This year I’m most thankful for the incredible team of people who made the first season of Adam Ruins Everything. It’s absolutely insane to be the only person who has their name in the title of the show, because the truth is that I did about one one-hundreth of the work necessary to bring it into the world. Compiling this list, I was straight up dumbstruck by the sheer number of people who donated their time and talent to this project: the fact that they did was a true, true gift. My enormous gratitude to the following humans:
Kathy Egan expertly oversaw the entire production and made sure every episode came in on time, on budget, and to our high standards. Sam Reich built the production company and creative environment that made the show possible. Jon Cohen the wonderkid sold the show to the network. Spencer Griffin negotiated the deals. Jeremy Reitz did the budget black magic that made the show so look so good for so little money. Sam Sparks did essential behind the scenes money shit I can’t begin to understand. Jon Wolf held the entire show in his head, worried about things so I didn’t have to, and solved problems before I even knew they existed. Brennan Shroff helped shape and produce the pilot. Paul Briganti created the visual style of the entire series, and directed half the season. Tim Wilkerson, Josh Ruben, and Vincent Peone directed the other half, and crushed it. Clark Caldwell booked the experts, fact checked every script, and led our research team. Shara Morris compiled the research. Eliza Skinner, Gonzalo Cordova, Travis Helwig, and Melinda Taub wrote ten brilliant scripts. Mary Lordes made the writers’ room run, wrote down every joke we said for 18 weeks, and made the room funnier and better just by being there. Megan McMurtry took our messy scripts and got them into production shape. Lindsey Weismuller casted the amazing actors who made the jokes we wrote funny.
On set, Liz Sacks and Nick Page were the eyes of the hurricane, running the set and keeping us to an incredibly ambitious schedule with aplomb. Mazzin Chaudhari and Carlos Vega sent out call sheets every day and made sure everyone was where they needed to be. I honestly don’t know exactly what JP Quicquaro did, but I could tell he was great at it, because everyone who worked near him was always in a good mood. Michael Smith and Serge Delpierre secured our locations. Whitney Hodack made sure every expert arrived on set on time and in comfort. John Horan and Andra Sophia-Beth Whipple held shit down in the P.O. and went on endless gofer runs. Matt Garrett is why every shot of the show is beautiful. Andrew Asnick and Thom Valko piloted enormously heavy steadicams to create gorgeous shots. Mark Legaspi, Chris Ripley, Miguel De Osalo, Buddy Thomas, Drew Dawson, Sebastian Thibeau, and Joe DiBartolomeo did all the incredibly detailed and vital camera jobs that I can’t even begin to understand. Zach Savitz, Ari Davidson, Adam Goral, Drew Valenti, Seva Shybkou, Dyron Pacheco, Michael Schmidt and Sarah Fox, lit and wired every shot. Aaron Stinde, Alex Nunez, Raul Rivera, Dennis Haddock, Marissa Castrejon, Angel Villareal, and Brandon Diaz pushed, pulled, turned, and rigged every piece of equipment into place. (I think that’s what grips do! Am I right? Either way, they did it well.) Skyler Rousselet flew all around the country filming our experts. Megan Fenton led the dynamo art team, with Ashley Fenton as her right hand twin, along with Casey Burr, Roni Levi, Rae Deslich, Kyle Baker, Ayse Arf, Yumna Al-Arashi, and Josh Ponce — together they made every prop and set look ten times better than it had any right to given the amount of money they had to work with. Alisha Jasmine Silverstein and Elke Van Der Steen designed and managed the wardrobe that made everyone — including me — look amazing. Rae Murphy checked and adjusted our wardrobe between every. Single. Take. Marissa Smith designed wigs and built my hair to record heights. Alex Perrone made us beautiful and built an old man version of my face. Wendy J Diaz and Lauren Wilde checked our hair and makeup between every. Single. Take. Together with the help of April Fiske and Steph Rives they were the happiest, most charming department on set. Jen Smith, the crew at Full Moon Pickles, Antonio Marco and Ben Parra made sure everyone was fed and full of energy. Gus Marquez made sure that everyone on set was healthy. Sarah Willgrube and Jillian Terwedo watched and logged every shot to make sure that we didn’t miss anything. Bo Sundberg, Danny Carpenter and Chris Bennett recorded the sound. Louis Dargenzio, David Christenson, Hector Gonzalez, Brian Hall, Ricardo Mejia, Michael Medlin and Catherin Nguyen drove the vehicles that brought everything and everyone TO the set. Can you imagine that? All of these people needed TRUCKS full of stuff, and these guys drove it all there before any of them arrived and drove it all away when they were done! Finally, Alex Hughes, AJ Pitre, and Davis Ingwers and Jonathan Brock did whatever needed doing on set, and they did it quickly and well. Jonathan Brock did it while RUNNING everywhere.
And those are just the people who were on set! In post, Dave Oberg and Jess Yorko made sure every episode was delivered to the network on time, in the proper format, with no errors. Kent Kincannon, James Fitzpatrick, and John Daigle brilliantly edited every episode of the show, adding nuance, tact and humor where we never even expected it. And they couldn’t have done it without the incredible prep work and help of Matt McBrayer, Ben Moses Smith, Tom Erickson, and Stefanie Visser. Bill Bergen designed our intro sequence and created the graphical and visual identity of the show. Patrick Longstreth, Mike Cisneros, Piotr Bednarczyk, and Michael Kelley created the incredible visual effects that make the show look like nothing else on TV. Mike Parker and his team turned out frame after frame of incredible animation on a budget and timeline that would have broken other studios. Jesse Novak composed an infectious earworm of a theme song. Sam Nobles composed spot music throughout the season. Michael Schaubach and Phil Fox from Big Breakfast helped out on post. Mariana Molla and her accounting team made sure everyone was paid. Richard Marks, Nick Jampol, Karen Segall, and Josh Sussman made sure we didn’t get sued for saying any of this shit. Bill Zuckerman negotiated with the unions. At Tru, Angel Anussek, Simmy Kustanowitz and Emma Haynes read and reviewed countless scripts and cuts, and Nancy McKenna, Puja Vohra and Chris Linn were the best partners we could have hoped for.
This is hardly an exhaustive list. The number of people even just at Tru whose names I don’t know but who helped make the show great — in programming, marketing, promos, editing — is enormous. And I didn't even begin list the HUNDREDS of actors who appeared on screen! Jesus Christ!! Apologies if I left anyone out, misspelled a name or misrepresented anyone’s job — I’m wrote this on a JetBlue flight and there’s a baby jostling my elbow and I’ve had a few whiskeys so I probably fucked a bit of it up. Let me know, and I’ll edit it. But once again, as loud as I can say it: thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.
