Beavis and Butt-Head

Beavis and Butt-Head
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.

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

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

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

• Beavis and Butt-Head on IMDb