BoJack Horseman: From Pitch to Production
How Raphael Bob-Waksberg developed the idea of this adult animated dramedy and brought it to life with Lisa Hanawalt, The Tornante Company, and Netflix.
The idea
Tracing an idea back to its origin often requires the detail and scope of an autobiography. To make a long story short, the creator of BoJack Horseman, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, was raised in Palo Alto, California, studied at Bard College in New York, and subsequently moved to Los Angeles to pursue comedy and screenwriting.
While actively developing original series in the hopes of pitching them to production companies, Raphael came up with the idea of an animated show incorporating the designs of cartoonist and illustrator Lisa Hanawalt, who has long had a penchant for drawing anthropomorphic animals. Lisa and Raphael had been friends since attending middle-school together in Palo Alto and according to Lisa she has, “always drawn animal people.” The two had already worked together on a webcomic, Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out.
But beyond the world of humanoid animal characters, the concept of a washed-up sitcom star living in a mansion overlooking the city came from Raphael’s more personal experiences. Upon moving to L.A., he initially rented…
