I remember as a kid being scared of the things that go bump in the night, but I was way more scared of adults.
I always thought, if I was gonna make a kids show, I would want to make something that my own 12-year-old self would love. So, I put all that in a blender and stewed it together to create 'Gravity Falls.'
There are so many shows that go on endlessly until they lose their original spark, or mysteries that are cancelled before they ever get a chance to payoff.
When I was about 7 years old, I built a leprechaun trap out of a cardboard box, a biscuit tin and some toilet paper tubes.
Not a lot of people get to say, βI'm a cartoon character.'
One day I'd love to release a coffee table book of all the crazy notes I got from Disney Channel's S&P and legal department.
When I was 12 years old, I was obsessed with codes, conspiracies, and secret messages.
When I was 15 I did birdcalls on the David Letterman show, but I have since burned all video evidence of this.
When me and my sister were growing up, we just had very different personalities. I was sort of analytical and took myself too seriously, and she was sort of goofy and nuts and full of love - too much love, she had a crush on a different guy every week.
We passed a sign for Boring, Oregon. We never went there, but I was positively enchanted with the idea that there was a town called Boring. 'Gravity Falls' is partially from what I imagine Boring might be like. Or maybe the opposite of Boring, Oregon, would be 'Gravity Falls.'
Gravity Falls' is a riddle wrapped in an enigma tucked in a mystery deep-fried in a conundrum slathered in hickory-smoked puzzle sauce.
I never doubted that if I applied myself and tried to learn that I would good at it. I've had a lot of lucky turns, no doubt. But it's actually been a fairly direct line from control-freak, cartoon-obsessed kindergartner to control-freak, cartoon-obsessed executive producer.
With the finale episode of βGravity Falls' our job as storytellers is to finish all the things we've started.
My sister, when we were in Elementary school, had one particular lime green fuzzy troll doll sweater with a gem sticking out of the belly and actual hair that stuck to it, and I just remember, even though I was very young, being like 'This is unusual. It is weird that she is wearing this in public.'
As a kid, I was obsessed with 'Calvin and Hobbes' and 'Bone,' and I'm certain that I've unconsciously ripped off ideas from both, wholesale.
Yeah, my first love was 'The Simpsons,' but in terms of movies and stuff, I loved 'Back To The Future,' I loved 'Jurassic Park,' I loved 'The Truman Show.'
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with UFOs in particular, and the paranormal.
One of the nice things about not working on a TV show anymore is that I'm not on any particular kind of clock.
A lot of kid characters you see on TV are sassy, and snarky, and think they're just the coolest kids in the world, and are mean spirited.
Gravity Falls' didn't just appear overnight - every spooky cave and moss covered tree was created by a team of brilliant artists.
