| The Boondocks | |
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The main characters of The Boondocks From left: Huey, Riley, and Robert Freeman |
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| Genre | Animated comedy, Sitcom Action, Satire, Dark comedy |
| Created by | Aaron McGruder |
| Voices of | Regina King John Witherspoon Cedric Yarbrough Gary Anthony Williams Jill Talley Gabby Soleil |
| Theme music composer | Asheru |
| Country of origin | United States South Korea |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 45 (2 unaired in the U.S.) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Aaron McGruder Rodney Barnes |
| Producer(s) | Brian Ash Seung Eun Kim |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Sony Pictures Television Adelaide Productions Rebel Base Dong Woo Animation JM Animation (2010-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Adult Swim |
| Picture format | 4:3 SDTV (2005-2009) 16:9 HDTV (2010-present) |
| Original run | November 6, 2005 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Boondocks is an American animated series created by Aaron McGruder on Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim, based on McGruder's comic strip of the same name. The Boondocks is a social satire of African American culture and race relations revolving around the lives of the Freeman family: ten-year-old Huey, his younger brother, eight-year-old Riley, and their grandfather, Robert. The series is produced by Rebel Base and has finished airing its third season on Adult Swim. In a 2011 interview, cast member, John Witherspoon announced that the series has been renewed for a fourth season, which will consist of 20 episodes.[1] Voice casting director Andrea Romano stated at Comic Con 2011 that season four is headed into production.[2]
The Boondocks takes place in the same place and time frame as its comic counterpart. The Freeman family, having recently moved from the South Side of Chicago, Illinois to the peaceful suburb of Woodcrest,[3][4] find different ways to cope with this acute change in setting as well as the drastically different suburban cultures and lifestyles to which they are exposed. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, and races provides for much of the comedy in this series.
The series premiered on November 6, 2005. The 15-episode first season ended on March 19, 2006. The second season premiered on October 8, 2007. (Two of its 15 episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show," were not aired, but they appeared on the DVD release.) The third season began airing on May 2, 2010 and concluded on August 15, 2010. On May 9, 2011, an interview with Witherspoon was uploaded to YouTube, in which he stated that a 20-episode fourth season will be made.[5]
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The Boondocks began its life as a comic strip in The Diamondback, the student newspaper at McGruder's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park. The strip later found its way into The Source magazine. Following these runs, McGruder began simultaneously pitching The Boondocks both as a syndicated comic strip and as an animated television series.[6] The former goal was met first, and The Boondocks debuted in newspapers in April 1999.
In the meantime, development on a Boondocks TV series continued. McGruder and film producer/director Reginald Hudlin created a Boondocks pilot for the Fox Network, but found great difficulty in making the series acceptable for network television. Hudlin left the project after the Fox deal fell through, although McGruder and Sony Television are contractually bound to continue to credit him as an executive producer.[7] Mike Lazzo president of Adult Swim and executive producer for Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Space Ghost Coast to Coast stumbled across the pilot and declared it too networky and ordered a 15 episode season and told McGruder to just tell stories.
The series has a loose connection with the continuity of the comic strip, though during the final year of the comic strip McGruder made a point to try to synchronize both. He introduced Uncle Ruckus into the strip, and the comic strip version of Riley's hair was braided into Cornrows to match the character's design in the series.
During the series' first season, McGruder put the strip on a six-month hiatus beginning in March 2006. He did not return to the strip the following November, and the strip's syndicate, Universal Press Syndicate, announced that it had been cancelled.[8]
The opening theme song used in the series (slightly remixed for the second season and again for the third season) is performed by hip-hop artist Asheru.
Both the comic strip and the cartoon named after it were influenced by McGruder's love of anime and manga.[9] He cites Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo as sources of inspiration for the series' fight scenes. The opening sequence of season 1 is also remarkably similar to that of Samurai Champloo, and the opening to season 2 was rather similar to the intro of Cowboy Bebop, using a trumpet as part of the opening theme mix (The trumpet is a prevalent instrument in jazz music, which was the primary style of music performed in Cowboy Bebop's theme and soundtrack). The season one intro used a record scratching sound effect in the opening theme as well (Record scratching is commonly used in hip hop music which was the main theme for Samurai Champloo) Some of the humor is based on the characters' anime-style movements.[10] The second and third seasons features segments animated by Japanese animation studio Madhouse.[11] As a result, the following seasons of the series have more detailed animation, as well as minor updates for most of the character designs. Season 3 began airing on May 2, 2010.
On January 2006, The Boondocks was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 37th NAACP Image Awards, alongside The Bernie Mac Show, winner Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, and Half & Half. For the episode "Return of the King," the show won a Peabody Award in 2006. As of July 8, 2010, The Boondocks had a 72% rating on MetaCritic, based on 21 reviews.[12]
Critic Jeffrey M. Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner said, "Each episode is beautifully crafted, with an eye on lush, shadowy visuals and a pulsing, jazz-like rhythm... the show is almost consistently funny, consistently brilliant, and, best of all, compulsively watchable."[13] It was named the 94th best animated series by IGN, who describe it as a sharp satirical look at American society.[14]
Mike Hale of the New York Times has considered The Boondocks among the top television shows of 2010, citing the episode "Pause" as a "painfully funny" satire of Tyler Perry being portrayed as a superstar actor and a leader of a homoerotic cult.[15]
This isn't the 'nigga' show. I just wish we would expand the dialogue and evolve past the same conversation that we've had over the past 30 years about race in our country. […] I just hope to expand the dialogue and hope the show will challenge people to think about things they wouldn't normally think about, or think about it in a very different way.
The Boondocks was a frequent lightning rod for controversy since its debut as a comic strip in 1999, with ABC News noting, "Fans and critics of The Boondocks loved and hated the strip for the same reasons: its cutting-edge humor and unapologetic, sometimes unpopular, views on various issues, including race, politics, the war on terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks."[16] Numerous outlets predicted the show would encounter controversy prior to its November 2005 debut, due to its casual use of the word "nigga."[17][18] According to an article in The Washington Post, references to Rosa Parks were removed from one of the series' first completed episodes within a week of her death.[19] In 2006, the Reverend Al Sharpton protested the first season episode "Return of the King," for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s character's use of the word "nigga," saying "Cartoon Network must apologize and also commit to pulling episodes that desecrate black historic figures." Cartoon Network released a statement in response defending McGruder: "We think Aaron McGruder came up with a thought-provoking way of not only showing Dr. King's bravery but also of reminding us of what he stood and fought for, and why even today, it is important for all of us to remember that and to continue to take action," the statement said.[20] The episode was later awarded a Peabody Award for being "an especially daring episode."[21]
During The Boondocks' second season, two episodes were banned from airing without any official word from the network.[22][23] Originally slated to air on November 16 and December 17,[23] "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show" were both heavily critical of BET. An exclusive clip of "The Hunger Strike" was given to HipHopDX.com in late January 2008, before both episodes were included in full on the Season 2 DVD release that summer. An anonymous source close to the show told HipHopDX.com that they heard BET had been pressuring Sony (the studio behind The Boondocks) to ban the episodes and threatened legal action.[23] Cartoon Network publicly stated that "...neither Turner nor Adult Swim were contacted by BET, Ms. Lee or Mr. Hudlin." However, BET's parent company, Viacom, did threaten legal action against Sony if said episodes were broadcast to air in the United States.[24]
Tyler Perry was reportedly infuriated by his depiction in the third season episode "Pause," first aired in June 2010. The episode stars Winston Jerome, a parody of Perry, a "closeted, cross-dressing cult leader whose love of the Christian faith is a mask for his true sexuality," in what the Los Angeles Times described as "one of the sharpest public criticisms of Perry."[25] Soon after the episode aired, Perry got in touch with executives at Turner Broadcasting and "complained loudly" about the episode, threatening to rethink his relationship with the company.[26] At the time, Perry had two shows (House of Payne and Meet the Browns) in rotation on TBS.[25] In 2010, Time magazine named The Boondocks as fifth out of 10 of the Most Controversial Cartoons of All Time.[27]
The Boondocks airs on Adult Swim in the United States, Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block in Canada, and Season 2 has aired on The Comedy Channel (pay TV network) in Australia. Sony Entertainment Television (and later Sony Max) broadcasts the show in Africa on DSTV. It has also been aired on TV3 and TV6 in Sweden, on Comedy Central (part of SkyTV) in New Zealand, MTV Italy and Comedy Central Italy in Italy, and on 3+ in Denmark and Russia The Boondocks is aired on channel 2×2 under the name of Гетто (Ghetto in English),[28] and in France on MCM.
It also airs on Animax in Latin America, Germany, and in Hungary (under the name of A kertvárosi gettó (The suburban ghetto)). It also airs on Sony Entertainment Television (Latin America).
The Boondocks has also aired uncensored and uncut in the Arab World on OSN.
All three seasons are available on DVD, with uncensored dialogue. Season 1 was also released on UMD.
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