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The Venture Bros.

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The Venture Bros.
Venture bros-logo.png
Premiere pilot
February 16, 2003
series
August 7, 2004
Finale October 7, 2018
Creator Jackson Publick
Network/Provider Adult Swim
Style 30-minute animated action comedy
Company AstroBase Go!
World Leaders Entertainment (formerly Noodlesoup Productions) (seasons 1-4),
Titmouse Inc. (seasons 5-7)
Seasons 7
Episodes 83 + pilot + 4 specials + 1 film
Origin USA
Official Site The Venture Bros.

The Venture Bros. is an animated series broadcast on Adult Swim chronicling the adventures of Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture, his sons Dean and Hank, and their bodyguard Brock Samson. Dr. Venture follows in the footsteps of his super-scientist father, Dr. Jonas Venture. The Venture family frequently clashes with villains like The Monarch and his assistant Dr. Girlfriend.

Contents

History

Writer and cartoonist Chris McCulloch came up with the idea for The Venture Bros. around 1998 as a comic book story, and soon wrote the first draft of the script while he worked as a storyboard artist on Sheep in the Big City. At the time, McCulloch was meeting with Comedy Central regarding a show pitch of his comic Uncle Nature, all the while playing around with the Venture Bros. concept in the background. The Comedy Central pitch fell through, and McCulloch's comic book story about the Ventures was becoming too extensive to work as a comic book anymore, so he began to turn it into an animated pilot script. McCulloch also pitched The Venture Bros. script to Comedy Central, who "politely" turned it down within the week.

After Sheep in the Big City and his failed Comedy Central deals, McCulloch moved onto The Tick, which was being produced by Sony Pictures Television for a live action series on Fox, after the comic book (and cartoon series) of the same name. McCulloch continued to work with The Venture Bros. and his agent helped him get in with a studio that was beginning to develop CG animated shows to develop his idea. Unfortunately, the studio soon decided against producing the series and The Venture Bros. fell back into development limbo. Upon the cancellation of The Tick, McCulloch revised his pilot script, made some redesigns, and refined the general look of the series. In New York City, McCulloch met Jeff Nodelman of Noodlesoup Productions, who assured him that the show could be done efficiently and inexpensively.

Later, McCulloch learned about Adult Swim, and contacted network executive Linda Simensky for a pitch meeting. The block, at the time, was looking for a third pilot to greenlight and The Venture Bros. came along at just the right time to fill that space. After months of negotiating, the show was ready to be produced in September 2002 at Noodlesoup using Flash animation and on a very low budget. For the show, McCulloch adopted the alias Jackson Publick for his production and writing credits (but not voice credits). Musical artist J.G. Thirlwell allowed the show to license some of his music, as he was too busy to score anything new. The pilot was completed and finally premiered on Adult Swim in February 2003. Fan and critical response was positive and led, months later, to the show being greenlit for series. The first season of The Venture Bros. premiered in late summer of 2004.

The show is the first traditionally animated half-hour series to be produced by Adult Swim, who mainly produced 15-minute economical animated shows using Flash or Adobe After Effects. The Venture Bros. is one of the lowest budget traditionally animated shows on the air. The Venture Bros. is produced by Astrobase Go! and World Leaders Entertainment in New York City and is animated by Digital eMation, Inc. in Seoul, Korea.

Cast

Actor Character Duration
Main Cast 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Christopher McCulloch Hank Venture * * * * * * *
The Monarch * * * * * * *
Peter White * * * * * * *
Michael Sinterniklaas Dean Venture * * * * * * *
James Urbaniak Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture * * * * * * *
Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr. * * * * * * *
Patrick Warburton Brock Samson * * * * * * *
Supporting/Recurring Cast
Paul Boocock Jonas Venture, Sr. * * * * * * *
Doc Hammer Dr. Girlfriend / Dr. Mrs. The Monarch * * * * * * *
Master Billy Quizboy * * * * * * *
Henchman 21 * * * * * * *
Lisa Hammer Triana Orpheus * * * *
Stephen Ratazzi Byron Orpheus * * * * * * *

Pilot

Title Airdate
Adult Swim
The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay February 13, 2003

Seasons

Season  Premiere Finale #
Adult Swim
Season One August 7, 2004 December 19, 2004 13 + 1
Season Two June 25, 2006 October 15, 2006 13
Season Three June 1, 2008 August 24, 2008 13
Season Four October 18, 2009 November 21, 2010 16 + 1
Season Five October 28, 2012 (special)
June 2, 2013 (season)
July 21, 2013 8 + 1
Season Six January 19, 2015 (special)
January 31, 2016 (season)
March 20, 2016 8 + 1
Season Seven August 5, 2018 October 7, 2018 10

Movie

Title Network Airdate
The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart Adult Swim September 1, 2023

In-Depth

DVD and Blu-ray Releases

DVD

Title Release Discs
Season Sets  (Region 1)
Season One May 30, 2006 purchase 2
Season Two April 17, 2007 purchase 2
3rd Season March 24, 2009 purchase 2
Season 4: Vol. 1 October 26, 2010 purchase 2
Season 4: Vol. 2 March 22, 2011 purchase 2
The Fifth Season March 4, 2014 purchase 2
VB6 October 4, 2016 purchase 2

Blu-ray

Title Release Discs
Season Sets  (Region A)
3rd Season March 24, 2009 purchase 2
The Complete Season 4 March 22, 2011 purchase 2
The Fifth Season March 4, 2014 purchase 1
VB6 October 4, 2016 purchase 1

External Sites