When Loren Bouchard (Creator and Executive Producer) and Jim
Dauterive (co-Executive Producer), were trying to come up with a
last name for Bob -- the owner of the show's family-run burger
joint -- the Bob's
Burgers executive duo were sure they wanted a moniker with
a certain Canadian flair.
"We came up with the last name Belcher, because it sounds sort of
French- or French Canadian-sounding," Bouchard said during a
roll-out of Bob's Burgers for North American television
journalists and critics, late last year. "We gave him the name
Belcher, so at least we know that one of Bob's parents hails from
some French or French-Canadian lineage."
The forty-year-old, American-born Bouchard says there was an
important reason why they gave Bob a distinct, ethnic-sounding last
name. "We also went with Belcher because there's a rich history of
a lot of ethnic groups owning and operating little family-run
restaurants," continues Bouchard, the veteran producer of such
television classics as The Ricky Gervais Show and Dr.
Katz, Professional Therapist. "We thought Bob's
Burgers fit nicely in that category, since it is
family-run."
In the animated comedy, Bob's Burgers (animated in
Vancouver and recorded in California) the character of Bob
(featuring the voice of American comedian and Archer
leading man H. Jon Benjamin), is a third-generation restaurateur,
the sole owner of the food establishment Bob's Burgers,
and the head of the hilarious Belcher family. To help improve the
service, style and sophistication of Bob's Burgers, Bob
enlists the help of his wife and three kids to beef up the
establishment (which has a somewhat of a spotty past). To help him
realize his dream, Bob hires on his wife Linda (the voice of John
Roberts), his son Gene (Eugene Mirman), and his daughters Tina (Dan
Mintz) and Louise (Kristen Schaal). They are an offbeat lot, but
they are all determined to cook the ultimate burger for all the
all-beef-patty aficionados in town.
"If there is one thing that Bob believes in more than anything is
his ability to make great burgers," explains Dauterive, who
recently worked as a Producer on King Of The Hill. "He
might need a little bit of help on everything else that comes with
running a restaurant, though." From a bad location (next door
to a funeral home), constantly greasy counters and a lack of
customers, Bob and his family have several hurdles to get over in
order to make Bob's Burgers the best burger palace in
town. With a menu of wildly different kinds of burgers to satisfy
every palette (and bring in as many customers as possible) -- you
can take a bite out of such ethnically-diverse choices as the
'Chimichuri Bang Bang' to the 'That's What Brie Said' burgers.
Despite minor setbacks, the humorous Belchers are up to the task of
turning Bob's Burgers into a town landmark. That's why it
is so important for the eatery's mega-important grand
re-re-re-opening to go down in history as the biggest event their
hometown has ever seen.
"Bob and his family feel like they are living the American dream,"
Bouchard says. "So, they feel as though they should do their best
to live up to the opportunity they have been given." For the
Belchers, life is all about ground meat, and their hilarious, often
gut-busting attempts to make the best burgers money can buy.
___________________________________
By: Earl Dittman
Bob's
Burgers airs Sundays on Global.