Angry Beavers
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The Angry Beavers was a Nickelodeon animated series about Daggett and Norbert Beaver, two brother beavers who have left their mom and home to become two bachelors in the forest. Their many adventures spark them to release their ugly sides very often, drawing in the name Angry Beavers. The show premiered in 1997 and was canceled amid controversy in 2001 (with a handful of unaired episodes remaining). It was created by Mitch Schauer.
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Recurring characters
- Daggett: Dag is the younger brother of Norbert by four minutes. He is very crazy, extremely hyper, and sometimes funny. He says an assortment of strange phrases and likes calling people names. His trademark phrase is "That was nuts!" and is also known for adding 'eh' at the end of sentences (which Zim did as well in the episode Door to Door). He is dark brown with a red nose, and voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.
- Norbert: Norb is Dag's laid back, older brother. He uptakes many hobbies and frequently pronounces words incorrectly. His trademark phrase is "Biiiiig hug!" or "Biiiig Beaver Hug" (often accompanied by him hugging Dag). He is light brown with a purple nose, and voiced by Nick Bakay, or Salem of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch fame.
- Stump: Stump is a tree stump whom Norb met and introduced to the other creatures of the forest. He often moves on his own off-screen. He is similar to Plank from Ed Edd and Eddy
- Barry Bear: Dagget and Norbert's disco loving friend; obviously based on Barry White. He is a famous singer, whom Norb and Dag try to exploit. Whenever he sees a clown he flashbacks to his days as a circus bear and cowers, saying: "Oh, the baaaaad times!".
- Treeflower: The love of Norbert's life whom he met at a hippie concert. Once a hippie, now turned business woman/elevator-music composer.
- Bing: An annoying lizard who hangs around Norb and Dag. Bing speaks extremely fast and often in circles. Victor Wilson, who would later become part of a little show titled Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, provided Bing's hyperactive voice.
- Truckee: A trucker shrew who thinks only about trucks and shrews.
- Oxnard Montalvo: Norb and Dag's favorite B-movie actor. Norb and Dag often watch black and white horror movies (these are very seriously drawn, contrary to the regular style of the show). An obvious homage to 1950's horror movies.
- Teluca Lake: Another B-movie actor, often accompanies Oxnard Montalvo as the damsel in distress. The name is an pun off the California city named Toluca Lake.
- El Grapadura: The beavers favorite Vale Tudo wrestler.
Angry Beavers And The Public
Angry Beavers was a generally popular show during its airtime. Angry Beavers was 'the show' that kept adolescents and adults interested in Nickelodeon in the late 90s. It had a more adult, sophisticated sense of word play jokes and culture references that made up its humor, but was silly and unrealistic enough to attract the attention of young children too. Unfortunately, it was aired in the midst of the success of Rugrats, and many fans believe it did not earn the popularity it deserved. Many people compare it to Rocko's Modern Life as one of the most influential Nickelodeon cartoons of the 90s. Its influence is evident in other current shows too. SpongeBob SquarePants has a notably similar humor pattern and animation style to this show, and it has the same backing music as Jimmy Neutron.
Angry Beavers' popularity with the more "adult" scene managed to get it some recognition. Radio stations also used Dag's catch phrase "That was nuts!" for promos for music marathons, and the show even had a small merchandise line that included T-shirts and plush toys.
Controversy
The whole controversy surrounding the series first started in 1998, when Alley Oops! had Norb saying "Oh, shut up, Dag!"
When this episode was first televised in the US on Nick, the "shut" in "shut up" was bleeped out. Apparently, someone complained about the phrase "shut up" in a Nick program. What that bleep did, however, was it generated more interest in the show, as some felt that it had vulgar language in the dialog. Between airings, however, Nick changed Norb's line to "Shush up, stupid!" It was the first time any Nicktoon had a line changed between airings since Ren and Stimpy. Many people believe this was ridiculous, and it has been shown that many other Nickelodeon programs that aired before Angry Beavers did use "shut up" and in fact, language that is generally considered to be worse (ex. Hey Arnold, which, particularly in its early episodes, used a few words many people believe should not air in children's programming), that the Angry Beavers did not use. None the less, this was edited.
The final straw was an un-aired episode titled Bye Bye Beavers, which was going to be the shows last episode, involving Norb having to convince Dag that they're just characters on a TV show. Staffer Micah Wright said that Nickelodeon hated this episode, as it made fun of the station's practice of not making new episodes of their Nicktoons, preferring to air reruns instead. It is unclear if it was even part of foreign syndication. Also, the episode had broken Nick's code on Nicktoons: When you're going off the air, don't tell your viewers! By consequent, the beavers are the first Nicktoons to ever break the fourth wall.
This is a quote from Wright's website (http://www.micahwright.com) about Nick canceling the show: "Nickelodeon hated this episode because it actually told the kids the truth: that the show was ending! Nick likes to just rerun their shows forever and pretend that they're still making new episodes and this show idea drove them up a wall!"
All in all, 63 episodes of the show were produced, because Nick cut 2 episodes out of the planned 65. Later new episodes have been added, creating a total of 108.
Many of the shows fans were extremely upset when the show was canceled, and on-line petition sites have taken action, see the link at the bottom.
Current Status
Although The Angry Beavers is canceled, there are unconfirmed rumors of a DVD collection being produced some time in the near future, alongside other 90's Nickelodeon cartoons including Rocko's Modern Life, Kablam!, and Hey Arnold.
If you have digital cable, Angry Beavers now regularly airs at 8-9 AM and 1-2PM on weekdays on Nicktoons TV.
In-jokes
There were several in-jokes throughout The Angry Beavers entire run. One particular one involves Richard Steven Horvitz himself being mentioned.
Episodes
Season 1
- Born to Be Beavers
- Up All Night
- A Dam Too Far
- Long in the Teeth
- Gift Hoarse
- Go Beavers
- Boxtop Beavers
- Salmon Sez
- Beach Beavers A-Go-Go
- Deranged Ranger
- Muscular Beaver
- Fish and Dips
- Enter the Daggett
- Bug-A-Boo
- Mission to the Big Hot Thingy
- I Dare You
- Stinky Toe
- House Broken
- Tree's Company
- Guess Who's Stumping to Dinner
- Fancy Prance
- H2Whoa!
- The Bing That Wouldn't Leave
- You Promised
- Bummer of Love
- Food of the Clods
Season 2
- Kandid Kreatures
- Fakin' It
- Beaver Fever
- Same Time Last Week
- Muscular Beaver 2
- Stump Seeks His Roots
- Tree of Hearts
- Dag for the Night
- Un-barry-ble
- Another One Bites the Musk
- The Mighty Knothead
- Pond Scum
- Utter Nonsense
- Endangered Species
- Lumbjerjack's Delight
- Zooing Time
- Friends, Romans, Beavers
- The Big Round Sticky Fish Thingy
- If You In-sisters
- Alley Oops! (where the controversy surrounding the series began... see above)
- Open Wide for Zombies
- Dumb Waiters
- Sans-A-Pelt
- Gonna Getcha
- The Day the World Got Really Screwed Up! (the series' only 30 minute episode)
Season 3
- My Bunnyguard
- What's Eating You?
- Omega Beaver
- Bite This!
- Spooky Spoots
- Up all night 2: Up All Day
- Muscular Beaver 3
- Sang 'em High
- In Search of Big Byoo-Tox
- Moronathon Man
- The Legend of Kid Friendly
- Silent but Deadly
- Pass It On!
- Stump's Family Reunion
- Tough Love
- A Little Dad'll Do You
- Too Loose Latrine
- Pack Your Dags
- Daggy Dearest
- Dag's List
- Muscular Beaver 4
- Act Your Age
- Mistaken Identity
- Easy Peasy Rider
- Stare and Stare Alike
- I'm Not an Aminal, I'm Scientist #1
- Norberto y Daggetto en El Grapadura Y El Castor Malo
- The Loogie Hawk
- Kreature Komforts
- Oh, Brother?
- Das Spoot
- SqOtters
- Long Tall Daggy
- Practical Jerks
- Dagski and Norb
- Come Shell or High Water
- Nice & Lonely
- Soccer? I Hardly Knew Him!
- Slap Happy
- Home Loners
- Ugly Roomers
- Finger Lickin' Goofs
- Brothers...to the End?
- Euro Beavers
- Strange Allure
- Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow
Season 4
- Chocolate Up to Experience
- Three Dag Nite
- All in the Colony
- Line Duncing
- The Beave Master
- Deck Poops
- Fat Chance
- Dag in the Mirror
- Canucks Amuck
- Yak in the Sack
- Driving Misses Daggett
- Big Fun
- Moby Dopes
- Present Tense
- House Sisters
- Muscular Beaver 5
- It's a Spootiful Life
- The Mom from U.N.C.L.E.
- Vantastic Voyage
- Blacktop Beavers
- The Big Frog
- Dag Con Carnie
- Damnesia
- The Posei-Dam Adventure
- Specs Appeal
- Things That Go Hook in the Night
See also
External links
- Official Website (http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_shows/shows.jhtml?propertyId=691)
- The Angry Beavers (http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Other_Studios/N/Nickelodeon/Nicktoons_Productions/The_Angry_Beavers/index.html) at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Sound clip from last episode that never aired (http://www.micahwright.com/downloads/networkslam.mp3)-This is from Micah Wright's official website. These are the lines that slam Nick for "re-re-re-runs" of its Nicktoons as spoken by Daggett and Norbert. About 10-20 seconds of dialogue that basically ended the show early.
- Unofficial Website (http://members.tripod.com/~foab)
- Bring Back The Angry Beavers (http://gopetition.com/online/5232.html)- An on-line petition to save The Angry Beavers.