The Moxy Show

The Moxy Show (also known as The Moxy Pirate Show and The Moxy & Flea Show) is an American animated anthology television series produced by Colossal Pictures and Turner Broadcasting System for Cartoon Network. The show consisted of classic cartoons divided by 3-D animated interstitials featuring Moxy and Flea, respectively a dog and a flea. The Moxy Show ran on Cartoon Network from December 5, 1993, originally as The Moxy Pirate Show,[2] to December 25, 1995; its finale was the sole episode for The Moxy & Flea Show. Reruns lasted until May 25, 1996. It is considered the first original series on Cartoon Network, but due to the production style, Space Ghost Coast to Coast is considered Cartoon Network's first fully produced series.

The Moxy Show
GenreComedy
Created byBrad DeGraf[1]
Written by
Directed by
  • The Moxy Show: George Evelyn and Tim Boxell
  • The Moxy & Flea Show: Greg Harrison
Voices of
  • Bobcat Goldthwait
  • Penn Jillette (The Moxy Show)
  • Chris Rock (The Moxy & Flea Show)
Composer(s)David Wayne Powers (The Moxy & Flea Show)
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
No. of episodes24 (2 found)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s)
  • The Moxy Show: Margo de la Cruz
  • The Moxy & Flea Show: Tammy Walters
Editor(s)Lili Cunningham (The Moxy Show only)
Running time
  • The Moxy Pirate Show: 60 minutes
  • The Moxy Show: 24 minutes
Production company(s)
DistributorTurner International Inc.
Release
Original network
Original releaseDecember 5, 1993 (1993-12-05) –
December 25, 1995 (1995-12-25)

Production

The series was first known as The Moxy Pirate Show, which featured Moxy. In 1994 the series was retooled as The Moxy Show; it was shortened to a half-hour and Moxy's sidekick Flea was introduced. In 1995, it was renamed again to The Moxy & Flea Show, with major changes for a single episode:

  • Moxy's design changed to a large degree. As opposed to wearing his usual yellow shirt with red/black checkerboard pants, and palette-swapped black and white sneakers; both of which resemble the likeness of Cartoon Network's traditional checkerboard logo, he is seen wearing a longer sleeved, green/black striped shirt and black jeans, complete with non palette-swapped sneakers, which seem to resemble those of Converse All-Stars. In addition, his eyes have become much smaller, with heterochromic green (left) and light blue (right) eyes complete with pupils, whereas they were previously red (left) and dark blue (right), sans pupils. His yellow whiskers and freckles have disappeared in his new design, his nose changed from the color purple to black, and his fur was changed to a darker shade of orange.
  • Flea's design was slightly changed. Flea wore a blue fez instead of a propellor beanie, his height was increased, making him half as tall as Moxy. His eye color changed from blue and yellow to just yellow eyes with red pupils. Comedian Chris Rock replaced illusionist Penn Jillette as the voice of the character.
  • A new opening sequence was used, featuring a new theme song composed by Ben Friedman. Moxy and Flea dance new moves and have almost no speaking parts (in one part, Moxy says "Come on!").

The pilot did not test well enough to allow more episodes to be produced, as revealed by Frank Gresham who worked on "The Moxy & Flea Show". Reruns were removed completely after May 25, 1996.

The CGI Moxy is considered the first real-time[3] (sometimes called a "live") cartoon,[4] though only broadcast live through the "Great International Toon-In". A puppeteer wearing a motion capture apparatus would act out Moxy's motions, while Goldthwait provided the voice, and a technician would control facial expressions.

The show is considered to be a lost television series, and it was never aired on Boomerang or released on home media.

This is the only Cartoon Network original series to be animated with computer animation, as all of the other programs featuring CGI are acquired animated programming or Cartoon Network co-productions. It is the first CN show to be animated with cartoon animation as well, making The Moxy Show the first Cartoon Network original series to feature a hybrid of different animation styles (Courage the Cowardly Dog would be the second, and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Chowder and The Amazing World of Gumball following). The show is also the first to use stock footage from classical shows (followed by Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the second CN series to air).

To this day, only a handful of clips, plus various segments of the "Great International Toon-In", a Spanish airing from the Moxy Show era,[5] a Spanish airing from the Moxy Pirate Show era,[6] a promotional VHS containing the first episode of the Moxy Show era[7] and the only episode to the Moxy & Flea Show era[8] .

There was also an online CartoonNetwork.com comic made called "What Ever Happened to Moxy?" that may have wrapped up the story but only the first panel of it is currently visible to the public.[9]

Moxy made brief cameos in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Crossover Nexus", along with other characters from animated Cartoon Network original shows.

Characters

Moxy

Moxy (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait impersonating Cheech Marin) is a 3-D animated dog who liked to spend time goofing off and having fun with his sidekick, Flea, and also has a crush on Melody from Josie and the Pussycats. Although he never made it big in the cartoon industry, and usually auditioned for a number of roles on the network without making a call back,[10] he was given the opportunity to work as the janitor at Cartoon Network, and usually 'jammed the signal' once a week during the days when he flew solo before Flea was introduced.[11]

His first appearance on television were during the live commercial segments that aired simultaneously during the November 26, 1993 "Great International Toon-In" marathon on three of the main Turner-owned networks at the time; TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network. His catchphrase is a lip-flapping sound, barking and a fart sound, stating that he just made it up.

Flea

Flea (voiced by Penn Jillette in The Moxy Show, Chris Rock in The Moxy & Flea Show) is Moxy's sidekick, and usually the man of the duo, who enjoyed spending time and watching television with Moxy. He helps a monkey king get a new set of hair to hide his bald skin causing him to rise through fame. In "Abducted", it has been revealed that he has a card, and his name was "Flealonius A. Flea".

Episodes

The Moxy Show era
No. in
series		 No. in
season		 Title Original air date
11"Television"[7]November 6, 1994 (1994-11-06)
Moxy gets a chance to star in an episode of "The Flintstones" but eventually gets cut from the episode entirely.

The Moxy & Flea Show era
No. in
series		 No. in
season		 Title Original air date
11"Abducted"[8]December 25, 1995 (1995-12-25)
While driving down the road, Moxy and Flea get abducted by monkey aliens, who are suffering from hair loss.
gollark: You can, however, look at pictures on reddit.
gollark: It's £25 or so and never goes on sale, so no.
gollark: Wait, you could actually play Factorio and experience the difficulty in centrally coordinating production of everything with just 200ish items and machines which are deterministic and always do the same thing vs the several million (in different locations) items modern society will need to produce and... well, economies of scale, and nondeterminism, and local variation, and whatnot.
gollark: Why not play Central Planning Simulator 2020?
gollark: (I did some hackery with the PWA manifest)

References
  1. "People Behind the Pixels". Historyofcg.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  2. "Moxy's dog moves dictated by real life". 2013-05-19. Archived from the original on 2013-05-19. Retrieved 2018-06-06.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  3. Ramirez, Anthony (September 29, 1993). "Cartooning Is All Set To Go Live". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  4. P., Ken (November 18, 2003). "An Interview with Andy Merrill". IGN. News Corporation. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
  5. The Collective Animation Archive (3 April 2016). "The Moxy Show {Spanish 1995 Airing} [Missing cartoons, truncated]" – via YouTube.
  6. The Collective Animation Archive (21 March 2016). "The Moxy Pirate Show {Spanish June 1994 Airing} [Missing cartoons]" – via YouTube.
  7. Wiki, The Lost Media (3 December 2015). "Moxy_Show_WorldPremiere01_VHSRIP". Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2016 – via Vimeo.
  8. The Collective Animation Archive (21 March 2016). "The Moxy & Flea Show Pilot {VHS} [Segmented]" – via YouTube.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2016-03-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Cartoon Network: Favorites". 8 May 1999. Archived from the original on 8 May 1999.
  11. DeRosa, Robin (November 24, 1993). "Moxy's dog moves dictated by real life". USA Today. Gannett Company. Archived from the original on May 19, 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
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