Maniac Mansion (TV series)

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Television series
German title The madhouse
Original title Maniac Mansion
Country of production Canada
original language English
Year (s) 1990-1993
Production
company		 Atlantis Films
length 30 minutes
Episodes 66 in 3 seasons
genre Sitcom / science fiction
Theme music “Maniac Mansion” - sung by Jane Siberry , composed by Lou Natale
idea Eugene Levy
First broadcast September 17, 1990 on The Family Channel
German-language
first broadcast		 January 30, 1991 on Tele 5
occupation
  • Joe Flaherty
  • Kathleen Robertson
  • Avi Phillips
  • George Buza
  • Deborah Theaker

Maniac Mansion was a Canadian science fiction / family sitcom that is very loosely based on the LucasArts computer game of the same name .

The Toronto , Ontario television series was produced by Atlantis Films for the Family Channel in the United States and YTV in Canada. Three complete seasons with a total of 66 30-minute episodes were broadcast.

Basis of the television series

The plot of the television series is loosely based on the computer game Maniac Mansion from 1987. You have allowed yourself some freedom with regard to the main characters and plot.

The show focuses on the Edisons. The Edisons are a family who live in a mansion in the fictional US city of Cedar Springs. Its head is the father Fred ( Joe Flaherty ), an eccentric scientist. The other family members are his wife Casey ( Deborah Theaker ) and their children, the teenager Tina ( Kathleen Robertson ), the pubescent son Ike ( Avi Phillips ) and the young son Turner ( George Buza ). Casey's brother Harry Orca ( John Hemphill ) and his wife Idella Muckle-Orca ( Mary Charlotte-Wilcox ) also live with the Edisons .

Before the television series started, Fred already inherited the house from his father, who was also a scientist. The legacy also included the evil alien meteor that lives under the house and was found by Fred's grandfather Louis. The meteor has unusual supernatural powers and thereby affects the people who live in the house. The meteor was responsible for the sudden development of little boy Turner into a full-grown man. Casey's brother Harry mutated into a chimera with a human head and the body of a fly.

Through various unusual experiments, Fred Edison tries to restore his family members to their original state. In addition to these science fiction plot elements, the television series mainly followed the scheme of a typical sitcom . The typical topics include sibling rivalry , marital problems, quirky neighbors, and teenage anxieties.

Maniac Mansion's humor is similar to that of the Canadian sketch show Second City Television ("SCTV"). Many actors and sketch writers from their previous cast were involved in Manic Mansion . The television series contains many references to pop culture and makes occasional parodies of movies, television series, and commercials. This kind of humor also distinguished SCTV .

Breaking the fourth wall was an important part of Maniac Mansion's humor . Of the characters, Harry in particular often turned to the camera and talked about what happened next. Some episodes of the series even went completely beyond the fictional reference of the television series. For example, these episodes took place behind the scenes of the television series. It is revealed that the Edisons actually play themselves in a show about their lives.

But the end of the television series set in the future shows how the now really grown son Turner Edison, who is responsible for television, creates the television series.

Cast and characters

main characters

Recurring minor characters

Guest stars

  • José Ferrer as himself (2-08, "The Celebrity Visitor")
  • Teri Austin as herself, (2-10, "Lenny ... One Amour Time"; 2-11, "Lenny ... One Amour Time: Part 2")
  • Dave Thomas as "Hudgie DeRubertis" (2-13, "Buried by the Mob")
  • Martin Short as "Eddie O'Donnell" (2-14, "Down and Out in Cedar Springs")
  • David Cronenberg as himself (2-19, "Idella's Breakdown")
  • Andrea Martin as “Dr. Fontana Blue "(2-19," Idella's Breakdown ")
  • Jayne Eastwood as various characters
  • Dewey Robertson as "The Atomizer" (3-10, "Wrestling with the Truth")
  • Eugene Levy as "Doc Ellis" (3-17, "Freddy had a Little Lamb")
  • Jan Rubeš as "Uncle Joe" (3-20, "It Ain't Over 'Til Uncle Joe Sings")

Development and production

The idea of adapting Maniac Mansion as a television series went back to the two animators Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser from Lucasfilm . After playing the computer game Maniac Mansion and developing their idea, they presented the concept to George Lucas , who also recognized the potential of the project. LucasFilm teamed up with The Family Channel (now Freeform ) and Toronto- based production company Atlantis Films and began developing the idea further.

Atlantis contacted Eugene Levy , the former SCTV screenwriter and actor , and offered him the chance to help develop and produce the show. Atlantis' original concept outlined Maniac Mansion as a darker horror comedy in the style of The Munsters . After Levy rejected this concept, he was given creative control of the television series. Levy recruited some of his former SCTV colleagues and turned the show into a family sitcom with some science fiction elements.

US and Canadian broadcast

Maniac Mansion first aired on the Family Channel on September 17, 1990 . Shortly thereafter, she also started on YTV .

After its debut, Maniac Mansion received very positive reviews. Time Magazine named it one of the top ten shows of 1990, calling it "the looniest, sweetest family comedy of the year". Entertainment Weekly described it as "100% hilarious", the Toronto Star called it "delightful" and "wonderfully innovative and imaginative TV" and the Los Angeles Times called it "a stylish, sharp-edged comedy that's a bit like David Lynch on helium " ("stylized, sharp-edged comedy that's a bit like David Lynch on helium ").

Probably due to bad ratings in North America, the series was discontinued after 3 seasons and 66 episodes. The series was repeated on Family Channel until 1994, on YTV until 1997 and on Showcase until 2002. It has not appeared on Canadian or US television since.

German charisma

Maniac Mansion was dubbed in Germany and broadcast by Tele 5 under the German title Das Tollhaus from 1991 to 1992. In 1995, kabel eins broadcast the series in Germany.

Home video

In 1992, Family Channel Video released the first two seasons of the Maniac Mansion episodes ("Flystruck" and "Fred's A-Courtin '") on VHS video as "Maniac Mansion: The Love Collection". The tape has not been available in stores for a long time . Copies of the VHS videos fetched up to $ 50 on Amazon.

Despite an internet petition that Maniac Mansion should be released on DVD and has already collected 603 signatures, there are no concrete plans to release the TV series on DVD.

Differences to the computer game

Although the television series and game share some superficial similarities, they differ greatly in the plot and characterization of the characters.

The original computer game, a tribute to B-movie - horror movies , is about a group of teenagers in a villa, trying to save their kidnapped girlfriend. The house is inhabited by the quirky, yet murderous, Edison family. Dr. Fred, a mad scientist, fell for the evil meteor from space. His wife Edna, a grotesque, sexually starved nurse, has switched to BDSM . Their common strange son is a paranoid, paramilitary survivor . The family pets are a pair of talking, roaming tentacles.

The violence and slippery black humor that is a trademark of the computer game had to be removed from the television series to make it family-friendly. This changed the plot so much that it only bears a vague resemblance to the computer game. The connection between TV series and computer game is that both take place in a mansion that features an alien meteor and Dr. Fred Edison houses.

In the television series, Dr. Fred is portrayed as a kind-hearted but clumsy family man, as opposed to the obsessed mad scientist as shown in the computer game. The name, appearance and personality of the other members of the Edison family have changed. They were also given additional new figures.

The meteor is rarely mentioned in the television series, although it is featured prominently in the opening credits . You can see a newspaper clipping describing how Dr. Fred's grandfather Louis Edison spotted him under his house.

In the television series, Dr. Fred can be observed either using the meteor's supernatural powers in experiments or experimenting on himself.

In the computer game Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle , the sequel to Maniac Mansion from 1994, the television series is briefly mentioned. It serves as one of the elements of the action. The protagonist of the computer game has to collect the royalties that Dr. Fred for inventing the television series based on the game Maniac Mansion. In the computer game fiction , the television series was very successful, grossing millions of dollars.

Connections to SCTV

Eugene Levy , who developed the television series, was an actor and screenwriter for Second City Television . He co-developed the television series with former SCTV screenwriters Michael Short , Paul Flaherty and David Flaherty , and director Jamie Paul Rock . Occasionally, SCTV actor Peter Wildman contributed to the script, as did Joe Flaherty , John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox .

Except for Kathleen Robertson and Avi Phillips, all actors on the television series were related to SCTV . Joe Flaherty was part of the original cast, John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox were supporting actors and screenwriters in later seasons, and George Buza appeared in a single episode. Deborah Theaker was part of The Second City stage show, but not the television series.

There are many references to SCTV in the TV series. Levy, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, and Andrea Martin all made one-off appearances on the television series, as did supporting actors Juul Haalmeyer , Tony Rosato, and Robin Duke . Some jokes were reused, and in some episodes the characters from " Count Floyd " and "Happy Marsden" could be seen on television.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.tv.com/maniac-mansion/show/4271/summary.html
  2. ↑ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,309225,00.html
  3. ↑ Bruce Pittman Reviews For His Films ( December 8, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Das Tollhaus ( Maniac Mansion ) episode guide ( Memento from November 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )