Rob Lowe Jokes About Sex In The ’80s: ‘Moonbeam City’ At Comic-Con

For Archer fans who are going through withdrawal when that balls-to-the-wall cartoon isn’t on the air, there is hope. Meet Dazzle Novak, a sexually charged metropolis detective living in an ’80s world in Comedy Central’s Moonbeam City. The network is premiering the series on September 16 at 10:30 PM, and it’s an homage and sendup of that techno decade and, most of all, Rob Lowe. From the looks of the animation style during the preview episode today at Comic-Con, it looks like a great PG-13 version of ’80s show Jem, but with guys in fluorescent pink and blue jackets.

“It’s a very stupid comedy at Epcot Center,” couched creator Scott Gairdner, “I’m naturally obsessed with 1980s culture, particularly the future of the ’80s, the way it appeared in Back to the Future II, Blade Runner and RoboCop.”

Moonbeam City was at Comic-Con last year, which prompted one fangirl to ask, “So, why is the show airing more than a year later?”

“Gosh, lady, we got cells to draw and put into computers!” shouted back Moonbeam writer Tommy Blacha.

Gairdner also specified that Comedy Central is giving the Moonbeam City premiere some extra neon energy by pairing it with South Park.

Comedy Bang Bang host Scott Aukerman moderated the session. At one point he turned to the series’ lead voice-over and producer Lowe and remarked with a wink to the actor’s rowdy days, “I noticed the show has a lot of sex scenes.”

Lowe explained to the crowd that his character Dazzle “is interested in human relationships. Everything in the future has an artificial reality. Dazzle has sex with a prison, an actual building. If you want to see cartoon sex with me in a prison with Susan Sarandon, the choice is yours!”

Clarified Blacha, “Susan Sarandon is the evil albino warden whose advances you refuse.”

While most actors marvel about how comfortable and great it is recording voice-overs for animated features and TV shows, Lowe has some second thoughts on that. As Gairdner explained, “We recorded enough sex sounds to last the season”.

Responded Lowe, “These things are really humiliating. I’m used to being on camera. With this, you’re in a dark booth. It’s like — don’t watch me do this.” The actor explained how he attached himself to the project because “it was my first time doing animated voice-over, and it was a project with a point of view from the writers. It was the chance to try something new.”

One remark during the panel was how the animation in Moonbeam City was similar to the cover art of the 1982 Duran Duran album Rio. When asked his thoughts about that reference, Lowe quipped: “I might have stolen a girlfriend or two from them. Not to rub their nose in it — cough, cough — John Taylor!”

Clad in a bushy beard from The Last Man On Earth, Will Forte, who voices Dazzle’s rival Rad Cunningham, yelled out which band he stole women from: “ZZ Top — every single one of their wives! I f**cked ’em!”