Herman's Head
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Herman's Head | |
|---|---|
 Herman's Head title card |
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 25 Minutes (approx.) |
| Starring | William Ragsdale Hank Azaria Jane Sibbett Yeardley Smith Molly Hagan Ken Hudson Campbell Rick Lawless Peter Mackenzie Jason Bernard |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | FOX |
| Original run | September 8, 1991– April 21, 1994 |
| No. of episodes | 71 |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Herman's Head was a sitcom on the FOX network that aired from 1991 to 1994.
As FOX was a relatively young network, they were able to experiment with the show's format, allowing for a unique device: whenever Herman, the main character, had an important decision to make, the TV audience would be shown a "Greek chorus" style dramatization of his thought process featuring four actors representing differing aspects of his psyche.
Though the show suffered from poor ratings and many viewers felt that the quirky format was exhausted after two seasons, the show is remembered for its unique device.
The show was also shown on Channel 4 in the UK between 1993 and 1994, and M-Net in South Africa.
Contents |
[edit] The Psyche
The characters acting out Herman's emotions each represented a different aspect of his personality. As they were supposed to be one-sided, they often were lacking in other areas of their character, which led to frequent squabbles among the individual aspects. The concept of inner conflict within a person is a common psychological concept; it is explored in Sigmund Freud's concepts of Ego, Superego and Id, and Eric Berne's Transactional analysis.
- Angel represented his sensitivity. As the only female character in his brain, Angel also represented his feminine side, or in Jungian terms the anima, and sometimes used this fact to manipulate the male characters.
- Animal represented his lust or hunger. He was an archetypal fratboy, and possibly derives his name from Animal House. He usually bullies Wimp.
- Wimp represented his anxiety. He was a paranoid hypochondriac.
- Genius represented his intellect and logic and because of this he clashes with the naive nature of Angel and stupidity of Animal.
[edit] Cast
- William Ragsdale - Herman Brooks
- Hank Azaria - Jay Nichols
- Jane Sibbett - Heddy Newman
- Yeardley Smith - Louise Fitzer
- Jason Bernard - Mr. Paul Bracken
- Molly Hagan - Angel
- Ken Hudson Campbell - Animal
- Rick Lawless - Wimp
- Peter Mackenzie - Genius
- Nik Keating - Ego
[edit] See also
- Both Hank Azaria and Yeardley Smith are cast members of The Simpsons, which debuted on FOX two seasons earlier.
- The Numskulls
[edit] Trivia
- The Simpsons references Herman's Head when Lisa (voiced by Yeardley Smith) is asked what she is laughing at in the episode Duffless. Her response is that she has just remembered "Something I saw on Herman's Head". In an episode years later, when trying to revive old television shows, Comic Book Guy exclaims America "needs the wisdom of Herman's Head now more than ever." Further, Lisa is revealed to have a Herman's Head-like Chorus of her own, seen when she's processing feelings of jealousy over Marge's publishing a novel.
- Herman's Head references The Simpsons when Louise (Yeardley Smith) is annoyed when someone on the phone thinks she "sounds like that Lisa Simpson character on TV." Yeardley Smith is the voice actor for Lisa Simpson.
- A cast of characters representing the five personality types from transactional analysis is featured in The Dream Team, a 1989 movie with Dennis Boutsikaris as the Adult, Peter Boyle as the Nurturing Parent, Christopher Lloyd as the Critical Parent, Michael Keaton as the Rebellious Child and Stephen Furst as the Adaptive Child.
- The actors who portrayed Herman's psyche all had guest spots in Herman's "Outside" world. The characters they portrayed in the outside world are exact opposites of their regular roles.
- A running gag in the show is the "Research Scene": when somebody calls Louise's desk and says "Research," Mr. Bracken then comes out of his office and the two begin relaying data simultaneously.
- The show still has fans among the healthy multiple-personality community, who believe Herman's four-person psyche is a good introduction to the concept.
- Had the show survived into another season, there would have been some radical changes to the format; Herman would have gotten married, and his wife would have her own set of "head characters," according to show producer Bill Frieberger who used to post about the show back when it was being made on an old BBS messageboard for Fox TV shows. [1]
- In the series finale, Herman is hit by a taxi. While in a coma, the regular head characters are pushed to survive by Herman himself, who appears in his own head for the only time in the series. Other than the "head characters" remembering or thinking about someone, this is the only time in the series that anyone but a "head character" appeared in Herman's psyche.
