The Venture Bros.
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| The Venture Bros. | |
|---|---|
 Dr. Thaddeus Venture, Brock Samson, Hank and Dean Venture. |
|
| Genre | Action-comedy |
| Creator(s) | Jackson Publick |
| Starring | James Urbaniak Patrick Warburton |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 26 (plus 1 pilot and 1 special) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 0:22 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Cartoon Network (Adult Swim) |
| Original run | February 16, 2003 – present |
| Links | |
The Venture Bros. is an United States animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It chronicles the adventures of two dopey teenage boys, Hank and Dean, their super-scientist father, Dr. Thaddeus Venture, and their family's bodyguard, secret agent Brock Samson.
The series pays homage to the style of the classic Hanna-Barbera action series Jonny Quest: Hank and Dean's roles resemble those of Jonny and Hadji, Dr. Venture is a caricature of Dr. Benton Quest, and Brock Samson presents a testosterone-loaded, excessively violent take on Race Bannon, who has appeared in the show (flashbacks show, however, that Dr. Venture was more like Jonny in his youth, and his own father was a more traditional "Dr. Quest"). The show also parodies The Hardy Boys mysteries and comic super heroes.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym for Christopher McCulloch) was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated show The Tick. Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes, and written one full episode, ¡Viva los Muertos!. Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived live-action series, provides the voice of Brock Samson.
McCulloch created The Venture Bros.' storyline sometime prior to 2000. After working for the television program Sheep in the Big City and the live-action version of The Tick, McCulloch set to turning The Venture Bros. into an animated series. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived as a comic-book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comic story, and decided to pitch it as an animated series to Comedy Central, but it was rejected. Although the first draft of the pilot script was written in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. McCulloch had not previously considered Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone The Venture Bros. down" and was unaware of the existence of Adult Swim. With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16, 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August.[1] Season three is set to begin in winter 2007-2008.
[edit] Characters
The characters of The Venture Bros. are largely either reimaginings of the characters from Jonny Quest, comic book superheroes and supervillains; or of other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the titular twin brothers of the show; both boys have identifiable characteristics, with Hank being the more adventurous and Dean being the more "effeminate" and bookish of the two. Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak) currently runs Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist," although his knowledge and credentials in the field are questionable. Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the massively-muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He is an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a license to kill. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed a loyal and rather emotional robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (voiced by Soul-Bot) that accompanies and assists the Ventures.
Throughout the series, the Venture family has had various recurring antagonists. Many of them are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, a group that bears resemblance to the Legion of Doom. The pernicious but ineffective Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), the masculine-voiced Doctor Girlfriend (voiced by Doc Hammer), and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's main villains. Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith) is a former dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and bears a grudge against Venture for the loss of his jaw in college, citing "One is always supposed to look out for one's lab partner!". Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a high-ranking member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, and former lover of Dr. Girlfriend. He seems at least as intent upon persecuting The Monarch as he is in pursuing the Guild's villainous agenda.
The Ventures also have acquaintances that are used to help progress stories and add to the atmosphere of the show. The expert necromancer Doctor Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer) rent out a portion of the Venture Compound. The albino computer scientist Pete White (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) is a former college friend of Dr. Venture's, and usually appears in the company of hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Doc Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture, a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture, have also appeared in occasional episodes.
[edit] Episodes
The second season of the series premiered on the internet via Adult Swim Fix on June 23, 2006 and on television on June 25, 2006; the season finished on October 15, 2006. The considerable delay between the end of the first season and the start of the second was partially caused by Adult Swim's delay in deciding whether to renew the show, but primarily because the show is drawn and inked in the traditional animation style, albeit digitally, causing each episode to take considerable time to move through production. Additionally, the producers were dealing with time constraints of producing a first-season DVD that contained live action interviews and commentary for several episodes.
Most episodes open with a letterboxed scene prior to the opening title sequence. Additionally, almost every episode has a short scene following the credits that usually wraps up the episode humorously or reveals something significant about the characters (usually both).
Each episode is "PRESENTED IN GLORIOUS EXTRA COLOR", as jokingly stated during the episode's end credits - a reference to Hanna-Barbera programs in their golden age being presented in Technicolor. The only normal-run episode that this is missing from is episode 2, "Careers in Science".
According to a recent interview with the creators, the show has been officially renewed for both a third and fourth season. As Adult Swim's website earlier stated 26 new episodes were on the way, this breaks down into two seasons with 13 episodes each.
[edit] Themes, homages, and references
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One of the themes of The Venture Bros. is its multifarious use of allusion in its dialogue, character design and other facets. The series openly pays homage to a variety of sources, including adventure serials, pulp magazines, and many other elements of pop culture; musical references, television shows, movies, toys, fads, and comic books have all been used for fodder in the past.
[edit] Jonny Quest
The series' predominant homage is to Jonny Quest, as it is the basis for many of the main characters. Dr. Venture represents Benton Quest, Brock references Race Bannon, and the Venture boys correspond to Jonny and Hadji. The comparisons, however, are taken to the level of an extreme parody: Dr. Venture is a pill-popping, barely-competent scientist who treats his children and those around him with overt disdain and contempt; Brock is a hyper-macho man with a (frequently used) license to kill; and the boys are nincompoops stuck in an out-of-date mindset.
In the latter part of the first season, and more overtly in the second, the writers have retrofitted the notion of Dr. Venture being an adult analogue for Jonny Quest. Flashbacks and references to merchandise show Rusty as a Jonny Quest-like child adventurer. This was expanded upon in season two with brief appearances from Hector, who served as an analogue for Hadji, and former boxing champion Swifty as another analogue for Race Bannon.
Direct connections to Jonny Quest are made in three episodes. "Ice Station – Impossible!" featured a cameo appearance from Race Bannon. In "Twenty Years to Midnight," a drug-addicted adult Jonny Quest lives in the same bathysphere that his father, Benton Quest, once used to communicate with sea life. In "Fallen Arches," Dr. Venture has built a "Walking Eye" machine, reminiscent to the spider-like robotic spy built by Dr. Zin from the Jonny Quest episode "The Robot Spy".
[edit] Comic books and other literature
The boys' ages and desire to solve mysteries is reminiscent of The Hardy Boys; Jackson Publick's original sketches of the boys depicted what he called "dim-witted Hardy Boys". Hank's appearance and clothes also closely resemble that of the character Fred Jones from the Scooby-Doo series, while Dean's resemble Peter Parker circa Amazing Fantasy #15. In several episodes, Dean wears Spider-Man pajamas and Hank wears Aquaman pajamas (similar to Underoos). Hank has been frequently shown wearing a Batman costume. Brock Samson is a mix of Doc Samson and James Bond, among others.
The family of four that possess Impossible Industries have received horrific, inferior versions of the Fantastic Four's powers. The Office of Secret Intelligence (OSI) is a direct parody of S.H.I.E.L.D., featuring similar uniforms, the jet-pack seen in older Nick Fury tales, and a flying headquarters along the lines of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Dr. Jonas Venture and the original Team Venture are strongly reminiscent of pulp novel hero Doc Savage and his entourage. The characters Doctor Byron Orpheus and Baron Werner Ünderbheit are influenced by Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom, respectively. Elements of Molotov Cocktease's background and appearance can be seen as references to the first Black Widow. Torrid, the villain that Doctor Orpheus fights against alongside The Order of the Triad, is a version of Marvel's Dormammu, but also resembles DC's Deadman to some degree.
[edit] Music
Musicians and songs are commonly referenced and quoted in The Venture Bros. Many characters often quote songs, sometimes to a great length. Monarch henchmen numbers 21 and 24 are usually discussing music related topics. Some musicians have even appeared as characters in the show. David Bowie is the most referenced musician in the series as of 2006, to the point of appearing as a major character (with Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi) in Showdown at Cremation Creek (Parts I and II).
The dialogue between Major Tom and Jonas Venture at the beginning of "Ghosts of the Sargasso" refers to the David Bowie songs "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes." Major Tom's spacecraft is named "TVC 15", the title of another Bowie song. It is said that Mr. Brisby won his "long-time companda" from Bowie in a trivia contest. Bowie later sends the mercenary Molotov Cocktease to retrieve the animal.
There have been numerous references to the band Led Zeppelin, primarily in relation to Brock. Brock mentions that "Zep sold out" on In Through the Out Door. He later implies that he hates the album due to its connection to his memories of a former lover (possibly Molotov Cocktease). When Brock must take an exam to renew his license to kill, instead of answering the questions on its written portion, he draws Icarus from the Swan Song Records logo; Brock eventually gets a tattoo of this logo. While listening to "When the Levee Breaks," H.E.L.P.e. R. proceeds to call Zeppelin "jock rock" and an argument ensues between it and Brock.
The soundtrack music is credited to J.G. Thirlwell, AKA Clint Ruin, AKA Foetus, a prominent industrial/metal musician whose own music blended industrial and metal aesthetics with brassy, melodramatic symphonic stings similar to the music of Johnny Quest.
[edit] General pop culture
The Guild Of Calamitous Intent's agents, called "Strangers," seem inspired by the antagonists of the 1998 science fiction thriller Dark City. (See "The Trial of the Monarch" for additional notes.) The Strangers wear headpieces similar to those of the Cyclops from the French movie The City of Lost Children.
Brock works for the "Office of Secret Intelligence", a subtle play on the Office of Scientific Intelligence that employed agent Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man. To further extend the homage, Brock met Steve Summers (a play on both Steve Austin and Jamie Summers, the Bionic Woman), a former government agent who had been bionically rebuilt. Brock's mentor from the OSI, "Colonel Hunter Gathers," takes his appearance and first name from the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The character's mirrored aviator glasses, distinctive speech cadence, and use of a long cigarette holder all echo Thompson's public persona.
In an apparent reference to William S. Burroughs, Colonel Horace Gentleman speaks to a scantily clad boy named Kiki, with whom it is implied he has had sexual relations. (Burroughs had an affair with a boy named Kiki, which was depicted in the film Naked Lunch.) In a later episode, Horace Gentleman's diary reveals that he attended a party with "the Frosts". The Frost couple, and the party they hosted, were also a major part of the film Naked Lunch. When Pete White inaccurately shoots Billy Quizboy with a shrink ray, Quizboy sarcastically comments "Nice shot, William Burroughs." (Burroughs killed his common-law wife Joan Vollmer while drunkenly attempting to shoot a glass perched on her head.)
Other pop-culture references are abundant. Other references, most of which are used as "one-shot" jokes, include Easy Rider, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jim Foetus aka J.G. Thirlwell, Lydia Lunch, Stiv Bators, John Woo films, film director Kevin Smith, the questionable sexuality of members of Depeche Mode, Voltron, INXS, the Illustrated Wildlife Treasury, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, Incredible Hulk foam fist merchandise, Lord of the Rings replica sword; representations of characters from Indiana Jones, Magnum P.I., and Knight Rider; the music video for Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf", and prominently, the late German New Wave performer Klaus Nomi.
James Bond is heavily referenced in the series as well, as Brock is essentially a pumped up Bond and actually carries a license to kill. Brock remarked in an episode that killing guys in a tux makes him "feel like James Bond." Colonel Horace Gentleman, one of the members of Dr. Jonas Venture's original Team Venture, speaks with a Scottish accent that sounds just like Sean Connery, the first actor to portray James Bond, but actually a knowing jab at Connery's character in The League Of Extraordinairy Gentlemen. Additionally, in the episode "The Incredible Mr. Brisby", when Brock is rendered unconscious by a cigarette, he mutters "chloral hydrate..." just as Timothy Dalton did in "The Living Daylights."
The character design, exaggerated sexuality, and anarchist leanings of Molotov Cocktease are reminiscent of the Æon Flux character from the animated series of the same name.
[edit] Star Wars
Star Wars is probably the most referenced film series in the show. Most episodes either directly or indirectly reference the series, and many of the series' most memorable lines have been quoted by the characters. The writers have made references to common Star Wars pop culture icons (such as the Star Wars Kid) as well as very obscure references (such as to the The Star Wars Holiday Special), and several episodes are parodies of the film series.
[edit] Technology
The "advanced technology" in the Venture Compound suggests a hodgepodge of jet age "future technology" (mostly unrealistic) and current technology. For example, Hank and Dean own hoverbikes, and the learning aids built into their beds still run on punch cards (However, as the "learning bed" was invented by Jonas Venture, it was probably advanced for its time.)
Dr. Venture's airplane, the X-1, is named after the Bell X-1, which was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. This X-n naming convention extends to the Ventures' research ship, the X-2. The X-X-1, invented by Jonas Venture, Jr. is a jet as absurdly advanced by modern standards as the X-1 was by jet age standards. The Ventures' research ship is illustrated to look like an XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic high-altitude bomber.
Fictional elements of technology are commonplace in the show. The characters have used or mentioned functioning teleporters, robots, shrink rays, time machines, and other similar machines that are science fiction clichés. Various vehicles, especially those of minor villains, tend to resemble airplanes, rocketships, cars, and other conveyances from other popular science fiction and children's TV shows and films.
[edit] Failure
Publick and Hammer have stated that one of the primary themes of The Venture Bros. is failure.
"Yeah failure, that's what Venture Bros. is all about. Beautiful sublime failure." -Doc Hammer[2]
In the commentary for the episode "Home Insecurity" Hammer and Publick elaborated on the theme.
Publick: "This show... If you'll permit me to get 'big picture,' This show is actually all about failure. Even in the design, everything is supposed to be kinda the death of the space-age dream world. The death of the jet-age promises."
Hammer: "It's about the beauty of failure. It's about that failure happens to all of us..." "Every character is not only flawed, but sucks at what they do, and is beautiful at it and Jackson and I suck at what we do, and we try to be beautiful at it, and failure is how you get by." "It shows that failure's funny, and it's beautiful and it's life, and it's okay, and it's all we can write because we are big fucking failures. (laughter)"[3]
This is both failure on a personal scale and on a societal scale. Obviously, Doctor Venture himself is a colossal failure as a superscientist, an adventurer, a businessman, an heir to his heroic father and as a father himself. In fact, the only thing Venture was ever actually good at was being a boy adventurer. His sons, on the other hand, are utter failures at being boy adventurers. Despite being one of the world's leading inventors and a truly loving father, Doctor Jonas Venture Sr. failed at raising his son, Doctor Venture, in a healthy environment. By using subliminal learning aids and bringing Dr. Venture on all his missions, Dr. Venture grew up to be a socially awkward individual who has failed to even come close to living up to his father's legacy. All around the Venture Compound one sees the artifacts of the Jet Age -- supersonic nuclear-powered jets, fantastic inventions and gleaming science. But, forty years later, those Jet Age relics are breaking down, and their promises (as well as the paradise that science and technology were to have ushered in) have all been broken. There is perhaps no better symbol of this than Gargantua One, the gigantic space station and "ninth wonder of the world" built by Doctor Jonas Venture. This was to be Doctor Venture's perfect legacy and gift to the world. By the present day it remains abandoned except for a minimal crew of two people incapable of even diagnosing problems on board. Similarly, the grandiose plans and tyranny of supervillainy have given way to the almost pathetic bureaucracy of the Guild of Calamitous Intent. Government agencies like the Office of Secret Intelligence are pathetic shells spouting patriotic jingoism that has little to do with the present day. The future as promised never arrived and the next generation was incapable of even running their own lives let alone thinking big or creating anything.
[edit] DVD releases
| DVD Name | Cover Art | Release Date | Ep # | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season One |  |
May 30, 2006 | 13 | This two disc set includes all 13 episodes of Season 1. Bonus features include "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" (the pilot) and "A Very Venture Christmas", deleted scenes, behind the scenes mockumentary with the Venture Bros. Cast and creators, and cast and crew commentaries on "Mid-Life Chrysalis", "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!", "Tag Sale – You're It!", "Ghosts of the Sargasso", "Return to Spider-Skull Island", and "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay". |
| Season Two |  |
April 17, 2007 | 13 | This two disc set includes all 13 episodes of Season 2. Bonus features include commentary on every episode by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer and, for some episodes, "special guests" such as voice actors James Urbaniak and Michael Sinterniklaas. Features also include deleted scenes and a tour of Astro-base Go!. |
The first season of The Venture Bros. on DVD was released on May 30, 2006, as officially announced by Warner Home Video.[4] It coincided with the June 25 premiere of the second season. Originally, it was scheduled for March 14, 2006, but was delayed until May 30, 2006. The DVD packaging and interior art was created by comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz. On May 31, 2006, the season one DVD reached #1 on Amazon's top selling DVDs list. [5]
The season two DVD has been announced for April 17, 2007.[6]
[edit] The "Lost DVD Commentary"
On a June 30, 2006, LiveJournal post, Jackson Publick revealed that he and Doc Hammer had recorded a commentary track for the season one episode "Home Insecurity." Warner Bros. chose to omit this track from the Season One DVD due to space limitations and some minor sound quality issues. Publick also stated that the commentary can be found and downloaded from Quickstop Entertainment.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Jackson Publick (2005-12-20). It's That Time Again.... Livejournal.com. Retrieved on June 21, 2006.
- ^ Jackson Publick (2006-06-21). Quickcast Commentary:The Venture Bros.. quickstopentertainment.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-21.
- ^ Jackson Publick (2006-06-21). Quickcast Commentary:The Venture Bros.. quickstopentertainment.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-21.
- ^ David Lambert (2006-01-31). Venture Bros., The - Street Date, Box Art, Extras & More For Season 1 Package!. TVshowsonDVD.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
- ^ Jackson Publick (2006-05-31). Holy crap!. Livejournal.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
- ^ Warner announced Season 2
- ^ http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=281
[edit] External links
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The external links in this article may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. Please remove this tag when this is done. (talk) |
- Adult Swim - Venture Bros. Website
- Scrotal Safety Commission - A satirical site on testicular torsion created by Doc Hammer for the episode "Are You There God, It's Me, Dean"
- Jackson Publick's Venture Bros. Livejournal
- James Urbaniak's Livejournal - the voice of Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture
- The Venture Brothers Livejournal community
- The People's Republic of Venture - A fan site. Mentioned on James Urbaniak's LiveJournal as his favorite Venture Bros. fan site/forum
- The Venture Bros. Wiki - A fan edited wiki about the Venture Bros
- Go Team Venture - A Venture Bros Characters Fanlisting
- The Venture Bros. on TV Squad
- The Mantis-Eye Experiment - fan site with in-depth analysis of each episode
- The Venture Bros. at the TV IV
- Interview with co-creator Jackson Publick on public radio program The Sound of Young America
| The Venture Bros. | |
|---|---|
| Characters Main | Secondary |
Hank Venture • Dean Venture • Dr. Thaddeus Venture • Brock Samson • H.E.L.P.eR. • Jonas Venture Junior Dr. Orpheus • Triana Orpheus • Pete White • Master Billy Quizboy • Molotov Cocktease • Myra Brandish The Monarch • Doctor Girlfriend • #21 • #24 • Baron Werner Ünderbheit • Phantom Limb |
| Organizations Prominent | Minor |
Team Venture/Venture Industries • Order of the Triad • Monarch Henchmen • Guild of Calamitous Intent |
| Cast and crew | Paul Boocock • Lisa Hammer • Steven Rattazzi • Michael Sinterniklaas • James Urbaniak • Patrick Warburton Jackson Publick • Doc Hammer • J. G. Thirlwell • World Leaders Entertainment |
| Episodes | Pilot • Season 1 • Season 2 • Specials • Phone Calls |
