Krazy Kids

Krazy Kids is an american animated comedy television series that was broadcast on August 23, 1976 to June 7, 1999. as the first collaborative effort of Viacom Media Networks after being conceived in the early 1970's by Tom Ruegger. The show follows the adventures of a group of fictional pre-teenage cartoon characters who attend Howard D. McMillan Middle School to become the next generation of characters from the SchoolToons series.

The pilot episode "The Krazy Beginning" aired as a prime-time special on CBS on August 23, 1976, while the series itself was featured in first-run syndication for the first two seasons. The final season was aired on Nickelodeon. The series ended production in 1999 in favor of Spongebob Squarepants; however, two specials were produced in 2000, and a second series titled Krazy Kids: Cool School aired on Nickelodeon from August 20, 2001 to June 7, 2013.

A third series titled Krazy Kids: Acme Teens aired on August 23, 2014 and ended on June 7, 2017. The series has 2D computer graphic animation prior to the original series from 1976. Some characters from the original series made minor roles and cameo appearances like Devin Torres, Bryan Gul, Ian-Deheza Zapata, Marian Gul, Vextorian Vixon, etc. in fewer episodes. The series has a total of 5 seasons and 95 episodes. Other minor characters like Mack and Jack, Lenny and Benny, Claude Cade, etc. made cameo appearences and major roles in other episodes.

A fourth series titled New Krazy Kids will be streaming on Hulu from March 2019 through June 2019. The series will have four seasons along with its original theme song and ending song reprised. Most voice actors such as Matthew Rodriguez, Christopher Sanchez, Frank Rodriguez, Patrick Wilson, and many others will reprise their character roles from the first, second, and third series.

As of May 2019, it was confirmed that the show would not be renewed for a fifth series.

Writers
The series and the show's characters were developed by series producer, head writer and cartoonist Tom Ruegger, division leader Jean MacCurdy, associate producer and artist Alfred Gimeno and story editor/writer Wayne Kaatz. Among the first writers on the series were Jim Reardon, Tom Minton, and Eddie Fitzgerald. The character and scenery designers included Alfred Gimeno, Ken Boyer, Dan Haskett, Karen Haskett, and many other artists and directors. The series was actually planned to be a feature film. Once Stephen Hillenburg was attached, numerous things changed, including the idea of turning the movie into a television series.

"The Acme Gang Goes To The Mall" was co-written by three then-teenage girls who were fans of the show.

Casting Info
Voice director Andrea Romano auditioned over 1,200 voices for the series and chose more than a dozen main voice actors.[5] The role of Angel Otano was given to Charlie Adler, who gave the role, as producer Tom Ruegger said, "a great deal of energy".[6] The role of Stacy Otano was given to Tress MacNeille. Writer Paul Dini said that MacNeille was good for the role because she could do both Stacy's voice and the voices of her impressions.[6] Voice actors Christopher Sanchez and Patrick Roberts were given the roles of Bryan Gul and José Martinez, respectively. Danny Cooksey played Sebastian Mengoni, according to Paul Dini, was good for the role because he could do a "tremendous mean voice." Cooksey was also the only voice actor in the cast who was not an adult.[6] Cree Summer played the roles of Arianna Franco and Jasmine Clay; former Saturday Night Live cast member Gail Matthius played Marian Gul, Jonathan Miller had the role of Robin Le Pen, and. Other actors for the series included Maurice LaMarche as the voice of Vextorian Vixon; Candi Milo as the voice of the Random Girl, and many other voice actors played other characters.

Animation
In order to complete 65 episodes for the first season, Paramount Pictures and Viacom Media Networks contracted several different North American and international animation houses. These animation studios included Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now known as TMS Entertainment), Wang Film Productions, AKOM, Freelance Animators New Zealand, Encore Cartoons, StarToons, and Kennedy Cartoons. Tokyo Movie Shinsha also animated the series' opening sequence. Some of the Paramount Pictures staff disliked working with Kennedy Cartoons due to the animation studio's inconsistent quality, and episodes that they animated were often subject to multiple re-takes. In other cases, such as the debut episode "The Krazy Beginning", portions of Kennedy Cartoons-animated episodes were re-animated by another animation studio. Kennedy Cartoons was actually dropped after the end of the series' first season.

Krazy Kids was made with a higher production value than standard television animation. It had a cel count that was more than double that of most animated television shows then.[6] The series had about 35,000 cels per episode instead of the standard 10,000, making it unique in that characters moved more fluidly.[6] Pierre DeCelles, an animation producer, described storyboarding for the series as "fun but a big challenge because I always had a short schedule, and it's not always easy to work full blast nonstop".

Music
During the development of the show Stephen Hillenburg said that Paramount Pictures would use a full orchestra, which some thought too expensive and impossible, but they ended up agreeing. Paramount Pictures selected Bruce Broughton to write the theme tune (for which he would win a Daytime Emmy along with Tom Ruegger and Wayne Kaatz, who both worked with Broughton on the lyrics) and serve as music supervisor. Screen credits for the composers were given based on the amount of music composed for, or composed and reused in, the episode.

Twenty-six other composers were contracted to create original dramatic underscore for each different episode during the series run: Julie and Steve Bernstein, Steven Bramson, Don Davis, John Debney, Ron Grant, Les Hooper, Carl Johnson, Elliot Kaplan, Arthur Kempel, Ralph Kessler, Albert Lloyd Olson, Hummie Mann, Dennis McCarthy, Joel McNeely, Peter Myers, Laurence Rosenthal, William Ross, Arthur B. Rubinstein, J. Eric Schmidt, David Slonaker, Fred Steiner, Morton Stevens, Richard Stone, Stephen James Taylorand Mark Watters. The composers conducted their own music. Of these composers, Broughton, Bramson, Davis, Olson, Stone, Taylor and Watters wrote the score to Krazy Kids: Basketball Bash.

Spin-offs
In 1993, The Five Teensketeers was produced as the first spin-off for Nickelodeon. Based on the characters Devin Torres, Bryan Gul, José Martinez, Ian-Deheza Zapata, and Vextorian Vixon who run a parody of The Three Musketeers at Howard D. McMillan Middle School's Portables. The final episode aired on September 22, 1998. The series ran for 4 seasons and 75 episodes.

In 1994, a third spin-off titled The Bryan and Ian-Deheza Show was produced on Nickelodeon. Based on the characters Bryan and Ian-Deheza who are the hosts of the show and would feature some episodes that would involve with both of them. The final episode aired on November 27, 1998. The series ran for 4 seasons and 105 episodes.

In 1995, a second spin-off titled The Suarez & Tinoco Mysteries was produced on Nickelodeon. Based on the characters Sebastian Suarez, Jon-Anthony Tinoco, Nicole Tinoco, and Laurence The Doctor who solve mysteries on various cases. The final episode aired on November 23, 1998. The series ran for 2 seasons and 95 episodes.

In 1996, a spin-off titled Veztoria was produced on Nickelodeon. Based on the character Vextorian Vixon who lives in the fictional land of Veztoria. Other characters like Devin Torres, Bryan Gul. José Martinez, Sebastian Mengoni, etc. make cameos in minor episodes. The final episode aired on November 25, 1998. The series ran for 3 seasons and 85 episodes.

In Related Media
In 1996, a series titled Baby Krazy Kids was produced on Nickelodeon. The show follows the characters such as Devin Torres, Bryan Gul, Marian Gul, Ian-Deheza Zapata, José Martinez, Jessie Martinez, Maximus Ortiz, Sebastion Suarez, Vextorian Vixon, and many more in their young forms who are adopted by Jon-Anthony's Mom and have great adventures and play days outside his house. The final episode aired on September 29, 1998. The series ran for 3 seasons and 105 episodes.

Appearances in other media
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - Bryan Gul, Erik Martinez and Sebastian Menogni make cameos in the final scene along with other famous toons.

Home Media
Krazy Kids: Trip to Tokyo was released on DVD on September 23, 2001 while Krazy Kids: The History of Howard D. McMillan was released on DVD on November 16, 2001. There are currently no plans to release the series New Krazy Kids. However, this has yet to happen. In the early mid-1990s, Paramount Pictures had released several videos, including Krazy Kids: Basketball Bash (a direct-to-video release which later aired as a four-part TV episode), Best of Angel and Stacy, Tea For Two-Time, Krazy Kids: Big Adventures, Krazy Kids: Island Adventures, Krazy Kids: Romantic Rampage, Krazy Kids: Jelly Jam, Krazy Kids: Funny Acme Adventures, Krazy Kids: Halloween Mayhem, Krazy Kids: Thanksgiving Trial, and Krazy Kids: Christmas Miracles.

New Krazy Kids
On September 19, 2017, Viacom Media Networks and Viacom Digital Studios announced that a new series titled "New Krazy Kids" will be streaming on Hulu. The series will consist of at least four seasons, to start airing in 2019. Production began in July 2018 and ended in January 2019. The series will be released from March 5, 2019 through June 6, 2019. Hulu also has the streaming rights to the original Krazy Kids (1976 - 1999), Krazy Kids: Cool School (2001 - 2013), and Krazy Kids: Acme Teens (2014 - 2017). In January 2019, Viacom Digital Studios released a promotional teaser poster image officially announcing the series featuring the characters along with its official title logo.

Comic Books
Viacom published the Krazy Kids Comics from January 1979 through June 1998. Many characters would star in their own comic book series such as Berry Toons, Krazy Toons, and many others. In addition, the Cool School comics were published from February 2002 through March 2012. While the other characters were active, the Acme Teens comics were published from March 2014 through June 2017. However, the New Krazy Kids comics will be published from August 2018 through June 2019. Various Issues were numbered in order to give the months and years of when it was published.