| The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police |
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The title screen for The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police |
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| Format | Animated cartoon |
| Created by | Steve Purcell |
| Voices of | Harvey Atkin Robert Tinkler Tracey Moore |
| Country of origin | United States Canada |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Patrick Loubert Michael Hirsh Clive A. Smith Robert Ross Gwenn Saunders Eckel |
| Producer(s) | Nelvana Limited 20th Century Fox Television |
| Running time | 10–12 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Fox Kids (USA) YTV (Canada) |
| Original run | October 4, 1997 – April 25, 1998 |
The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police or Sam & Max: Freelance Police!!! is an American animated television series starring Sam & Max, a duo of private investigators composed of Sam, an anthropomorphic dog, and Max, a lagomorph or "hyperkinetic rabbity-thing." The show was created by Steve Purcell, also creator of the original comic book series. The series first aired in October 1997 on Fox Kids in the United States and YTV in Canada, producing 24 episodes and winning the 1998 Gemini Award for "Best Animated Series" before it was canceled in April 1998.[1] With the exception of the first and last episodes, which each had a running time of about 20 minutes, each episode was approximately 10 minutes in length, and were usually aired in pairs.
Contents |
The series revolves around the freelance police accepting missions from the mysterious Commissioner, whom they have never seen. The assignments usually lead them into far-off and exotic locales such as the Moon, Mount Olympus, the center of the Earth or the mutant inhabited waters of Bohunk Lagoon. In between these assignments, the pair also manage to squeeze in fridge-spelunking, time-travelling, Bigfoot-hunting and numerous other escapades. There were also holiday themed episodes, such as visiting a prison on Christmas and delivering an artificial heart on Valentine's Day.
| # | Title | Director(s) | Writer(s) | Original Airdate(s) | Code |
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| 01 | "The Thing That Wouldn't Stop It" | Steve Whitehouse | J. D. Smith | October 4, 1997 | |
| A strange monster living inside The Geek's fridge is attacking people. Sam & Max must find a way to stop it! | |||||
| 02A | "The Second Show Ever" | Steve Whitehouse | J. D. Smith | October 11, 1997 | |
| Sam & Max show up at a school's Career Day and take the class to space, where they meet an alien who is plotting to destroy the Earth. Can they stop him and look good for the kids? | |||||
| 02B | "Max's Big Day" | Steve Whitehouse | J. D. Smith | October 11, 1997 | |
| Sam & Max are dropped on an island and the New Guinea Pigs think Max is their 'chosen one'. But Max must say goodbye to Sam... can he really do it? | |||||
| 03A | "Bad Day on the Moon" | Steve Whitehouse | Steve Purcell | October 18, 1997 | |
| Taken from the comic, Sam and Max travel to the moon to help rat people handle their roach problem. | |||||
| 03B | "They Came from Down There" | Steve Whitehouse | Hugh Duffy | October 25, 1997 | |
| The population of a town has now become a mass of fish-like zombies, thanks to Mack Salmon's plan of Sea Chimp food products. | |||||
| 04A | "The Friend for Life" | Steve Whitehouse | Steve Purcell | November 1, 1997 | |
| Lorne, The Friend for Life, accidentally lets 'The Mad Thespian' get away. So, Lorne takes him hostage to try to force Sam & Max to hang out with him at his twisted fun house. | |||||
| 04B | "Dysfunction of the Gods" | Steve Whitehouse | Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir | October 18, 1997 | |
| Zeus & Hera are angry and fighting, and if the Freelance Police don't rekindle their love for each other, Sam & Max will age rapidly. | |||||
| 05A | "Big Trouble at the Earth's Core" | Steve Whitehouse | Bob Ardiel | October 25, 1997 | |
| Sam & Max must go to the center of the Earth to stop the mole-men from blowing up the Earth by lowering the core temperature - and help them find dates! | |||||
| 05B | "A Glitch in Time" | Steve Whitehouse | Dale Schott | November 1, 1997 | |
| Max obtains a time traveling watch which he and Sam use to alter their own history (back when they were children), causing Sam to have never become a member of the Freelance Police. | |||||
| 06A | "That Darn Gator" | Steve Whitehouse | Jamie Tatham | November 8, 1997 | |
| Sam & Max try and raise a baby alligator in their deranged life style. | |||||
| 06B | "We Drop at Dawn" | Steve Whitehouse | Hugh Duffy | December 13, 1997 | |
| Sam & Max drop into the jungle (Central Park) to look for the Commissioner's keys. | |||||
| 07A | "Christmas Bloody Christmas" | Steve Whitehouse | Steve Purcell | December 20, 1997 | |
| Sam & Max spend Christmas with Sam's grandma at her maximum security prison on Blood Island. But the criminals attempt a jailbreak and the Freelance Police must round them up. | |||||
| 07B | "It's Dangly Deever Time" | Steve Whitehouse | Steve Purcell, Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir | February 6, 1998 | |
| After their TV goes out, they try to watch a show on the Geek's antique TV and bring a Howdy Doody-like character to life. But while they are gone, Dangly Deever's evil twin attempts to take over the city. | |||||
| 08A | "Aaiiieee Robot" | Steve Whitehouse | Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir | February 27, 1998 | |
| After stopping a meteor from hitting Earth with the Mega Max 3000 robot, it sits and rusts away. So, they send it to Japan, where it battles a giant baby. | |||||
| 08B | "The Glazed McGuffin Affair" | Steve Whitehouse | Bob Ardiel | February 13, 1998 | |
| Sam & Max try to get Kent Standit, who has banned the Freelance Police's favorite snack 'Glazed McGuffins', to change his mind, by forcing him to at least try one. | |||||
| 09A | "The Tell Tale Tail" | Steve Whitehouse | Tim Burns | February 20, 1998 | |
| A Sam & Max version of Frankenstein. (Max's tail is severed in an accident, and they reanimate it while the doctor also creates a monster! (the tail, that is)) | |||||
| 09B | "The Trouble with Gary" | Steve Whitehouse | Tracy Berna | February 20, 1998 | |
| Sam & Max help babysit the child who changes things with his mind, who helps the Freelance Police with stopping crime and learns how to have fun (Sam & Max style). | |||||
| 10A | "Tonight We Love" | Steve Whitehouse | Hugh Duffy | February 13, 1998 | |
| Sam & Max must deliver an artificial heart to the President on Valentine's Day; but the DeSoto is stolen by a loving couple. | |||||
| 10B | "The Invaders" | Steve Whitehouse | Marty Isenberg & Robert N. Skir | February 27, 1998 | |
| Two tiny aliens are constantly trying to eliminate Sam & Max (and no matter what they do, the Freelance Police can not stop the Invaders) | |||||
| 11A | "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" | Steve Whitehouse | Hugh Duffy | February 6, 1998 | |
| Sam & Max must play 007 to stop T.R.U.S.S. leader 'Larvo' and her fast-food minions from releasing an obnoxious tourist virus. | |||||
| 11B | "Little Bigfoot" | Steve Whitehouse | Steve Purcell | April 4, 1998 | |
| The Freelance Police save a kid sasquatch from being a bus boy and try to send it into the wild with its own kind. | |||||
| 12A | "Fools Die on Friday" | Steve Whitehouse | Jamie Tatham | April 11, 1998 | |
| Sam & Max attempt to foil a blimp hijacking aimed to crash into The Statue of Liberty, only to find the demented terrorist is Lorne, the Friend for Life. | |||||
| 12B | "Sam & Max vs. the Uglions" | Steve Whitehouse | Tim Burns & J. D. Smith | April 18, 1998 | |
| Aliens open a new restaurant, "The Frying Saucer", that serves people (no really, it's people!). Sam & Max must stop the aliens before the US government start a nuclear holocaust to try to stop the aliens. | |||||
| 13 | "The Final Episode" | Steve Whitehouse | J. D. Smith | April 25, 1998 | |
| Mack Salmon and most of the villains from the season try to kill Sam & Max by strapping them to a bomb and dropping them into a volcano. Can they get free and subdue the bad guys, all while reliving flashbacks from their early life? | |||||
| -- | "Vice Squad" | November 8, 1997 | |||
| Short episode featuring Sam & Max showing what fun it is to put junk in your dad's vice. | |||||
| -- | "Our Bewildering Universe! 'Chock Full O Guts'" | April 13, 1998 | |||
| Short episode, starring Sam & Max describing the human body, featuring the Pancreas! | |||||
| -- | "Artsy Craftsy Bit Of Time-Wasting Nonsense" | ? | |||
| Short episode featuring Sam & Max showing how to make a Max paper bag puppet. The script and images are from the comics and have been reprinted several times since its original publication. | |||||
Selected episodes from the series had been released in three separate compilations on VHS by Sullivan Entertainment. The episodes included in the VHS compilations are as follows:
| The Y Files | All Creatures Great and Small | Come Fly With Me |
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On March 11, 2008, the complete series was released by Shout! Factory. Features include original case art by Steve Purcell, three 'educational' shorts, an interview with Purcell, a short featurette about Telltale Games, an art gallery, an "Original Series Bible", a flash-based cartoon titled 'Our Bewildering Universe' and a playable demo of Ice Station Santa. A sticker of the Sam & Max title card was also included.
GameTap announced on October 11, 2006 that they would be releasing one episode from the series each week on GameTap TV, as a promotion for Telltale Games' Sam & Max: Season One.[2] Their schedule includes a release of every episode, appearing out of order. Up until mid-July 2008 all episodes (except "Fools Die on Friday", possibly due to the September 11 terrorist attacks) were available to watch online at GameTap for free until the GameTap TV section was closed down as part of a site redesign.[3]
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