page_title: The Hall of Egress
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The Hall of Egress / Production
caption_attribution_description: Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891)
context_page_description: "The Hall of Egress" is the twenty-fourth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode—which was written and storyboarded by Tom Herpich, from a story by head writer Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Ashly Burch, and Herpich—debuted on March 5, 2016 on Cartoon Network.
  The series follows the adventures of Finn, a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake set out to find a dungeon, but, after the two find it, Finn ends up getting trapped within. In the center of the structure he finds a door that, when he closes his eyes, he is able to pass through. However, every time Finn opens his eyes, he is transported back to being outside the door.
  "The Hall of Egress" marked the third time that Herpich had storyboarded an episode by himself. Elements in the episode were inspired by, among other things, songs by M83 and the business practices of P. T. Barnum. Upon its airing, the episode was seen by 1.245 million viewers, and received largely positive reviews from critics.
context_section_description: The story for "The Hall of Egress" was developed by lead writer Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis, Ashly Burch, and storyboard artist Tom Herpich. Herpich himself worked on the episode's storyboard, marking the third time that he had storyboarded an episode by himself (the first instance being the third season episode "Thank You", and the second being the sixth season episode "Walnuts & Rain"). The storyboard for "The Hall of Egress" was completed on May 22, 2015, and the episode was eventually animated by SAEROM Studios in South Korea. Andres Salaff served as the episode's supervising director, and Sandra Lee handled art direction.
  In the episode's storyboard, Herpich added a note that for the line "Hurry, Finn, because at the seashell's center lies the cornucopia's smallest door" (which is spoken by Hynden Walch's Princess Bubblegum during Finn's climactic rush through the now-visible maze), the dialogue was to be "integrated into the propulsive, triumphant, poignant soundtrack". Herpich was inspired by the M83 songs "Intro", "Reunion", and "OK Pal" from the album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (2011), all of which mix music with soft, spoken-word elements.
  Originally, when he was storyboarding the episode, Herpich included a longer scene that explains how Finn knew what the word "egress" meant. In this short sequence, Finn recalls a time he went to a sideshow and noticed a sign that read "This way to the Egress". Curious as to what an "egress" might be, he followed the sign, only to find himself having passed through the sideshow's exit. This was a reference to an actual practice of P. T. Barnum, who placed signs (which read "This way to the Egress") throughout his American Museum that many believed would lead to a strange creature known as the "egress". What they failed to realize was that "egress" was simply a fancy but obfuscating word for "exit". Only upon passing through the egress would they realize their mistake. And since they had left the exhibit early, they would be forced to once again pay for admission if they wished to finish touring the museum. This scene was eventually scrapped due to time constraints and replaced with a shorter one in which Finn asks Princess Bubblegum the definition of the word; Herpich also mused that the scene was cut because "the [P. T. Barnum] reference might be too obscure" for casual viewers.
caption: A deleted scene from this episode was based on the business practices of P. T. Barnum.
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