I've always loved 'Alice,' and I've always loved Lewis Carroll. I love his kind of tone and his intelligence.

You always want to aim high.

I remember watching 'The Muppet Show' in the '70s. I was six or seven, and my dad watched it with me, and my grandparents watched it with me, and we're all laughing throughout, but I think we were probably laughing at different things.

I think we live in an entertainment world where performers like to flaunt how great they are. The Conchords don't do that. Even when they stumble onstage, people like it.

I was six when the war started. It was terrible. My house was destroyed, so we went to live with my grandparents. The whole family was there, maybe 15 people all staying in an apartment about 35m square. It was very hard.

My dad worked nights mostly and while we were growing up, and my mother also worked, so there were times where, when it was just the two of us at home, and, you know, they gave us a pretty long leash, actually.

We're so specialized now in our entertainment. It's nice to do a show where you're really circling back to this idea of, 'Couldn't there be a show the whole family can watch together?'

I grew up in Alsace - in Strasbourg, by the canal; the family business was coal handling. It was still in the days when three generations would live under the same roof. There were 15 people for lunch, 20 for dinner.