| Producer: | Bob Hathcock |
| Developer: | Flint Dille |
| Voices: | Tara Charendoff Cree Summer Noam Zylberman Michael Fantini Alyson Court |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 13 |
| Last Aired: | (UK) |
Garbage Pail Kids is an American animated series which was produced in 1987, based on the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards, produced and directed by Bob Hathcock and co-written and developed by Flint Dille. Due to controversial themes, it did not air in the United States. However, it did air in certain countries around the world, including in Europe and the Caribbean.
The series stars the characters Split Kit, Elliot Mess, Terri Cloth, Patty Putty, and Clogged Duane as gross-looking kids with abilities to help others. In the first two episodes, they have normal alter-egos, which transform into their "Garbage Pail" identities; later episodes show them exclusively in their Garbage Pail looks (it is never explained if their Garbage Pail personae became permanent).
The show also features parodies of popular movies of the era like the Indiana Jones series, Superman, Conan the Barbarian, King Kong, and The Fly. It also has segments between stories, such as "Garbage Pail Groaners" (jokes) and "Would We Lie to You?" (facts).
| Episode # | Segments | |
|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 |
Written by Flint Dille | |
| Episode 2 |
Written by Rowby Goren, Gordon Kent, Flint Dille | |
| Episode 3 |
Written by Rowby Goren, Buzz Dixon, Gordon Kent, Linda Woolverton | |
| Episode 4 |
Written by Flint Dille, Gordon Kent, Rowby Goren | |
| Episode 5 |
Written by Rowby Goren, Michael Hill, Gordon Kent | |
| Episode 6 |
Written by Gordon Kent, Doug Booth, Rowby Goren, Flint Dille | |
| Episode 7 |
Written by Gordon Kent, Marvin Wolfman, Donna Kuyper, Paul Davids, Rowby Goren | |
| Episode 8 |
Written by Rowby Goren, Buzz Dixon, Gordon Kent, Paul Davids | |
| Episode 9 |
Written by Gordon Kent, Flint Dille, Rowby Goren | |
| Episode 10 |
Written by Linda Woolverton, Gordon Kent, Flint Dille, Rowby Goren | |
| Episode 11 |
Written by Richard Mervin, Gordon Kent, Rowby Goren | |
| Episode 12 |
Written by Gordon Kent, Paul Dini, Michael Charles Hill, Flint Dille | |
| Episode 13 |
Written by Gordon Kent, Flint Dille |
Paramount Home Entertainment released Garbage Pail Kids: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on April 4, 2006.
The CBS television network directly produced the series, and ordered an entire season, heavily promoting it in the run-up to the 1987–88 season. However, it was abruptly pulled a few days before its debut, and (just like Little Muppet Monsters) was replaced with an extra half hour of Muppet Babies, which was expanded to 90 minutes in order to fill the time-slot after Garbage Pail Kids was pulled from the schedule.
CBS removed the series from their schedule, following protests from Action for Children's Television, the National Coalition on Television Violence, and the Christian Leaders for Responsible Television (a part of the American Family Association). The reasons given were that the series ridiculed the disabled and glorified violence, along with the claim that the program was effectively program-length ads for the toys and cards of the Garbage Pail Kids.
Some advertisers, such as Nabisco, McDonald's and Crayola also pulled out, either due to pressure from interest groups, or because they were unable to pre-screen the series from advanced tapes.
A few CBS affiliates, such as WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas,[1] KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio,[2] KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas[2] and KREM-TV in Spokane, Washington[3] made known they would not carry the series on their stations, notifying CBS of their pre-emptions weeks in advance of the debut.[4]
Despite not airing in the United States, the series did air in numerous other countries, including Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, among others.