Mr. Meaty

Mr. Meaty is an American / Canadian television series, airing on CBC Television in Canada and Nickelodeon in the United States. It features the voices of Jamie Shannon, Jason Hopley, Marty Stelnick, and Todd Doldersum. The show is about two lazy teenage boys named Josh Redgrove (voiced by Shannon) and Parker Dinkleman (voiced by Hopley) working at a fast food restaurant called Mr. Meaty (a parody of fast food chains) located inside the Scaunchboro Mall (a name based on the Ontario city of Scarborough). The program ran from September 22, 2006 until May 23, 2009 when production was subsequently cancelled due to poor reviews and low ratings and is now officially out of syndication.

History

The show began as a series of shorts featured on CBC's The Void and in-between shows on Nickelodeon. Many of the original shorts can still be found on iTunes and TurboNick. An 11-minute pilot called "Gone with the Wind" aired on December 30, 2005, which was a retrospective featuring material from the earlier shorts. On September 22, 2006, the series premiered on Nickelodeon. The N (which is now TeenNick) aired a one-night marathon on November 24, 2006 from episodes 1-7, and aired on its regular timeslot on January 15, 2007. It started airing on the Nicktoons (in the United States) on March 10, 2007 and would be shown on the network until November 28, 2010. The show then aired on NDR since September 2010.

Synopsis

The program is centered around a pair of teenage boys working at a fast-food restaurant established in the fictional Scaunchboro Mall; the nerdy, gluttonous, awkward Parker Dinkleman and the charming, popular, but uncaring and self-centered Josh Redgrove. The program commonly places the boys in a bizarre, supernatural, or impossible situation (such as their encounters with a young vampiress named Natalie, their attempts at constructing a girlfriend for Josh from meat named "Barb," and the resurrection of the founder of the Mr. Meaty restaurant from the dead and his evolution into the series as the boys' boss and a prominently-appearing character), which may often be classified into such genres as horror, science fiction, and fantasy, among others. They also are seen dealing with common teenage situations such as dating and popularity.

Characters

• Josh Redgrove is the 16-year-old cashier and the smarter of the two Mr. Meaty employees. Josh is into dating and girls and is often seen hitting on his female customers. He also enjoys making movies, indie-punk, and acting cool. His ambition is to become a filmmaker/rock star. On his job application, he mentions that he enjoys buttering bread and fixing holes. He is voiced by Jamie Shannon.
• Parker Dinkleman is the 15-year-old fry cook at Mr. Meaty. Dim-witted and hygienically challenged, Parker enjoys making movies with his friend Josh and cooking foods. Unfortunately, his gross habits (which includes farting and other bodily noises) scare away girls that Josh is talking to, and for this reason, Parker can be considered Josh's foil. His special skills that he wrote on his job application were "Nunchucks and stopping kids from running". Parker also used to be a member of the Bear Cub Scouts. He is voiced by Jason Hopley.
• Doug is Scaunchboro Mall's beefy mall cop with a buzz haircut, black shades, and a prominent bottom lip. Doug speaks with a macho attitude and is very dedicated to his job. He can be friendly to the kids of the mall, or pretty aggressive to troublemakers. In the episode "Wedgelor," he thwarted the demon by "goin' commando" (which means not wearing underwear) that day to work. He's afraid of zombies (as shown in "Doug of the Dead"), and he was also trained in the martial arts (presumably by Ping). Doug has a liking towards Josh and Parker, and wanted to be a hero to them (to the point of lying by pretend that he fought an army of zombies, and even helped them with their movie in "Doug of the Dead"). He is voiced by Todd Doldersum.
• Edward R. Carney is Mr. Meaty's 109-year-old founder and CEO (as pointed out in Mr. Meaty Employee Training Video #77), previously cryogenically frozen. Carney serves as the main antagonist in a few episodes. He will not rest, until every man, woman and child has a Mr. Meaty meal 5 times a day. He claims that he had nothing, but a bathtub full of pork butt and according to him, he rules "the ninth largest meat buffet in the universe". He is voiced by Marty Stelnick
• Mr. Wink is the manager of Mr. Meaty. His real name is Winklemeyer IV. Wink has an electric chip on the back of his head. Even though he's not exactly an antagonist, he can easily be considered an anti-hero. He's been kind once, but Mr. Carney used the chip to turn him cold, bitter, and robotic. Wink's great-great-great grandpa from many generations ago signed a contract that makes him work at Mr. Carney's side. Apparently, his opinion on being shocked isn't as bad as it used to; in the first few times, he would respond with terror, but later, he seems to see it coming (as in "The Tell-Tale Burger," before Mr. Carney shocked him, he said to himself, "Oh, here it comes!"). He is voiced by Troy Baker.

DVD releases

Nick Picks 5 (one episode: Parkerina)

Broadcast history

US

• Nickelodeon (2006-2007)
• The N (2006-2009)
• TEENick (2006-2007)
• Nicktoons (2007-2010)

Canada

• CBC Television (2007-2009)
• Teletoon (2007-2010)

UK and Ireland

• Nickelodeon (2007-2010)
• Nicktoons (2007-2009)

Australia and New Zealand

• Nickelodeon (2007-2009)

Latin America

• Nickelodeon (2007-2010)

Malaysia

• Nickelodeon

Poland

• Polsat Drama

References

External links

• CBC's Mr. Meaty Page
• Nickelodeon's Mr. Meaty Page
• Mr. Meaty at the Internet Movie Database
• Mr. Meaty at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Mr. Meaty at TV.com