Histeria!

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Histeria!
The cast of Histeria! sings out their theme song.
Genre	Animated series
Running time	30 minutes
Creator(s)	Tom Ruegger
Starring	Frank Welker Tress MacNeille Jeff Bennett Laraine Newman Luke Ruegger Cody Ruegger Nathan Ruegger Maurice LaMarche Billy West
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	Kids' WB!
Original run	September 14, 1998–October 1, 2000
No. of episodes	52

Histeria! was a short-lived animated television series of the late-1990s, created by Tom Ruegger (who also created Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain) at Warner Bros. Animation. Unlike other similar shows by Warner Bros., Histeria!'s purpose was not simply to entertain, but to also attempt to teach history as well. A regular cast of characters would visit a different period or event in history and try to explain the event using humor.

The Annenberg Foundation, in its 1999 report on educational television for children, cited Histeria! as the best example of the genre of all children's programs running on network television at that time.

Histeria! won the Emmy Award for best music composition in 1999.

One brief segment of the show featured a sequence in which many of the characters performed a carol asking their audience to please watch the show or it would be cancelled (to a beat reminiscent of the 1970s Coca-Cola commercial "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing").

Histeria! aired on Kids' WB from 1998 to 2001. More recently, it is shown on Toontopia TV (part of In2TV), first from March to July 2006, and then returning in October. The direct link is here. Currently, no DVD set has been announced.

Histeria! may have been influenced by 1978 French TV series Il était une fois l'homme (Once Upon a Time... Man). The French series does not feature time travel. Instead, the familiar series cast reappears as the contemporary figures of every historical time.

1 Characters
2 Depictions of Historical Figures
3 Episodes
4 Cameos and cultural references
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Characters

Father Time - The 'host' of Histeria. According to one segment, he is the reason the cast 'travels' through time. Father Time has a white beard reaching down to the floor and resembles the character of Maestro from Il était une fois l'homme. Voiced by Frank Welker.
Big Fat Baby/Big Fat Baby Girl - Re-occurring egg-shaped babies (There are sometimes several) who occasionally have dirty diapers, which one of the kids usually tries to get the current historical figure they're bugging to change. When they ask the kid the last time it had a clean diaper, the kids refer to a point in history a long time ago, and says it happened before that. Voiced by Luke Ruegger.
Miss Information - A ditzy tour guide who also leads the same group of tourists through various moments in history. Has a habit of getting facts wrong, like claiming that George Washington was named after the monument, rather than the other way around (she believes this because it isn't called "the George Monument"). Voiced by Laraine Newman.
Loud Kiddington - A young boy who talks extremely loudly (as the name suggests). Does segments with Father Time that depict really loud moments in history (e.g. the creation of gunpowder, the Big Bang, the first sonic boom, and the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Before these depictions, Father Time would request the viewing audience to turn the volume of their televisions up to their maximum levels.) As a running gag, he sometimes keeps watch of something whilst almost silently muttering "I see it..." repeatedly. When he loses sight of what he watches, he immediately switches into continuously shouting "DON'T SEE IT!!" Voiced by Cody Ruegger.
Pepper Mills - A crazy teenage girl who constantly bugs people in history for their autograph, thinking it is a fictional character, and realizing the mistake after the autograph is given (e.g. To Dwight D. Eisenhower - "Hey! You're not Elmer Fudd!", and to Karl Marx - "I thought you were Super Mario!") Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
Toast - A clueless surfer teen. Has a couple segments on the show called Ask Me If I Care, where a historic figure has three shots to try to tell Toast something that interests him, or they are ejected into space. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
Froggo - A frog-mouthed kid with a really low voice. Often asks historical figures for various strange items, and if he doesn't get them, he will either go into a panic or tell the person not to come crying to him later. Voiced by Nathan Ruegger.
Charity Bazaar - A little blonde girl who talks in a deadpan tone and is constantly unhappy ("I'm not happy"). She is frequently dressed as a pilgrim. Voiced by Laraine Newman.
Cho-Cho - A little Asian girl who frequently tries to sell useless items to the historical figures, usually with Lucky Bob assisting her. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
Lucky Bob - An incredibly dumb kid who seems to have the worst luck, yet the other kids notice the bright side of his bad experiences, usually the fact that they haven't happened again. Example: "Why is he called lucky Bob?" "Because he was hit in the head by a donkey." "How is that lucky?" "So far, no more donkeys." He mimics Ed McMahon on The Tonight Show because all he ever says is "Hi-ooo!", "Yes, now!", and, "You are correct, sir!". Voiced by Jeff Bennett.
Aka Pella - A sassy African-American girl who also has a minor role on the show. Her name is a pun on acapella. She, Froggo, Loud, and Charity are the most frequent singers in the Histeria! Kid Chorus. Voiced by Cree Summer.
Fetch - Loud's aptly-named dog, who loves chasing tennis balls and frequently asks the historical figures if they want to play catch with him. Voiced by Frank Welker.
Pule Houser - A fat German boy who frequently whines and occasionally is shown about to vomit. Voiced by Frank Welker.
Susanna Susquahanna - A little Native American girl with beady eyes and a gap in her teeth that gives her a lisp not unlike that of Sylvester the Pussycat. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
World's Oldest Woman - A really old woman who claims to have dated every historic man in history, dating all the way back to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.
Mr. Smartypants - A strange person who wears his pants so high up, it covers half of his face. He apparently harbors romantic feelings for Miss Information. Voiced by Rob Paulsen.
Lydia Karaoke - The 'network censor'. Appears at times in the show where the scene is considered 'inappropriate', such as nudity found in many classic works or art, and the entirety of the Vomitorium sketch. Voiced by Nora Dunn.
Bill Straitman - Perhaps the most sane person of the bunch, a man in a business suit whom, as his name would suggest, is the straight man to the other characters. Voiced by James Wickline.
Chit Chatterson - A crazy salesman voiced by Billy West.
Sammy Melman - A morally challenged TV executive. Voiced by Rob Paulsen.
Kip Ling, Crooked-Mouth Boy, and Bow-Haired Girl - Three generic children who only show up in songs, usually filling in for one or more the usual Kid Chorus members. Unlike the rest of the kids, they do not seem to have any personality quirks.
Nostradamus - The real life fortune teller. Predicts the future for the cast and predicts the next segment. His catchphrase is "SHUT UP!" Voiced by Paul Rugg.
Molly Pitcher - A caricature of Mary Hays McCauly who constantly offers refreshments in the form of water, sometimes parodying the "Got Milk?" advertising campaign. Her personality is based on Martha Stewart. Voiced by Tress MacNeille.

[edit] Depictions of Historical Figures

Various historical celebrities as they appeared on Histeria!, from left to right: the Statue of Liberty, Confucius, Abraham Lincoln, George and Martha Washington, Joan of Arc, Attila the Hun, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Tutankhamen.

Joseph Stalin was depicted as a despot with the saying "Kill all my enemies with secret police and famine" and "I am Stalin. I have a way of making people disappear."
Joan of Arc acted a little like a Valley Girl and looked like Shirley MacClaine. As she was burned at the stake in real life, she constantly puts out all flames near her.
Napoleon Bonaparte talked like Hervé Villechaize who played Tattoo from Fantasy Island. In one point, he gets injured and groans: "The pain boss! The pain!", a parody of Tattoo's famous line. Like Napoleon's depiction, Villechaize too is French and short in stature.
Plato was depicted as a Greek version of Fred Rogers, while his mentor Socrates is a dry stand-up, similar to Bing Crosby.
Julius Caesar was meant to look and sound like Frank Sinatra and performs a musical number called "That's Why They Stabbed Me in the Back."(Members of the Roman Senate resembled other members of the Rat Pack)
Confucius was depicted in the style of John McLaughlin of the McLaughlin Group.
Attila the Hun was similar in stature, voice, and temperament to the Tazmanian Devil
General Sherman was a parody of Pee-Wee Herman and even has his own segment called "Sherman's Campsite" (and obvious parody of the 1980s kids' show "Pee-Wee's Playhouse") complete with Pee-Wee's Playhouse-esque characters.
George Washington acted like Bob Hope, and sometimes even seen with a golf club in hand.
Abraham Lincoln acted like Johnny Carson. One sketch also re-did some of the politics of the Civil War like an episode of Seinfeld, with Lincoln as Jerry, Mary Todd as Elaine Benes, George B. McClellan as George Costanza and Jefferson Davis as Newman.
Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition acted like Jerry Lewis (voiced by Paul Rugg, who also used his Jerry Lewis impression on several episodes of "Animaniacs"). While William Clark spoke and acted like Dean Martin, he was drawn to look like the DC Animated Universe version of Clark Kent.
Moctezuma II was shown as an easygoing, hospitable man who always offers a drink of water to other characters, who wisely decline.
Alexander the Great was shown as a young adult constantly seeking approval of father, who would always tell him his conquests made him good, but never great. The show also parodies that numerous cities in the Middle East are named Alexandria by having one character ask another the direction to Alexandria several times, getting different directions each time until they find out they're already in the Alexandria they're looking for. His voice seemed to be a parody of Jimmy Stewart.
Aristole was depicted as Alex Trebek.
Christopher Columbus showed resemblance to Joe Pesci.
Gengis Khan showed resemblance to John Wayne. A reference to Wayne's portrayal of Khan in The Conqueror.
Kublai Khan resembled Sylvester Stallone.
Thomas Jefferson acted like Jack Benny, who had an assistant who sounded like Rochester.
The Wright Brothers acted like Abbot and Costello.
Leif Ericson spoke like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Eric the Red spoke and looks like Kirk Douglas.
Father Time portrayed King Solomon talking like Bill Cosby.
Admiral David Farragut resembling John Wayne.
William Dawes resembled William Shatner.
Edgar Allen Poe spoke like Peter Lorre.
Nikola Tesla resembled Christopher Walken.
Sappho made a brief appearance in one episode as a member of a league of villains based on literary figures. When mentioned, World's Oldest Woman interrupted to say, "She wasn't really into boys."
Lizzie Borden was depicted as a raving lunatic with purse full of weapons and a tendency to scream "WHACK 'EM!" while brandishing her axe in a sketch about female figures of history in a support group. In that sketch, she described herself as "The O.J. of the 1840s", referring to how she was accused of murder and was acquitted.
Cleopatra was overweight and talks about food a lot.
Emily Dickinson was part of a team of superhero writers and is friends with Death.
Vincent van Gogh had an accent mimicing Vincent Price.
Karl Marx notably imitated Groucho Marx and Friedrich Engels filling the role of Chico Marx.
Billy the Kid was the host of a kids' show where he was in jail and encouraged kids to get a rifle from the shed so he can escape. Lydia Karaoke (played by Nora Dunn) interrupts the sketch to point out how dangerous this action is and dresses Billy the Kid as a girl to bring in more female viewers.
Stalin, in the Superfriends sketch, looked like the Incredible Hulk, despite the fact that the Hulk was not a member of the original Superfriends (nor even a DC Comics character). President Franklin D. Roosevelt was portrayed as Batman (with Loud Kiddington as Robin), President Harry S. Truman as Superman, and Eleanor Roosevelt as Wonder Woman. Winston Churchill was also in on the team.
Stonewall Jackson was made to imitate Karl Childers (Billy Bob Thorton's character) from the film Slingblade. He may also be an indirect parody of Bob Dylan and/or Tom Petty, due to his indecipherable voice.
Samuel Prescott was an imitation of Cliff Clavin from Cheers.

[edit] Episodes

The Histeria! Kid Chorus usually consisted of (from left to right) Loud Kiddington, Charity Bazaar, Froggo, and Aka Pella.

Inventors Hall of Fame II
Inventors Hall of Fame I
The U.S. Civil War, part I
The Attack of the Vikings
The Wild West
American Revolution I
More Explorers
The Know-It-Alls
The Renaissance
The U.S. Civil War, part II
Really Oldies But Goodies
The American Revolution part II
A Blast from the Past
China
Tribute to Tyrants
The Montezuma Show
Loud Kiddington's Ancient History
Great Heroes of France
The Terrible Tudors
The Wheel of History
When Time Collides
Around the World in a Daze
Histeria Satellite TV
General Sherman's Campsite
Return to Rome
Megalomaniacs¹
The Russian Revolution
The Thomas Jefferson Program
Hooray For Presidents
The Legion of Super Writers
More China
Writers of the Purple Prose
History Of Flight
Presidential People
Histeria Around the World I
When America Was Young
Super Amazing Constitutions
Better Living Through Science
The Dawn of Time
Music
World War II
The Teddy Roosevelt Show
Communuts!
Histeria Around the World II
Americana
20th Century Presidents
France (The French Revolution)
North America
Histeria Goes to the Moon
Heroes of Truth & Justice
Euro-Mania
Big Fat Baby Theatre

¹ - Two versions of this episode exist: a sketch about Custer's Last Stand (in which the kids mistakenly believe he's running a custard stand) replaced a sketch depicting the Spanish Inquisition as a game show called "Convert or Die" after a complaint from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, who claimed the sketch "[taught] children to reject Catholicism". It has since been restored on In2TV.

[edit] Cameos and cultural references

Bugs Bunny shows up to ask Doc Holiday "what's up?"

Bugs Bunny is brought onto a talk show hosted by Miss Information to deliver his famous line to Doc Holiday. He also makes a cameo in a "hat shop" sketch featuring Abe Lincoln, and he also makes an even briefer cameo in "The Invasion Song", alongside the hillbilles from the Looney Tunes short "Hillbilly Hare".
During a D-Day interview with Dwight D. Eisenhower (Whom had been moved to Omaha Beach for the interview), Daffy Duck takes offense to Loud Kiddington's repeated calls to take cover (i.e.: "DUCK!").
The Tasmanian Devil dons a cow suit to play the role of the Aurochs.
The Battle of Yorktown is covered like the Super Bowl, including commentary by John Madden.
Washington's crossing of the Delaware is told as a poem to the tune of The Night Before Christmas
A song about William Howard Taft is made to the Theme from Shaft
A musical number about Theodore Roosevelt and his anti-trust campaign was sung to the theme of Ghostbusters. Roosevelt was depicted as a 'Trust-Buster' (complete with tan flight suit and proton pack) busting various analogies for trusts, including giant piggy banks.
In "The Wild West", Father Time is shown watching Animaniacs on TV. Also, in "Really Oldie But Goodies", the kids sing to the Animaniacs theme tune when introducing Alexander the Great, and the Pinky and the Brain theme music can be heard during an offscreen mummification, specifically at the point mentioning the removal of the brain.
The show's theme music is the march, Manhattan Beach, by John Philip Sousa.
Occasionally, the show's theme song is replaced by a parody of the theme song to another television show. Among those are the intros to Saturday Night Live, The Addams Family, and The Simpsons.
Loud Kiddington once spoofed Green Eggs and Ham with George H. W. Bush. In this sketch, Loud chases Bush with a plate a broccoli while trying to convince him to eat it (Bush: "I do not like that broccoli, now go away and let me be!").
In "The Renaissance" episode, Leonardo da Vinci spoofs the 1960s Batman series under the alias "Renaissance Man".
At the end of a sketch debating their existence, King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Galahad opt to retreat, shouting out "Run away!" like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
A sketch based on the Boston Tea Party borrows wholesale from the Cheese Shop sketch from an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In this sketch, a British soldier approaches an American running a "tea stand" in front of Boston Harbor, and every time the soldier asks if they have a particular kind of tea, an off-screen splash sound-effect is heard and the American running the "stand" says that they're "out" of it, meaning it has just been dumped into the Harbor.