Mission Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Boston neighborhood, see Mission Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.
| Mission Hill | |
|---|---|
 Mission Hill DVD cover. |
|
| Format | Animated Sitcom |
| Created by | Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein |
| Starring | Wallace Langham Scott Menville Brian Posehn Vicki Lewis Nick Jameson Tom Kenny |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 21-23 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | The WB (production, see other networks below) |
| Original run | September 24, 1999 – August 11, 2002 |
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 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 to 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] Location
The show takes place in a district called Mission Hill. Mission Hill is a diverse neighborhood in a much larger city called Cosmopolis. Cosmopolis is depicted as a large modern urban metropolis. The official website states Mission Hill is a mix of Silver Lake in Los Angeles, Wicker Park in Chicago or Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The exact location of Cosmopolis has never been revealed, as it is a mix of East and West Coast cities. Most of the series takes place in the neighborhood of Mission Hill, although the skyscrapers of Downtown Cosmopolis are seen in the background. In the DVD commentaries, Josh Weinstein says that a large portion of the development of the show was spent developing Mission Hill into a functional, albeit fictional, city. Writers and animators worked together to create fictional advertisements, bands, food, and even bus schedules.
[edit] Characters
[edit] The Roommates
| Character | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew (Andy) French | 24 years old, Andy is in his third consecutive "post-college slump year." He is an aspiring cartoonist who mainly works for "Ron's Waterbed World". He later gets a job with the help of Jim at the Art Department in One Corplex Plaza. He enjoys alcohol and ska music, particularly the band Silly Rabbit. Although often bored and mellow, many things easily delight Andy. His nerdy brother, Kevin, constantly vexes Andy. | |
| Kevin French | 17 years old, Kevin is Andy's nerdy brother. Kevin moved into Andy's apartment room after their parents moved to Wyoming. Their parents instilled a sheltered suburban mindset into Kevin, which he brought to Mission Hill. After Kevin moved in with Andy, Kevin entered Pomper Memorial High School as an upperclassman. He aspires for perfect grades in order to gain acceptance into Yale. Whenever Kevin gets overly-excited, he repeatedly says "Bling-Blong." | |
| Jim Kuback | In his mid-twenties, loft mate Jim has been Andy's best friend since high school. Jim is a satirical representation of the modern cannabis smoker. He is extremely tall and lanky, with red hair and a beard. He constantly seems to be eating cheeseburgers, seemingly pulled from thin air. He smokes cigarettes. His food standards are low — he often takes food off the plates of people who recently left a restaurant. He even eats a piece of couch stained in food in one episode. Jim is a genius at all things electronic, whether it's electronic music or computers. He is always very mellow and is able to express a wide variety of sentiments by slightly nuancing the word "Okay." Jim is a high-powered advertising agent who is paid vast amounts of money to alter marketing campaigns to appeal to Generation Y. | |
| 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 ridding a pimp of a kink in his back so he'd feel it when she pushed him off a roof.) | |
| Stogie | Andy's exceptionally dumb and manically hyperactive or sluggish Golden Retriever. He drools, wags his tail, and coughs up weird things that he ate. Stogie drinks alcohol if given the opportunity. |
[edit] Neighbors and friends
| Character | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Gus | In his late 60s, Gus lives across the hall with Wally, his lover of forty years. Theirs is a relationship ruled by passion; Gus and Wally can often be heard bickering loudly, or making up loudly. He owns a diner in Mission Hill. According to audio commentary by the producers, Gus is based on Lawrence Tierney. | |
| 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 1960s entitled The Man from Pluto, which was a parody of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Plan 9 From Outerspace. It starred Gus in the titular role, a reference to Tom Graeff's film Teenagers from Outer Space, which starred his lover Gus. | |
| 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. | |
| 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 Pollock, Diego Rivera and Bob Ross. He prides himself on having no discernible style. They have a pet snake that was rescued in a lab raid. | |
| 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. Someday she'd like to be an accomplished person who achieves her goals and makes a serious contribution to society but as to what, she hasn't a clue. | |
| Toby Mundorf | He is 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. | |
| 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, except when it comes to video games his mom tends to mess with his computer. |
[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. Given these scores were achieved prior to the re-centering in 1994-1995, however, their modern equivalent (prior to the addition of the Critical Reading section) would be a 2190.
- Mission Hill won an award from GLAAD for its positive portrayal of a gay relationship. The show is credited with showing the first gay couple as animated male on male kiss. However, the first animated male on male kiss was shown on The Simpsons in an episode from the second season titled "Simpson and Delilah".
- Some characters were modeled after their respective voice actors.
- In episode one, "Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down" by The Toasters is played at the party.
- In the 12th episode, "Kevin's Birthday", the song "Cherry Pie" by Warrant can be heard in the background at his party in Briarhurst, and the song "Everloving" by Moby can also be heard during Andy & Kevin's reunion at their parent's old house.
- In Kevin's schoolroom there is a black and red poster of Che Guevara.
- 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.
- 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). 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. 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.
