Stressed Eric

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stressed Eric is a cartoon series that was produced by the UK's Absolutely Productions for the BBC Two TV channel in the United Kingdom. The cartoons revolve around Eric Feeble, a middle class man who is always stressed out, because of his family, work, co-workers, etc. The animation for the first season was carried out by American studio Klasky Csupo.

NBC bought the rights to air it shortly after its initial airing in the UK, ceased broadcasting the show after just three episodes, despite changes being made to the cartoon: cutting 4 minutes from each episode due to the 8 minutes of commercial time required and giving Eric an American accent to make the story revolve more around an American living in England. The American version ran on NBC from August 12, 1998 to August 26, 1998, after which Stressed Eric was never seen again in any form in the United States.

The show's original publicity claimed that it was the first British animated show that could challenge American shows such as The Simpsons.^{[citation needed]} Some critics felt that this claim was undermined by the fact that the show was animated by an American company.^{[citation needed]}

The original unedited version aired in Canada on YTV beginning with "Nativity" in December of 1999, and the rest of the series airing Friday nights the following year. It proved a reasonable success, and series two was aired in 2001.

The series was also shown on Australia's The Comedy Channel.

Contrary to popular myth, the series has since been repeated in full in the UK on both BBC Choice and UK Play (both of which are now defunct). There are no plans to release the series on DVD.

1 Overview
2 List of characters
3 Voice cast
4 List of episodes
- 4.1 Series 1
- 4.2 Series 2
5 External links

[edit] Overview

Eric Feeble is 40 years old, still upset over his divorce two years ago, lives in a middle class London flat, and is always being kept under extreme amounts of pressure and stress from all aspects of life. His two children, Claire and Brian, plague him with fear and worries every day; for Claire is a frail six year old allergic to ponies, spices, etc, while Brian is a nine-year old with learning problems and has been kept back three years straight in Grade One. The family's au pair housekeeper Maria is an eighteen year old Portuguese woman with a drinking problem. Despite Eric's frequent attempts to keep her under control and focused, she seems to find herself passed out on the couch intoxicated for hours at a time. His ex-wife Liz left him for a Buddhist, but she always wants to get back together with him, calling him constantly on some occasions, which merely adds to his growing stress level. The next-door neighbours, the wealthy, successful, and snobbish Perfect family, provide him a constant and painful view of what his life could have been.

Going to work is no escape from his everyday problems either. His boss, Paul Power, is loud, rude, and demanding of him, and Eric has been demoted from Assistant Manager to a low-level clerk in an office sandwiched between the janitor's closet and the men's washroom.

[edit] List of characters

Eric Feeble - Stressed out divorced father of two children.
Claire Feeble - Daughter of Eric and allergic to basically everything.
Brian Feeble - Son of Eric who has not learned to talk and is always putting things in his mouth.
Maria - The Feeble family's live-in au pair, she is Portuguese and always drunk.
Liz - Eric's eccentric and slightly psychotic ex-wife.
Mr. Perfect - Snobbish and "perfect" next door neighbour of Eric. Shares Eric's workplace but is senior and consistently praised for his fine work.
Mrs. Perfect - Snobbish wife of Mr. Perfect. Catchphrase: "How art thou, Eric?"
Heather Perfect - Snobbish daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Perfect.
Paul Power aka P.P - Boss of Eric who is usually very angry. Catchphrase: "Double arseburgers, Eric!"
Alison - Eric's useless secretary who spends all her time on the phone to friends.
Doc - Eric's dementedly relaxed doctor, more interested in chasing women than treating Eric.
Mrs Wilson - An old lady who slowly tries in vain to post a letter, whereupon it always falls from her hand and into a drain, sometimes with Eric to blame. Catchphrase: "Morning Mister Eric. Just off to the post..."