Showrunner Cirocco Dunlap Talks Epic Animation and Inspiration For The Second Best Hospital In The Galaxy
In the new animated adult series The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, Stephanie Hsu and Keke Palmer voice Dr. Sleech and Dr. Klak as aliens, besties, and intergalactically renowned surgeons. Together, they tackle illegal time loops, anxiety-eating parasites, and so much more. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with creator Cirocco Dunlap about what inspired the series, the stunning animation, and having a women-led production team.
The inspiration for the show came from a re-watch of a classic film. “I had watched Groundhogs Day and I was thinking about Bill Murray […] being in a time loop,” Dunlap told me. “Where would I go? Who can even help you in something like that? I just thought it would be so cool if you could go to some kind of sci-fi doctor who would be like, ‘Ah, so I’ve seen you before and I don’t remember? I can fix this.’”
The animation style is from the unique and colorful mind of production designer Robin Eisenberg. “I just absolutely loved her art and as soon as I had a a contract in hand I was like, ‘Hello, would you like to production design my show?’ It's her colors, it's her vibrant designs, her beautiful, beautiful aliens,” she said. “She really set the look and the tone of the visual art for the show.”
Dunlap has written on shows like Russian Doll, Miracle Workers, and Baymax!, but this is her first time showrunning. “The writing experience I've had was really helpful in terms of just being able to break stories quickly, [but] there's so much I was not prepared,” Dunlap shared. “You're doing five jobs at once really because you're suddenly in charge of an art team and in charge of directing and there's just so many different things that are being required of you at one time. It's less how difficult the job is and more that it's stacked all on top of itself.”
There were a lot of women involved in the production of The Second Best Hospital In The World, which was “very important” to Dunlap. “I started at Late Night. That was my first writing job and I was the only woman on the sketch team, so it's been really cool on this show being one of a sea of women in every Zoom,” she said. “Even our composers Wendy & Lisa and our supervising director and our execs, so many women are involved in the show. It's really, really cool.”
Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne were attached to the project from the beginning, which Dunlap credits to getting the rest of the star-studded cast on board. “Every single person that came on, I was just blown away by,” she shared. “I mean, we have John Waters, we have Tracee Ellis Ross. Everyone you name is just stunning.”
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy tackles stories of mental health and chosen family. “I really like the dark red forest of Klak's mind,” said Dunlap on her favorite scene to bring to life as seen in the pilot episode. “You go in there and you hear her own ruminative thoughts and it just builds and builds and builds. It's this really beautiful animation space. It felt true to that feeling when you're just in your own head and you're in reality staring off into the distance.”
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy is streaming on Prime Video.
