Brickleberry

Brickleberry
Genre Animated sitcom
Adult animation
Ribaldry
Black comedy
Shock humor
Surreal humor
Satire
Created by Roger Black
Waco O'Guin
Voices of David Herman
Tom Kenny
Kaitlin Olson (2012)
Natasha Leggero (2013–15)
Roger Black
Jerry Minor
Daniel Tosh
Composer(s) Nicolas Barry, Tomas Jacobi, Rene Garza Aldape, Alejandro Valencia
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 36 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Roger Black
Waco O'Guin
Daniel Tosh
Producer(s) Joel Kuwahara (supervising)
Production company(s) Damn! Show Productions
Black Heart Productions
Fox 21
Distributor 20th Television
Release
Original network Comedy Central
Picture format 1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Original release September 25, 2012 (2012-09-25) – April 14, 2015 (2015-04-14)
External links
Website

Brickleberry is an American adult animated sitcom that premiered on Comedy Central on September 25, 2012. The series was created by Roger Black and Waco O'Guin (creators of MTV2's Stankervision) and executive produced by Black, O'Guin and comedian Daniel Tosh. The series follows a group of park rangers as they work through their daily lives in the fictional Brickleberry National Park.

Black and O'Guin began pitching the show in the mid-2000s, producing a pilot episode for Fox Broadcasting Company in 2007. They later also pitched the show to Adult Swim, but the series was purchased by Comedy Central due to the support of Tosh.

On January 7, 2015, Comedy Central cancelled Brickleberry after three seasons.[1] The series ended on April 14, 2015, with a total of 36 episodes.[2]

Synopsis

The series follows a group of park rangers as they work through their daily lives in the fictional Brickleberry National Park near Brickerville, Oregon.[3]

Characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

Production

The support of comedian Daniel Tosh was integral in getting the series picked up.

The series' creators, Waco O'Guin and Roger Black, met at the University of Georgia in 1999. The series' origin came from O'Guin's father-in-law, a retired park ranger who took his job very seriously. He and Black found his seriousness hilarious, and began first envisioning the show in 2003.[4] The two began pitching Brickleberry as a live-action program after the cancellation of their sketch comedy show Stankervision on MTV2. It was adapted for animation because of budget concerns. Fox Broadcasting Company ordered a pilot episode in 2007, but passed on the series, finding it too offensive.[4] The duo's agent at William Morris Agency connected them with comedian Daniel Tosh, then growing in popularity due to his Comedy Central series Tosh.0. Tosh had been looking for other projects outside of his program and put his support behind the show, which they pitched to Comedy Central. The network wanted them to develop another pilot pitch, which they refused, taking it to Adult Swim, who were prepared to order 10 episodes of the comedy.[4] Comedy Central then relented and purchased the show, ordering a 10-episode first season in 2011.[5]

In commenting on the series' humor, O'Guin felt that all targets are "fair game": "If you're clever and don't just try to shock for shock sake, you can make most anything funny."[4] Anticipating concerns that the show would be too similar to Family Guy, the show's writing imposed a rule of fewer pop culture references, in order to differentiate the two.[4]

Episodes

Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 10 September 25, 2012 (2012-09-25) December 4, 2012 (2012-12-04)
2 13 September 3, 2013 (2013-09-03) November 26, 2013 (2013-11-26)
3 13 September 16, 2014 (2014-09-16) April 14, 2015 (2015-04-14)

Reception

Ratings

The series followed Tosh.0 on Tuesday nights. In its first season, the series averaged 1.9 total million viewers each week, doing particularly well with male demographics, ages 18–24.[6] In its second season, the show averaged 1.6 million viewers, and was number one in all of television in its time slot with men, ages 18–24.[7] The series' third season saw ratings fall to 1.2 million viewers per episode, while remaining strong with younger demographics.[3]

Critical reviews

Dylan P. Gadino of Laugh Spin called Brickleberry "fast-paced and hilarious."[8]

John Blabber said the show was "threatening to be the best new animated series of 2012." [9]

Ray Rahman of Entertainment Weekly said the show "tends to rise above your average adult-animation fare" [10]

Brickleberry raises the offensive comedy stakes so high that it leaves a viewer waiting in expectation for the next tasteless joke. Because the show can't sustain such jokes constantly, there's a lot of down time between the outrageous. During these valleys, Brickleberry grows dull.

Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette[11]

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club found the show more offensive than humorous, commenting: "Brickleberry hails from the 'deliberately provocative' school of comedy, where obviously offensive things are tossed out for shock value and if you don't laugh, you're a tight-ass who doesn't get the other levels to the jokes."[12] Ross Bonaime of Paste gave the show a 0.5 out 10, writing that "Brickleberry is poorly constructed, horribly executed and groan-worthy rather than funny in any way. It's a show that's actually painful to watch, because it keeps finding new depths of tasteless jokes without any punchline that are worse than the ones that preceded them."[13]

Many reviewers compared the show unfavorably to Family Guy and South Park. Brian Lowry of Variety lamented the show's eagerness to offend:

Yes, South Park has long since established animation is a fine place to skewer sacred cows, but Brickleberry has nothing more on its mind than seeing how far it can push the boundaries of dick and handicapped jokes. As a consequence, the premise (a second-rate national park) is purely incidental.[14]

IGN's Jesse Schedeen felt the show did not live up to Comedy Central's past animated efforts, deeming it "a slap to the face of that legacy [... In South Park], there's always an underlying sense of humanity to offset the humor. Brickleberry lacks that."[15] The series creators acknowledged the influence, saying: "Family Guy and South Park paved the way for us."[4]

References

  1. Elizabeth Wagmeister. "‘Brickleberry’ Cancelled By Comedy Central After Three Seasons - Variety". Variety.
  2. "Shows A-Z - brickleberry on comedy central - TheFutonCritic.com". thefutoncritic.com.
  3. 1 2 Nellie Andreeva (January 7, 2015). "‘Brickleberry’ Cancelled After 3 Seasons". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dan Sarto (November 1, 2013). "Waco O’Guin and Roger Black Talk ‘Brickleberry’". Animation World Network. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  5. Jon Weisman (August 15, 2011). "Tosh patrols Comedy Central’s ‘Brickleberry’". Variety. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  6. Nellie Andreeva (November 9, 2012). "Comedy Central’s ‘Brickleberry’ Renewed For Second Season With 13-Episode Order". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  7. Nellie Andreeva (October 30, 2013). "Comedy Central’s ‘Brickleberry’ Renewed For Third Season". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  8. Gadino, Dylan. New Daniel Tosh show ‘Brickleberry’ provides ammunition for fake outrage enthusiasts. "Laugh Spin"
  9. Blabber, John. [www.bubbleblabber.com/review-brickleberry-welcome-to-brickleberry/ REVIEW: @BRICKLEBERRY “WELCOME TO BRICKLEBERRY”.] "Bubble Blabber"
  10. Rahman, Ray
  11. Rob Owen (September 25, 2012). "TV Reviews: 'Mindy Project' shows promise; 'Brickleberry' pushes punch line". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  12. Dennis Perkins (September 25, 2012). "Review: Brickleberry". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  13. Ross Bonaime (September 26, 2012). "Brickleberry Review: "Welcome to Brickleberry" (Episode 1.01)". Paste. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  14. Lowry, Brian. Tosh's Tedious 'Brickleberry' Too Eager to Offend Variety
  15. Jesse Schedeen (September 26, 2012). "Brickleberry: "Welcome to Brickleberry" Review". IGN. Retrieved January 9, 2015.

External links

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