Patrick Warburton on The Tick revival: “I have to do it soon”

patrick-warburton-the-tickI talked with Patrick Warburton today at the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour about his new NBC sitcom Crowded (more on that in a later post), and had a chance to also talk about his other memorable comedic work, from David Puddy on Seinfeld to Joe Swanson on Family Guy to Brock Samson on The Venture Bros. (Season 6 of The Venture Bros. premieres Jan. 31 on Adult Swim).

But Warburton said that while all of those certainly have their fan bases, it is his short-lived 2001 FOX sitcom The Tick that “has this grand cult following.” Our interview was at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, and Warburton said that, “when I showed up at the hotel today, most of the folks down there that wanted things signed just had their hands full of Tick pictures.”

Warburton thinks this is “fantastic, considering we only did nine episodes. … I really appreciate it, because that’s something that has wholly survived upon itself, as opposed to backing from a network that killed it early on. It sits on the shoulders of the fans, and the accomplishment that was that of [creator] Ben Edlund and [executive producers] Barry Sonnenfeld, and Larry Charles and the whole bunch.”

A revival of The Tick at Amazon was first reported in August 2014, and Warburton told me today that “we’re going to do it again,” confirming that a new Tick is indeed still in development at Amazon right now.

“Ben just turned in, I think his tenth draft, so we’re waiting for Amazon to say, ‘All right, this is the one,'” Warburton laughed. “I have to do it soon.”

UPDATE: It’s been reported that The Tick is a go on Amazon; unfortunately for fans, Warburton will not be able to play the lead role, due to his commitment to Crowded, and the fact that he has been cast as Lemony Snicket in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

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Photo from Patrick Warburton’s Twitter page (@paddywarbucks)