Mission Hill (TV series) explained

Alt Name:	The Downtowners (original title)
Theme Music Composer:	John McCrea
Opentheme:	"Italian Leather Sofa" by Cake
Composer:	Eric Speier
Producer:	Colin A.B.V. Lewis
Country:	United States
Num Seasons:	1
Num Episodes:	13
Runtime:	21–23 minutes
Network:	The WB
Network2:	Adult Swim
First Aired:	^[1]

Mission Hill is an American adult animated sitcom created by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein for The WB. It originally aired for five episodes from September 21, 1999,^[1] to July 16, 2000; unaired episodes were burnt off on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim from May 26 to August 11, 2002.^[2] The series follows Andy French, a retail worker who lives with roommates Jim and Posey as well as their dog, Stogie. Andy's lifestyle is taken for a turn when his younger brother Kevin moves in with him.

While initially garnering poor ratings, it has since gained a cult following, and is also popular outside of North America, receiving broadcasts in Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Spain and New Zealand. Stylistically, the series is recognizable for its bright, neon color palette, and features a peculiar mixture of modern animation and traditional "cartoonish" drawings (dashed lines coming from eyes to indicate line of vision, red bolts of lightning around a spot suffered). The style was made to be reminiscent of 1930s rubber hose cartoons such as Fleischer Studios, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM, as well as mid-century modern cartoons with the likes of Hanna-Barbera, UPA, Jay Ward, and The Pink Panther. The designs were done by Lauren MacMullan, who cites the comic series Eightball as her source of inspiration for her overall design.

History

Mission Hill was conceived in 1997 by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, former executive producers/showrunners of The Simpsons, with the original artistic designer being Lauren MacMullan. Oakley has mentioned that one of the main inspirations for Mission Hill was the 1997 MTV series Austin Stories, which followed a group of 20-somethings in Austin, Texas. After failed pitches to Fox and NBC, the rights to Mission Hill were purchased by Castle Rock Entertainment and The WB in the fall of 1997, following a successful pitch to Garth Ancier, the then-head of programming at the WB.^{[3] [4]} At the pitch, network executives from the WB were presented with three designs for Andy, Jim, Kevin and Posey. One depicted them in a drastically different, more cartoonish art style; the other two drew closer resemblance to the final designs, but one featured slightly more realistic designs for Andy and Kevin, with another featuring less realistic designs for Jim and Posey. When one of the WB executives saw the alternate designs for Jim and Posey, he thought that they were the parents of Andy and Kevin.^[5] MacMullan states that the final design chosen for Posey looked "much more attractive" when compared to the two alternate designs.

In mid-1998, the WB officially announced that a 13 episode first season would begin airing in the fall of 1999, with the project being known as The Downtowners at this point.^{[6] [7]} MTV's production of the similarly titled adult animated series Downtown eventually forced a name change. It featured the voices of Wallace Langham, Scott Menville, Brian Posehn, Vicki Lewis, Nick Jameson, Tom Kenny, Herbert Sigüenza, Jane Wiedlin, Tress MacNeille and Lisa Kushell. The theme song is a faster, instrumental version of "Italian Leather Sofa" by Cake, who Oakley and Weinstein were fans of.^[8] This version was specifically recorded for the show.

When the series was first sold to the WB, it was not yet synonymous with teen female-oriented drama programs such as Dawson's Creek, Felicity and Roswell, and its only popular show with that demographic was Buffy, which premiered at the beginning of 1997. Prior to Buffy, the network had been focusing on live action comedy shows aimed at African-Americans, such as The Jamie Foxx Show, The Steve Harvey Show and The Parent 'Hood. The success of Buffy and similar programs led to The Baltimore Sun labelling it as the "teen girl network" in July 1999, two months before Mission Hill premiered.^[9] During the WB's 1999 upfront presentation to advertisers, the drama shows received applause from the advertisers in the audience, while Mission Hill was met with two minutes of silence. In 2017, Oakley claimed, "In the time they ordered the show and the time it had appeared on the air, the network had redefined itself." He adds, "they had this leftover programming, and by the time they figured out we shouldn’t be lumped in together [we] were in danger of killing that entire network. We hugely damaged the ratings of those other shows." In another 2024 interview, Oakley said he initially thought that there might be some crossover between the audience of Mission Hill and shows such as Buffy, adding that "mostly at our urging, the show aired after an episode of Buffy, but all the Buffy viewers tuned out. They aired the next episode during their comedy block. We led off the night, and our ratings were so bad that we were murdering Jamie Foxx and Steve Harvey."^[10]

Although 18 episodes were planned, only 13 were produced.^[11] The series was put on hiatus by The WB after two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned in the summer of 2000 with smaller promotion, and was canceled on July 18, 2000, after four more episodes aired to poor ratings.^[12] The series went on to develop a cult following, thanks to repeated airings of all 13 episodes on Canada's Teletoon (part of "Unleashed" block); Cartoon Network's popular late-night programming block Adult Swim; and Too Funny to Sleep, a late-night programming block on TBS.^[13] Warner Home Video released all 13 completed episodes on DVD on November 29, 2005.

Bill Oakley has since voiced his dissatisfaction with the way Warner Bros. handled the series, and has said he doesn't mind if people pirate the series.

Potential revival

On June 30, 2020, Oakley announced plans for a spin-off tentatively titled Gus and Wally, which will center on the middle-aged gay couple who were supporting characters in Mission Hill. It is set six months after the series' conclusion in the early 2000s, and will be produced by Warner Bros. Animation for contractual reasons, though it is unknown if it would be for the WBD-owned Max.^[14]

In June 2022, Oakley claimed that they were still in the process of pitching the project, and that if this version was picked up, then it would continue under the Mission Hill moniker, rather than being titled Gus and Wally. He also mentioned that it would include the unproduced episodes from the original incarnation of the show.

In March 2023, Oakley confirmed in a tweet a Gus and Wally spin-off is "not gonna happen".

Premise

Set in the world of teens and 20-somethings, this series follows hip 24-year-old Andy French, whose sheltered suburban teenage brother Kevin moves in with him and his roommates in a big-city loft.

Characters

Main

• Andrew "Andy" French (Wallace Langham) is a 24-year-old in his third consecutive "post-college slump year." Andy is an aspiring cartoonist. From the pilot episode to "Unemployment, Part 1," Andy worked at a waterbed store where his boss was a lecherous, short, ill-tempered, foul-mouthed man who frequented strip clubs. From "Unemployment, Part 2" to "Plan 9 from Mission Hill" (and including the unproduced episodes "Supertool" and "Pretty in Pink"), Andy works as an artist at the same advertising agency as Jim. Often bored and mellow, Andy is easily annoyed by his younger brother, Kevin, though it has been shown that Andy does indeed care about him. However, he often has a habit of calling him and others "douchebag".
• Kevin French (Scott Menville) is Andy's 17-year-old nerd brother. Kevin moved in with Andy when his parents left for Wyoming, bringing his sheltered, suburban mindset to Mission Hill. He hopes to attend Yale University, and prides himself on his SAT scores. He has a habit of "bling-blonging", saying "bling blong" over and over again while doing homework to drown out any/all distractions and is prone to heavily overreact to trivial matters. Actor Andy Dick also auditioned for this role and was nearly cast.
• James "Jim" Kuback (Brian Posehn) – In his mid-20s, loftmate Jim has been Andy's best friend since high school. He is extremely tall and lanky, with red hair and a beard much like his voice actor, and speaks in a deep, monotone voice. Jim is a genius at all things electronic, whether it's electronic music or computers. He is mellow and able to express a wide variety of sentiments by nuancing the word "Okay." Jim is a high-powered advertising agent who is paid vast amounts of money to alter marketing campaigns to appeal to Generation Y.
• Posey Tyler (Vicki Lewis) – In her mid-20s, Posey, the fourth hippie loftmate, is somewhat a flower child, and very concerned about the health and well-being of her plants. She often gives her vegetables to charity, but gets upset when they are damaged. She often speaks quickly and in a nervous tone.
• Stogie is Andy's pet Golden Retriever, who can apparently stomach anything from alcoholic drinks to remote controls. At one point in the series his primary source of food was eating the couch cushions. Posey has stated that "there are dark forces at work within him", in the first episode.

Supporting

• Gus Duncz (Nick Jameson) is a gay man in his late 60s, he owns a diner in Mission Hill. He is a very large, burly man with a short temper and is married to Wally. According to audio commentary by the producers, Gus is based on Broderick Crawford, though according to the audio commentary for The Simpsons seventh-season episode, "Marge Be Not Proud," Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein claim the inspiration for the character was Lawrence Tierney (who voiced the Try-N-Save store detective who catches Bart shoplifting).
• Wally Langford (Tom Kenny) is a gay man in his late 60s, Wally is a projectionist at the local art movie house. He enjoys cinema and ragtime music. In the episode "I Married a Gay Man from Outer Space", it is revealed that he directed a film in the 1950s entitled The Man from Pluto (which parodied Plan 9 from Outer Space). It starred his partner Gus in the title role. The character was based on David Niven and Wally Cox.
• Natalie Leibowitz-Hernandez (Vicki Lewis) – Late 20s. Politically correct and intellectually well-endowed, Natalie is a professor of Women's Studies at the local college. Sensitive to biases in our culture, Natalie and her husband have yet to name their baby as they want it to have cultural significance reflective of their own respective cultures. She is Jewish. She is a working mother who supports both "Baby Nameless" and her non-working "marital partner" Carlos. The character of Natalie was based and modeled on the writer and educator Lois M. Leveen, a longtime friend of the show's creators. She auditioned for the voice of her own character, but the actress Vicki Lewis was determined to be even more "Lois-y" than Lois Leveen herself, and she was cast in the role instead.
• Carlos Hernandez (Herbert Sigüenza) – Late 20s. He is a struggling Latino artist and stay-at-home dad for Baby Nameless. Unlike his religious wife Natalie, Carlos is a Christian, his work is, at times, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, Diego Rivera and Bob Ross. He prides himself on having no discernible style. Carlos and Natalie have a pet snake as a result of an episode involving a raid on an animal testing lab.
• Baby Nameless (Mary Oakley) – The newborn baby of Natalie and Carlos. She was modelled after and voiced by Bill Oakley's daughter Mary, who was born in June 1998, while the show was in production.^[15]
• Gwen (Jane Wiedlin) – Early 20s. Andy's on-and-off girlfriend, Gwen completed two years of community college before settling in Mission Hill. She met Andy working at Ron's Waterbed World. Someday she would like to be an accomplished person who achieves her goals and makes a serious contribution to society. She likes The Go-Go's, referring to Wiedlin's membership in the band.
• Toby Mundorf (Josh Weinstein) – In his late teens and one of Kevin's best friends in Mission Hill. His overprotective mother worries a great deal about him, as he frequently suffers from allergies, asthma, and hunger. Despite his large size, he is a born coward.
• George Bang (Bill Oakley) is Kevin's other best friend. George works long hours after school in his father's market. George is extremely competitive in everything from taking tests to playing video games. He shares all the same interests as his best friends and is particularly proud of owning the complete Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game. Unlike his friends Toby and Kevin, his parents don't seem to be overprotective, so he is more sarcastic and aggressive than either of them. George has an older sister named Tina who goes to Polytech. George is of Korean descent.
• Ron (Nick Jameson) is a sleazy, immoral Armenian man and former boss of Andy (who loathes him). In "Unemployment, Part 1," Ron was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment for tax evasion, his store was also confiscated by the government as a result. He has an extremely short temper and often takes his rage out on his employees.

Episodes

Note: Thirteen episodes of the series were produced while five more were written, but never completed. Animatics for some of these episodes were in production at the time of the series' cancellation. It was planned to put these animatics on the DVD for the series, but this never came to fruition. However, several of the animatics—including a completed video animatic and synchronized audio read-through of the episode "Pretty in Pink (Crap Gets in Your Eyes)"—have been released through various internet outlets.

Unfinished episodes

Location

The series takes place in a district named Mission Hill. Mission Hill is a distinctive neighborhood in a much larger city named Cosmopolis. Cosmopolis is depicted as a large modern urban metropolis similar to New York City or Chicago. The official website states Mission Hill is a mix of Mission Hill in Boston (only miles away from where creator Bill Oakley went to college), Mission District in San Francisco, Silver Lake in Los Angeles, Wicker Park in Chicago, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The exact location of Cosmopolis has never been revealed, as it is a mix of East and West Coast cities. Most of the series takes place in the neighborhood of Mission Hill, although the skyscrapers of Downtown Cosmopolis are seen in the background. In the DVD commentaries, Josh Weinstein says that a large portion of the development of the series was spent developing Mission Hill into a functional, albeit fictional, city. Writers and animators worked together to create fictional advertisements, bands, foods, and even bus schedules. Boston, MA has a neighborhood called Mission Hill in the Roxbury section of the city which bears many similarities to its fictional counterpart.

Home release

Warner Home Video released all 13 completed episodes on DVD on November 29, 2005. The collection replaced some of the original soundtracks with stock music, most glaringly "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. in the episode "Andy Vs. The Real World". The DVD collection also dubbed over some of the original voice tracks to remove any references to the replaced music, for example changing Andy's voice track from saying "Gordon Lightfoot" to "Scott Joplin" in the episode "Unemployment Part 1".

Awards

Mission Hill received the 2000 Pulcinella Award for "Best Series for All Audiences"; the award cited the series' "stylized design and honest approach to sexual and moral issues."^[16]

The series won an award from GLAAD for its positive portrayal of a gay relationship.^[17]

See also

• Cult television

Notes and References

1. News: TV Listings for - September 21, 1999. TV Tango. May 22, 2023.
2. Book: Perlmutter, David . The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows . 2018 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-1538103739 . 399–400.
3. Where's Mission Hill Season 2? (Bill Oakley Answers Questions) . June 1, 2022 . Smith . Bradley . 2023-04-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230310033719/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ouOQHUCFes&gl=US&hl=en . 2023-03-10 . live . YouTube.
4. Web site: Alexander . Julia . September 6, 2017 . Mission Hill Was Supposed to Represent the Future, but It Died Before Getting the Chance . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20181105000833/https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/6/16256458/mission-hill-simpsons-bill-oakley-josh-weinstein-matt-groening . 2018-11-05 . 2023-04-10 . Polygon.
5. From Concept to Creation . . Mission Hill: The Complete Series.
6. September 1998 . The WB Is Set to Go Downtown . live . Animation World Magazine . . 3 . 6 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230309213845/https://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6television.html . 2023-03-09 . 2023-04-10.
7. Web site: Adalian . Josef . July 27, 1998 . WB Still Thinking Young . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230309213847/https://variety.com/1998/tv/news/wb-still-thinking-young-1117478827/ . 2023-03-09 . 2023-04-10 . Variety.
8. Stanley . T. L. . October 11, 1999 . Dawson's Creek, the Record . live . . 9 . 38 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230310034132/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Mediaweek/1999/Mediaweek-1999-10-11.pdf . 2023-03-10 . 2023-04-10 . WorldRadioHistory.com.
9. Web site: Modeling itself on teen sexuality; at WB, the network that brings you 'Buffy' and 'Dawson's Creek,' image is everything . July 25, 1999 .
10. Web site: An Oral History of 'Mission Hill,' the Animated Cult Classic That Adult Swim Saved . April 18, 2024 .
11. Book: Erickson, Hal . Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 . 2005 . McFarland & Co . 978-1476665993 . 2nd . 554.
12. Web site: O'Kane . Jim . Bling Blong "Mission" Control . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230208164842/https://missionhill.tripod.com/mh_tvdads_interview.htm . 2023-02-08 . 2023-04-10 . MissionHill.Tripod.com.
13. Web site: Mission Hill Frequently Asked Questions . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230208164447/https://missionhill.tripod.com/mh_faq.htm . 2023-02-08 . 2023-04-10 . MissionHill.Tripod.com.
14. Web site: White . Peter . June 30, 2020 . Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein Plot Spin-Off of Cult Animated Series 'Mission Hill' . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210828090111/https://deadline.com/2020/06/bill-oakley-josh-weinstein-spin-off-cult-animated-mission-hill-1202974050/ . 2021-08-28 . 2020-06-30 . Deadline Hollywood.
15. DVD Commentary for "Unemployment Part 2" . . 2005.
16. Web site: May 2000 . Animation World News - Awards . 2024-05-16 . Animation World Network.
17. Web site: Neill . Chris . January 31, 2018 . The Prematurely Axed Mission Hill Was a '90s Cartoon Ahead of Its Years . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200427024522/https://thebrag.com/mission-hill/ . 2020-04-27 . 2023-04-10 . TheBrag.com.