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Beavis and Butt-Head

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Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavisandbutthead-title.jpg
Premiere March 8, 1993
Finale December 29, 2011
Creator Mike Judge
Network/Provider MTV
Style animated comedy
Various lengths (season 1–7) / 30-minute (season 8)
Company Judgemental Films (season 1-8)
Ternion Productions
(season 8),
3 Arts Entertainment
(seasons 8)
Seasons 8
Episodes 199 (corresponding to the length of 65 half hour episodes) seasons 1–7 + 12 half hour episodes (season 8)
Origin USA
"Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They're not even human; they're cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way, DON'T try this at home"

Beavis and Butt-Head is an animated comedy spun off from Liquid Television about two teenage boys and their crude antics. The series is notable for being symbolic of the mid 1990s as well as the Generation X period of time. It was responsible, along with The Simpsons and The Ren & Stimpy Show, for pushing the boundaries of mainstream cartoons.

Contents

Overview

The series's beginnings were rooted in Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, where it premiered as a short pilot episode. This short, entitled Frog Baseball, was later aired on MTV's Liquid Television on September 22, 1992. This short was aired alongside Peace, Love and Understanding and was the catalyst for its development into a full series.

The format of the show is fairly simple, the episodes are broken into story segments and video segments. The stories are short and fairly simple, usually about causing some kind of trouble at either school or home. In the video segments, Beavis and Butt-Head would speak candidly about a music video. More often than not, the music video would be criticized in a very cynical, mocking way. It was rare that the two would compliment or generally approve of a video, but it was even more rare that they wouldn't say anything at all and simply change the channel without a word (the ultimate insult).

The series was ended by Mike Judge after nearly 200 episodes, a feature film, several specials and a spin-off series (Daria). Although the series was quickly taken off the air following its ending, it has been rerun on MTV2 and Comedy Central.

On February 2, 2011, MTV confirmed at their upfront presentation that they were bringing back Beavis and Butt-Head for all-new episodes with the involvement of creator Mike Judge.

Criticism

Because the series pushed the boundaries of mainstream animation so far, it was frequently a target of conservative groups for promoting immoral and inappropriate behavior. Several instances of animal abuse (such as the Frog Baseball skit) and a complete lack of respect for authority figures came up in the series and it was often cited as one of the examples of (or reasons for) the degradation of society.

Despite these criticisms, the series was defended by a wide range of people who saw it as an extremely intelligent social commentary disguised as moronic entertainment for the lowest common denominator. Among those defenders of the series were David Letterman and, oddly enough, the conservative newspaper National Review. In addition to its role as a social commentary, the series was applauded for using a fresh and creative type of comedy that has more depth and substance than it appears at first glance.

Cast

Actor Character Duration
Main Cast 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 P
Mike Judge Beavis * * * * * * * * *
Butt-Head * * * * * * * * *
Supporting/Recurring Cast 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 P
Tracy Grandstaff Daria Morgendorffer * * * * * * *
Dale Revo Additional voices * * * * * *
Rottilio Michieli Todd Ianuzzi * * * * * *
Adam Welsh Stewart Stevenson * * * * * *
Christine Walters Additional voices *

Seasons

Season  Premiere Finale #
MTV
Pre-Series September 22, 1992 November 17, 1992 2
Season One March 8, 1993 March 23, 1993 4
Season Two May 20, 1993 June 7, 1993 23
Season Three September 6, 1993 March 5, 1994 27
Season Four March 14, 1994 July 15, 1994 33
Season Five October 31, 1994 October 12, 1995 50
Season Six October 31, 1995 March 7, 1996 20
Season Seven January 26, 1997 November 28, 1997 40
Season Eight October 27, 2011 December 29, 2011 12

Feature Film

Title Release Date
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America December 20, 1996

In-Depth

DVD Releases

Title Release Discs
Episode Collections  (Region 1)
The Final Judgement July 1, 1997 1
Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas September 30, 1997 1
The Best Of: Innocence Lost/Chicks N' Stuff September 17, 2002 1
The Best Of: Troubled Youth/Feel Our Pain September 17, 2002 1
The Best Of: Butt-O-Ween/Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas September 17, 2002 1
The History of Beavis and Butt-Head September 24, 2002 (Canceled) 2
The Best Of: Law-Abiding Citizens/There Goes the Neighborhood Early 2003 1
The Best Of: Work Sucks/The Final Judgement Early 2003 1
The Best Of: Hard Cash Early 2003 1
The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 1 November 8, 2005 3
The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 June 13, 2006 3
The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 3 August 1, 2006 3
Mike Judge's Most Wanted October 4, 2011 purchase 1
Complete Series  (Region 1)
The Complete Series February 14, 2017 purchase 12
Feature Film  (Region 1)
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America November 23, 1999 1
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Special Collector's Edition September 12, 2006 1

External Sites