From left to right: Vicki Lewis as Posey (News Radio, Mousehunt), Scott Menville as Kevin (Robin on Teen Titans Go!, Ben 10), Wallace Langham as Andy (Larry Sanders, For All Mankind) and Brian Posehn (Big Bang Theory, Mr. Show)
A big thank you to Bill Oakley’s Twitter feed to remind us all on this momentous date in adult-orient animation history (and progress!). There’s a fantastic, long piece regarding Mission Hill on Polygon from 2017 here. It goes into the level of detail I’m going to skip because Julia Alexander did it justice.
No, I’m going to blather on about other jazz for Mission Hill grew to be something close to my heart, it’s a tad biographical. Not to the letter, more along the overall vibe.
NUMBER ONE: I often find myself wondering how this Gen X cartoon could’ve been a hit if the streaming ecosystem we now have existed sooner. Even today, most cable networks lack the budgets and balls to gamble on animation that’s more adult. The list of one- or two-season victims is quite long (a series idea I’m cultivating too), some successes survived because cost-saving tactics were used to tough it out until they succeeded. South Park shifted to computer-assisted means and only has a voice cast of two people with no range. Archer has very limited movement thanks to its ancestors Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo proving it worked. [adult swim]’s cornerstones The Venture Brothers and Robot Chicken only have new seasons every couple years. If it isn’t on Fox, don’t hold your breath and I think this will end soon as Disney’s acquisition will end reruns on [adult swim].
Netflix would’ve been the logical home for Mission Hill but I doubt we’d see anyone’s junk like Big Mouth or Tuca & Bertie despite the paid service having more open Standards & Practices. Case in point, Oakley & Weinstein write for Disenchantment, you never see Princess Bean’s exposed body beyond a bare back, although I need to rewatch season two (posted four days ago), maybe you see her butt on Dreamland’s annual laundry day. Same goes for Bojack Horseman, as in no genitals or boobs.
Streaming would’ve definitely made it a hit. DVRs helped lead to streaming but only the time-shifting element. Who is going set their DVR to record something when the network showing it barely promotes it AND it airs on Friday evenings! The majority of Americans under 30 (or under 40 without children) stay home to watch TV…WB would’ve made more money setting palettes of hundred-dollar bills on fire.
Enough about the what if. I will close this angle with some hope of AT&T having the good sense to include Mission Hill in the vault of IP they own to be a part of HBO Max.
NUMBER TWO: I remember my initial skepticism of seeing the show on [adult swim] during the fledgling channel’s early years. When I learned that Oakley & Weinstein created it, I was sold.
Here’s why I was reluctant though. Several years after The Simpsons became a fixture, newer cartoons were sometimes promoted with “from the creators/writers of The Simpsons” as a byline. Not much nuance in such a marketing tactic. The Critic? James L. Brooks with Al Jean & Mike Reiss…mostly accurate. Duckman? Spurious at best as it was produced by the animation group The Simpsons ditched for Rough Draft. Besides, numerous shows employ dozens of writers in their lifespans and obviously not all of them are talented, some are just lucky they got a chance to put Seinfeld on their resume.
WB gambled on Simpson fans seeking out their mediocre network, endure less funny shows to check out this cartoon to pump up the core audience which wanted the weaker crap Mission Hill was anchored to. Again, Simpson fans can be obsessed dorks (guilty here) yet we have lives and rarely stay home to watch TV on a Friday.
Thankfully [adult swim] revived it by running all episodes. I was immediately hooked by the pilot as I related to Andy’s dilemmas involving underemployment, parents foisting a younger sibling’s demands on me (the 91-X shirt incident) and how much I loved/hated struggling in the bowels of a metropolis. One of show’s best jokes happens in the pilot: Andy has to bail Kevin out of the principal’s office. Given the rough timeline we see in a couple flashbacks, we do get an idea of how old Andy and Jim are, squarely in the middle of Gen X. Oakley, Weinstein and I are older members (the vanguard) but the jokes/situations were relatable, namely this revelation Andy had after a job interview. Millennials were smart enough not to be as obsessed with kitsch as we were, another aspect the cartoon captures through Andy and Jim. Few people under 40 or over 55 would understand.
NUMBER THREE: I wrote about this years ago but I had the great fortune of having a brief correspondence with Bill Oakley via a Mission Hill fan site. It was in the pre-Twitter/Facebook days. He with Josh Weinstein were generous enough to let me have a few scenes/layered cels from the show. They’re quite amazing plus Mission Hill is a piece of animation history as it was the last cartoon to utilize hand-painted cels. By the Aughts, newer shows transitioned to computers painting them which also cut down on a side effect called cel shadows; you may see them on older cartoons whenever a scene has numerous moving elements (ergo, a dozen or more layers stacked on each and the camera reveals the depth via a shadow around the edges of a character’s head or a vehicle’s wheels). Computers’ boosted accuracy allows cels to contain multiple animated pieces instead of one. At least one Mission Hill set is framed but I couldn’t find it in time, sorry. Still hunting it down. Need to locate the remainder too. When found, I do promise to display them here because they’re incredible and they make me laugh for I know their context. They need to go on tour at work as I promised some people they could see them.
Those cels strengthened my personal connection to Mission Hill. I’m glad my life didn’t quite mirror Andy’s (the tooth I lost is in the back) but I often found myself cheering him on in his misadventures due to us being kindred spirits. I should’ve had a more positive attitude while being underemployed like he did, instead my inner Kevin was in control.
Nowadays, Josh Weinstein is the show runner for Disenchantment which returned to Netflix for season two (finally!) and I think it’s a hit. I’m already jonesin’ for season three, damned cliffhangers. Bill Oakley chips in too, he nailed the first season’s cliff hanger episode, that’s no wonder, he co-wrote the “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” arc which kept America in suspense during the Summer of 1995. You can also follow Bill on Twitter as he critiques fast food around his current home of Portland. I wonder if I could convince him to visit Austin to review my adopted city’s cuisine/local chains as I get his autograph on my Simpson Chucks alongside other writers and voices.
If you’ve never seen Mission Hill and you live around Austin, ask me, I’ll gladly loan you my DVD set. Elsewhere? I think they’re all posted on YouTube. Fingers crossed AT&T brings it and other secret hits (Oblongs, Robotomy) out of the shadows and on to their streaming service be it HBO Max or something more confusing sounding.
Thanks for everything Bill, Josh, Tom Kenny (pre-Spongebob Squarepants), Tress MacNeille, Nick Jameson, Dave Thomas (yeah, the guy from SCTV), Lisa Arch (MADtv alum), the principle cast I listed above, the other writers, episode directors, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a guest (love you Weirdie!) and the dozens of other production people.
Mission Hill lives on and to me it’s a snapshot of the humorous past along the lines of John Hughes’ good teen movies nailing the zeitgeist of its day.
Bling blong! and Gooooooooo Cavemen!