Horrible Histories (2001 TV series)

Horrible Histories is an American animated children's television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. The series ran for 26 episodes and two seasons between January 1, 2001 and March 26, 2002 and was broadcast on ABC Kids.[3][4]

For other uses, see Horrible Histories (disambiguation).

Horrible Histories
The DVD cover of the episode pack "Groovy Greeks", "Extraordinary Explorers" and Battlin' Bolivar"
Genre	Animated children's television series Comedy Adventure
Developed by	Tamar Simon Hoffs Gordon Langley Andrew Young Charlie Stickney.
Written by	Martha Atwater Terry Deary Charlie Stickney Andrew Young Gordon Langley William Forrest Cluverius
Directed by	Andrew Young Gordon Langley
Voices of	Jess Harnell Cree Summer Billy West Stephen Rea Jo Young
Opening theme	Horrible Histories Theme
Ending theme	Horrible Histories Theme
Composer(s)	Dean Valentine[1] and Rony Brack[2] (composer)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mike Young
Producer(s)	Martha Atwater Tamar Simon Hoffs Michelle Conway Paul Cummings Deborah Forte Mike Young Mark Young Beth Richman Charlie Stickney
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Telegael Mike Young Productions Scholastic Media
Release
Original network	ABC Kids
Picture format	NTSC, PAL
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	January 1, 2001 – March 26, 2002
Chronology
Related shows	Horrible Histories (2009 TV series)

Synopsis

The series is based around the adventures of Stitch and Mo, two everyday kids who are transported to various historical eras with the help of a time portal. In each episode, their historical adventures help teach them a lesson or solve a problem in their everyday lives, often involving bully Darren Dongle. Animated sidebars explain the historical details, and clarify popular misconceptions.

Characters

• Stitch is one of the two main protagonists, he has black glasses and usually wears a huge dark-green T-shirt that has a rat on it and covers the rest of his body. He is shown to be lazy and loves food (especially doughnuts), and also considers himself quite a comedian. He is voiced by Billy West.
• Mo is one of the two main protagonists, she wears a white T-shirt with a flower on it, and green camouflage jeans. She is the brains of the pair. Mo is also shown to love animals. She is voiced by Cree Summer in the original American version and Jo Young when the show was dubbed and shown in the UK.
• Darren Dongle is the main antagonist, a nerd who knows a lot about history, but is shown to enjoy taunting Stitch and Mo. He is over-confident and hates it when he's wrong. He is voiced by Jess Harnell.
• The Narrator is shown to be a good joker and zaps Stitch and Mo back in time to solve their situations. In Amazing Aussies, his name is revealed to be "Frank Synopsis." He is voiced by Billy West in the original American version and was dubbed by Stephen Rea when the show was dubbed and shown in the UK.

Production

Horrible Histories is based on Terry Deary's book series of the same name. Deary later said he had had a "terrible experience" with the show.[5]

The show is produced by California-based indie[4] Mike Young Productions (LA), Telegael Galway, and Scholastic Entertainment (NY).[6] It marked Young's and Telegael's first collaboration.[7] It is directed by Andrew Young (executive producer Mike Young's son[8]) and Gordon Langley. It is produced By Martha Atwater, Tamar Simon Hoffs, Michelle Conway, Paul Cummings, Deborah Forte, Mike Young, Mark Young, Beth Richman and Charlie Stickney, among others. It is animated by Glenn Jason Hanna. It is written by Martha Atwater, Terry Deary, Charlie Stickney, Andrew Young, Gordon Langley, William Forrest Cluverius. It has a running time of 25 minutes.[9]

On the British channel ITV, the show attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers each week.[10] Stephen Rea did his voice recording work in Dublin.[10]

In 2006, The Mirror held a promotion where readers had to collect 12 coupons and send them in to receive a free copy of the Horrible Histories DVD collection.[11]

Episodes

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
	1	13	January 1, 2001 (2001-01-01)	April 5, 2001 (2001-04-05)
	2	13	January 1, 2002 (2002-01-01)	March 26, 2002 (2002-03-26)

Season 1 (2001)

No.	Title	Original air date
1	"Terrible Tudors"	January 1, 2001 (2001-01-01)
Mo is about to lose her soccer team to Darren, much to her dismay. The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo back into the tudor times of England and Mo learns how to coach her soccer team by watching how Queen Elizabath ruled her kingdom in 1588.
2	"Angry Aztecs"	January 8, 2001 (2001-01-08)
Stitch and Mo think they have found good luck. They are zapped back to 1520, Mexico during the Aztec period. They find out that the Aztecs were some of the most superstitious people in history.
3	"Measly Middle Ages"	January 16, 2001 (2001-01-16)
Mo ends up being grounded after she refuses to clean her room. So, the narrator zaps Stitch and Mo back in time to 1215 to see how dirty the serfs and British of Middle Age England for Mo to learn her lesson.
4	"Vicious Vikings"	February 1, 2001 (2001-02-01)
Stitch, Mo, and Darren have the same report in history class: Vikings, and Darren thinks that he will beat Stitch and Mo. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to Brattahilid, Greenland in 1000 where they meet Erik the Red, and his ignored son Leif Eriksson and learn about the true histories of the famed seamen.
5	"Groovy Greeks"	February 7, 2001 (2001-02-07)
Stitch and Mo get into an argument after they're late for gym class. Darren challenges the two to the art of wrestling, making one of them face him. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to Ancient Greece, 403 BCE where wrestling was a popular sport in the Olympics.
6	"Rotten Romans"	February 15, 2001 (2001-02-15)
A student couldn't make it for teacher conference, so Darren came to take his place. While he was making his speech, he was wearing red boots. Stitch and Mo wonder why, so the narrator zaps them to Ancient Rome, 44 BCE where they meet Julius Caesar. As they reach Ancient Rome, they land on a Roman war elephant in a military parade. The elephant trumpets.
7	"Wild West"	February 21, 2001 (2001-02-21)
Darren forces Stitch and Mo to go down a scary-looking snowboarding course. Stitch and Mo think they should just give up but the narrator zaps them to the Wild West in 1849 where they meet a blacksmith named Sam and learn that there's always an opportunity.
8	"Savage Stone Age"	February 21, 2001 (2001-02-21)
Darren calls the Stitch and Mo neanderthals, which upsets them. The Narrator zaps them back to the stone age of 38000 BC, to show them what neanderthals were capable of doing.
9	"Revolting Revolution"	February 21, 2001 (2001-02-21)
Darren is being unfair to everyone when he took his uncle's job as keeper of a paintball court, where he charges for everything. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to the American Revolution of 1773 where they get separated and learn more from the two sides: the Americans and the British.
10	"Royal Pain"	February 28, 2001 (2001-02-28)
Stitch has to do his genealogy project for school. Stitch thinks that his relatives are royalty and wishes to be "King of Doughnuts" and build a magnificent doughnut castle. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to see three of the world's most famous kings: Louis XIV who built the Palace of Versailles, Peter the Great who built St. Petersburg and Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal.
11	"Ingenious Industrialists"	March 7, 2001 (2001-03-07)
Stitch and Mo want their own jobs, so the narrator zaps them to the Industrial Revolution of 1840 where children are bound to have jobs.
12	"Marvelous Marco Polo"	March 15, 2001 (2001-03-15)
The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo to Mongolia in 1292 where they meet Marco Polo.
13	"Trading Timbuktu"	April 5, 2001 (2001-04-05)
Mo trades her brand new comic book for a trashy, old one. She becomes upset by her trade, so the narrator zaps her and Stitch to the Mali Empire where common items were made their weight in gold. They also meet a man who wishes to be a magician.

Season 2 (2002)

No.	Title	Original air date
14	"Battlin' Bolivar"	January 1, 2002 (2002-01-01)
Stitch and Mo fail at building a dung-powered doughnut-making machine for a science fair. The narrator zaps them to South America where they meet Simón Bolívar.
15	"Amazing Aussies"	January 8, 2002 (2002-01-08)
Stitch and Mo are sent to detention after Mo put her cousin's lizard Slimeball into Darren's locker. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to Australia when people were being taken as prisoners.
16	"Challenging China"	January 16, 2002 (2002-01-16)
Stitch and Mo are terrified to find out that Darren Dongle is moving into Mo's neighborhood. Stitch thinks about building a wall so Darren doesn't annoy them. The narrator then zaps Stitch and Mo to Ancient China to learn about how The Great Wall Of China was built.
17	"Magnificent Mounties"	January 23, 2002 (2002-01-23)
The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo to Canada where Stitch gets captured by a criminal and Mo teams up with the Royal Canadian Mounty Police to rescue him.
18	"Perilous Plagues"	February 14, 2002 (2002-02-14)
Stitch is afraid to get his shot, so he and Mo are zapped to Italy where the Bubonic Plague is spreading.
19	"Gnarly North Pole"	March 4, 2002 (2002-03-04)
Stitch and Mo are supposed to compete against Darren in an obstacle course. When Stitch and Mo think they're going to lose, the narrator zaps them to the Arctic Circle where they find Robert Edwin Peary, the first man ever to make it to the North Pole.
20	"Awesome Egyptians"	February 7, 2002 (2002-02-07)
Stitch and Mo have to find a way to defeat Darren and his snowball-launcher in the simplest of ways. The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo to Ancient Egypt where they meet Tutankhamen. King Tut orders them to find a place for the party of the great flood.
21	"Stormin' Scots"	February 21, 2002 (2002-02-21)
The terrier mascot of Stitch and Mo's basketball team has disappeared, and the team is desperate without it. The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo to Scotland where they meet King Robert the Bruce.
22	"Rockin' Renaissance"	January 29, 2002 (2002-01-29)
Stitch and Mo are searching for an inspiration for an art show, so the narrator zaps them to the Renaissance where they meet Michelangelo.
23	"Surprising Samurai"	February 21, 2002 (2002-02-21)
Mo doesn't want to waste her time with the old fashioned way of her grandma Grannykins. Instead, she wants to play her new samurai video game. The narrator then zaps her and Stitch to Heian era Japan where they learn what being a samurai is like. (Note: This is the first episode where Stitch is wiping the screen while going through time.)
24	"Highly Hawaiian"	March 11, 2002 (2002-03-11)
The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo to ancient Hawaii.
25	"Extraordinary Explorers"	March 19, 2002 (2002-03-19)
The narrator zaps Stitch and Mo to the Rocky Mountains where they meet Lewis and Clark.
26	"Captivating Columbus"	March 26, 2002 (2002-03-26)
Darren Dongle is the substitute teacher and challenges Stitch and Mo to a true-or-false quiz about the Christopher Columbus. Zapping Stitch and Mo back in time won't help them, so they're on their own.

Historical things that are completely right

• "Rotten Romans" – Julius Caesar did not build the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum). It was built by Vespasian.
• "Revolting Revolution" – When the episode was dubbed in the UK, the narrator says at one point that George Washington died in 1793. However, the original version from the USA correctly said that George Washington died in 1799.
• "Amazing Aussies" – Sheep are not native to Australia, Europeans brought them over.

DVD release

The show's episodes have been released as single episodes, as 3-in-1 packs, or as one whole series.[12] The series was released as a 3-disc DVD box set in 2005.

References

1. Composers. "SMA Talent Ltd » VALENTINE, Dean". Smatalent.com. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
2. "Rony Brack". Rony Brack. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
3. "| The Irish Film & Television Network". Iftn.ie. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
4. Rushton, Katherine (2008-03-18). "CBBC to remake Horrible Histories with live action". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
5. Leo Hickman. "How Horrible Histories became a huge hit | Culture". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
6. "The success of the Irish film industry depends on innovative financing and improving services". Finance-Magazine.com. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
7. "Mike Young and Telegael ink second toon copro | News". C21Media. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
8. "Mike Young & Scholastic animate Horrible Histories | News". C21Media. 2001-07-20. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
9. Horrible Histories Cartoon Series (2001)|Big Cartoon DataBase
10. "Horrible Times Ahead for Irish Actor Stephen". 2002-07-28. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
11. "FREE DVDs. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
12. Shopping, best shop, Price comparison, Product review at dooyoo.co.uk

External links

• Horrible Histories on IMDb
• Horrible Histories at TV.com