"I had a wild turkey in my yard and later we did an episode about him called "The Gobbler."  I composed the first theme to The Gobbler and I liked how it
sounded so I had the idea of adding words to it and making into a recorded song.  I wrote the poem and after a few tries came up with the Peck Peck Pecking words.  I recorded it with Dave Melo at BlueBox Studio in Franklin, which was a unique experience because my singing voice has never been professionally recorded before. I had to do it separately from playing the keyboards. Later when that was done, we edited some animated outtakes together for the music video you can see on youtube.  But it was all originally inspired by a wild turkey I saw in my yard."

The first time I watched an episode of It’s Jerry Time, I had one of those delightfully painful laughing fits.  The kind that leave you frothing at the mouth, and with eyes bulging from their sockets.  I was doubled over, and silence fell over my panicked gasps for breath.  I stomped my feet and banged my fists on the top of a wooden table, trying to breath.  The laughter came in waves that pushed me beneath the surface. Each one spit me back up, just long enough to take one deep breath, before going back under. When it was over, I wiped away the snot and tears with the sleeve of my sweater.  I knew right then I had to know how what I was watching came to be and what Jerry was all about.

“It's Jerry Time” follows the trials of everyday life of Jerry, whose struggles with his animated landlord and equally animated ex-girlfriend compliment his unaffected manner in the face of adversity. “It's Jerry Time” is the creation of Jerry Zucker who stars, writes the stories, and creates the music and voices, and his bother Orrin who animates the series with a single digital camera, the video processing tool, Adobe After Effects, and clip art. “It’s Jerry Time,” has become an instant cult hit and it’s success includes significant sales of the DVD and a nomination for an Emmy.

Jerry is a disheveled, faded-color of a guy, like someone who’s been through the wash too many times.  His vibrant color is gone, and holes have begun to wear through, but you just can’t throw him away.  Jerry is the everyman’s superhero with quiet insight into things just below the surface of common.  For the rest of us frayed and faded colors, he is the inspiration that helps us laugh our way through each seemingly uneventful day.

It’s Jerry Time consists of 10 episodes, each running just a few minutes long.   But that’s all you need to feel the impact of the Zucker Brother’s sense of humor.  They don’t drag out any episode for too many rounds.  They charge right out from their corner swinging.  They land a few hard ones onto your chin and into your belly before you even know what hit you.  As the first round’s bell is about to be rung, you find yourself flat on your back, gasping for air, and blind to everything but stars.  

Each episode opens with Jerry’s cutout body stiffly holding up his over-sized cutout head, as his entire being imperceptivity floats across the screen.   His eyes and mouth come alive in spastic twitches, as he narrates the latest story.  Cutout people and things move across stills of scenery to help tell the tale.  The result is not unlike a Terry Gilliam Monty Python animation, but with characters from the here and now.

GLUBDUB : Do you guys find what you do as funny as I do? Is each episode still just as funny as the first time you guys came up with this idea?

Jerry Zucker: I found the first episode not so much funny, but rather an astounding revelation. To be personally reduced to a cartoon character, and rendered into such a photorealistic universe, it's indescribable and surreal, especially the first time I saw the character walk and talk. After that I got used to seeing this little guy as a part of me that I portray in these animations. An important part for me is in the narration, providing a good outline for a funny or bizarre animation. Each episodes provides new challenges and new thrills and we like to try to express that.

Orrin Zucker: For me, every episode has a couple moments that I keep going back to...kind of iconic scenes that hit home for me. Sometimes it's visual, other times it's verbal...like when the moths are smashing up against his apartment window and he's lamenting the fact that they're only doing hit to HIS apartment. I love that. Other times, the visual strike a chord with me, whether it's a look on his face (Jerry's a pretty expressive guy- even within the small range of emotions we animate) or the situation Jerry finds himself in. We put a lot of details into the animations, so they can stand up to repeat viewings. But I must agree with Jerry, the first time I saw the character blinking back at me, I couldn't start laughing.