This page is a transcript of the DVD commentary track for "The Power", with JG Quintel.

JG: This is JG Quintel, and this is "The Power", which was the second board that I boarded for Regular Show. This was the one that I boarded after the pilot for the Cartoonstitute. Cartoon Network had asked for three more storyboards and this was the first one that I did. Yeah, I can remember coming up with this idea - I was like trying to figure out what the first episode was gonna be about. You know, I kinda knew what I wanted the show to be, where it was gonna have kinda magical element stuff in it, and it was gonna be about Mordecai and Rigby, and all that. I feel like the pilot really showed that, but coming up with another idea when there's infinite things you could do with this concept, that was like "Ugh, I don't know what to do!" I was working on Flapjack at the time, trying to come up with something.

JG: I remember I was at an art opening somewhere, and there was a chair that was facing a wall, and I just sat in it with my sketchbook and all of a sudden, it was like I just got the whole idea in my head, all at once, and I just started writing real fast, so I wouldn't forget anything. I kinda wrote this whole episode, like probably in fifteen or twenty minutes, and after that, I was like "Okay, I think that works!" and it was like really a bizarre, weird idea, of them using this magical keyboard to try to fix a hole in the wall, but I really wanted to try and come up with an idea where it was like "Oh, it's so simple. They just wanna fix a hole in the wall, but the way they do it kinda goes out of control," and then I took all that writing and I proceeded to board it over the course of the next couple of weeks, and yeah. A lot of the stuff, I'm happy with how it turned out. It was really kinda weird to get it down on paper and go and pitch all the thumbnails. I think I did one of the special features, where I pitched this thing again after a long time, so if you haven't watched that already, definitely check it out.

JG: It was also fun to kinda get all of these isms into the show, like the way they act towards one another with their "OOHHH!"s and like the "Hmm"s, and other stuff, which is really just kind of an extension of stuff I remember doing in college with my buddies. Mordecai's definitely pretty much me in college, almost exactly, except not a bird.

(The Beef Burrito wrestling doll is laying on the floor of Mordecai and Rigby's room)

JG: That wrestling doll, I remember having one of those as a kid. We would wrestle them all the time.

(Rigby starts hamboning, and is about to grab The Power)

JG: Doing the hamboning, I cannot remember why that popped into my head, but I thought it was funny, and then keyboards are always cool. I'm really kinda fascinated by anything kinda synthesizer-esque from the 80s, so I really wanted to get this stuff in the show.

(The wizard appears)

JG: There's that wizard, which this wasn't in the original pitch. Originally, Rigby explained how he got the keyboard as trading a bunch of box tops from cereal to get it from a cereal company, and there's like a weird flashback where Pops is coming back into the house with more cereal, and Rigby just flies in out of nowhere and starts hamboning on him, and he's like "Can I have all of your box tops, Pops!?" I think the wizard angle is a lot funnier though.

(Mordecai and Rigby start practicing songs on the Power)

JG: This part, with the like songs, trying to put as many of these kinda like synchronized singing bits as possible, even though I have no ability to sing at all. It's at least fun to make up these little songs that they do together. Me and Bill at the records, I'll start doing it, and then he'll get the feel of it, and he'll join in, and we'll just keep going until one of the passes sounds good together. It's always really fun when it's something really complicated.

(Mordecai and Rigby start singing to Pops)

JG: (sighs) Looking at this now as well, with all the expressions. I mean, I made this up, but it still looks horrible to me now. (laughs) As the first episode, I'm sure people at home are like "Man, it looks so different to how the show looks now!" and I think that happens to all animated shows. They go through a period of revising itself and finding what it actually wants to be. But the first pass is always really cool and organic, so even though it looks weird, I'm still happy with how it turned out.

(Mordecai and Rigby start singing to Benson)

JG: And now the song gets more complicated, even though I'm not really sure how that happened and they both...or the next one, anyway, when they do it to Skips.

(Benson gives Mordecai and Rigby $20 each)

JG: Twenty dollars. Remember, that is like, especially to a kid, that is a magic number, that's a huge amount to any kid, getting twenty bucks.

(The montage of Mordecai and Rigby doing "everything they ever wanted")

JG: And now, into the music montage. I love music montages, it's like the chance to really get loose with the animation and do whatever we want, kinda like a music video where you don't really have to follow all the rules, and let it get really magical. It's fun stuff. Heh, those drawings, like right through there, that little chunk, that was all Mike Roth, so after I pitched the board, you know, you get notes from the network on what could be cooler, what could be better, and if you see that thumbnail pitch, you'll see that music montage used to be kinda like - a little bit of it was the same with the bouncy castle and stuff, but then Mordecai and Rigby just ended up turning into tacos, and I think Mordecai ate a chunk of Rigby, and then laughed, and that was the end of it, and we were like "What else could we do?" and Mike came in with a bunch of cool things that made it better.

(Mordecai and Rigby are in the middle of singing to Skips)

JG: Heh, this song. I remember pitching it and it was like, I had a general idea of it, but it wasn't until the record that we were trying to figure it out, and I was like "I'll just do this!" and it just kinda turned out how it turned out.

(Mordecai and Rigby are arguing about sending Skips to the moon)

JG: Here comes some more punching, I think. Yeah. It's the classic "friends hit each other all the time".

(Mordecai, Rigby, Benson and Pops are ready to travel to the moon)

JG: I remember when I was pitching this to the executives - for the first time anyway, 'cause normally I'll just board something and pitch it for the first time to whoever's gonna look at it, I guess - and I'm not sure what they, I mean they liked it enough to pick it up, but at the same time, I wonder if they were like "What is this? This is so weird..." Like I think I remember drawing this kinda black and white poster of all the characters just standing together, and it just said "Regular Show" in my kinda lame handwriting - like pretty much the whole show is all just my handwriting, like the "Regular Show" title card and all of the credits at the end, that's all handwritten. Like every time there's a new person who works on the show, or a new character, I have to like write all the new names and try to keep it as organic as possible, I guess.

(Rigby and Benson are figuring out how to stop the Moon Monster)

JG: I really like how this moon turned out. It looks really rad. That's one thing I have like no talent for, it's painting, so whenever I see what the painters have done, I'm like "Oh, man! This looks so cool!"

(Rigby has a flashback to earlier in the episode)

JG: Bringing it back, to the hamboning! Which I'm also surprised was something on the internet that people were pretty into, like the hamboning thing. It's so dumb, but people liked it!

(Skips breaks free from the monster's fist)

JG: Oh, Skips. I remember when I came up with him, he was like pretty much just like a really bad drawing of a monkey, and I was like "Yeah, he'll be like a yeti, and he'll be named Skips and he'll just skip everywhere!" (laughs) That was the only thing I knew about him in the very, very beginning. Other than that, and that he would always know what to do, and help them, but still - that's like pretty slim."

(Mordecai, Rigby, Benson, Pops and Skips all return to Earth, crashing into the former two's bedroom)

JG: Aw, and this ending. This was like another result of a really good note. The executives were like "What happened to the hole in the wall?" and in the original, they didn't appear back in the room, they appeared outside. Pretty much all the dialogue was the same, and they leave and everything, but then Mordecai and Rigby decide to put a poster over the hole, outside. You don't get to see them put the poster over the hole, and it works so much better having it here. It's such a dumb idea to kinda have the hole survive after all the drywall and the rest of the room are busted off, so it's just like - (laughs) It looks like a toilet seat.

(Mordecai puts a poster over the hole, ending the episode)

JG: Pretty awesome, first one.