, and Between Two Ferns.[1] A pilot episode was livestreamed in the set on April 25 with his friend and internet personality Naomi Kyle, which was well regarded by viewers. The show would later produce four more shows that week, before settling into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, with a permanent schedule at 7PM PT every Wednesday starting from episode 16.

Production

The show is filmed in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Gary's island of Kawaii. The set was put together with in-game furniture created by or gifted to the Whittas by viewers of the show. The in-game camera is utilized to film the show, although its limitations require the host avatar to move for better angles. Guests appear on the show as Animal Crossing avatars, with the wardrobe supervised by fellow Twitch streamer Kate Stark. On the occasion that a guest does not play Animal Crossing, executive producer and Gary's wife, Leah Whitta would customize her own avatar to match the appearance of the guest and puppeteer them live as they speak.[2] The production and guests speak together through Discord.

Additional staff members include Adam Nickerson, who serves as band leader and edits full episodes into ten minute highlight videos that can be accessed on the show's YouTube channel. The logo was designed by Chandana Ekanayake with Leah Whitta. The theme song was composed by Kenny Fong, and also credits Tom Young, Cameron Rose, Chris Petty, Desmond Splitter, Christian Lucy, and K.K. Slider.[3]

Due to the show's viral success, the show has been approached by potential sponsors, cable television networks, and advertisers. However, Whitta has rejected these opportunities, citing disinterest and stating "As soon as it becomes cynical, monetized, or corporatized, I think the whimsy and authenticity of it will disappear."[4]

Format

The show functions similarly to its real-life counterparts. Each episode starts with an opening sequence featuring Whitta's avatar performing various activities around his island, while Snowbike Mike announces that episode's guests. The theme song plays in the background as Mike introduces Gary Whitta as the host, who greets the audience, converses with Nickerson, and delivers any news about the show.

Following the introduction, main segments include celebrity interviews, live musical performances, and stand-up comedy.[5] While interviews have dived into the life of the guests, much of the conversation revolves around gaming and Animal Crossing.[6] At the end of the show, each guest is invited to step up to a mic to deliver a joke, and the best joke among the guests is determined through chat poll votes from the live audience.

A segment Danny's Diary featuring Danny Trejo first aired its debut episode on 8 June.[7] The first episode follows Trejo's avatar giving Nickerson a tour of his own island.

Episodes

Season 1

List of episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Original air date	Guest(s)	Musical/entertainment guest(s)
1	1	April 25, 2020	Naomi Kyle	N/A
2	2	April 26, 2020	Leah Whitta, Tanya	N/A
3	3	April 27, 2020	Kate Stark	N/A
4	4	April 29, 2020	Mike Drucker, Mary Kish	Raquel Lily
5	5	May 1, 2020	Felicia Day, Leah Whitta	DJ Cupcakes
6	6	May 4, 2020	Jordan Mechner, Hugh Howey	N/A
7	7	May 6, 2020	iJustine, Mike Krahulik & Jerry Holkins, Joey Noelle	N/A
8	8	May 8, 2020	Colin Trevorrow, Emily Carmichael	Ryan Miller (Guster)
9	9	May 11, 2020	Greg Miller, Chuck Wendig, Samantha Ruddy	N/A
10	10	May 13, 2020	T-Pain, Chastity Vicencio	Very Handsome Billy
11	11	May 14, 2020	Danny Trejo, Elijah Wood, Greg Grunberg, Jessica	N/A
12	12	May 15, 2020	Tim Schafer, What's Good Games	N/A
13	13	May 18, 2020	Cliff Bleszinski, Tom Nichols, LDShadowLady	DJ Cupcakes
14	14	May 20, 2020	Duncan Jones, Paul Scheer	The Dapper Rapper
15	15	May 22, 2020	David Mandel, Rebekah Valentine	N/A

Season 2

List of episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Original air date	Guest(s)	Musical/entertainment guest(s)
16	–	June 7, 2020	Noel Clarke, Amy Okuda, Kahlief Adams, Deejay Knight, iamBrandon, Tanya, Riana, Panda Bair, Dripping Honey, and Raquel Lily	N/A
Special 6 hour episode in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and to raise money for Color of Change.
17	1	June 24, 2020	Sting, Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin	That Violin Chick
18	2	July 1, 2020	Shaggy, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Jimmy O. Yang and Kiki Wolfkill	N/A
19	3	July 8, 2020	Simu Liu, Shannon Woodward	Shawn Wasabi and Sophia Black
20	4	July 15, 2020	Josh Gad, Matthew Mercer, Alex Winter	Cavetown and Tessa Violet
21	5	July 22, 2020	Brie Larson, DrLupo, Friskk	Kenny Fong
22	6	July 29, 2020	Susan Orlean, Justin Roiland	The Elwins
23	7	August 5, 2020	Selena Gomez, Cory Barlog, Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Shannon Woodward	Selena Gomez and Trevor Daniel
24	8	August 12, 2020	Phil Spencer, Lisa Loeb, Dylan Sprouse	Lisa Loeb
25	9	October 24, 2020	Shroud, Kate Stark	Gorillaz
26	10	October 30, 2020	Mike Shinoda, iJustine, Lisa Loeb, Greg Miller, Matthew Mercer, Mike Krahulik, Jerry Holkins, Paul Scheer, Naomi Kyle, Friskk	Rebekah Valentine
Special "Halloween Spooktacular" episode.

Reception

The show has been well received by viewers. Animal Talking was featured on the Twitch homepage, with its fourth episode reaching over 12,000 viewers and was number 14 on the site's most watched streams that day.[8] Episode 10 pulled in a total of 339,000 individual viewers,[9] while Episode 11 reached 18,000 concurrent viewers, a record for the show.

The Verge proclaimed Animal Talking as "2020's Hottest Late-Night Talk Show". Touching on the uniqueness of the concept, Megan Farokhmanesh highlighted the pros of the show taking place in the video game: "On any other talk show, it would be an agonizing minute and a half of mistakes. Here, it's what makes Animal Talking so special."[10] Screen Rant's Christopher Teuton commented that "while most (...) traditional late-night talk show hosts are currently filming (...) and holding interviews over live chat services like Zoom, it's refreshing and unique to see the same format translated so perfectly here inside of Animal Crossing: New Horizons." He praised Whitta's skill as an interviewer and host, with "his conversations with Hollywood celebrities, musical geniuses, and video game enthusiasts are almost always just as enjoyable as those of his professional late night show counterparts, if not more so."[11]

References

1. EDT, Phillip Martinez On 5/1/20 at 2:55 PM (2020-05-01). "We speak with Gary Whitta on the creation of 'Animal Talking,' his talk show within 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons'". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
2. Desk, News. "Animal Crossing talk show host Gary Whitta gives us a tour | Launcher Live FULL LIVE STREAM 5/6". The Global Herald. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
3. Whitta, Gary, Animal Talking Theme Music - YouTube, retrieved 2020-05-18
4. Forde, Matthew (May 5, 2020). "Interview: Why Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta started a talk show in Animal Crossing: New Horizons". Pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
5. Warman, Dylan (2020-04-27). "Gary Whitta Hosts A Talk Show From Within Animal Crossing: New Horizons". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
6. Warman, Dylan (2020-04-27). "Gary Whitta Hosts A Talk Show From Within Animal Crossing: New Horizons". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
7. Deschamps, Marc (May 19, 2020). "Danny Trejo Joins Animal Crossing Talk Show as a Regular Correspondent". Comicbook.com. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
8. Gerblick, Jordan (May 2, 2020). "Screenwriter Gary Whitta talks origins and plans for Animal Crossing: New Horizons talk show". GamesRadar. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
9. "ANIMAL TALKING WITH DANNY TREJO, ELIJAH WOOD, GREG GRUNBERG". Twitch. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
10. Farokhmanesh, Megan (May 14, 2020). "Late night's hottest talk show is in Animal Crossing". The Verge. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
11. "Animal Talking Is The Best Video Game Television Combo Ever". ScreenRant. 2020-05-15. Retrieved 2020-05-18.

Further reading

• Hall, Charlie (April 28, 2020). "Rogue One writer launches a late-night talk show inside Animal Crossing". Polygon. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
• Makuch, Eddie (April 29, 2020). "Star Wars Writer Starts A Talk Show Inside Animal Crossing, Watch The First Episode Here". GameSpot. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
• Romano, Nick (April 28, 2020). "'Star Wars' writer launches late-night talk show on 'Animal Crossing'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
• Williams, Leah (May 13, 2020). "Danny Trejo, Elijah Wood And Greg Grunberg Set For Virtual Animal Crossing Talk Show". Kotaku Australia. Retrieved May 15, 2020.

External links

• Animal Talking on Twitch
• Animal Talking on YouTube