"One Day at a Time" to do Animated Special Amid Coronavirus-Related Production Shutdown
by Nellie Andreeva
April 28, 2020


Pop TV’s "One Day at a Time" is getting an animated special this spring.

“In my 97 years, I’ve never known of a multicam comedy to animate a single episode as a special. Even this I get to experience,” said executive producer Norman Lear.



Jonas Diamond, Executive Producer and Co-Owner of Smiley Guy Studios in Toronto will be overseeing the animation.

The cast will all voice their own characters and will be joined by celebrity guests to be announced at a later date.





The animated special centers around Penelope’s conservative family visiting. Penelope dreads that with the election coming up, they won’t be able to avoid fighting over politics. The Alvarez family spends the episode discussing strategies of how to get through it, illustrated through fantasy sequences.

This was always a special episode about the election; it’s not connected to any storyline this season. The original idea was to do it live-action with fantasy elements, possibly using VFX. When the pandemic hit and halted TV production, the creators decided to make it animated as it’s not part of the arc of the season and has so many fantasy elements that would lend themselves to animation perfectly. The script was rewritten with that in mind.

https://deadline.com/2020/04/one-day-at-a-time-animated-special-coronavirus-related-production-shutdown-1202919412/

One Day at a Time shares the first image of its animated special, which will now feature Lin-Manuel Miranda (https://www.thewrap.com/lin-manuel-miranda-guest-star-one-day-a-time-animated-special/)

The special will also include the return of Gloria Estefan and Melissa Fumero.

A Rita Moreno-Gloria Estefan duet will be part of One Day at a Time's animated special (https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/rita-moreno-gloria-estefan-duet-one-day-at-a-time-animated-episode-exclusive-first-look-1234628326/)

The special quarantine episode will include a parody of Estefan's “Mi Tierra." “We diss each other, and we’re doing it to the tune of her beautiful, wonderful, saucy” song, Moreno told Variety about the performance. “It’s wonderful because she’s letting us borrow this song, and we’re parodying it. It’s very short but it’s very funny. We’re very nasty with each other — as you know, our characters despise each other. She had a great time writing it, and I had a super time singing it.”

One Day at a Time previews its animated special (https://www.primetimer.com/item/One-Day-at-a-Time-previews-its-animated-special-olSaEZ)

Watch Pop TV's first glimpse of the quarantine-inspired edition of the critically acclaimed series.

How One Day at a Time was able to make an animated special in only eight weeks (https://www.thewrap.com/how-one-day-at-a-time-pulled-off-an-animated-episode-with-lin-manuel-miranda-in-only-8-weeks/)

Tonight's animated quarantine special, titled "The Politics Episode," would've usually taken seven to eight months to make. But Toronto-based animated studio Smiley Guy, which was enlisted for the job, was able to pull through. “They really blew us away with the speed,” says co-showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett, who came up with the animated special idea. “It was astounding, truly.” "The Politics Episode" was originally intended to be a live-action episode airing close to the election. To capture the actors' voices, Kellett and fellow co-showrunner Mike Royce sent "a lovely guy in a van” to each of their homes to record using sterilized equipment at a safe distance with Kellett, Royce and director Phil Lewis overseeing via Zoom. "Not creepy,” Kellett promised. Actors who weren't quarantined in Los Angeles, including Rita Moreno and Lin-Manuel Miranda, were mailed microphones, while Gloria Estefan had her own studio. “The live version of the show would’ve involved a lot of CGI and stunt people,” says Royce, referring to the episodes flashback-style fantasy sequences. “The animation just made it easier, essentially. We were able to amp it up a bit, but we actually surprised ourselves when we looked back at it. We didn’t change any of the bits."

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"The Politics Episode" was always intended to be a stylistic departure (https://tv.avclub.com/one-day-at-a-time-showrunners-explain-the-draw-of-their-1844008234): "It’s actually a little freaky how much of the original live action script is still there," says co-showrunner Mike Royce. "It’s basically the same because we had always planned to really not have an audience for this one and shoot it over the course of a couple of three days and have all these fantasy sequences. Except we picture them with CGI, and the fight sequence would have been with stunt people and wigs and just making a big joke out of how ridiculous it was."
Co-showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett on the challenges of returning to work in the coronavirus era (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/06/one-day-at-a-time-animated-episode-coronavirus): “I mean, how are you doing a scene in Times Square? Are you testing all the extras? I get the luxury of at least having six actors on one stage, and that’s it,” says Kellett. “Now we’re talking about so many factors that need to be taken into account. I cannot imagine Rita Moreno being cool doing a coffee shop scene where we’re bringing in 15 strangers who we don’t know, who are just going to work for the day, who are breathing the same air she’s breathing.”


One Day at a Time's animated special couldn't help but feel dated (https://www.vulture.com/article/one-day-at-a-time-animated-episode-recap-review-season-4-episode-7.html)

"Unfortunately, between the coronavirus-forced production limitations and the unprecedented anti-racism uprising of recent weeks, there was no way for 'The Politics Episode,' written by co-showrunners Gloria Calderón Kellett and Mike Royce, to avoid appearing dated," says Sarene Leeds. "Yes, the plot centers on the Alvarez family welcoming their conservative relatives for a visit, and preparing for the inevitable heated arguments regarding the November 2020 election. But since the episode still takes place in a world where COVID-19 doesn’t exist and George Floyd’s death and subsequent protests occurred in the midst of production, Penelope’s use of the tragic El Paso Walmart shooting to drive home a point about racism feels like something out of a bygone era. What makes the episode’s shortcomings all the more dissatisfying is that this animated special is being promoted as a teachable moment. Countless families are struggling to have these kinds of difficult conversations about racism and politics right now, and they need all the guidance they can get. That makes the episode a tougher sell if it can’t use the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the COVID crisis or say the names of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor."