Gravedale High

Gravedale High (also known as Rick Moranis in Gravedale High) is an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera for NBC Productions (the latter company owns all rights to the series). The series premiered in the fall of 1990 on NBC and lasted thirteen episodes.

The show was developed as an animated vehicle for Moranis, who had star appearances in the Ghostbusters movies and the film series Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.

Storyline

The show revolves around the misadventures of human teacher Max Schneider who has unwittingly taken a job at Gravedale High, a school for monsters, near the city of Midtown. Schneider, the only human in the school, presides over a group of ghoulish teenagers that are latest-generation versions of classic movie monsters (many of which had appeared in movies from Universal, coincidentally enough).

Most are either disruptive, uninterested, and/or unduly self-preoccupied in school, and the class is generally considered disreputable if not uncontrollable (not unlike "the Sweathogs" in Welcome Back, Kotter), the implication being Schneider was hired to teach the class because no monster teacher would take the job.

The actual "town" of Gravedale is occasionally seen and consists primarily of multiple cemeteries, including the Eastside Cemetery and the Midtown Mausoleum. It can thus arguably be considered a "suburb" of Midtown, although few humans seem to know of its existence. In addition to the students' homes, it is known to include a doctor's office (which is run by a medical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as seen in "Fear of Flying") and a literal body shop, where people can purchase parts to assemble monsters. The existence of a charitable organization known as the United Monster Fund (dedicated to helping schools like Gravedale High "around the world") indicates Gravedale is part of an entire monster subculture.

Characters

• Maxwell Schneider (voiced by Rick Moranis) - A human teacher in his late 30s to early 40s. Slight frame and very thin physique. Very much the grown up nerd and very proud of being a teacher who can make a difference. Dresses in a plain preppy business suit attire. Always wears a polka-dotted bow tie. Thick dark horn-rimmed glasses. Auburn wavy hair with warm brown eyes. His personality is quirky but very steady (it has to be... being in charge of his motley young crew); friendly, fun, open-minded, and one of the hardest working teachers on the Gravedale High staff. He'd be just like one of the monsters, if he wasn't already human. A dedicated instructor who truly cares for each of his students.

• Vinnie Stoker (voiced by Roger Rose) - A vampire who is a Fonz-esque version of Count Dracula. His name is an homage to Bram Stoker and the common habit in fiction of giving vampires names that begin with V. He dresses like a 1950s greaser and often arrives late to class, which stems more from his lack of interest in academia than noctural habits. This is source of much debate between Schneider and Vinnie, who spends a lot of his keeping his boots of his desk. Vinnie is lazy by nature but will do "studious things" or do hard work if it serves his best interest.

• Frankentyke (voiced by Frank Welker) - A child reminiscent of both Frankenstein's Monster and Bart Simpson (to the extent that he addresses everyone as "man"). His short stature is the antithesis of the classic image of a hulking, frightening monster. As seen in Night of the Living Dad, his father is a human scientist who evidently created him; he apparently has no mother.

• Reggie Moonshroud (voiced by Barry Gordon) - A geeky red-haired werewolf, Reggie is prone to shedding a great deal when nervous, and can sometimes howl, but overall has his emotions under control (the opposite of werewolves being associated with carnal instincts). As a nod to Richie Cunningham from Happy Days, he and the Fonz-like Vinnie are best friends, which was also a play on the show's antithesis of the classic monster movie genre, which often depicts werewolves and vampires as mortal enemies.

• J.P. Ghastly III (voiced by Frank Welker) - A wealthy blue-skinned gnome-like monster; Sid once referred to him as a "quirk." His monster classification is unidentified but his voice and mannerisms resemble Peter Lorre. There is a bit of rivalry between him and Vinnie.

• Gill Waterman (voiced by Jackie Earle Haley) - A lagoon creature and surfer dude. His name is a pun on both concepts, and he frequently uses, and overuses, surfer lingo. Best friends with Frankentyke. Gill likes to surf, idolizes famed surfer Kahuna Bob, and has a very voracious appetite. As seen in Night of the Living Dad, Gil's parents dress in Southern aristocracy attire (perhaps as a nod to the Black Lagoon's location in South America), but Mr. Waterman shares his son's fondness for surfer lingo.

• Cleofatra (voiced by Ricki Lake) - An obese and somewhat nerdy mummy in contrast to the emaciated appearance generally associated with mummies. Her name is usually abbreviated as "Cleo." Best friends with Duzer. Cleofatra has a crush on TV monster celebrity Billy Headstone who is the star of the daytime soap opera "Trudy and the Beast" (which is a parody of the 1980s show Beauty and the Beast).

• Sid (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - A student who is based on the Invisible Man. Sid is the class clown and does various impersonations (implying that perhaps he and his name were inspired by Sid Caesar), in contrast to the idea of the "invisible" one of the class being unnoticed. Oddly, Sid, like many cartoon anthropomorphic animals, apparently does not wear pants, unless his pants are invisible as the rest of his wardrobe is not. Sid's parents are also talented impersonators, as seen in Night of the Living Dad.

• Blanche (voiced by Shari Belafonte) - A zombie Southern belle who loves to shop, making her a literal "mall zombie." Her name and personality comprise a pun on "blanche" as a synonym for "turn pale" and Blanche DuBois (in the episode "Monster Gumbo", she comments that she has "always depended on the kindness of monsters" parodying a line from A Streetcar Named Desire). Blanche frequently dates J.P., although it is implied she finds his money the most attractive trait. Blanche is a shopaholic who is frequently teased by her classmates about how many credit cards she's maxed out. She is a bit of a clothes horse. She does sew her own clothes and can cook, though she doesn't like domestic duties, her ambition being to marry the richest monster in the world; J.P.'s ambition, in turn, is to be the richest monster in the world.

• Duzer (voiced by Kimmy Robertson) - A snake-haired gorgon Valley girl and parody of Medusa (which is her actual first name with "Duzer" being an abbreviation) minus the petrifying gaze. Her response to anyone who annoys her is "Get a life!" which is ironic in that many Gravedale students and staff members are in fact already dead. She is very pretty, vain, competitive, bossy, and likes to be the center of attention with all the boys, particularly Vinnie, who she seems to have a unrequited crush on. In the first episode, Duzer replies that she can't do anything with her snake hair and Cleo offers to help her "get her hair ready for Vinnie." Duzer states that she doesn't have a crush on Vinnie Stoker. Frankentyke swipes her diary off her desk and reads out loud a passage about that reveals otherwise. Scheinder enters the classroom just as Duzer gives chase and states that Frankentyke took her diary. Tyke throws the evidence out the window. Vinnie flies into the window with said diary and tries to read it before Duzer yells at him "If you read that, you're dead." Afterwards nothing was mentioned about the relationship in the animated series.

Other students

Other recurring students include:

• Alpha-Mae Centauri - A centaur.

• Blobby - A student reminiscent of The Blob.

• Busby - A human fly.

• Elephant Boy (voiced by Frank Welker) - A literally elephant-like parody of the Elephant Man. He speaks with a cultured British accent. One of two students who seriously campaigned for Class President (although Vinnie campaigned just for kicks and won).

• Iggy - A hunchbacked student that resembles the stereotypical "Igor" type of mad scientist assistant. Iggy has a zipper along the length of his scalp implying he is both hunchback and a Frankenstein-type monster. He tends to forget his brain and is often scolded by Headmistress Crone for this.

• Moorehead - A Metaluna Mutant that is a student in Coach Cadaver's class.

• Nardo - A gargoyle jock who is Vinnie's rival in sports. He is also a student in Coach Cadaver's class.

• Natasha Neckinski - A vampire girl with a European accent in contrast to the thoroughly Americanized Vinnie.

• Rover (voiced by Frank Welker) - A dog-boy that speaks in a manner similar to Scooby-Doo.

• Seymour (voiced by Barry Gordon) - A cyclops.

• Suey - A pig-girl. Like Elephant Boy, she seriously campaigned for Class President. The two performed a Romeo and Juliet-like recital at a talent show, suggesting they are dating.

There are also some unidentified students resembling the monsters from The Brain from Planet Arous, The Crawling Eye, and other films.

Teachers

The bespectacled Mr. Schneider has his hands full with his new students, but he has Gravedale’s spooky staff (where some of them initially do not trust Schneider due to his human status but develop a camaraderie with him as the overall story arc develops) to help him out. Like Schneider, each teacher oversees a specific class of students. Gravedale High's staff include:

• Headmistress Crone (voiced by Georgia Brown) - The strict principal who runs the school with an iron albeit easily detachable left hand. As her name implies, she is a witch-like monster. Her grandfather Cretin Crone founded the school and later passed it on to his son Addlepate. She can be ruthless to troublemaking monsters and faculty who do not toe the line, but is generally an able administrator. Although Headmistress Crone considered herself taking a risk hiring a human teacher, she knew she made the right decision when Schneider disciplined the unruly "misfit" class, and now works to give him support.
  • Clawford (vocal effects provided by Frank Welker): Headmistress' Crone's undead cat who is periodically seen hunting and being outwitted by a hunchbacked rat called Belle, thus named because, much like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, she rings the school tower's bell.

• Boneyard (voiced by Brock Peters) - A lanky white-haired staff member dressed like an undertaker. He does various jobs at Gravedale High like bus driver, driver's ed teacher, and Gravedale Gazette printing press operator. He somewhat resembles the Tall Man from the Phantasm films.

• Coach Cadaver (voiced by Jonathan Winters) - A hot-headed zombie (his head is stitched together at the top, making his brain removable) who works as both classroom teacher and coach. He is categorized by Crone as a "human-hater." He dislikes Schneider's students (calling them "misfits") as well as Schneider himself (whose hiring he opposed). His attitude is generally disliked by the Gravedale faculty, as opposed to Schenider's easy going demeanor.

• Miss Dirge (voiced by Eileen Brennan) - A teacher that resembles the Bride of Frankenstein. She shows a mild romantic interest in Schneider, as she admits some monster women find human men attractive. Her name is a play on dirge, or mournful funeral song.

• Chef Sal Monella (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - An unspecified monster that works as a chef in the school cafeteria. He takes pride in his filthy kitchen. His name is an obvious pun on salmonella.

• Mr. Tutner (voiced by Tim Curry) - A mummy history teacher, well over five thousand years old, with bad breath who wears sunglasses and a coat and tie. Mr. Tutner is pugdy, a trait shared by Cleofatra as the opposite of mummies being associated with sickliness and emaciation. He gets along well with Schneider, and tried to compete for a charity fundraising award by attributing his long life to pyramid power.

• Miss Webner (voiced by Sandra Gould) - As the word "web" in her name suggests, she is a spider-woman having six arms and two legs.

Episodes

Cast

• Rick Moranis - Max Schneider
• Shari Belafonte - Blanche
• Eileen Brennan - Miss Dirge
• Georgia Brown - Headmistress Crone
• Tim Curry - Mr. Tutner
• Barry Gordon - Reggie Moonshroud, Seymour
• Sandra Gould - Miss Webner
• Jackie Earle Haley - Gill Waterman
• Ricki Lake - Cleofatra
• Maurice LaMarche - Sid, Chef Sal Monella
• Brock Peters - Boneyard
• Kimmy Robertson - Duzer
• Roger Rose - Vinnie Stoker
• Frank Welker - Frankentyke, J.P. Ghastly, Clawford, Elephant Boy, Rover, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Jonathan Winters - Coach Cadaver

Additional voices

• Charlie Adler
• Lewis Arquette
• Susan Blu
• Sorrell Booke
• Pat Buttram
• Ruth Buzzi
• Hamilton Camp
• Dena Dietrich
• Joan Gerber
• Phil Hartman - Billy Headstone
• David Lander
• Mitzi McCall
• Edie McClurg
• Tom McHugh
• Howard Morris
• Robert Ridgely
• Richard Sanders
• Russi Taylor
• B.J. Ward
• William Woodson - Judge Killjoy

Crew

• Gordon Hunt - Recording Director
• Jamie Thomason - Talent Coordinator
• Kris Zimmerman - Animation Casting Director

Galaxy High comparisons

The show is somewhat akin to Galaxy High as both shows were intended to be shown to young audiences and were about humans in an environment unlike their own (extraterrestrials for Galaxy High; monsters for Gravedale High). However, whereas the main human characters in Galaxy High were often isolated from other humans (as they were millions of miles away from Earth), Max Schneider did not feel the same way as it was more of a "day job" for him to teach (although his private life was almost never seen). In fact, episodes frequently revolved around the monster students somehow interacting with the human population, who were often terrified at them, although some humans thought the monsters would be good attractions, such as a surf instructor who saw potential in Gill's surfing, or a cowboy who considered Duzer's snake attire to be a good fit to her job as a cowgirl-themed waitress. The faculty was more mistrusting of humans than were the students, although one certain episode dealt with a parents' night combined with a talent show, where Frankentyte makes a monster father to hide his embarrassment as to his true parentage. However, the false father turns out to contain the brain of a sleazy Hollywood agent type who causes Frankentyke more problems. He decides it would be easier to reveal to everyone that his true father is a human, which shocks the entire school, but Frankentyke proclaims he is no longer ashamed of his family as neither his schoolmates nor Mr. Schneider is.

References

• Gravedale High at the Internet Movie Database
• Gravedale High at TV.com
• Episode guide at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• DDsite: Gravedale High
• YouTube clips:
  • Gravedale High Intro and Theme Song
  • Gravedale High Credits