Good Burger 2 Director & Writers Talk Nickelodeon Callbacks And Spoofing The Imagine Video [Exclusive Interview]
After 26 years, there's actually a sequel to Nickelodeon's '90s comedy "Good Burger." Based on a sketch from "All That," the movie took the lovably dimwitted Good Burger employee Ed (Kel Mitchell) to the big screen and paired him with co-star Kenan Thompson for a zany caper about two competing burger joints. It has all the hallmarks of a classic screwball comedy from the 1980s, and believe it or not, it's still genuinely funny to this day. So how do you pick up the spatula again after so many years?
We spoke with "Good Burger 2" writers Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert and director Phil Traill leading up to the release of the sequel, which is now available on Paramount+, and we talked about returning to the franchise. Kopelow and Seifert actually wrote the original "Good Burger" sketches on "All That," so tapping back into the burger basics was easy, but Traill went out of his way to revisit the original movie in order to tap into the same vibe, both comedically and for the look of the production. Check out our interview for details on the "Imagine" spoof with a series of celebrity cameos, an alternate cameo for Sinbad, and sneaking in references to other Nickelodeon shows.
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'I can't believe we're here 26 years later'
Kevin and Heath, you guys worked on the original "All That," which was a staple for me growing up. Were the original "Good Burger" sketches part of your work back then, and if so, did you find it difficult to tap back into "Good Burger" at all for the sequel?
Kopelow: Yes and no. Yes, we part of sketches, no, it was not difficult, because we continued to think "Good Burger," lived "Good Burger," and we even rebooted the show and wrote all the new sketches and Kel came back and did them. So it was like riding a bike.
Seifert: I think we started working with Kenan and Kel on "All That" season 1 around 30 years ago, and the first "Good Burger" sketches were things we pitched and wrote, and it was amazing to see it evolve into this thing that became a movie. I can't believe we're here 26 years later, 27 years later talking about a sequel.
Yeah, for sure. Phil, you weren't really a kid at the right time for Nickelodeon to necessarily hit as an influence for you. And unlike Kevin and Heath, you didn't work on the original "All That," but you had plenty of TV experience elsewhere. So I'm curious what drew you to "Good Burger 2?"
Traill: Yeah, well, I was a fan of "Good Burger" one, so I've been aware of it. In London, it wasn't so big, but it was for me. So when I heard about it, I was very excited to potentially do it, but I wanted to read the script first, because like most people, I assume, get excited about watching the sequel and they sort of hope it doesn't disappoint them. That's the bar. Then I started reading the script going, "Oh, this is good. This is funny." It was very easy after reading the script to go, "I really want to do this."
Now Kevin and Heath, how did the script change as you guys wrote it? Were there any major scenes or plot points that evolved or changed along the way, or did you really have the idea and kind of stuck with it the whole way through?
Kopelow: Yeah, we stuck with it the whole way through, just the general changes, edits and for cuts and –
Seifert: I think we evolved some of Kenan's story to give his character a little more movement and depth. We knew we wanted to start the film sort of setting up getting these two back together and quickly explaining where they've been the last 25 years. Ed's still at Good Burger, but Kenan's character has gone off and had a series of failed business endeavors when we first meet him, and so he's kind of down on his luck and has to come back to Good Burger and see his old friend and get help. So that might've evolved a little bit in the writing, but I think the general plot of the technology and the evil corporation and exploiting workers and replacing that was the big idea.
Kopelow: That's what we pitched, and that's what we –
Seifert: Stayed pretty close to what was in that first draft.
I really love that you bring Kurt Bozwell's sister in, because it's like "Good Burger with a Vengeance."
Traill: Oh, that's good.
Kevin Kopelow: "Good Burger with a Vengeance," I like that too. Where were you when we were coming up with titles?
Seifert: About building a better burger, building a bigger burger, right.
Traill: A bigger, better burger.
Seifert: Bigger, better burger.
'We were thinking 'We Are the World at the time...'
Phil, were there any other cinematic touchstones or influences besides the original "Good Burger" that influenced your approach to the comedy?
Traill: There's a lot of types of comedy in it, right? There's physical comedy and verbal comedy and genuine heartfelt stuff, and then really over the top stupid stuff and the roller skating and the granny and the whole thing when you see it. So there was a lot to draw on, but I really did go back to the original, and we watched it with the [director of photography] and the camera guys, and the production designer [Steve Jordan] came back from the original. It's the same person. So we really did dig in quite deeply to the original and find out just exactly what they did and tried to emulate the things that we really liked and then elevate the set pieces to go even bigger than before.
In the movie, you guys have that Good Burger song sequence with all those celebrity cameo videos. I am pretty sure that's meant to spoof the "Imagine" video, right?
Traill: Pretty much.
Seifert: We watched that. That was one of the things we watched when we did that film, for sure.
Kopelow: We were thinking "We Are the World" at the time, and then we go, "Oh, they did one, so yeah."
Seifert: Yeah, definitely. We wanted to come up with a sequence for the film that had the potential to add any cameos we might possibly get, even if it was at a later date. So we wrote that song.
Traill: They wrote the song. These two ... I'm going to have to sing it. We've got a long version of it. In fact, in the credits, there's a really nice professional version of it. Yeah, it's really great.
Seifert: Yeah, the poor composer got our version, which is me playing guitar and singing it. It's like, "Here's the demo." But it was amazing to see the finished version in the film.
Was there anybody that you were hoping to have in that sequence that just didn't work out for a scheduling or whatever reason?
Kopelow: I'm sure there is. I just can't remember. I mean, we reached out to a lot of people. People reached out to us and couldn't do it. You know what I mean? It was like ... I'm trying to think.
Traill: Yeah, I quite like the randomness of the slate, isn't it?
Seifert: I think that kind of makes it work it.
Traill: There's also another video.
Kopelow: It was like the "Imagine" one, right? Yeah.
Traill: There's a "Let It Be." If you Google "Roger Moore, Let It Be," there's another terrible celebrity-filled sort of singalong.
Seifert: It's amazing.
Traill: With the most bonkers cameos in it, and that's what we wanted in the movie.
Seifert: If you can guess the next person that's going to show up, more power to you.
'We would've loved to have used him a little more'
Speaking of cameos, I love seeing that Sinbad has a small role in this movie, and based on the credits, I believe he's the guy on the phone who tells Dexter that all the money is gone and he's out of business, right?
Seifert: Well done.
Can you talk about bringing him back in that way? I presume this is really all he could do because he's still recovering from his stroke, correct?
Kopelow: Well, again, that was kind of — we shot it in Rhode Island, so it was just the schedules and everything. We just couldn't quite get him there.
Seifert: We would've loved to have used him a little more.
Kopelow: We had a scene for him, but...
What would that scene have entailed?
Kopelow: When [Kel] backed into the car [early in the movie,] he was going to pull away and Sinbad was going to be the driver.
Oh man, that would've been so good.
Seifert: Think it when you're watching it.
Traill: But it was great to be able to have him in it, and he was really stoked to be in it. He really enjoyed it.
Seifert: Yeah, it was important for us to have him participate in some way.
Yeah, that was a great throwback. Now Kevin, when you're on set, do you ever have a tendency to shout out a little, "Five minutes, five minutes!"
[everyone laughs]
Kopelow: No, I do not. It did end up in the script, though. Someone yells "five minutes" in there, and it was almost a coincidence.
Seifert: Cat Bozwell shouts "five minutes," and it is a little similar to how Kevin shouted "five minutes."
Speaking of which, did you guys come up with the orange soda reference or is that something that Kel snuck in there?
Seifert: Wrote it in script.
That was great.
Kopelow: We were doing crossovers from all the shows. There's like four things that we were taking from. "Kenan & Kel," "Good Burger" one...
I love that. As a Nickelodeon kid, it was great to see all that stuff come together, and it's just so awesome that this happened so much time after the first one.
Seifert: Yeah, it's amazing. We thought it might be a record, but I guess Bambi had a sequel 50 years after the first or something.
Well, I think "Good Burger 2" is better, though.
Seifert: Thank you. That'll be the blurb: "Better than 'Bambi 2.'"
[everyone laughs]
Kopelow: Unless you just really, really, really hated "Bambi 2."
Traill: That's true.
Kopelow: Yeah, We'll take it.
"Good Burger 2" is definitely better than "Bambi 2," and it's available to stream now on Paramount+.