Freak-a-me! Freak-a-You!
1995 was a pretty good year for Warner Animation, and one of their most unconventional series that managed to out weird even “Animaniacs,” was “Freakazoid!” Mixing absurd comedy, pop culture references, and their very own super hero, “Freakazoid!” is a twisted and hysterical comedy series about a blue skinned superhero who drives his foes absolutely mad, all the while trying to keep his relationship with his girlfriend Steff and his friend Cosgrove from falling apart.
The real identity of Freakazoid is a geeky computer nerd named Dexter Douglas who, after his cat accidentally types in a mysterious key sequence (“@[=g3,8d]\&fbb=-q]/hk%fg”), warps him in to cyberspace allowing him to become the wild and wacky Freakazoid. The series has two basic legs of storytelling, one of which involve an emphasis on Dexter fighting crime, and striking back at his obnoxious older brother with the Freakazoid superhero.
The other leg is a more Freakazoid-centric series of episodes, where we see much less Dexter Douglas, and much more Freakazoid on his adventures. As well, most of the cyber space fodder is tossed out, including Dexter’s catchphrase where he screams “Ahh, Freak Out!” to become Freakazoid. That said, “Freakazoid!” didn’t just break the fourth wall, instead it smashed it to pieces, and rarely ever stopped acknowledging the audience. It elicited a ton of really unusual but funny gags, including the declaration of “Huggbees!”, Freakazoid explaining to audiences the meaning of the terms “Toyetic,” and “Relax-o-Vision,” which involves serene stock footage played during intense moments of action.
One of my favorite gags of the show involves a camera man following Cosgrove around on police duty a la “Cops” and becoming so exhausted he eventually passes out while filming. “Freakazoid!” often felt like a series that was originally pitched for a primetime show, since the character himself often makes references to that in the series, and it’s a definite good argument since the series is so out there. It thinks outside the box, while lampooning everything about their parent company, from Batman, right down to Animaniacs. And it sadly never found the proper audience during its initial run.
One of the best assets the series employed was the incomparable Paul Rugg who, in the DVD commentaries, explained that he’d improvise as Freakazoid for twenty minutes, which the editors would eventually have to cut down for the series. Rugg has a long comedic background and a history with Warner animation, and he takes the reigns of Freakazoid, giving him a massive personality, and even moments of humanity, to boot. Along with Rugg, Edward Asner had a wonderful supporting role as Freakazoid’s eccentric friend Sgt. Mike Cosgrove, who is very much the anti Jim Gordon. Rather than help Freakazoid fight crime, he’d often interrupt his battles to invite him somewhere unusual like “Spumoni Land.”
The series created a massive gallery of hilarious supporting characters and villains in its very limited television run, from Freakazoid’s long suffering butler Professor Jones, Freakazoid’s Scottish mentor Roddy MacStew, Fanboy (the all knowing pop culture geek who intrudes on every episode with obscure knowledge about science fiction), and the ever enigmatic Emmitt Nervend. If that’s not enough, the guest stars are surreal with episode long appearances by Norm Abram, Leonard Maltin, and Jonathan Harris, who played Freakazoid’s man servant.
The series was often very funny, but also opted for weird in some cases. When it was really out there, it didn’t always land as comedy, but it definitely deserved points for effort. There was one stand alone cartoon short starring Lawn gnomes, and the straight faced “Johnny Quest” spoof “Toby Danger.” That said, when the show was hysterical, it inspired raucous laughs. Some of the best episodes involved Freakazoid fighting the well spoke Cave Guy during his high school prom, Freakazoid being kidnapped on an island of intelligent orangutans, and Freakazoid and Cosgrove being warped in to a shoot em up video game.
“Freakazoid” lasted only two seasons with two dozen episodes a piece. It premiered in 1995, and was cancelled by the Kids WB in 1997 due to poor ratings, and the inability to find the right audience for the series. It’s not surprising considering the show is now a cult favorite among older fans that can appreciate the odd humor that didn’t quite pander to tweens. It did flourish in syndication on the Cartoon Network in America from 1997 to 2003, and was eventually released on DVD by Warner in 2008.
In 2003, Mike Allred, creator of the cult comic book “Madman” accused the writers and creators of “Freakazoid!” of plagiarizing his comic book and titular hero, even copying his costume and emblem. Though the producers and writers did admit the comic was a direct influence, Allred did admit to his fans that they outright lifted from his comic, without any credit or compensation. Nevertheless, “Freakazoid!” is still a fan favorite with a large cult following, and is still one of the funniest and most overlooked comedy titles from the Warner animation gallery.
