Home is where the weird is — at least it is at a New York City apartment building called the Wayne, which is the setting for Nickelodeon’s newest animated series.
(From L-R) Olly, Ansi, and Saraline from Nickelodeon’s Welcome To The Wayne
Created and written by Emmy Award-winning writer and composer Billy Lopez (The Wonder Pets, Phineas and Ferb), Welcome to the Wayne premiered its 20-episode first season on July 24. Originating as Nick’s first web-exclusive series, Welcome to the Wayne follows the adventures of Olly Timbers (voiced by Lopez), his sister Saraline (Dana Steingold, Avenue Q musical), and their pal Ansi Molina (Alanna Ubach, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce), as they explore the crazy, unpredictable world of the Wayne.
Lopez says he imagined having a lot of adventures in the New York City apartment buildings he lived in as a kid. “I wasn’t nearly as adventurous as the kids in the Wayne,” he told Animation Magazine. “But I loved imagining adventures that could take place in the buildings I lived in. I’d come home and stroll through my lobby pretending I was heading off to my secret, after-school job of monster-slaying.”
The show’s web version informed Lopez’s approach to making it a series. “I knew the full-length show had to be serialized, meaning each episode had to directly follow the previous one in terms of its overarching story, but it was a creative struggle to ensure that a viewer could tune in at any random episode and not feel lost or confused,” he says. “In the end, we tried to have it both ways: There’s a season-long story, but each episode is also a complete tale with a beginning, middle and end.”
Animated by Toronto-based Yowza, Welcome to the Wayne is script-driven, with rapid, joke-filled dialog inspired by shows like 30 Rock, Lopez says. “I always wanted the rhythm of the dialogue to be ‘joke, joke, plot advancement or exposition, joke … ‘ and so on,” he says. “We don’t have a joke quota or anything like that, but we’re all aware that we’re writing a comedy.”
Lopez says he has plenty of ideas for the show, and hopes the show earned a long run that will let Team Timbers fully explore the Wayne. “As long as people want to see the show, and I’m afforded the chance to tell the stories I want to tell, and we keep getting better with each season, it could go on for quite a while,” he says.
Brand-new episodes of Welcome to the Wayne return in September. Fans can catch up on the shows first five episodes Saturdays at 10:30am ET/PT on Nick USA, as well as online on nick.com/wayne and via the Nick App. Fans can also immerse themselves in the Wayne by following the official Instagram account to discover more about the show, characters, and mysteries within.
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