Home Movies (TV series)

This article is about the animated series. For the filmmaking method, see Home movies.

Home Movies
Left to right: Melissa, Brendon and Jason.
Created by	Loren Bouchard Brendon Small
Directed by	Loren Bouchard
Voices of	Brendon Small Jon Benjamin Melissa Bardin Galsky Janine Ditullio (2001-2004) Paula Poundstone (1999)
Theme music composer	Brendon Small Loren Bouchard
Composer	Brendon Small
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Loren Bouchard Tom Snyder Bonnie Burns Mary Catherine Micka co-executive producers: Brendon Small Carl W. Adams
Producers	Loren Bouchard (1999-2001) Melissa Bardin Galsky (1999-2002) Carl W. Adams (2002-2003) Jack Ferraiolo (2003-2004)
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Burns & Burns Productions Tom Snyder Productions (1999-2000) Soup2Nuts (2001-2004)
Original release
Network	UPN (1999) Adult Swim (2001-2004)
Release	April 26, 1999 – April 4, 2004
Related
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist Bob's Burgers Sanjay and Craig

Home Movies is an American animated television sitcom that was originally broadcast from April 26, 1999, to April 4, 2004. Brendon Small is the creator, head writer, lead musician, and main voice actor of Home Movies. Loren Bouchard is the show's executive producer, director, as well as co-creator and among the writers. H. Jon Benjamin, Melissa Bardin Galsky, and Janine Ditullio voice act in the show. The plot surrounds eight-year-old Brendon, who makes videos with his friends Melissa Robbins and Jason Penopolis in his spare time. He lives with his divorced mother, Paula, and his adopted baby sister, Josie. He develops a skewed father/son-like relationship with his alcoholic, short-tempered soccer coach, John McGuirk.

Home Movies developed a cult following during its run, and is still considered a renowned cult show. The show was very well received among critics in later years, and in 2009, the series was placed on IGN's Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows list.

Home Movies was produced by Soup2Nuts, and originally aired on UPN, but the network cancelled the series after five episodes. Cartoon Network, seeing potential for the series, purchased the rights to the series, and aired it as the first program on their nighttime adult-oriented Adult Swim block on the day of the block's launch on September 2, 2001. As part of Adult Swim, it finished the first season of 13 episodes and was picked up for three additional 13 episode seasons. In Canada, the show was originally aired on YTV, and later aired on Teletoon's former late night block "The Detour on Teletoon"

Co-creator Small would later go on to help create the Adult Swim animated series Metalocalypse and Bouchard would go on to create the animated Bob's Burgers for the Fox network.

Style

In its first season, Home Movies utilized Soup2Nuts' Squigglevision animation but later abandoned that for the cheaper, more malleable Macromedia Flash animation. The switch was initiated for several reasons: scattered negative response to Squigglevision (from both critics and viewers), limitations in regard to movement (fluid motion is rare in Squigglevision), and the producers' view that Squigglevision was inherent to Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist and that Home Movies should develop its own unique style.

Another quality that Home Movies carried over from Dr. Katz was its initial use of "retroscripting", a process in which an episode's scripts are purposely left vague, and instead of exact dialogue, the plot of a particular scene is merely outlined — the rest of the dialogue is then created through improv by the actors. The use of retroscripting in Home Movies gives the show very casual, realistic dialogue with an often dry, sarcastic wit. Although retroscripting was only used officially in the first season (the entire first episode was improvised from start to finish), the dialogue in the following three seasons remained heavily improvised, with the written script serving mainly as a guide or something to fall back on for jokes if needed.

Another prominent feature of the show was its use of original music written and performed by the series creator Brendon Small, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, a self-proclaimed shredder, who went on to become the composer, vocalist and guitarist of Dethklok.

A recurring visual theme within the show is lawn gnomes, which tends to make random but subtle appearances in the background of many scenes (even a gnome-shaped guitar appears in a music shop in the episode "Guitarmageddon"). At least one lawn gnome can be found in almost every episode of the series, as well as on the DVD box art, and as a cookie (which is an Easter egg in the DVD menus on certain discs).

Characters

Main article: List of Home Movies characters

Season plot summaries

Main article: List of Home Movies episodes

Season 1

Main article: Home Movies (season 1)

Animated in Squigglevision and heavily using retroscripting, the first five episodes aired on UPN in 1999. The show introduced the main characters in this season, and mainly consisted of episodes revolving around Brendon's movies. Much of the style of the writing is loose and improvised. The season ends with Brendon saying hello to his erstwhile absent father on the phone.

Season 2

Main article: Home Movies (season 2)

Now animated in Flash, this is the first season commissioned by the Cartoon Network as a result of mixed ratings of Season One reruns. The episodes are now heavily scripted, but the creators now have much more freedom, allowing for creative episodes (“History”), introducing new characters (Fenton Mewly, the Adelbergs) as well as a multiple-story season arc, which included:

• Brendon meeting his father Andrew and his fiancée Linda, resulting in therapy sessions, leading up to a wedding.
• Brendon develops a crush on Scäb choreographer Cynthia, and tries to win her over.
• Paula loses her job and searches for a new one. Melissa's dad offers some advice.

The show also develops a writing device that carries through the next seasons, in which the plots of one episode usually all have an underlying theme. Emphasis on Brendon’s movies becomes key here, and the subtext of their creation is finally discussed. At this point, Brendon is still enjoying his life making films and living in a "fantasy" world.

Season 3

Main article: Home Movies (season 3)

A bit looser than Season Two, the show ditches the idea of seasonal story arc, and many of the episodes air out of order. The episodes become racier, with more resounding sexual themes and cursing than before. Secondary characters, such as Fenton and Dwayne, begin to have a chance to shine, as episodes focused on them and others are made. Another noteworthy aspect is that the show begins to acknowledge actual movies more often than it had previously, and starts parodying them heavily. The season ends with Brendon’s stepmother Linda having a child, but afterwards she and Andrew no longer make appearances in the show.

Season 4

Main article: Home Movies (season 4)

The final season: the creators apparently knew they were getting canceled throughout the entire production of the final thirteen episodes. Many of the episodes are straight parodies of movies, including three allusions to Hitchcockian thrillers. The bulk of the episodes consist of plots that involve Brendon doing something other than making films. Part of this revolves around Brendon trying to figure out whether he still enjoys making movies, or if it's becoming more of a chore. An entire episode (“Curses”) dealt with swearing and adult themes. The loose dialogue and long conversations lessen for humorous plot devices and a speedier delivery at jokes and gags. The final episode (“Focus Grill”), was made in mind as a series finale, and brought back the long conversations and loose dialogue, as well as a resolution to the series as Brendon, Jason and Melissa finally make a conclusion to their first film, declaring their friendship before they come to the conclusion that their movies aren't as good as they had always believed. Brendon accidentally drops his camera from a moving car while filming scenery in the final sequence and watches in distress as it gets run over, but is thereafter distracted from his grief by a discussion of fast food prompted by his mother and Coach McGuirk.

Home releases

Season releases

DVD Name	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
Season One	November 16, 2004	13	This three-disc boxset includes all 13 episodes from season one. Special features include 10 commentary tracks, animatics, interviews with cast and creators, animation galleries, and short films by Brendon Small and Jon Benjamin.
Season Two	May 31, 2005	13	This three-disc boxset includes all 13 episodes from season two. Special features include commentaries and interviews with Brendon Small, Melissa Galsky and executive producer Loren Bouchard, Winner of the “Small Shorts” film contest, animatics, songs from the series, Landstander, and the Decide Your Doom interactive adventure video game. It also includes a “how-to” guide to playing the Home Movies theme.
Season Three	November 15, 2005	13	This three-disc boxset includes all 13 episodes from season three. Special features include commentaries, animatics and a featurette for “People who don’t necessarily like Home Movies.”
Season Four	May 16, 2006	13	This three-disc boxset includes all 13 episodes from season four. Special features include 24 commentaries, animatics, and featurettes. Also included is the Home Movies: Bonus Soundtrack CD with 52 tracks composed and performed by Small for the show.
Home Movies 10th Anniversary Set	November 4, 2008	52	This 10th Anniversary thirteen-disc boxset includes every episode of Home Movies plus new special features, as well as the CD included in the Season Four boxset.

Shout! Factory, through Sony BMG Music Entertainment, releases DVDs of Home Movies seasons, each on three-disc box sets. Each DVD has numerous special features and easter eggs. Shout! Factory later on released all of the Home Movies episodes on Amazon Video on Demand.

Reception

In January 2009, IGN listed Home Movies as the 28th best in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.

Non-regular cast/guest stars

• Paula Poundstone (first five episodes as Paula; replaced by Janine Ditullio)
• Louis C.K.
• Todd Barry
• Mitch Hedberg
• Sam Seder
• Bill Braudis
• Jonathan Katz
• Laura Silverman
• Patton Oswalt
• Jen Kirkman
• Will Le Bow
• Andy Kindler
• Kelly Kimball
• Paula Plum
• Maria Bamford
• Eugene Mirman
• Emo Philips
• Loren Bouchard
• Larry Murphy
• They Might Be Giants
• Tom Kenny

External links

• Home Movies at Adult Swim
• Home Movies at IMDb