An Interview with Rob Hoegee, Showrunner of ‘Frog and Toad’

Frog (voiced by Nat Faxon) in "Frog and Toad," now streaming on Apple TV+.

Rob Hoegee is an accomplished writer and producer that has worked on a bevy of family shows. Currently, he serves as showrunner of the hit Apple TV+ series, Frog and Toad and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with Rob to discuss season two of the show!
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John Betancourt: I would love to know how you became involved as the showrunner of this series.
 
Rob Hoegee: You know, I always had the good fortune of being involved in another apple TV series called Stillwater. And, you know, and due to sort of the success of that, and the relationship I had with Apple, we were looking for another project that I could work with them on. And as it happened, they were in talks with the Lobels about the possibility of making Frog and Toad as a series. Little did they know that Frog and Toad has been the book that I've wanted to make as a show for as long as I've done in animation. And when Apple said, “Hey, do you know about these Frog and Toad books?” I probably fell out of my chair. Actually, I'm pretty sure I did. So yes, needless to say, I quite literally jumped at the chance of being involved in this, that with the Lobels, we had a great conversation about what, I hate to say, my sort  vision for the show would be, and that kind of boils down to a very accurate and faithful adaptation of these books that we love so much, knowing, of course, that they are going to be animated, so we need to sort of take advantage of all that that brings to the party in terms of enhancing the visuals and giving more life movement to the characters and all those kinds of things that you know, you want to take advantage of in moving pictures. And we definitely all sort of agreed upon, you know, my sort of take on the show was very much in alignment with what they wanted to see. And keep in mind, the Lobels had been working in various attempts to adapt this for, you know, decades, you know, either as a television show or as a feature, or as you know, all these numbers of things. And so, it really just kind of became this sort of kind of stars aligning, you know, the right production partner, you know, the right studio, but you know, the streamer behind it being Apple, the right animation studio, which was Titmouse, the right creative team. And yeah, and the Lobels sort of support, along the way.
 
John Betancourt With this being dream project, obviously the one that you always wanted, were there any pressures that were upon you in bringing this to life?
 
Rob Hoegee: Well, not necessarily. I mean, we knew that… this goes for me, as well as pretty much everyone that was involved in the show, be it cast or crew or, you know, it was we all love these books, and we love these characters, and we sort of… one of the first questions that we would ask, when we were interviewing, you know, artists and crew members was, before they even knew what the show was, you know, do you like Frog and Toad? And judging by their reaction, we knew that we had a pretty good idea if they were going to be a good fit for what we were doing. And you know, that was not the only criteria, but a lot of people on the show read these books are really important to them. So, I think the pressure was not an external thing. It was all sort of internal, we all really wanted to do good by these books and these characters.
 
John Betancourt: That’s actually really cool. I had no idea you really looked into their passion for the project prior to them joining the show. So, that explains a lot, explains why it turned out so well.
 
Rob Hoegee: It’s not just the project, especially in animation, we are always passionate about any show we do regardless of what it is because you know, we love what we do. And when the source material of something that you have a real personal connection to it makes it even more special.
 
John Betancourt: I stand corrected, It's always a passionate product. Now shifting gears a bit, I’m quite curious as to why you think this show continues to resonate so well with audiences after all these years.
 
Rob Hoegee: You know, there's something about the simplicity of the characters, the simplicity of the stories and the simplicity of quite literally the words on the page. You know, these books were created specifically as easy readers, these, these are books that taught millions upon millions upon millions, you know, probably into the hundreds of millions at this point, kids learn to read all around the world with these books. And if you think about it, you know, if you're reading a story book at night before you go to bed, you know you are literally holding these books close to your heart. It's sort of like literal and metaphorically speaking. And so, but there's so there's always been this sort of close connection that we have with something for whatever reason with these characters. You know, I do feel like, you know, in a lot of ways, The simpler you get, the more opportunity you have for complexity.
 
So, you know, these are very, very simple stories, but within them, they're -- and this is sort of the genius of Arnold Lobel, not only with the language, but with the visuals, he was able to capture moments, just like these little tiny moments in time, whether it's an expression or the way that frog leaps in the air when he's gifted this coat of Toads with all these buttons sewn on. Just the expressions of joy, of happiness, of sadness, of fear, every realm of human emotion is captured in these characters. And in a way that's not overbearing, or pedantic, but a way that we all can relate to and understand. There is a little bit of Frog and Toad and all of us, at the simplest level, you know, kids can see, you know, I'm feeling the BLAH today like Toad, or I'm feeling happy and excited today, like Frog, we have Frogs and Toads inside each of us. And, and so in that sense, the relatability of not only the characters, but the stories that they're in is, is absolutely universal.
 
John Betancourt: Now in speaking with the Lobels, I came to learn that you and your team gave life to new Frog and Toad stories for this show, was it difficult to create new stories forthis show?
 
Rob Hoegee: It was very difficult, and I was blessed with an incredible writing staff. We sort of made it our life's mission to be able to pull off almost an impossible feat, which is to write an entirely new Frog and Toad story that if we did it right would be indistinguishable from what something that Arnold Lobel would do. And I knew that we were on the right track, when every once in a while we would, you know, when someone from the crew would be like, “Wait, no, is this one original? Or was this one from the book?” And then we know that this is an original one. So that was a lot of fun to be able to sort of try to crack that. And again, it was really about digging into what makes these characters tick. And also, what makes a good Frog and Toad story. You know, again, it comes down to sort of that simplicity, and that sort of character base that you know, the character base motivations that drive those stories forward.
 
John Betancourt: The last question that I have for you today, what are you most proud of when it comes to what you put together here?
 
Rob Hoegee: You know, as a huge fan of the books, you know, obviously, you know, being able to bring these to life was an incredible joy and an incredible honor. You know, it's not very often in your career that you're given a blue-chip property such as this. I mean, if you think out in the world of animation, the things that we've seen, and they're based on books that are so -- whether it's Peanuts, or something from Maurice Sendak, you know, Arnold Lobel’s frog and Toad are right there with it, and being able to be involved with that, uh, you know, it was… it was an incredible honor and incredible privilege. You know, I'm really proud that we can bring these characters to a medium, which lends itself very well to these characters in the stories that they tell. And so yeah, just being able to be involved with that has been, you know, been a career highlight for sure.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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