Toonsylvania is an American animated television series, which ran for two seasons in 1998. It was executive produced in part by Steven Spielberg, as DreamWorks' first animated series.
It was originally aired on the Fox Kids Network block (usually placed in a block called "The No Yell Motel" that contained other scary kids' shows such as Goosebumps and Eerie, Indiana) in its first season, then was moved to Monday afternoons from September 14, 1998 until January 18, 1999, when it was cancelled.
Synopsis[]
A typical episode of Toonsylvania starts with a cartoon featuring the adventures of Dr. Vic Frankenstein, his assistant Igor who always sets out to prove that he's the real genius instead of Dr. Vic, and their dim-witted Frankenstein monster known as Phil. Before the second cartoon, there is an animated vignette where Igor is on the couch with Phil and tries to fix the TV remote, but every episode, there's a new problem with it (a running gag akin to the couch gags seen on The Simpsons).
After that, there is a cartoon series called "Night of the Living Fred," about a family of zombies (sometimes, a parody of a B-horror movie would air instead of a "Night of the Living Fred" cartoon). This segment was created by Mike Peters, a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.
After that is a short segment called "Igor's Science Minute," where Igor gives a science lesson (be it a musical piece or a spoken piece) that always ends in disaster. The final segment is "Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals," where Phil the Frankenstein monster does something bad and Igor punishes him by reading a tale involving a bratty girl named Melissa Screetch (voiced by Nancy Cartwright of Simpsons fame) who doesn't heed the warnings of adults (usually given by her mother) and gets punished one way or the other for it.
Second season changes[]
In season 2, Bill Kopp and Jeff Degrandis left the show and were replaced by former Animaniacs writer Paul Rugg. The series' format changed into more of a sitcom style with Igor, Dr. Vic, and Phil interacting with a variety of new characters, including a snooping next door neighbor voiced by Lost in Space's Johnathon Harris who was based on Norman Bates from the movie Psycho. He interacted with his 'immobile' mother by putting his hand over his mouth and talking into it. There was also a typical Transylvanian angry mob that was in fact a cheerful group of Beatles-esque hipsters. Most of these new characters were voiced by Paul Rugg, who also improvised many of their lines.
The only other backup segment to re-materialize in season 2 was Melissa Screetch in a new segment called 'The Melissa Screetch Show.' Whenever Melissa was disappointed with a friend or a family member, she'd go home and cover herself under her bedsheets where she pretended to host a show. She then had her transgressor on as a guest star and often did away with them in an ironic manner. This season also had a return to the B-Movie parodies in the first season, featuring just one cartoon about America being over taken by aliens who want to force America to use the Metric System. The lead alien was voiced by Billy West effecting a French Accent, making the segment a parody of American xenophobia.
Voice Cast[]
- David Warner – Dr. Vic Frankenstein
- Wayne Knight – Igor, Igor's reflection
- Brad Garrett – Phil, Bunny Wunny (on "Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals: Melissa Screetch: Earth Ambassador"), various
- Nancy Cartwright – Melissa Screetch ("Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals" and "The Melissa Screetch Show" segments)
- Matt Frewer – Dedgar Deadman (season one)
- Jess Harnell – Dedgar Deadman (season two), Wink Dracula (on "Love Hurts"), Johnny Vermin (on "A Kiss Before Dying"), Igor's singing voice (on "Igor's Science Minute: The Periodic Table"), various
- Jonathan Harris – Seth Tuber (season two)
- Tom Kenny – Ace Deuce, various
- Valery Pappas – Stiffany Deadman ("Night of the Living Fred" segments), Melissa Screetch's mother ("Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals" segments), various
- Paul Rugg – Seth Tuber's mom (season two)
- Kath Soucie – Ashley Deadman ("Night of the Living Fred" segments), Kyle Screetch ("Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals" segments)
- Billy West – Fred Deadman ("Night of the Living Fred" segments), Hoboken, N.J. (from the "B-movie" parodies), Toy Store Clerk/Mall Clerk (on "Darla Doiley: Demon Doll" and "Spawn of Santa"), Dr. Earl Schwartzberg ("Built For Speed"), various
- Additional voices
- Charlie Adler – Customer (on "Darla Doiley: Demon Doll"), Dr. Vic's grandmother (on "WereGranny"), various
- Jocelyn Blue – Mama Bear, Gertrude (on "Family Plot")
- Corey Burton – Death (on the episode "Doom With a View"), Debbie the bank robber (on the episode "Spawn of Santa")
- Cam Clarke – Various
- Jim Cummings – Army general ("B-movie" segments), Santa Claus (on "Spawn of Santa"), Coach (on "Night of the Living Fred"), Fez Rococco, Asylum Doctor, Ken the Football Announcer, Toy Store Clerk/Mall Clerk (on "Spawn of Santa"), various
- Sandy Fox – Darla Doiley, Baby Bear, various
- Bill Kopp – various
- April Winchell – Liz (on "Love Hurts")
Music[]
The music for the series was written by Michael Tavera, Keith Baxter, Christopher Neal Nelson, John Paul Given, Christopher Klatman and Thom Sharp. The main title song was written by Steve Bernstein and Julie Bernstein with lyrics by Paul Rugg.
Home media releases[]
On August 31, 1999, a VHS cassette of Toonsylvania was released, which contained selected episodes and was released with the season two opening (though all of the episodes were from season one). The episodes seen were "Darla Doiley, Demon Doll", "Voodoo Vacation", "Baby Human", "Dead Dog Day Afternoon", "Igor's Science Minute" ("Clone or Be Cloned", "The Brain", "Earthquake Boogie", and "Gravity and the Eiffel Tower"), "Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals" ("The Boogeyman", "Stop Making Ugly Faces", "Here There Be Monsters", and "Melissa Screetch: Earth Ambassador"), "Phil's Brain", "Football...and Other Body Parts", "Bang!", and "WereGranny".
In 2014, Netflix's Brazilian and Latin American feed streamed the entire series. This is the most recent home media release of the show in any capacity. As of 2022, this series has not been released on DVD or Blu-ray, nor has it been released on any streaming service in the United States.
Video game[]
A Toonsylvania video game was developed by RFX Interactive and released by Light & Shadow Production and Ubi Soft for the Game Boy Color in 2000.
Merchandise[]
Toonsylvania action figures and playsets were developed by Pangea Corporation and released by Toy Island. Burger King distributed toys based on Toonsylvania in their kids' meals for a short period of time.
