Horrible Histories (2001 TV series)
| Horrible Histories | |
|---|---|
 The DVD cover of the episode pack "Groovy Greeks", "Extraordinary Explorers" and Battlin' Bolivar" | |
| Genre | Animated television series |
| Developed by |
Tamar Simon Hoffs Gordon Langley Andrew Young Charlie Stickney. |
| Written by |
Martha Atwater Terry Deary Charlie Stickney Andrew Young Gordon Langley William Forrest Cluverius |
| Directed by |
Andrew Young Gordon Langley |
| Voices of |
Jess Harnell Cree Summer Billy West Stephen Rea Jo Young |
| Opening theme | Horrible Histories Theme |
| Ending theme | Horrible Histories Theme |
| Composer(s) | Dean Valentine[1] and Rony Brack[2] (composer) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Mike Young |
| Producer(s) |
Martha Atwater Tamar Simon Hoffs Michelle Conway Paul Cummings Deborah Forte Mike Young Mark Young Beth Richman Charlie Stickney |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Telegael Mike Young Productions Scholastic Productions |
| Release | |
| Picture format | NTSC, PAL |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | January 1, 2001 – March 25, 2002 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Horrible Histories (2009 TV series) (2009-present) |
Horrible Histories is an animated children's television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. The series ran for 26 episodes between January 1, 2001 and March 25, 2002 and was broadcast on ITV, RTÉ, TG4, CITV and many other international channels.[3][4]
Production
Horrible Histories is based on Terry Deary's book series of the same name. Deary later said he had had a "negative experience" with the show.[5]
The show is produced by California-based indie[4] Mike Young Productions (LA) Telegael Galway, and Scholastic Entertainment (NY).[6] It marked Young's and Telegael's first collaboration.[7] It is directed by Andrew Young (executive producer Mike Young's son[8]) and Gordon Langley. It is produced By Martha Atwater, Tamar Simon Hoffs, Michelle Conway, Paul Cummings, Deborah Forte, Mike Young, Mark Young, Beth Richman and Charlie Stickney, among others. It is animated by Glenn Jason Hanna. It is written by Martha Atwater, Terry Deary, Charlie Stickney, Andrew Young, Gordon Langley, William Forrest Cluverius. It has a running time of 25 minutes.[9] The series was released as a 3-disc DVD box set in 2005.
Synopsis
The series is based around the adventures of Stitch Fleischer and Mo Burrows, two everyday kids who are transported to various historical eras with the help of a time portal. In each episode, their historical adventures help teach them a lesson or solve a problem in their everyday lives, often involving bully Darren Dongle. Animated sidebars explain the historical details, and clarify popular misconceptions.
Episodes
| # | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Terrible Tudors" | January 1, 2001 |
| Mo is about to lose her soccer team to Darren, and she does not like it one bit! The narrator zaps her and Stitch to Elizabethan England where they meet Queen Elizabeth I. Will Mo learn about how to coach her soccer team by watching how Elizabeth rules her kingdom? | ||
| 2 | "Angry Aztecs" | January 8, 2001 |
| Stitch and Mo think they have good luck(Stitch found a four-leaf clover, and Moe's horoscope says she'll have good luck), but the narrator tells them that believing in signs and superstitions could lead them to trouble! He zaps the two to the Aztec Empire where they learn that the Aztecs were one of the most superstitious people in history! | ||
| 3 | "Measly Middle Ages" | January 15, 2001 |
| Mo is grounded until she decides to clean up her room! However, Mo refuses because she has civic rights. The narrator then zaps her and Stitch to Feudal England where the peasants live in their own filth and all the civic rights go to King John I. Will Mo ever learn her lesson? | ||
| 4 | "Vicious Vikings" | February 1, 2001 |
| Stitch, Mo, and Darren have the same report in history class: Vikings, and Darren thinks that he will beat Stitch and Mo by a long shot! The narrator then zaps the two to Greenland where they meet Erik the Red, and his ignored son Leif Eriksson and learn about the true histories of the famed seamen. | ||
| 5 | "Groovy Greeks" | February 8, 2001 |
| Stitch and Mo get into an argument after they're late for gym class. Darren challenges the two to the art of wrestling, making one of them face him. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to Ancient Greece where wrestling was a popular sport in the Olympics. But will the journey teach them to make up? | ||
| 6 | "Rotten Romans" | February 15, 2001 |
| A student couldn't make it for teacher conference, so Darren came to take his place! While he was making his speech, he was wearing red boots. Stitch and Mo wonder why? The narrator zaps them to Ancient Rome where they meet Julius Caesar. Will they solve the red boot mystery? | ||
| 7 | "The Wild West" | February 21, 2001 |
| Darren forces Stitch and Mo to go down a scary-looking snowboarding course! Stitch and Mo think they should just give up but the narrator zaps them to the Wild West where they meet a blacksmith named Sam and learn that there's always an opportunity. | ||
| 8 | "Savage Stone Age" | February 21, 2001 |
| Stitch and Mo's feelings are hurt after Darren calls them neanderthals, but the narrator zaps them to the Stone Age to teach them that neanderthals were more than we thought they were! | ||
| 9 | "Revolting Revolution" | February 21, 2001 |
| Darren is being unfair to everyone when took his uncle's job as keeper of a paintball court, where he charges for almost everything! The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to the American Revolution where they get separated and learn more from the two sides: the Americans and the British. | ||
| 10 | "Royal Pain" | February 28, 2001 |
| Stitch has to do his genealogy project for school. Stitch thinks that his relatives are royalty and wishes to be "King of Doughnuts" and build a magnificent doughnut castle. The narrator then zaps him and Mo to see three of the world's most famous kings: Louis XIV who built the Palace of Versailles, Peter the Great who built St. Petersburg, and Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. Will Stitch learn his lesson and find out that royalty and building his castle is not what it is cracked up to be, or will he just keep thinking about building his doughnut kingdom? | ||
| 11 | "Ingenious Industrialists" | March 7, 2001 |
| Stitch and Mo want their own jobs, so the narrator zaps them to the Industrial Revolution where children are bound to have jobs! But will they be successful? | ||
| 12 | "Marvelous Marco Polo" | March 14, 2001 |
| Darren knows about nature far more than Stitch and Mo do, which made them pretty upset. The narrator zaps them to Mongol China where they meet Marco Polo. Will they learn the secrets of the great outdoors? | ||
| 13 | "Trading Timbuktu" | April 6, 2001 |
| Mo trades her brand new comic book for a trashy, old one! Mo is pretty upset by her trade, so the narrator zaps her and Stitch to the Mali Empire where common items were made their weight in gold. They also meet a man who wishes to be a magician. Will Mo learn the tricks for the trade? | ||
| 14 | "Battlin' Bolivar" | January 1, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo fail at building a dung-powered doughnut-making machine for a science fair. The narrator zaps them to South America where they meet Simón Bolívar. | ||
| 15 | "Amazing Aussies" | January 8, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo are sent to detention after Mo put her cousin's lizard Slimeball into Darren's locker. Darren then tells the two one terrible thing: "Once a criminal, always a criminal"! The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to Australia where they were being taken as prisoners. They also meet Captain William Bligh and find out how prisoners lived in Australia back then! | ||
| 16 | "Challenging China" | January 15, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo are terrified to find out that Darren Dongle is moving into Mo's neighborhood! Mo then thinks about building a wall so Darren won't annoy them! The narrator then zaps the two to Ancient China and find the Great Wall. But building it isn't all what it is cracked up to be! | ||
| 17 | "Magnificent Mounties" | January 22, 2002 |
| There is garbage all over Stitch and Mo's favorite park! The two both cleaned up the park, but then a garbage truck came to dump more trash in! Stitch and Mo then decide to give up, but the narrator zaps the two to Canada where Stitch gets captured by a music-hating criminal and Mo teams up with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to save him. Will Mo find Stitch, or will Stitch end up playing the blues? | ||
| 18 | "Rockin' Renaissance" | January 29, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo are searching for an inspiration for an art show, so the narrator zaps them to the Renaissance where they meet Michelangelo and where Mo gets a crush on his assistant Guido! | ||
| 19 | "Awesome Egyptians" | February 7, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo have to find a way to defeat Darren and his snowball-launcher in the simplest of ways. The narrator zaps them to Ancient Egypt where they meet Tutankhamen. King Tut orders them to find a place for the party of the great flood. But his adviser Amun-Ramen get jealous at them and tries to get rid of them! | ||
| 20 | "Perilous Plagues" | February 14, 2002 |
| Stitch is afraid to get his shot, so he and Mo gets zapped to Italy where the Bubonic Plague is spreading! Will Stitch learn his lesson why getting medicine is important? | ||
| 21 | "Stormin' Scots" | February 21, 2002 |
| The terrier mascot of Stitch and Mo's basketball team has disappeared, and the team are desperate without it! The narrator zaps the two to Scotland where they meet King Robert the Bruce. The Scottish are trying to get their independence by getting the Stone of Destiny back! | ||
| 22 | "Surprising Samurai" | February 21, 2002 |
| Mo doesn't want to waste her time with the old fashioned way of her grandma Grannykins. Instead, she wants to play her new samurai video game! The narrator then zaps her and Stitch to Heian era Japan where they learn what being a samurai is all about! | ||
| 23 | "Gnarly North Pole" | March 4, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo are supposed to compete against Darren in an obstacle course! When Stitch and Mo think they're going to lose, the narrator zaps to the Arctic Circle where they Robert Edwin Peary, the first man ever to make it to the North Pole! | ||
| 24 | "Highly Hawaiian" | March 11, 2002 |
| Mo can't stand that the "one glass of milk at a time" rule keeps the lunch line waiting (that rule made sense when milk came in glass bottles)! Plus, she doesn't want to miss out on the surf club showing a video of the Malolo Pupule, the best surf move in the world! The narrator then zaps her and Stitch to Hawaii where there were many unusual rules(or what the Hawaiians called "kapus")! | ||
| 25 | "Extraordinary Explorers" | March 18, 2002 |
| Stitch and Mo are forced to take two dopey students as partners in Capture the Flag. The narrator zaps the two to the Rocky Mountains where they meet Lewis and Clark and their unusual partner Sacagawea! | ||
| 26 | "Captivating Columbus" | March 25, 2002 |
| Darren Dongle is the substitute teacher and challenges Stitch and Mo to a true-or-false quiz about the Christopher Columbus! Zapping them back in time won't help them, so they're on their own! | ||
Characters
- Stitch has black glasses and usually wears a huge dark-green t-shirt that has a rat on it and covers the rest of his body. He is shown to be lazy and loves food (especially doughnuts), and also considers himself quite a comedian. He is voiced by Billy West.
- Mo wears a white t-shirt with a flower on it, and green camouflage jeans. She is the brains of the pair. Mo is also shown to love animals. She is voiced by Cree Summer in the US Version and Jo Young in the UK Version.
- Darren Dongol is a nerd who knows a lot about history, but is shown to enjoy taunting Stitch and Moe. He is over-confident and hates it when he's wrong. He is voiced by Jess Harnell.
- Narrator is shown to be a good joker and zaps Stitch and Moe back in time to solve their situations. In the last episode, his name is revealed to be "Frank Synopsis." He is voiced by Stephen Rea in the UK version and Billy West in the U.S.
Cancellation and Rumors
The show got cancelled after the final episode Captivating Columbus, was released March 25, 2002.
The reasons for Cancellation are seriously unknown, but there are rumors that after episode 25 ("Extraordinary Explorers"), episode, a petition was sent signed by mostly fans of Horrible Histories. It was turned out to be a Bring Back Cartoons petition, because they felt bad for the show looking real horrible .
Darren Dongle's Outcome
In a deleted scene from episode 26, After the events of the final episode (and presumably after Darren was even scolded and sent to his room by his parents), Darren drowned his sorrows on ice cream at a Nighthawks-esque city diner, until he got into a nightmare of the events and a soda jerk (voiced by Thomas and Friends actor, Keith Wickham) had to snap him out of it.
Most of the scene is very similar to "VeggieTales" Sing-Along compilation, The End of Silliness?.
The petition
"We, the undersigned, believe that after 25 episodes that we should have series finale to forgive and forget the literally horrible, disgusting, and nasty show and return some shows (such as Blue's Clues, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, and VeggieTales) to regular Cartoon programming.
Signed 167, 312 adoring cartoon fans".
DVD release
The show's episodes have been released as single episodes, as 3-in-1 packs, or as one whole series.[10] The series was released as a 3-disc DVD box set in 2005.
References
- ↑ Composers. "SMA Talent Ltd » VALENTINE, Dean". Smatalent.com. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ "Rony Brack". Rony Brack. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ "| The Irish Film & Television Network". Iftn.ie. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- 1 2 Rushton, Katherine (2008-03-18). "CBBC to remake Horrible Histories with live action | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ Leo Hickman. "How Horrible Histories became a huge hit | Culture". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ "The success of the Irish film industry depends on innovative financing and improving services". Finance-Magazine.com. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ "Mike Young and Telegael ink second toon copro | News". C21Media. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ "Mike Young & Scholastic animate Horrible Histories | News". C21Media. 2001-07-20. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ Horrible Histories Cartoon Series (2001)|Big Cartoon DataBase
- ↑ Shopping, best shop, Price comparison, Product review at dooyoo.co.uk