When Adult Swim launched in 2001, one of its first regular shows was Home Movies. Much like Mission Hill, it was a short-lived cartoon on a lesser network that found its real audience through cable. To take it one step further, the Cartoon Network revived the show, ordered new episodes and it went on for several seasons. It was sad to see it come to an end but the people behind it brought it to a clever and bittersweet conclusion.
Thankfully, the creative team (or company) known as Soup 2 Nuts moved on to their latest project, O’Grady for The N—the cable network for ‘tweeners with the semi-controversial shows they like: Degrassi and South of Nowhere. This Flash-based cartoon is right at home with this network yet it contains a great sense of humor that would make it perfect for Adult Swim.
The show is pretty basic. There’s a town of unknown size or location called O’Grady which is home to The Weirdness. What The Weirdness is at any given time varies. Once it was a cold epidemic going around causing everyone to age every time they sneezed. Another time it was background music playing whenever someone was expressing extreme emotions. The list goes on. Meanwhile the Weirdness takes place on the backdrop of the every day lives of four high-school students: Abby (Melissa Galasky), Kevin (H. Jon Benjamin), Harold (Patrice O’Neal) and Beth (Holly Schlessinger). Since everything is a crisis with teenagers, The Weirdness usually amplifies their insecurities or in Kevin’s case, it’s another chance to make a quick buck.
It could be the recipe for a rather cliche program but it’s actually one of the funniest things on cable right now. O’Grady isn’t accurate, it’s more exaggerated with stereotypes (the exchange student, the put-upon teacher, the vain cheerleader, so on) which litters the TV landscape. But its the execution where it shines, namely the character interactions: the bickering between Kevin and Abby, Abby’s awkwardness around school hunk Pete, Dr. Myers lecturing Kevin, so on. Another trait it inherited from its predecessor (Home Movies) is the guest voices on the show. They’re not Simpsons-level guests but if you’re avid Comedy Central watcher, you’ll recognize the comedians they have on. More recently, Conan O’Brien appeared as a zen lifeguard teaching Kevin the perks of his profession.