One of the more unexpected joys of 2020 (a year when joy was in preciously short supply) was Earth to Ned on Disney+. The tale of an alien sent to Earth to prep the planet for a full-scale invasion, Ned (voiced and partially performed by the great Paul Rugg) falls in love with popular culture and decides to host a talk show instead. Produced by the Jim Henson Company, Ned himself is a technological marvel, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, and his banter with guests (plus the evolving story of his infatuation with our world) is charming and hilarious. The show earned major praise from publications like New York Magazine’s Vulture blog and wound up on the Los Angeles Times’ list of the best shows of 2020 (deservedly so). And we are so thrilled to announce that the next batch of episodes – featuring guests like Tig Notaro, Ginnifer Goodwin and Penn & Teller – will debut on Disney+ on January 1. Happy New Year to us!

We got a chance to chat with executive producer Brian Henson about the response to the show, whether or not he was ever worried it was too weird and what we can expect about these next batch of episodes.

What has the response to the show been like for you?

BRIAN HENSON: It’s been very validating. I was thrilled that people understood the tone of what we were doing, because I had a hard time describing to people because late night talk shows are too cool for school. And we were trying for something with a much more positive energy and more delightful and more of a celebration of all of our weirdness and oddities. And A) I was really happy that the audience appreciates that and gets it and enjoys that energy at this time. But you could also feel it off of our guests. They all felt it which was great. They came on and embraced that energy right away and it was because they were being interviewed by Ned who is ignorant. He’s ignorant of mankind. And that is a really fun dynamic to put onto the interviewee, to say, “Oh you’re in charge. You get to be the one to keep correcting Ned.” It was a fun dynamic. It was super fun for the guests. It defines the tone. It’s a really nice energy for now and it’s a positive energy and we were able to do it in such a way that’s not at all preachy. In fact Ned is horrible to Cornelius, he’s totally self-centered, he’s a very flawed character. And to still be able to do that and end up with an uplifting piece. It was nice that everybody got that and understood it.

Was there a part of you that was, as Earth to Ned was going out the door, said, “Eh maybe this is a little too weird.”

HENSON: The truth is that many things that we make are too weird. Labyrinth was too weird. It had an initial theatrical run that was a massive failure, but it did better every year since it released and is now a classic. But it was too weird at the time. When I first came out with Farscape, it was too weird for people and then people seemed to understand it and now science fiction largely emulates the tone of Farscape. So yes, I was worried that Earth to Ned was too weird. But it’s always better to be too weird than to be too safe, for sure. And I feel like Kevin Smith did us a great service. He was the first guest who shot. His episode hasn’t aired yet but he was the first episode to come on and shoot with us. He was looking at everything we were doing and was going, “Guys, you need to all know that what you’re all doing is extraordinary, I applaud you for convincing anybody to finance it, and I guarantee it’s a hit.” Whether he was right … that’s for history to say. But it was so nice that that was his response.

And he did a clever thing. When he was in the back room he said, “I’m not going to look at the monitors. Let me come up and just start shooting so we can be fresh and I won’t know what’s coming.” That’s how he wanted to do his interview – he wanted to be ushered up and shoot. And Ned can only go for 10 minutes without a break. So he we had to slow down. We shot each guest for about 50 minutes and cut it down to the best bits. But in the gaps, Kevin was so appreciative of what we were doing. It made all of us feel much more confident about what we were doing.

I haven’t seen these new episodes but based on the descriptions Ned is going on a journey in these next few – he’s dreaming, he’s doing all of these things. Did you work hard to establish Ned and Cornelius so you could do these more adventurous things with the later episodes?

HENSON: Yes. Yes. We weren’t entirely locked into the airing orders but it’s interesting. We didn’t want to evolve Ned that much in terms of his understanding of Earth. We want to keep him ignorant. He gets it wrong constantly. Instead it’s exploring him more. It’s Ned’s relationship to Ned. Because Ned’s backstory right before the show starts is quite powerful. He’s a military commander of a ship and he’s from a family of military ship commanders. His father is admiral of the fleet. So he had to be a ship commander. And it’s always made him miserable. It wasn’t until he came to Earth and he’s meant to be a part of an advance group in anticipation of an invasion and he starts to watch television. He starts falling in love with humanity and that aspect of himself and he has an awakening, which is, I was born to be on television and I love mankind and I love everything about them. I don’t want to talk about how I am a military commander sent here to destroy Earth. All of that happened before. In these next episodes, that starts to land a little stronger and a little stronger in terms of that backstory, the emotional dynamic between him and his father. We’re running pretty straightforward parallels to human stories. You’ll see … But yes, we are further developing him.

Without spoiling anything, do we get to meet Ned’s father in the next batch?

I don’t think I can even answer that!

Earth to Ned returns to Disney+ on January 1.