The season four finale of
Children's Hospital airs tonight on Adult Swim, and according to the hit show's creator, star, and producer Rob Corddry, "An event rocks, ROCKS the
Children's Hospital universe. Maybe even the television universe," he said. By the looks of the teaser trailer and preview pics for
Eulogy, things don't look too good for Doctor Blake Downs. "Wear a seatbelt," he warned.
"Well that's silly, you'll want to move around."
It's been another banner year for Cartoon Network's edgy ground breaking show, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Special Class: Short-format Live-Action in September. When I caught up with Corddry at New York Comic Con last month, he assured me that the sweet success associated with winning Emmy gold would not affect the show one bit.
"Now it's going to be
Emmy Award Winner Rob Corddry's Children's Hospital," he revealed. "I'm not going to mess around. Why be falsely modest about that? I'm super elegant," he laughed.
Some of this season's absurd highlights included an episode set in a British Children's Hospital (complete with an entire cast of UK thesps, including
Lost's Dominic Monaghan), a
Law & Order parody show, another memorable cameo by repeat offender Jon Hamm, a long awaited on-camera appearance by the never-seen Michael Cera (who voices the hospital's PA system announcer Sal Viscuso), and Rob's brother Nathan Corddry finally stopped by, whom he says "was the hardest to get" as a guest star.
"I don't know if I can say I have a favorite guest star. Believe me I'm willing to pick favorites," he said of walk-ons including Eva Longoria, Ed Helms, Kate Walsh, Jason Sudeikis, Nick Offerman, and Paul Scheer.
"It's always pretty cool, I've never had a bad experience with the guest star. It's pretty awesome, and an honor. And I'm really grateful that they'll do it."
He also shared the secret to keeping a straight face on the set of such an off-beat comedy loaded with masters of improv, even if the episodes run only twelve minutes in length. "The whole secret to absurdity is that you can't wink. You have to treat it like it's the most important thing ever. You're saying really really dumb things with a straight face. It's fun though."
However, a signature gruesome costume accessory on the scrubs of his dark character Dr. Blake Downs, wet stain smears of patients' blood, appeared to be noticeably tamed down last season. I asked Corddry if the higher-ups were concerned with the graphic imagery, or if he made the conscious change to his clown Doctor's look (who also has a strict belief in the healing power of laughter).
"It looked like a costume. It looked fake and it drove me crazy !" he said of last season's less bloody scrubs. "Then I talked to the wardrobe supervisor, and she was like "Oh, I'll have to look at it. I don't know what you mean.'"
"Then she was like 'Oh God, you're right!' and then this season we righted that egregious wrong." Which to his credit, yes, Downs scrubs are back to their former disturbing graphic glory.
Tonight's episode,
Eulogy, airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim at 12AM, and also stars Ken Marino, Henry Winkler, Megan Mullally, Malin Ackerman, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, and Lake Bell.
According to Adult Swim, the season finale promises "The death of a co-star turns out to be a perfect opportunity for the cast and crew to make a Documentary special," and sees the return of the behind-the-scenes show-within-a-show
Newsreaders hot on the case.
Rest assured,
Children's Hospital has been
renewed for a fifth season, so there is much more to look forward to in 2013. If you haven't checked out the show yet do yourself a favor and put it on your must-see list.
File this under 'The Internet Is Awesome." Check out this brilliant mash-up of teen comedies that could not have done a better job of placing the all-star team of Gotham City's heroes and villains together in high school during their awkward teen years.
