Crashbox

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Crashbox
Format Educational
Created by Cuppa Coffee Animation
Developed by Planet Grande
Country of origin Flag of Canada Canada
Language(s) English
No. of episodes 26
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Eamon Harrington
Camera setup Single Camera
Running time 25 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel HBO Family
Original run 1999 – 2001
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Crashbox is an educational television series that airs on the HBO Family digital cable television channel in the United States. It aims to educate grade-school children in history, math, vocabulary, and other various subjects.

The show takes place in a game machine where green game cartridges (which are sculpted out of clay) are created and loaded by rusty robots. Each half-hour episode consists of at least seven 2-to-3-minute educational games.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Creation Team

Crashbox is created by Planet Grande Pictures, and is animated by Cuppa Coffee Studio, headed by Adam Shaheen. Planet Grande Pictures gave Cuppa Coffee Studios a time frame to complete 13 hours of programming in 7 months time.[1]

[edit] Games

  • Captain Bones: The skeleton pirate, Captain Bones, uses his bones to make puzzles to save him "from going stark ravin' mad." Many puzzles consist of incorrect math problems that need to be solved (e.g. 1 + 1 = 3 changes to 1 + 1 = 2 by moving one bone on the 3) or puzzles that need to be arranged to make another image (e.g. 5 squares need to be changed to 4 squares).
  • Dirty Pictures: Similar to Haunted House Party, the viewer must figure out who the most well-known person is by watching parts of a picture dusted off by a dust maid and reading the museum keeper's cue cards.
  • Distraction News: In this recurring game of staying focused, Dora Smarmy, the cardboard anchorperson, tells the news of a particular topic while nonsensical distractions run amuck onscreen. After talking about the topic, she asks the viewers five questions about the topic.
  • Ear We Are: In this game, the viewers need to listen to sounds and figure out what thing or place two different human ears are thinking about.
  • Eddie Bull: At the Walla-Walla Washington Zoo, a boy named Eddie Bull (a pun on 'edible'), is swallowed whole by an unseen animal and gives the viewers clues (trivial facts about an animal) to have them figure out what animal swallowed him alive. After he tells the viewer what the animal is, he manages to come out alive in the end.
  • Haunted House Party: At a haunted house party, a famous dead person is the special guest whose silhouette is seen through windows. The viewers have to listen to the person's historical facts and figure out who he/she is.
  • Lens McCracken: In order to figure out what happened in crime scene, Lens shows the viewers three different things that are zoomed in very closely and has them figure out what those things are.
  • Like Totally Paige and Sage: In one minute, the viewers must find ten differences between two panels. Both panels have the same background, but both girls have the differences in their own panels.
  • Mug Shots: Verity, a New Yorkish detective, gets four suspects pinned down and allows the viewers to spot which three are guilty by listening to their lies. The suspect who says something truthful and trivial is innocent.
  • Poop or Scoop: A sideshow caller, whose arms and cane are only seen, shows four different animals and a fact that relates to each one. If one fact is true, viewers would choose "SCOOP." If false, they choose "POOP."
  • Psycho Math: Prof. Rocket, the host with a crazy persona, lets viewers solve answers by showing pictures that represent a particular number (e.g. Number of letters of the alphabet = 26, Number of days in a week = 7). Three pictures are placed in the first three boxes with a question mark in the fourth box (e.g. # x # - # = ?). Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division signs are used randomly.
  • Radio Scramble: At KBOX, "Jumpin' Johnny Jumble", an anthropomorphic mic and radio host, plays tunes to let the viewers figure out what words the jumbled letters really make. The music will always relate to the unscrambled word (for example, if the original, unscrambled word was "mouse", the tune might be about how a "soume" kept squeaking). The beginning and end always show off an example of mixing the word "jumble" (e.g. meljub).
  • Revolting Slob: In every episode, an offscreen female narrator teaches the viewers three new vocabulary words based on the Revolting Slob's behaviors and actions. Multiple choices are given before the correct word is revealed. In the end, one word from the third multiple choice section has to do with the Revolting Slob exploding into nothingness, and the narrator closes the episode with "No slobs were harmed in the filming of this show."
  • Riddle-Snake: After the Riddle-Snake plays a tune which brings up a riddle, viewers are given time to figure out the riddle before the guy who never opens his eyes reveals the answer.
  • Sketch Pad: On his sketch pad, the beatnik draws pictures that tell a story and omits a picture so the viewers try figure out what really happened before the final picture of the story.
  • Ten Seconds: A fun fast-paced game where viewers must figure out what the answer is to a picture of certain words within ten seconds. (2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd = Ten Seconds. Hence, the title).
  • Think Tank: Captain Bob, a Jamaican submarine driver, is stuck in a large fish tank. Before all the water in the tank goes down the drain and the sub reaches the ground, the viewers need to figure out what three given things have in common. Each episode consists of two rounds.
  • Word Shake: In this game similar to Mad Gab, a French chef takes two to three words together and forms them into another word that sounds like the two to three words said together.

[edit] Voice cast

  • Carlos Alazraqui - Additional Haunted House Party Guests
  • Maggie Baird - Verity
  • Veena Bidasha - Riddlesnake Raj
  • S. Scott Bullock - Captain Bones, Lens McCracken
  • Greg Eagles - Captain Bob, Sketch Pad
  • Arif S. Kinchen - Professor Rocket
  • Peter Lurie - Jumpin' Johnny Jumble
  • Dawn Maxey - Valley Girl Voice in Like Totally Paige and Sage
  • Edie McClurg - Female Polite Voice in Revolting Slob
  • Michael McShane - The Revolting Slob
  • Ritchie Montgomery - Eddie Bull
  • Alan Schlaifer - Ten Seconds Announcer, Butler in Haunted House Party, Left Ear
  • Jerry Stiller - Host
  • John Watkin - Horrid One, Right Ear, Word Shake Chef
  • Mari Weiss - Dora Smarmy
  • Danny Wells - Poop or Scoop Announcer

[edit] Trivia

  • There are many clips repeated through out the series:
    • The game system being run by robots and machines.
    • The game system overloading, and being turned back on by a robot.
  • Mug Shots is the only game to utilize live-action clips.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Eichhorn, P: "Cuppa Coffee brews up a special blend of animation", Take One Magazine, Summer, 1999, No. 24