Mission Hill (1999)

It's time to once again talk about one of the more well known cases of a one season wonder. And it's hard not to find a show more screwed over and tossed around like good old Mission Hill. Hitting in the midst of the second coming of sorts of late 90's prime time animation. The Simpsons was still a pop culture success while Fox was building upon it with shows like Futurama, King of the Hill, and another show that knows about one being jerked around, Family Guy. South Park's overnight success lit a fire in networks wanting more mature raunchiness for their programming. Other channels like NBC tried to pump animated products, but never struck gold with anything. So in this wild west of an era, along comes Mission Hill.

Mission Hill was the creation of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. Prior to this series, Oakley and Weinstein found success and name recognition as writers and eventual show runners for The Simpsons, starting in season 4 and eventually leaving in season 8. After their exit, they began work on Mission Hill in 1997, selling it to the WB as  more adult Simpsons that focused on more mature issues. I guess more like a raunchy enough, but not Duckman raunchy-level show. It was originally named The Downtowners, but an MTV cartoon named Downtown made it sound too similar. Note to self, possible future review.

WB liked the show and picked it up for a fall 1999 release,  and that's where it all went to hell. Two episodes would air before low ratings would force the show into a hiatus. The show was given a second chance in the summer of 2000, but after five episodes aired, it was ultimately cancelled. But unlike Clerks, the show was given another chance on television through Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, and the 13 completed episodes all saw air. Much like other shows that aired on Adult Swim, Mission Hill gained a cult following, and has become a well remembered and beloved staple of early 2000s animation. But unfortunately nothing else ever really came out of it. There were a few other episodes in the pipeline, some making it to animatic stage, but still nothing else. So, did this show deserve its fate, or should it have gotten a fairer shake? Let's dive into Mission Hill to see for ourselves.

Rick Moranis in Gravedale High (1990)

It's October, which means I'm somehow obligated to do something horror themed for this blog. And while there are a lot of horror themed cartoons that did have brief enough a run to count, I'm going back to the 90s and Saturday Morning for this month's pick. This month, we'll go with our spirit and chillingly cheer it for Gravedale High. Airing September 8th, 1990 for NBC, and created by Hanna-Barbera, this is another one of those infamous "celebritoons", like so many I covered for Tooncrap back in the day. But unlike stuff like Pro Stars or New Kids on the Block, or other shows that technically could count for this blog, this one actually stars the actor being billed.

SERIES OVERVIEW

Toronto born Rick Moranis is a comedic actor who cut his teeth in the legendary Second City. Finding his first bit of success through SCTV, particularly as part of the "Bob and Doug McKenzie character with Dave Thomas. Those characters were popular enough for their own film Strange Brew in 1983. Following that, Moranis became more famous for landing iconic 80s roles such as Louis Tully in Ghostbusters, Dark Helmet in Spaceballs, Seymour Krelborn in  Little Shop of Horrors, and Wayne Szalinski in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids film series. So, after a good decade of roles, it's easy to see how Hanna-Barbera would see him as a marquee name for their upcoming animated series Gravedale High.

The series starred Moranis as Maxwell Schneider, a human who works as a teacher for Gravedale High, a school for monsters. Schneider teaches a class of wacky creatures including Vinnie Stoker, a greaser vampire, nerdy mummy Cleofatra, even nerdier werewolf Reggie Moonshroud, black lagoon surfer Gil Waterman, and many more. Max tries to teach the monsters important lessons, while also having to deal with your average scare-filled hijinx. Of course this is far from Hanna-Barbera's first take on a school of monsters, as there was the movie Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School in 1988, but there does feel like a bit more variety within Gravedale High to make it stand out. Does that equal an underrated series? Let's dive in.

Undergrads (2001)

Let's talk some MTV to start off this edition of One Season Wonders. Music Television launched on August 1st, 1981. Despite being the central hub for music videos at the time, what also set MTV apart from its competitors was its reliance of animation through the many classic identifications. In fact, you can see work from several known animators who would make it big in the 90s from Danny Antonucci to Joe Murray and even John R. Dilworth. Eventually MTV would take animation beyond the bumper and start to produce their own animated programs for the network. From Liquid Television to Beavis & Butt-Head to Daria, the network was strong with animated content, particularly in the 90s.

Moving into the 2000's also managed to bear fruit, but not as viable for MTV Animation. In this time we saw several shows only make to a one season run. Shows like Spy Groove, Downtown and 3 South, just to name a few. Not to mention one particular animated show that was unfairly cancelled, that I do intend to talk about, so let's talk about it. Let's review Clone Hi-Let's review Undergrads!

SERIES OVERVIEW

Undergrads was a Canadian animated series created by Pete Williams, and aired on MTV from April 4th-August 12th of 2001. The series chronicled the adventures of four friends on their first year of college (all four voiced by Williams). These protagonists being Nitz, our main character whose entire arc is wooing the one girl he's been in love with for years. Cal, a dimwitted slurring nice guy who always says "hey guy", and has sex with all the ladies on campus. Rocko, a frat boy who is so dumb he makes Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds look like Neil Degrasse Tyson. And finally Gimpy, a somewhat agoraphobic evil genius and ultimate Star Wars nerd. Also the theme song is "The Click" by Good Charlotte, right before their peak in popularity in the mid-aughts. Despite its cancellation in 2001, the show remained a staple of Canadian animation network Teletoon in many of its late night lineups. So let's get into the episodes.