An Interview with Melody Fox & Andrew Orenstein from ‘Circuit Breakers’

Melody Fox and Andrew Orenstein are a pair of accomplished writers and showrunners, and they’ve recently teamed up to lend their talents to the new Apple TV+ anthology series, Circuit Breakers. Which Melody created, and we here at NTG were lucky enough to sit down with both of them to discuss this fascinating new show.
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John Betancourt: Melody, what led to the creation of this particular show?

Melody Fox: I'm a huge fan of science fiction, and I watched Twilight Zone and reruns when I was a kid. And then The Outer Limits. And I think anthology is just a great way to tell us tell stories. Each week, we get to see a new character with new problems or predicaments or goals and resolution by the end of that story. And I've always loved that kind of format. And I thought there was a place for Twilight Zone for kids.

John Betancourt: Oh, I like that. Love Twilight Zone. Now Andrew, how did you come to be involved as Showrunner?

Andrew Orenstein: Oh, well, I have a lot of experience producing shows in this arena, with kids, and I’ve been working with Apple and their team for some time. And so, I came on board to, you know, help produce the series. And for me, having never done an anthology series, I jumped at the chance.

John Betancourt: Now I couldn’t help but notice that this particular anthology tends to go a little deeper than ones normally aimed at a younger audience. What went into the decision to blend deeper themes into this series?

Andrew Orenstein: Well, we always wanted to do a series that was relatable, that didn't talk down to children and, you know, really addressed issues of importance because we always wanted the show to be a co-viewing experiences between parents and their kids and also help foster discussion at the end of an episode. So that was always built into the DNA of what we wanted to do. And then we turned it all in through a fun prism of science fiction.

Melody Fox: Well, one of the things we did is we sat down, and we actually made a list of kid relatable topics like sibling rivalry, or the feeling of your parents are controlling you too much and you want some independence. Or in the pilot episode, it's about a kid who's frustrated because he's too short. And he wants to be on the track team. So, on my list was kids who want to do sports. So, you know, I started from that place of what I thought would be relatable. And then we add the science fiction and the technology to make it cool. And elevate the story.

 John Betancourt: In staying with the concepts of themes and messages, what is the number one message you hope audiences take away from this series?

Melody Fox: I don't know that it's so much a message. But I hope that one of the things that people will take away from this is well, first, I hope they're having a darn good time, and really enjoying watching science fiction, because I love it. And science fiction really sort of expands the imagination and makes you think outside of the box. But one of the things I hope that some of our viewers are going to take away is that they see themselves on screen. Diversity was very important to us. And our casting directors made a huge effort to find diverse young actors who are talented, and we have some differently abled actors as well in our show. And so, when our viewers watch the episode, they're gonna see a boy that's the lead in one episode of girl and another, an African American lead an Asian character, a Latino character, so I hope that that people see themselves, because I think that's important and relevant these days.

Andrew Orenstein: And hopefully they'll also walk away thinking… science is cool.

John Betancourt: Now since Anthologies require a different approach from a writing perspective, what challenges did you both run into in assembling this first season?

Andrew Orenstein: Well, one of the challenges, and what was also a good opportunity was casting 14 little movies every week and finding 14 stars and each episode has its own different unique tone. So, one week, we would scour North America and the UK looking for a really funny kid. And then another week, we needed to scour the world looking for a young actor who could really handle some very deep emotional scenes about divorce. And so that was challenging. But that turned into a great opportunity because I think we found, as Melody said, tremendous group of actors who from a wide spectrum that crushed it.

Melody Fox: It's challenging to come up with 14 little movies in a season. And that's what these are really, because it's a different character with a different goal each week to come up with that many stories that are producible. In the timeframe that we have. It's, you know, I think that thankfully, we had a terrific writing staff and some individuals who had backgrounds in science fiction, and some individuals who had some children's television experience as well. And that certainly helped us achieve that goal to come up with some, you know, 14 cool little movies.

John Betancourt: Well… now I have to ask, how many stories didn’t make the cut?

Andrew Orenstein: Well, we have a lot for when the show can get picked up for seasons two, three, and four and five.

John Betancourt: What are each of you hoping the audiences enjoy most when it comes to this first season?

Melody Fox: I hope they're gonna enjoy seeing a different tone each week. Because as Andrew said, one episode is a little more dramatic and heartfelt. And then you have another episode that's a little more comedic, and another one that's mysterious. So, they don't know really when they tune in what the next episode is going to be. And like we have an episode called “Untangled”. where the principal and a goofball student switch bodies, so that one leans into, you know, comedy, it has a lot of opportunities for humor, but at the same time, at the end, there's sort of a nice, heartfelt way that they connect. So, I think that I think people are going to enjoy that and expect that each week, something different.

Andrew Orenstein: And I also think that kids will love the aspirational quality of all of the really, really cool inventions in tech, you know, like, freezing our parents and making our clone, and just stuff that we only could dream about. Which I think will really be exciting.

John Betancourt: Last question I have for both of you today, what are you most proud of when it comes to your work on this show?

Andrew Orenstein: I'm very proud of the topics that we were able to handle you know, from environment to divorce. I think that we really will hopefully, foster discussion and kids wanting to take action. So, I'm really, I'm really proud of this subject matter, I guess, that we tackled.

Melody Fox: I'm, I'm very proud of the diversity on screen that our viewers are going to see that, you know, we have leads as I mentioned, we have leads of different diverse backgrounds. And it's not just you know; a person can see themselves on screen as the lead and not as the goofball sidekick character.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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