The Moxy Show

The Moxy Show
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Brad DeGraf[1] Colossal Pictures
Written by	Scott Sedita Jonathan Groff Tim Boxell Bobcat Goldthwait Penn Jillette
Directed by	George Evelyn
Starring	Bobcat Goldthwait Penn Jillette Chris Rock
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	24
Production
Executive producer(s)	Betty Cohen Joshua Katz
Producer(s)	Margo de la Cruz Ann Brilz
Editor(s)	Lili Cunningham
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Production company(s)	Colossal Pictures
Release
Original network	Cartoon Network
Original release	December 5, 1993 – January 2, 2000

The Moxy Show (also known as The Moxy Pirate Show and The Moxy & Flea Show) is an animation anthology television series produced by Colossal Pictures for Cartoon Network. The show ran on December 5, 1993, originally as The Moxy Pirate Show,^[2] and consisted of classic cartoons divided by 3-D animated interstitials featuring Moxy, a dog, and Flea, a flea. The show ran on Cartoon Network from 1993 to 1998, with its last episode on January 2, 2000, right before reruns of the show were removed completely on April 1, 2000. Moxy is considered the first original series on Cartoon Network, but Space Ghost Coast to Coast was Cartoon Network's first fully produced series.

Production

The series was originally titled The Moxy Pirate Show and only featured Moxy. In 1994, Moxy's sidekick Flea was added to the series. In 1995, the series was retitled simply as The Moxy Show, and in 1998 it was renamed again to The Moxy & Flea Show with major changes:

• Moxy's design has changed a lot. As opposed to wearing his usual yellow shirt with red/white checkerboard pants, and palette-swapped black and white sneakers; both of which resemble the likeness of Cartoon Network's traditional checkerboard logo, he is seen wearing a longer sleeved, green/black striped shirt and black jeans, complete with non pallete-swapped sneakers, which seem to resemble those of Converse All-Stars. In addition, his eyes have become much smaller, with heterochromic green (left) and light blue (right) eyes complete with pupils, whereas they were previously red (left) and dark blue (right), sans pupils. His yellow whiskers and freckles have disappeared in his new design, his nose changed from the color purple to black, and his fur was changed to a darker shade of orange.
• Flea's design was changed only slightly. Flea wore a blue fez instead of a propellor beanie, his height grew massive making him half as high as Moxy, and comedian Chris Rock replaced illusionist Penn Jillette as the voice of the character. Also, his eye color changed from blue and yellow to just yellow eyes with red pupils.
• The opening sequence has changed a lot featuring a new theme song composed by Ben Friedman, Moxy and Flea dancing new moves and they do not speak at all (although in one part, Moxy says "Come on!").
• The series does not show many classical cartoons unlike the previous seasons and it features more computer-animated characters and settings.
• The one-hour time slot for the series was shortened down to 30 minutes.

After Colossal Pictures shut down in 1999, the series' production was later moved over to Williams Street during the "Moxy & Flea" adaption. Until its cancellation on January 2, 2000, reruns were removed completely on April 1, 2000, the same day where most of the classical cartoon programming were moved to Boomerang except for this show.

The CGI Moxy is considered the first real-time^[3](sometimes called a "live") cartoon,^[4] though never actually broadcast live. A puppeteer wearing a motion capture apparatus would act out Moxy's motions, while Goldthwait provided the voice, and a technician would control facial expressions.

The show is considered to be a lost television series since it was never to be found anywhere because it was never picked up by Boomerang and it was never released in any home media.

This is the only Cartoon Network original series to be animated with computer animation as all of the other programs featuring CGI are acquired animated programming and not Cartoon Network originals. It's the first CN show to be animated with cartoon animation as well, making The Moxy Show the first Cartoon Network original series to feature a hybrid of different animation styles (Courage the Cowardly Dog would be the second, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Chowder, and The Amazing World of Gumball following). The show is also the first to use stock footage from classical shows (second is Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, the second CN series to air).

To this day, only a handful of clips, plus various segments of the "Great International Toon-In",a full episode from the final season of the show, and the first episode of The Moxy Show are currently existent.

Characters

Moxy

Moxy (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait) is a 3-D animated dog who liked to spend time goofing off and having fun with his sidekick, Flea, and also has a crush on Melody from Josie and the Pussycats. Although he never made it big in the cartoon industry, and usually auditioned for a number of roles on the network without making a call back,^[5] he was given the opportunity to work as the janitor at Cartoon Network, and usually 'jammed the signal' once a week during the days when he flew solo before Flea was introduced.^[6]

His first appearance on television were during the live commercial segments that aired simultaneously during a multi-channel cartoon broadcast on three of the main Turner-owned networks at the time; TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network. His catchphrase is a lip-flapping sound, barking and a fart sound, stating that he just made it up.

Flea

Flea (voiced by Penn Jillette and Chris Rock) is Moxy's sidekick, and usually the straight man of the duo, who enjoyed spending time and watching TV with Moxy. He helps a monkey king get a new set of hair to hide his bald skin causing him to rise through fame.

References

External links

• The Moxy Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Moxy Show at TV.com