Pam Brady on Teaming Up with Ramy Youssef for #1 Happy Family USA and What's to Come In Season 2 (Exclusive)

Speaking with TooFab about the Prime Video animated series, the South Park co-writer and producer revealed how a chance meeting with Ramy Youssef led to creating a comedy loosely on his experience growing up in an Arab-American Muslim family post 9-11.

"I was just such a huge fan of his. I love to show Ramy and I love to stand up. I just think he's got one of the bravest, smartest comedic voices happening. So I honestly just sort of begged for a meeting. I just wanted to meet him. And so this was like a dream that this all came together, which it did come together in the first meeting because he had an animated idea," Brady told TooFab. "But honestly, all I wanted out of it was I wanted to meet him, and just sort of figure out how his brain works and just as a fan. So that's where it started from."

The meeting, which took place pre-Covid, was followed by pandemic delays and of course, a lot of hard work, bringing #1 Happy Family USA to viewers five and a half years later, with a two season-run on Prime Video.

Different from Youssef's Hulu self-titled series, Ramy, which also explores his life as a first-generation Egyptian-American in New Jersey, #1 Happy Family USA delves into that post-9-11 era that was, in many ways, terrifying for Arab-Americans. It also is very much a story about Rumi Hussein and his family, and the oh-so-relatable feat of trying to survive middle school in the early aughts.

For Brady, Youssef and fellow executive producer and political cartoonist, Mona Chalabi, that all-too-familiar feeling was one they wanted to be present in the animation.

"We wanted to make sure that the style, the rhythm, pacing, all the feel, even ... we wanted it, since we were pushing the boundaries in terms of subject matter, we wanted the visuals to feel, kind of comforting. Like, 'Oh, I've seen this before. Or if someone said, 'Oh, did you see the show that was popular when 'Doug' was on? Like, you could believe it. So that's what we were going for,'" she explained.

Brady continued, "We spent so much time even talking about color palettes. It doesn't feel like a bright fox show from today. There's a certain look. And so we really spent a lot of time on that."

Tapping an animation house out of Malaysia, Animasia, provided the team with a unique experience too, coupling Chalabi's vision and drawing's with their built-in-style.

"They already had a style. So when we were just like kind of looking at different animation houses, they came back with this kind of cool style based on what we sent them that just felt right too," she explained. "It was really like a lucky opportunity to work with them."

While the show explores the nuances of being being a Muslim, Arab-American and immigrant family trying to assimilate after 9-11, standing out as it weaves in Arabic dialect throughout each episode, Brady says its also very relatable to non-Middle Eastern viewers, who either can see their family in the Hussein's, or know a family like theirs.

"I think that's the key is like, use the specifics to sort of relate to everybody and the fact that even Ramy could like tell us stories about really what happened when he was a kid. I mean, soon after 9-11, an FBI agent did move across the street from him... probably a coincidence, but when you have an imagination like Ramy's, you've got to start thinking like, why is that guy outside all the time?," Brady shared. "Why is he making friends with my dad? And so, I think the like emotional sort of thrust of the show is is really about Ramy feeling like an outsider, which I think is what everybody feels."

"The joke I was making is like, everybody felt that way when they were a kid, except Mandy Moore," she quipped of the singer-actress, who voices the character of Rumi's middle school teacher, Mrs. Malcom, who he has a crush on. "Mandy Moore was just cool from the jump."

There's also a central theme of code-switching that takes place as the Husseins try to make themselves more American and more palatable to their New Jersey community in the wake of the terror attack.

"Everybody knows that feeling of just, even the code switching aspect, which of course is much more dramatic for someone who's like Egyptian and trying to be waspy, but like all of us act differently in different spaces, you know?" Brady stressed.

As for viewers who may not be able to relate to the Husseins, Brady said there's truly something for everyone on this show.

"Just understanding sort of the dynamic, family dynamics, I really think are the same across the board. Like just a grandma character, an overbearing grandma character," she said. "And that's sort of also what we wanted to present to not make a giant statement of like, 'Oh, this is an Arab family.' It's like, no, this is like a super funny family. Everyone in their house, that family or knows someone or, you know, they can relate to it in some way."

Brady continued, "And I think when you tap into stuff, like when you tap into a character and you love a character, you find the things you can relate about them. Just feeling like, again, feeling like an outsider. That's the easiest way to like connect to Rumi. Mona, just feeling like you live in a world that doesn't quite get you. Do you know what I mean? But then we got specific. The more specific you get on a story, the more people can relate to it because it just feels more real."

In addition to voice Rumi, Youssef takes on the character of his father in the show, Hussein Hussein, who runs a Halal cart in New York City. While the character was originally going to be voiced by someone else, it was Brady who pushed for the comedian to lend his voice to both.

"Because he's also the best performer. I mean, he's the warmest, funniest performer ever, I think I've ever worked with that he can pull up," Brady gushed when asked why she was so insistent on Youssef doing double-time. "You just love him. So it's just the fact that he can do that and do stories that are pushing the envelope. And I really thought emotionally, he would key into what his father went through in a different way. Like, I think it would just add more depth. And he's brilliant in both parts."

Youssef isn't the only major voice on the show, in addition to Moore, Alia Shawkat voice Rumi's older sister Mona, Kieran Culkin lending his iconic sound to dentist, Dr. Riley, Timothy Olyphant takes on FBI agent, Dan Daniels and there's a few guest stars too, with Bradley Whitford popping in as the school principal.

"The best part is that we we've gotten so many awesome people. Cause basically like if Ramy gives someone a call, it's pretty good. I mean, the fact that Kieran Culkin plays the dentist, he's so funny. Just a dentist who wants to -- he wants to fit in with Sharia. He starts wearing the headscarf, not realizing how offensive it is. It's like, but everybody's doing their best," Brady said of the star-studded cast.

As for what she was able to say about Season 2, which is already in the works, just know, things get global for young Rumi.

"We'll just say it gets bigger. Let's just say Rumi gets involved in the war on terror. It's almost like... We say that the first season is all personal and then the personal becomes the political in the second story. And we get into George Bush's policies and we get into more of the surveillance state and we get into -- going into Iraq," Brady shared. "It just gets super absurd. It gets really big and really absurd.

Things also take a turn for Culkin's character.

"We'll find out more about his about his deeply troubled childhood. So we go we go into his childhood," she added. "He saw things that no kid his age should have ever seen. And we find out what happened to his parents and it's a surprise."

Season 1 of #1 Happy Family USA is currently streaming on Prime Video.