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Toonsylvania
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Genre	Cartoon series
Created by	Steven Spielberg
Written by	Bill Kopp Mike Peters Karl Teorge Chris Otsuki Vinny Montello Steve Ochs Martin Olson
Directed by	Jeff DeGrandis
Starring	Wayne Knight David Warner Brad Garrett Billy West Nancy Cartwright Jim Cummings Matt Frewer Jess Harnell Tom Kenny Valery Pappas Kath Soucie Charlie Adler Corey Burton Cam Clarke Jocelyn Blue
Theme music composer	Julie Bernstein Steven Bernstein Paul Rugg
Composer(s)	Michael Tavera John Paul Given Christopher Klatman Thom Sharp
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	19
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bill Kopp Steven Spielberg
Producer(s)	Jeff DeGrandis
Running time	30 min.
Production company(s)	DreamWorks TV Animation
Distributor	DreamWorks Television CBS Paramount Television(2006-2007) CBS Television Distribution (2007-present)
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX
Picture format	1:33.1
Audio format	Dolby
Original run	February 7, 1998 – December 21, 1998

Toonsylvania is an animated television series, which ran for 2 seasons in 1998 on FOX's Saturday morning cartoon block (usually placed in a block called "The No Yell Motel" that contained scary kids shows such as Goosebumps and Eerie, Indiana) in its first season, then was moved to Tuesday afternoons from September 14, 1998 until December 21, 1998, when it was cancelled. Reruns aired until 2000. It was produced in part by Steven Spielberg, following in the footsteps of his previous animated series, Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. Much like Animaniacs, the show had recurring cartoon series that appeared in each episode. Unlike Animaniacs, Toonsylvania didn't have a wide range of characters and almost every episode had the same cartoon segments.

Synopsis[link]

A typical episode of Toonsylvania starts with a cartoon featuring the adventures of Dr. Vic Frankenstein (voiced by David Warner), his assistant Igor (voiced by Wayne Knight) 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 (voiced by Brad Garrett). 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 in 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.

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 Seth Tuber (voiced by Lost in Space's Jonathan 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.

Episodes[link]

Season 1

• Darla Doily-Demon Doll/The Importance of Being Urnie/The Boogeyman'll Get You Melissa
• Blind Date of Frankenstein/Football and Other Body Parts/Stop Making Ugly Faces
• Love Potion Number Nein/Attack of the Iguana People/Teeth for Two
• Baby Human/Earth Vs. Everything/Little Screetchin Riding Hood
• Built for Speed/A Kiss Before Dying Unless of Course You're Already Dead/Go Stand in the Corner Young Lady
• Spawn of Santa/Dead Hard/Don't Swallow the Seeds Silly
• Doom With a View/Dead Dog Day Afternoon/Here There Be Monsters
• Love Hurts/One for Mall and Mall for One/Plain as the Nose on Your Face
• Phil Feel Smart/Voodoo Vacation/Melissa, Don't Spoil Your Appetite
• WereGranny/The Lobster of Party Beach/The Screetchy Little Mermaid
• A Family Plot/A Zombie is Born/Melissa and The Three Bears

Season 2

• Something Weenie This Way Comes/Ideadical Cousins/Melisserella
• Igor's Replacement
• The Doomed Odyssey/Attack of the Fifty Footed Woman/Becki with an I
• The Longest Day/Take Us to Your Liter/Escape from Wet Nurse Island

Music[link]

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.

Cast[link]

• Wayne Knight - Igor
• Brad Garrett - Phil
• David Warner - Dr. Vic Frankenstein
• Nancy Cartwright - Melissa Screetch
• Matt Frewer - Dedgar Deadman
• Valery Pappas - Additional Voices
• Billy West - Newark, Additional Voices
• Kath Soucie - Additional Voices
• Jonathan Harris - Seth Tuber
• Tom Kenny - Ace Deuce
• Jim Cummings - Additional Voices
• Charlie Adler - Additional Voices
• Sandy Fox - Darla Doily, Baby Bear
• Corey Burton - Death
• Bill Kopp - Additional Voices
• Jocelyn Blue - Mama Bear
• Cam Clarke - Additional voices
• Jess Harnell - Additional voices

Crew[link]

• Bill Kopp - Executive Producer, Writer, Creator ("B-Movie"), Voice Drector
• Jeff DeGrandis - Producer, Director
• Mike Peters - Creator ("Night of the Living Fred"), Writer
• Lee Mendelson - Creative Consultant ("Night of the Living Fred")
• Chris Otsuki - Creator ("Melissa Screetch"), Writer
• Vinny Montello - Writer
• Steve Ochs - Writer
• Martin Olson - Writer
• Keith Baxter - Writer
• Karl Toerge - Writer
• Steven Spielberg - Executive Producer

Availability[link]

• In August 1999, a VHS video of Toonsylvania was released, which contained the episodes "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)," "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". The video is currently out of print and Dreamworks has yet to announce any plans to put the series on DVD.

Video Game[link]

A Toonsylvania video game was released by UbiSoft for the Game Boy Color in 2000.

Merchandise[link]

Toonsylvania action figures and playsets were developed by Pangea Corporation and released by Toy Island and Burger King distributed toys based on Toonsylvania in their kids' meals for a short period of time.

International Broadcast[link]

• Chile
  • Canal 13

External links[link]

• Toonsylvania at the Internet Movie Database
• Toonsylvania at TV.com
• Toonsylvania cartoon list at the Big Cartoon DataBase