Sealab 2021
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Sealab 2021 was an animated comedy shown on Cartoon Network's adult-oriented programming block, Adult Swim. Each episode was 15 minutes long, including commercials. Like Cartoon Network's Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, the animation closely resembled stock footage from a 1970's Hanna-Barbera cartoon, in this case the short-lived environmentally-themed Sealab 2020. Sealab 2021 was produced by 7030 Productions for Cartoon Network's Williams Street Studios. Sealab was cancelled after five seasons by Cartoon Network, with the final episode airing in April 2005. Many critics felt that the show was never the same after the death of voice actor Harry Goz and that this led Adult Swim to cancel the popular series.
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Characters and premise
The show is set one year after the timeframe of Sealab 2020. During this year, the crew has slowly gone crazy, and as this has happened, the crew has spent more time goofing off in various ways than doing any serious work.
Main characters
Captain Hazel "Hank" Murphy is the ostensible leader of the crew. Unfortunately, he's also the most deranged member, and quite unfit for service; instead of providing any real leadership, he's either running a pirate radio show, complaining about his Happy Cake oven, or playing golf near the station's reactor core (among other things). Murphy was voiced by Harry Goz until his death on September 5, 2003 from cancer. After that, Murphy was described as having left Sealab to fight in the "Great Spice Wars."
Captain Bellerophon "Tornado" Shanks earned his position as Sealab's new captain by answering a help-wanted ad. A retired football coach and lovable redneck, he has all of Murphy's shortsighted idiocy combined with a Southern charm. Tornado's leadership qualities have led him to coach the crew in a football game against killer robots, declare Sealab a sovereign nation, warp the minds of Sealab's orphan population, and assert that a huge tumor on his head would go away through prayer alone, forcing the crew to shrink themselves and get injected into his body in order to save him. Shanks is voiced by Michael Goz, son of the late Harry Goz.
Debbie DuPree (a.k.a. "White" Debbie) (voiced by Kate Miller) is the token female of the crew, a marine biologist, and blonde and beautiful to boot. Being the token female, she tends to get upset when the guys do chauvinistic things, but being a stereotypical blonde, she's not exactly all there herself (and she tends to hit on the guys as much as they hit on her). She has a sexual relationship going on with Doctor Quinn — when she feels like it, of course — and she's slept with Murphy at least once. Recently, she has stopped being as sexual and become religious, acting as a stereotype of modern-day Christians, finding fault at everyone and saying they have to reform their ways or they will suffer God's wrath, despite her complete lack of knowledge about Christianity. (She, for example, thinks Jesus was originally a wooden boy that lived in a whale.)
Derek "Stormy" Waters (voiced by Ellis Henican) is the station's resident pretty boy (his actual function on the crew has never been revealed). He's all looks and no brains; most of the time, he barely knows what's going on around him. His stupidity has gotten him into trouble several times, mainly with "Black" Debbie (who thinks he's a racist).
Doctor Quentin Q. Quinn (voiced by Brett Butler) is the brains of the outfit. As the only member of the crew with any formal education and any sort of common sense left, he's the one that ends up running the station (and, in some cases, trying to keep it from exploding). He's also the token black guy. He and Debbie have an on-again, off-again relationship. Quinn is actually a cyborg; an ilness in his youth forced him to transplant his human brain into a replica robot body. Although Quinn dramatically revealed this in the pilot episode "I, Robot" it doesn't really affect his character that much, and it is only rarely mentioned again throughout the series.
Jodene Sparks (voiced by Bill Lobley) is the station's sarcastic, scheming radio operator, and co-conspirator with Captain Murphy in most of his escapades (though often as a front to further his own plans). Sparks is never seen out of his rolling chair. He claims this is not because he's crippled, but just lazy.
Marco Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar Gabriel Garcia Marquez (voiced by Erik Estrada) is the station's engineer, macho man, and wannabe Latin lover. He's tried to seduce both females on the station at various times, with limited success. He also has a thing for CHiPs.
Minor characters
Debbie Love (a.k.a. "Black" Debbie) (voiced by Angela Gibbs) is both the only other female and the only other black person on the station. She teaches school to Dolphin Boy and the rest of Sealab's orphans, is very proud of her blackness (she's fought with Stormy over this at least once), and has been seduced by Marco several times. The former Heisman Trophy winner has also been known to get stoned off a hookah pipe, while loudly asserting that in full compliance with standards and practices (Cartoon Network's censoring department) that she's enjoying the pipe "in a drug-free way." (In one episode, her name is given as Debbie Allison)
Sharko is Marco's interspecies son, from when Marco "put his human penis in Sharko's shark mother's vagina," (referred to as a "shark-gina") as is painfully stated in every episode he appears in. Sharko is scatterbrained and flighty, and longs to know as much as he can learn about his father. Marco actually doesn't know Sharko exists, while Sharko thinks Marco is dead. The two finally meet in Season Four, which Marco responds to by not recognizing Sharko and shooting him with a pistol (Sharko survived).
Dolphin Boy is a little, chubby boy (who looks to be about 10) that talks in dolphin noises. He's a member of Black Debbie's class, and is the target of endless fat jokes.
Fatass McBlobicus is an acne-infested, bespectactled member of Black Debbie's class. While Dolphin Boy is chubby, McBlobicus is severely overweight. While substituting for Debbie one day, Quinn didn't believe that McBlobicus' name was real, but a quick check of the class roster proved him wrong.
Doctor Ilad Virjay (voiced by Adam Reed) is the station's official doctor and in-house surgeon. He has been known to use the surgery's gas mask on himself.
Chopper Dave is a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Navy. He is also a werewolf and has his own popular televsion show with TV movies made for it.
Hesh Hepplewhite is the station's intern, and quite often the whipping boy as well. It was revealed very recently that he is Jewish. Nasal-voiced, smart-mouthed, and whiny, Hesh isn't well liked by most of the crew, and thus works in the part of the station furthest away from them (the reactor core). Exposure to intense radiation will turn Hesh into "Monster Hesh," an Incredible Hulk-like alter ego with no neck. Hesh is voiced by independent rapper and former Cartoon Network staffer mc chris (Chris Ward). He also "wants married sex."
Carl is an overweight man who works in the reactor room with Hesh, barely tolerating him. He often ends up killed by whatever crisis the crew is currently facing. Carl is voiced by Sealab 2021 artist Christian Danley.
The Bizarros are a group that resemble the main Sealab characters only with black uniforms and other noticeable features. Bizarro Murphy has a scar and an eyepatch. Bizarro Debbie has a cyborg arm and pink hair. Bizarro Stormy has white hair and can breathe ice. Bizarro Marco has a metal jaw with sharp teeth and Bizarro Sparks is a head in a floating jar. The strangest is Bizarro Quinn, who hatches out of an egg. It is short, has orange hair, a beak, gangly hands without arms, and an allergy to peanuts. The Bizarros have a tendency to use the word "Bizzaro" almost every time they say something, and sometimes encourage others to.
Episode list and original air dates
Three episode pilot
- December 21, 2000 "Radio Free" - Murphy starts a pirate-radio station, which attracts the attention of the FCC.
- December 30, 2000 "Happy Cake" - Murphy complains about his stolen Happy Cake oven (which makes real baked goods with a 40 watt bulb!), while Sparks shows off his mountain fortress.
- December 30, 2000 "I, Robot" - While the station is in danger from a hull breach, the crew ponders what life would be like if they put their brains inside robot bodies.
Season one
- September 2, 2001 "Chickmate" - Debbie's biological clock goes off, and she tries to find a crewmember that would make a good father for her as-yet-unconceived baby.
- September 16, 2001 "Predator" - A pseudo-invisible monster (reminiscent of the monster from the movie Predator) is on a killing spree in Sealab. Can Captain Murphy and Dr. Quinn save Sealab?
- September 30, 2001 "Lost in Time" - While pirating cable for Captain Murphy, Quinn and Stormy are caught in a 15-minute time warp as Sealab continually blows up.
- October 14, 2001 "Little Orphan Angry" - An "orphan" comes aboard Sealab, courtesy of the Final Request Foundation, with sinister plans in his mind.
- October 21, 2001 "Waking Quinn" - Electrocuted in the station's tank room, Quinn drifts in and out of consciousness, dreaming a series of bizarre stories.
- October 28, 2001 "All That Jazz" - Murphy is trapped by an evil soda machine, while the rest of the crew goes out on tour with MC Chris.
- December 9, 2001 "Murphy Murph and the Feng Shui Bunch" - Murphy is sold on redecorating the station according to feng shui rules, but Quinn distrusts the guy doing the selling. A showdown between the decorator and Marco at the end of the episode reveals that the events of the episode in fact take place in a video game played by Master Shake and Meatwad of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Season two
- April 7, 2002 "In the Closet" - Due to a faulty door, the Sealab crew gets locked in a tool closet. A few black eyes result as they try to get out, but then they discover that a pack of unfed killer dogs are running around Sealab.
- April 28, 2002 "Stimutacs" - Sparks starts pushing a new, "mostly kelp" energy pill that proves to be highly addictive.
- May 5, 2002 "Swimming in Oblivion" - Behind the scenes at the chaotic "set" of Sealab 2021. In this episode, the voice actors use their own names rather than the characters'.
- May 12, 2002 "Der Dieb" - A series of unexplained thefts leads Murphy to declare "Martian law". In the ensuing madness, everyone ends up blaming Quinn for all the thefts.
- November 3, 2002 "Policy" - After running up thousands of dollars in credit card debt, Murphy can't come up with a way to pay for it all...until Sparks intervenes. He takes out life insurance policies on the crew before sending them on a fatal fool's errand, and proceeds to kill Captain Murphy with a toaster in the hot tub before stealing all the toys Murphy bought.
- November 10, 2002 "Hail Squishface" - A mysterious (and very pretty) Asian visitor brings a irresistibly cute Gloop onto the station, which Murphy names Squishface. There's two problems, though: Gloops stink, and they multiply so fast that eventually Sealab is overrun with them (Gloops later make small cameos on Harvey Birdman.
- November 17, 2002 "Bizarro" - The crew is held hostage by a Bizarro version of themselves.
- November 24, 2002 "Legend of Baggy Pants" - After trying to start a game of golf next to the reactor core (and turning Hesh into Monster Hesh in the process), Murphy goes looking for the pro shop—and gets thoroughly lost in the process.
- December 8, 2002 "7211" - A nuclear submarine crashes outside the station, and the crew of Sealab (in a rare occurrence) must work quickly to stop an environmental disaster from happening. The only "serious" episode in the show, this was an original episode of Sealab 2020 which was redubbed by the 2021 voice actors, with approximately half of the original episode's footage excised to fit the shorter running time. At the end of the closing credits, the submarine crashes into Sealab and both explode. The episode's title derives from the sequence number of the original episode its footage comes from.
- December 15, 2002 "Tinfins" - The crew of Sealab (along with a vapid gossip-show host, a bear in lederhosen and guest stars Kid N' Play) star in a sneak preview special for the movie Tinfins, complete with plenty of ads for the restaurant Grizzlebee's.
- December 29, 2002 "Feast of Alvis" - Capt. Murphy's attempts at a happy Alvistide go awry thanks to non-Alvian crew members, an uncooperative electrician, and a buffalo crapping in the buffet.
Season three
- May 26, 2003 "Brainswitch" - An accident leaves Quinn comatose and Stormy allegedly smarter. Have they really switched brains?
- June 2, 2003 "Vacation" - Dr. Quinn forcibly takes a well-deserved vacation, inside Sealab's walls, the crew attempts to find out what he's doing.
- June 9, 2003 "Fusebox" - The electricity is out in Sealab, and the crew tries to turn the power back on.
- June 16, 2003 "Article 4" - A loophole in the Sealab charter turns everyone into captains, except Stormy (too stupid), Quinn (too proud to exploit the loophole), and the Chinese crew members (because of anime, among other things). How will Sealab survive? And where did Capt. Murphy go?
- November 16, 2003 "Return to Oblivion" - A network executive audits the set of the hard-hitting action drama Sealab 2021, with hopes of somehow salvaging the dwindling series.
- November 23, 2003 "Splitsvile" - Debbie and Quinn break up, while Dr. Virjay gets his old rock band back together.
- November 30, 2003 "Tourist Season" - Captain Murphy opens Sealab to tourists, eventually prompting Dr. Virjay to renounce his religion, and begin to eat meat from cows.
- December 7, 2003 "Red Dawn" - Kommissar Murphy brings Marxist-Leninist ideals to Sealab.
- December 14, 2003 "Meet Beck Bristow" - Hollywood Actor Beck Bristow comes to Sealab to study for a television role.
- December 21, 2003 "I, Robot, Really" - Due to an incident with Chubby Carol, Quinn is blackmailed into giving each crew member a robot body, but what is to become of the crew's old bodies?
- December 31, 2003 "Frozen Dinner" - The Sealab crew attempts a daring rescue mission to Ice Station Zebra, one of whose inhabitants has turned to cannibalism. They are accompanied by a German who bears more than a passing resemblance to Jürgen Prochnow and is given to firing his pistol and shouting "Sieg Heil!" Ultimately, only one survivor from Ice Station Zebra is found by the Sealab mission. The episode ends with a rousing rendition of the chorus of "It's a Long Way to Tipperary."
- January 11, 2004 "Tornado Shanks" - As Captain Murphy leaves for The Great Spice Wars, a new captain, Tornado Shanks, is given the helm.
Season four
- June 20, 2004 "ASHDTV" - A delivering mishap and some dishonesty on Sparks' part pockets Sealab a brand new Asteroid Smasher/High-Definition TV.
- June 27, 2004 "Chalkboard Jungle" - Dr. Quinn teaches Debbie Love's class of 4th-graders including Fatass McBlobbicus, while having to deal with Tornado Shanks' warped and unscientific view of education. The classic story "The Scarlet Ibis," by James Hurst, is ripped off as part of a classroom discussion of death. All the while, cuts are made between Debbie Love's classroom and the spa Love is visiting, creating a series of double entendres.
- July 4, 2004 "Dearly Beloved Seed" - The last of Captain Shanks' brothers dies burning a bridge to get revenge on it while standing blind drunk right in the middle of it; all the while, Hesh and Debbie Dupree get married. The episode ends with Uzi fire and a parody of the dialogue style of The Matrix. (written by a Sealab fan known only as "MCHeshpants420", his screen name at Adult Swim's official web boards)
- July 11, 2004 "Craptastic Voyage" - Quinn, White Debbie, and "He Who Smokes Bitches" Stormy Waters venture deep into Tornado Shanks to destroy a malignant tumor in Captain Shanks' head.
- July 18, 2004 "Let 'Em Eat Corn" - Tornado Shanks declares Sealab a sovereign nation in order to be his own tax haven. A wave of secession fever sweeps through the entire crew, with a half-dozen nations declaring themselves independent in a few minutes; with the help of two British businessmen, they are all soon armed with missiles allegedly loaded with nuclear warheads. When push comes to shove and every Sealab nation declares war on every other one, however, the nukes all turn out to be duds. The Brits get away with Sealab's cash and play a horrible "rock" song over the end credits.
- July 18, 2004 "Neptunati" - Stormy's meddlesome inquistiveness uncovers Shanks' membership in a world-controlling society.
- November 14, 2004 "Isla de las Chupacabras" - A team-building exercise goes horribly wrong when the Sealab crew are attacked by Chupacabras.
- November 21, 2004 "Joy of Grief" - A grief counselor tries to help the Sealab crew through a hard time.
- November 28, 2004 "Green Fever" - Zombies ravage Sealab as Debbie plans her (fifth) 30th birthday party.
- December 5, 2004 "Sharko's Machine" - Marco's illegitimate son applies for a job on Sealab. Can he pass the civil service exam with Debbie and Quinn helping?
- December 12, 2004 "Return of Marco" - Marco died three episodes ago. What's he doing back?
Season five
- March 6, 2005 "Casinko" - Sealab is in danger of crashing into an ancient American Indian burial ground.
- March 13, 2005 "Butchslap" - Marco's secret past from 50 years ago threatens the lives of the Sealab crew.
- March 20, 2005 "Monkey Banana Raffle" - An eccentric trillionaire (a parody of Richard Branson) buys Sealab.
- March 28, 2005 "Shrabster" - This episode parodies both Pulp Fiction and the "backwards" episode of Seinfeld. Quinn genetically engineers a hybrid crustacean to reproduce enough larvae to end world hunger. The plot, which is revealed in a series of scenes in reverse chronological order introduced with an annoying voiceover and a bad title card, continues with Sparks selling off the rights for the shrimp-crab-lobster to Grizzlebee's; the corporation's agents, Dan and Don, try to take possession of the queen shrabster with the help of Captain Shanks, only to be thwarted by Shanks' non-cooperation. Dan and Don hijack a submersible loaded with shrabster eggs instead, only to wind up crashing it into the ocean floor and returning to dry land empty-handed. Quinn finds out about Sparks' double dealing and kills him. Shanks escapes with the queen to an unnamed city, where her load roars attract the attention of the police; the captain gets the queen to agree to a murder-suicide pact, then neglects to kill himself, instead helping himself to several bites of her claws.
- April 4, 2005 "Cavemen" - Quinn and Stormy are stuck in a cave with only 10 minutes of oxygen while Sealab burns. They rehash a number of things about their lives and the current week's destruction of Sealab, often through fighting, and finally ascend to heaven together, where they begin an afterlife full of encounters with longtime friends and prostitutes.
- April 11, 2005 "Moby Sick" - Quinn is struck with a moral dilemma when Abelard, a whale dying of asbestos-caused "whale cancer," begs Quinn to euthanize him. Environmentalists insist on saving his life, while a few people insist euthanasia is the best option. Dolphin Boy takes up the banner of Odontocetian Pride against the intrusion of the inferior Mysticetians, vowing to kill Abelard. Marco discovers that Abelard's cancer is delicious, and proceeds to eat it all out of him at the end of the episode, as a skinhead Dolphin Boy jumps onto him with a harpoon and Debbie DuPree chains herself to the swiftly sinking whale.
- April 18, 2005 "No Waterworld" - All the water around Sealab mysteriously disappears as a result of an alien landing. Sparks sells off all the glass in the station, resulting in yet another catastrophe when the water finally returns.
- April 25, 2005 "Legacy of Laughter" - The final episode of Sealab 2021, done as an interview and sort of a sequel to "Tinfins" (the film "Tinfins 2" is in the works and it's sponsored by Grizzlebee's). There is a Q&A session with the audience, during which one person asks of the people on stage are supposed to be the voice actors as themselves, or are they in character now? The only answer is "yes". It's determined that the biggest problem with Sealab 2021 is that it "wasn't enough like Aqua Teen Hunger Force". The interview/episode ends with a greatest hits tribute to Captain Murphy and a sneak preview of the next season right after the commercial break. Ironic thing is, there aren't anymore new episodes as the episode ends that way.
Home releases
The first DVD of the series, featuring the first 13 episodes (I, Robot through Swimming in Oblivion), was released July 20, 2004, along with Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume Two.
The second DVD of the series was released on February 1st 2005, alongside The Brak Show Volume 1 DVD.
The third DVD of the series is set to be released on July 12th, 2005, with 3 unseen episodes.
See also
External links
- Soylent Forums (http://http://panuccis.net/forum/index.php) Popular messageboard which also provides discussion for Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Futurama
- Official Sealab 2021 Website (http://www.adultswim.com/shows/sealab/index.html)
- Theme song (http://www.calamine.com/mp3/sealab.mp3) by Calamine
- Clunky Robot (http://clunkyrobot.com) Blog and artwork by Christian Danley, who works on the show
- Pod-Six (http://www.pod-six.net/) (Fan Site)
- Sealab Message Board (http://sealab.conforums.com) (Fan Forum)
- Sealab 2021 Forum (http://splitsville.conforums3.com) (Moderated Fan Forum)de:Sealab 2021