Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal started their daily show, Good Mythical Morning, in 2012 with just one other staff member—their first episode sponsored by a tongue scraper.
Now, Mythical has 35M+ subscribers and 15B+ views across eight YouTube channels, a distribution deal with Netflix, and 90 full-time employees.
Last week, we got the chance to tour Mythical’s 25K square-foot studio with Mythical’s VP of Production and Post-Production, Terence Deutsch, and the new president Jacob Moncrief.
Inside the Mythical art department’s workshop (left) and its Good Mythical Morning set (right) / Photography courtesy of Mythical Entertainment - Katrina “Chappie” Chaput
Inside Mythical’s LA studio: In 2016, Mythical moved into a studio in Burbank, CA. As its platform grew, launching new channels like Mythical Kitchen, it began expanding into neighboring buildings. Now, the HQ consists of two studios and an art workshop.
Mythical’s studio is next to other creators like Alan Chikin Chow and Try Guys (and sits down the road from Disney and Warner Bros)—signaling how important proximity and physical space has become for the creator companies that operate as larger networks.
Good mythical neighbors: Ten years ago, Mythical wasn’t a regular stop on the celebrity press tour, but now Last Meals and Good Mythical Morning are frequent celeb haunts.
Moncrief told me that they see around 75 celebrity guests per year, something that wouldn’t be feasible if the studio wasn’t in the middle of the greater Hollywood conversation.
The creator studio model: From set design to post-production to e-commerce, Mythical houses all its departments in one space, creating synergy between departments that were previously not in conversation with each other.
After bringing brand sales in-house 2.5 years ago, Moncrief said that their brand revenue 4X’d.
“[The e-commerce department] can see the kind of stuff that [Mythical Chef Josh Scherer] is wearing on a daily basis and then say, ‘Josh likes this kind of hat. We're gonna develop a hat like that for Mythical Kitchen,’” Moncrief told me.
Behind Mythical Kitchen’s set / Photography courtesy of Mythical Entertainment - Katrina “Chappie” Chaput
Mythical has expanded, but its core mission is the same. Good Mythical Morning has aired daily for 14 years, a feat that many shows couldn’t achieve without hitting stagnation. Moncrief says they guard against that deliberately.
“We've been very intentional to make sure that the heart of the show stays the same with [Rhett and Link], their relationships, their comedic instincts, but we've been very intentional to not just say this is our top performing format and we're just gonna let it ride,” Moncrief said. “If this is our top performing format, great, how can we beat it out?”
Before you sign a lease: What ultimately drove Mythical’s studio expansion was their need for more shooting spaces. The shows steadily expanded, the studio followed, and the Hollywood opportunities came as a result of the sum of their efforts.
While more creators than ever are building out studio spaces, it doesn’t mean every creator needs one. According to Mythical, being honest about your needs as a creator—and communicating it clearly to every member of your staff—is the difference between a 14-year-old empire and a flash-in-the-pan YouTube channel.
