‘Long Story Short’ Supervising Producer Lisa Hanawalt Delves into the Bonds & Memories Behind the Show

This article was written for the July-August ’25 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 351).

Fans of funny, poignant and sophisticated adult animation will have a major treat awaiting them in August when the new show by three-time Emmy-nominated and Annie-winning series creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman) premieres on Netflix. Titled Long Story Short, the 2D-animated series follows the adventures of a tightly knit Northern California Jewish family through the years. Featuring the voices of Paul Reiser, Lisa Edelstein, Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson, Max Greenfield, Angelique Cabral, Nicole Byer, Dave Franco and Michaela Dietz, the show is produced by Michael Eisner’s The Tornante Company, with animation delivered by ShadowMachine.

We had the chance to chat with the show’s brilliant supervising producer Lisa Hanawalt, who was also a supervising producer and designer on BoJack Horseman and created the cult favorite Tuca & Bertie, which ran on Netflix and Adult Swim (2019-2022). Here is what she told us about her new venture:

Lisa Hanawalt: I believe it was winter about a year and a half go. I see a lot of animation pitches, and and this one just felt like a breath of fresh air. I’ve known Raphael forever and I’m really familiar with his writing, tone and voice. He sent me an outline detailing the characters and a rough sketch of what episodes were going to be.

I loved the fact that it was very personal and original. Raphael and I kind of grew up together and we went to the same middle school and high school in Palo Alto, California. I know his family, so I could see touches in there that were personal. I could recognize his mom and sister, although the show’s characters are very fictionalized. I felt there was also a lot of space for me to do my thing because there were no visuals attached yet. I’d been wanting to work on something more grounded since BoJack had animal people and Tuca & Bertie featured a lot of magical realism. I’m not entirely done with those kinds of project, but Long Story Short allowed me to do something new and different.

What do you think makes the premise of the show perfect for animation?

It’s both very relatable and funny, yeah. There are many cartoony moments that balance out the more serious and sad stuff. I think that’s what Raphael does best: He really nails that delicate balance every time. He really sees the full picture and understands what animation can bring to the real world. It’s funny but I immediately know what was needed as I pictured it in my head. I got very excited because I knew it needed to be really warm and hand-drawn and feel like a comic-book or evoke children’s illustration or perhaps like Peanuts cartoons. Some of the material could across as quite sad or when you see the family bickering, it really needed that warmth or childlike quality.

Can you talk about the creative process on the show? Is it similar to BoJack Horseman?

Yes, so I would go to the table reads or read the script, then, I’d immediately start picturing what the characters looked like, and I’d break it all down. Then I’d have a conversation with Raphael about who the characters are, whether my impressions were correct. What there were feeling at that certain point in their lives, and what the time jumps involved. They would present a fun challenge because there’s no baseline for the characters. I mean, the first episode, which features the bar mitzvah, served as my baseline, because I spent the most time with those designs, but there are no defaults. I have a lot of timelines and graphics taped to my office wall so that I can reference and fill in the gaps between the years and the episodes and what they all look like through these time periods. It’s like a math problem — but for art!

Did you look at the real locations in his life and your own life for inspiration for the backgrounds?

Well, I already knew that because I knew his house and our high school. We even made some video for a class together back at his house when we were growing up in the Bay Area. So, that background has a very specific feel — maybe it doesn’t have it anymore because it has changed so much, but there was something very specific about growing up there in the ’80s and ’90s.

One of the first drawings I made was the family’s childhood home, with a bit of Eichler modernist inspiration, too. There were a lot of big oak trees there … I drew Avi standing in front of the middle school, something about the light, where it looks like it’s sunny, but there’s gray clouds. That’s something I’ll always remember from that period and that location. There’s always a yellow rim light on the characters. I wanted all of that to be really specific to that feeling.

What would you say was the biggest challenge on this show for you?

The time jumps were a bit hard to keep track of, but we had help doing that, so we were figuring it out as we went further along. When we decide that a character is going to lose his hair, then we must be consistent throughout. Raphael is really detail oriented, which I love.

Some of the characters were hard to figure out, Naomi (Lisa Edelstein) for example. I literally kept drawing Raphael’s mom, and I had to remember that we needed a little distance. It couldn’t look like her, because the show isn’t entirely based on the real characters. Yoshi was tough too, because he heeded to be a goofball, almost like Todd from BoJack, but he’s also quite handsome when he grows up. I nailed Avi right away, who looks a little like my own brother, a little like Raphael, and a bit like Charlie Brown. I nailed Shira right away because she’s probably the character I feel closest to you — she’s kind of bratty and selfish!

Was the whole experience a bit nostalgic for you?

Oh yes, even in decorating the house, which I worked with our art director Allison DuBois (she’s more in charge of the backgrounds, and I take care of the characters), but we actually populated the house with objects that I remembered from our parents’ houses, and the kind of stuff they had at the time. Raphael and I grew up in very similar households, and both our parents would travel and bring back objects from their trips — you know that kind of specific Bay Are liberal household.

Tell us a bit about the animation and how it’s done please?

The animation is handled by ShadowMachine here in L.A. and Big Star in S. Korea, who also worked on BoJack Horseman and Tuca & Bertie. The animation is done in Toon Boom Harmony. We hadn’t really done a Harmony show before, so we had to figure out certain aspects of it at first. We had one version of the characters up close and another from far away, so we had to get that balance right. We did the previous shows in Flash.

What is your favorite part of the new series?

I love that contrast between the happy and really funny, and the sad. I remember sometimes during the table reads, there would be parts where I would yell out loud, “Oh no!” and I’d have to say, “Oh my God, Raphael!,” and “I’m sorry I yelled out loud!” He’d say, “No, I love that you have that reaction because it means that you really care about the characters.” I’m not really interested in shows where I’m not emotionally invested. I mean I go to work every day and I do what needs to be done, but I really care about it, too. That’s so important to me.

What’s your take on the current state of animation?

I did feel that for a while there was a lot of constriction and fear in the industry, as well as a lot of just waiting around in limbo. It seemed that they wanted to develop things, but then they didn’t want to actually buy them. They would fully animate a show, and still didn’t know if they were going to air or stream it. I just wish there would be less fear and more commitment to new things. But there are still some really vital, vibrant stuff being made, like the show Common Side Effects. That was really cool and interesting to me. I’m always optimistic and hope that things are cyclical.

Our show is made by humans, and it tells stories by people for people. I have very little interest in work made by AI, and I know some people look at AI and they have big dollar signs in their eyes because they can save on labor or whatever. But I’m just really not interested, and think you’re really missing out on something if you take that route.

Can you share any advice for newbie animation folks?

I think if you want to sell a show, it should always come from what you actually want to see on TV. Maybe that’s very idealistic of me, because ultimately you should also be thinking about what could possibly sell if you want to be successful. But for me, if I I’m not interested in watching it myself, then there’s no point in making it.

From a technical standpoint, I think simpler is always better when it comes to making art that’s going to be animated. It just makes it so much easier. I always make the mistake all the time where I want to add complicated patterns and sometimes that stuff is worth it, because the little details make the difference. But overall, simpler is good. It doesn’t have to be crazy complicated to be beautiful!

Long Story Short premieres on Netflix on August 22.