Mission Hill
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- For the Boston neighborhood, see Mission Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.
| Mission Hill | |
|---|---|
 Mission Hill DVD cover. |
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| Genre | Animated Sitcom |
| Running time | 21-23 minutes |
| Creator(s) | Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein |
| Starring | Wallace Langham Scott Menville Brian Posehn Vicki Lewis Nick Jameson Tom Kenny |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original channel | The WB (production, see other networks below) |
| Original run | September 24, 1999–August 11, 2002 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
Mission Hill (formerly known as The Downtowners, although MTV's production of the similarly titled Downtown forced a name change) was an American animated television series that first aired on The WB in 1999. Although 13 episodes were produced, the show was cancelled after only six were aired. The show was put on hiatus by the WB Network after just two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned to the WB in the summer of 2000 but was cancelled after just four additional episodes. Nonetheless, the show went on to develop a cult following, thanks to repeated airings of all 13 episodes on Teletoon's "Teletoon Unleashed" block, TBS's "Too Funny to Sleep" block, and later, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
It has also been popular outside of the United States and Canada, receiving broadcasts in Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Spain and, New Zealand. In Italy, it received the 2000 Pulcinella Award for "Best Series for All Audiences"; the award cited the show's "stylized design and honest approach to sexual and moral issues."
Stylistically, the series is recognizable for its bright, neon color palette, and features a peculiar mixture of modern animation and traditional "cartoonish" drawings (dashed lines coming from eyes, red bolts of lightning around a spot in pain).
The show was created by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, former executive producers of The Simpsons, and the artistic designer was Lauren MacMullan, who later joined The Simpsons as a director. It featured the voices of Wallace Langham, Scott Menville, Brian Posehn, Vicki Lewis, Nick Jameson, Tom Kenny, Herbert Siguenza, Jane Wiedlin, Tress MacNeille, and Lisa Kushell. The theme song was a faster, instrumental version of "Italian Leather Sofa" by Cake.
The DVD release of the entire series (13 episodes) was released on November 29, 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Episodes
Main article: List of Mission Hill episodes
Thirteen episodes of the show were produced while 5 more were written, but never completed. Animatics for some of these episodes were in production at the time of the show's cancellation. It was planned to put these animatics on the DVD for the series, but this never came into fruition. However, several of the animatics -- including a completed video animatic and synchronized audio read-through of the episode "Pretty in Pink (Crap Gets in Your Eyes)" -- have been released through various internet outlets.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Roomates
[edit] Andy French
Twenty-four years old, Andy is now in his third consecutive "post-college slump year." He's an aspiring cartoonist who, in the meantime, jumps from one lousy job to another in an endless quest not to get fired. Andy is the classic "work hard during the week, play hard on the weekend" type, only without the "hard" part during the week. He also enjoys ska music, particularly the band Silly Rabbit.
Though he's often bored and mellow, Andy is easily delighted by many things, and constantly exasperated by one thing: His nerdy brother, Kevin.
Andy is voiced by Wallace Langham.
[edit] Kevin French
Seventeen years old. When his parents left for Wyoming, Kevin moved in with Andy, bringing his sheltered suburban mindset to Mission Hill along with his computer games and medicated shampoo. Kevin is the nerdy French brother, and though he aspires to be cool, he doesn't realize he can't find the answer by doing a search for "coolness" on Alta Vista or Yahoo!.
Kevin is an upperclassman at Pomper Memorial High School, where he aspires to get perfect grades, so he can get into Yale. Kevin has picked up a habit of whenever he is thinking hard or too excited he will start saying "Bling-Blong" over and over.
Kevin is voiced by Scott Menville.
[edit] Jim Kuback
In his mid-twenties, loftmate Jim has been Andy's best friend since high school. Jim is extremely tall and lanky, with red hair and beard. He constantly seems to be eating cheeseburgers, seemingly pulled from thin air. His food standards are low — he often takes food off the plates of people who recently left a resturaunt. — but not too low — he'll wipe it off first. He even eats a piece of couch stained in food in one episode. Jim is a genius at things electronic, whether it's electronic music or electronic computers. He is hilariously mellow and is able to express a wide variety of sentiments by slightly nuancing the word "Okay." Ask Jim how his day was, and he could reply "O-kay," (pretty good) or "Ookay," or "Okay,". Andy only recently learned that Jim is a high-powered advertising agent who is paid vast amounts of money to alter marketing campaigns to appeal to Generation X.
Jim is voiced by Brian Posehn.
[edit] Posey Tyler
In her mid-twenties, Posey, the fourth loftmate, is somewhat like a neo-flower child (she's very concerned about the health and well-being of her plants) but not really a hippie. She often appears a bit puzzled, but then she'll say something that puzzles everyone else to level the playing field. Posey's big innocent eyes hide a dark side, which only comes out during fierce business negotiations and acts of vigilantism (such as getting rid of a kink in a pimp's back so he'd feel it when she pushed him off a roof.) She might be bisexual as you can see her slow dancing with Gwen (while not drunk) in ""Pretty in Pink" (one of the canceled episodes) and see her dancing with a man in the pilot episode.
Posey is voiced by Vicki Lewis.
[edit] Neighbors and friends
[edit] Gus
In his late 60s, Gus lives across the hall with Wally, his lover for forty years. Theirs is a relationship ruled by passion; Gus and Wally can often be heard bickering loudly, or making up loudly. He owns his own diner in Mission Hill. According to audio commentary by the producers, Gus is based on Lawrence Tierney.
Gus is voiced by Nick Jameson.
[edit] Wally
A homosexual in his late 60s, Wally is a projectionist at the local art movie house. He enjoys cinema, ragtime music, honesty, neatness, kind people and, most of all, Gus, his long-time lover. He directed a film in the 1960's entitled The Man from Pluto, which was a parody of Plan 9 from Outer Space. It starred Gus in the titular role, a reference to Tom Graeff's film Teenagers from Outer Space, which starred his lover David Love.
Wally is voiced by Tom Kenny.
[edit] Natalie Leibowitz-Hernandez
Late 20s. Politically correct and intellectually well-endowed, Natalie is a professor of Women's Studies at the local college. Sensitive to biases in our culture, she refuses to name her newborn baby so as not to assign it a preconceived gender stereotype. She is of the Jewish faith. She is a working mother who supports both "Baby Nameless" and her non-working "marital partner" Carlos.
Natalie is voiced by Vicki Lewis.
[edit] Carlos Hernandez-Leibowitz
Late 20s. He is a struggling artist and stay-at-home dad for Baby Nameless. Unlike his wife Natalie, Carlos is a christian, likes to get drunk, eat junk food and sleep late. Although his most recent painting was made from the cream filling of Twinkies, his work is, at times, reminiscent of Jackson Pollack, Diego Rivera and Bob Ross. He prides himself on having no discernable style. They have a pet snake that was rescued in a lab raid, (Carlos thinking it will hurt the baby, there was a segment where we thought the baby was eaten but it was never and the snake is quite friendly.)
Carlos is voiced by Herbert Siguenza.
[edit] Gwen
Early 20s. Andy's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Gwen completed two years of community college before settling in Mission Hill, which she describes as "bitchin'". She met Andy working at Ron's Waterbed World, and soon determined that he too was bitchin'. Someday she'd like to be an accomplished person who achieves her goals and makes a serious contribution to society but as what, she hasn't a clue.
Gwen is voiced by Jane Wiedlin.
[edit] Toby Mundorf
He's 17 and one of Kevin's best friends in Mission Hill. Toby is extremely tall and fat for his age. His overprotective mother worries a great deal about him, as he frequently suffers from allergies, asthma, and hunger. A born pacifist, Toby responds to taunting from his peers by either running away or crying. Toby also seems to have a crush on Gwen.
Toby is voiced by co-creator Josh Weinstein.
[edit] George Bang
Kevin's other best friend, George works long hours after school in his father's market. George is extremely competitive in everything from taking tests to playing video games, and will often burst into tears if he loses. He shares all the same interests as his best friends and is particularly proud of owning the complete Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game. Unlike his friends Toby and Kevin, his parents don't seem to be overprotective.
George is voiced by co-creator Bill Oakley.
[edit] Trivia
- It is revealed through a t-shirt that Kevin French had made for himself on the show, that his SAT scores were Math:760 and Verbal:700. These are creator Bill Oakley's SAT scores.
- Mission Hill won an award from GLAAD for its positive portrayal of a gay relationship. The show is sometimes credited with showing the first animated male on male kiss, but the first was actually shown on The Simpsons in an episode from the second season titled "Simpson and Delilah".
- The character of Wally appears to be based on Wally Cox, who was rumoured to have been romantically involved with Marlon Brando. The character of Gus was based on Lawrence Tierney.
- In episode one, "Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down" by The Toasters is played at the party.
- In episode 5 "One Bang for Two Brothers", Andy calls Gwen who has a Go-Go's poster hanging by the phone. Gwen is voiced by Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin.
- Most episodes feature Kevin making some sort of reference to Gordon Lightfoot
- If you notice in almost every episode the hair color of Kevin and Andy French change from blue to black or vice-versa. That is because of the light palette the designer created. When it's darker (i.e. at night) their hair is black. When it's brighter (i.e. during the day) their hair is blue. In episode 1-The Pilot (or The Douchebag Aspect), during the scene where Kevin starts drinking at the party, there is a quick moment where you see the back of Kevin and Andy's head. You'll notice that the color of their hair is blue. But when they turn around, its black. They are in shadow or darkness.
- The DVD version of this show replaces most of the popular music with a generic sound-alike of the original songs (or just generic, royalty-free instrumental music). The only exception is in "Andy vs. The Real World", where the scene of everyone singing R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" was left in, but not the actual song that closes the episode. This is because the rights for these songs ran out several years after the show was cancelled, and since the studio is no longer in business, they could not afford to pay the royalties for the songs to appear on the DVD as they did
