Lakeland native gets Netflix show
VALDOSTA — Waco O’Guin said he’s never met real-life cops as bone-headed as the ones he’s created for the new Netflix cartoon series “Paradise PD.”
“The show is about small town cops who are idiots,” O’Guin said. “I don’t know any cops this stupid. In ‘Paradise PD,’ we’re talking about the dumbest people in the world to give guns to.”
O’Guin lives in Burbank, Calif., but he grew up in Lakeland.
He and Roger Black became creative partners in 1999 while students at the University of Georgia. They developed a comedy routine which led to the MTV sketch comedy show “Stankervision.”
They followed it with the animated series “Brickleberry” which played three seasons on Comedy Central then they created a series of “Brickleberry” comic books.
Characters for the new “Paradise PD” are drawn in the same style as the “Brickleberry” characters but O’Guin said in a recent phone interview that the experience working with Netflix is completely different than working with a cable network.
With Netflix, the shows can be uncensored. Episodes do not have to each fit a specific length of time; they can range from 20-30 minutes, or slightly longer, for example. Producers retain creative control.
“Netflix is hands off,” O’Guin said. “They give notes to help each episode.”
Also, when “Paradise PD” is released Friday, Aug. 31, all 10 episodes will be immediately available on Netflix, O’Guin said.
O’Guin said there is a family element to “Paradise PD.”
Netflix describes the series as “an eager young rookie joins the ragtag small-town police force led by his dad as they bumble, squabble and snort their way through a big drug case.”
O’Guin graduated in 1993 from Lanier High School. There, O’Guin participated in a national Butterfinger candy bar contest which requested drawings of Homer Simpson for a Father’s Day card. O’Guin entered the contest. He won a big-screen TV and saw his cartoons published in a national magazine.
It was the start of his cartooning career.
He and his family return to South Georgia when they can to visit family.