Bobby's World

Bobby's World
Format	Animated television series
Created by	Howie Mandel
Starring	Howie Mandel Gail Matthius Edie McClurg Charity James Tino Insana Kevin Michael Rob Paulsen Gary Owens Frank Welker Debi Derryberry
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	81 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Howie Mandel Phil Roman Lee Mendelson
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Production company(s)	Alevy Productions Film Roman Fox Children's Productions
Distributor	20th Television (1990-1997) Saban International (1997-2007) Taffy Entertainment (2007-present)
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX Kids
Original run	September 8, 1990 – February 23, 1998
External links
Website

Bobby's World is an American animated television series, which ran from 1990 to 1998, on FOX Kids. It was about the daily life of Bobby Generic ( /ˈdʒɛnərɪk/ JEN-ə-rik) and his very overactive imagination on how he sees the world. The show was created by Canadian actor-comedian Howie Mandel. Mandel also provided the voice of both Bobby and his father Howard Generic, who looks like a cartoon version of Mandel himself. It was produced by Film Roman for Alevy Productions and FOX Kids Productions. The theme song for Bobby's World was composed by John Tesh, along with Michael Hanna.

History

Mandel said that he accidentally created the voice that would be later used to voice Bobby when he was choking on a piece of cake at the age of 11. Two of Mandel's friends, Jim Fisher and Jim Stahl, signed an agreement with the Fox Corporation's then newly-created television division in 1989. Fisher and Stahl asked Mandel to create a show based on Mandel's stand-up comedy routines using the Bobby character. Mandel said that he believed that his stand-up routines were "in no way family entertainment." He, Fisher, and Stahl recalled stories from their childhoods as they discussed the formation of the show. Mandel stated "that was the seed of Bobby's World." The other characters on the show were mixes of characteristics of the creators' parents' friends and relatives.

During his standup routines, Mandel would commonly go into character with the same voice as Bobby, often conversing with an unseen "parent".^{[citation needed]}

The voices of Kelly Generic (Bobby's sister) and Martha Generic (Bobby's mom) are based on two recurring characters Gail Matthius played when she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1980. Martha is based on the character Roweena, a chain smoking hair stylist with an Upper Midwestern accent who gets into arguments with her best customer Nadine (Denny Dillon), while Kelly Generic is based on the character Vicky, a valley girl who annoys others with her shallow questions and rambling stories and often is seen with her friend Debbie (also Dillon).

Mitch Schauer drew the designs for the main characters. Bobby's character design was based on Schauer's then-four year old son.

In the US, starting in 1996, the show was open-captioned; this was intended as an aid to help younger children learn to read.

In an April 2006 online interview, Mandel expressed his desire for a possible re-launch of the series. Episodes can occasionally be seen in syndication, on a variety of websites, or on Comcast's On Demand service.

According to a stand up video posted on YouTube.com, Mandel mentions that they are working on new episodes.

On February 12, 2007, the character Bobby made a surprise appearance on an episode of Deal or No Deal.

Show format

Episodes often consist of a short live-action segment either before or after the main story (and sometimes both before and after). The segment would include Mandel describing some aspect of the story and often relating it back to his personal childhood. Sometimes during these segments, the character of Bobby would appear in animated form and converse with Mandel. Other times, a live action child would appear and exchange words with Mandel. Endings of the show also featured Mandel breaking the proverbial "fourth wall" by talking to viewers about the preceding episode. In some part of the episode, Bobby will break the fourth wall by telling the audience his perspective on life.

Characters

Generic family members

The Generic family's surname is pronounced "JEN-a-rick" to make it sound like the word "general", but uttered as "djinn-AIR-ick" (as in the prescription classification) by other characters.

• Bobby Generic - 4-year old (voiced by Mandel)
• Howard Generic - Bobby's father (modeled upon and also voiced by Mandel using his regular voice)
• Martha Generic - Bobby's mother, who speaks with a heavy North Central American English/Scandinavian accent, in stereotypical Minnesotan/Great Lakes style, and often punctuates her speech with phrases like "Fer corn sakes", "Fer cryin' in the mud", "gee golly", "gosh darn" and "don't 'cha know". (voiced by Gail Matthius)
• Kelly Generic - Bobby's 14-year-old sister and the eldest, sporting a shag haircut, purple eye shadow and a valley girl accent/demeanor and often speaks with her catch phrase "Get real!" She is also very obsessed with her boyfriend George. (voiced by Charity James)
• Derek Generic - Bobby's 10-year-old brother, with a rat-tail hairdo and a sarcastic manner. He always calls Bobby "Dork!" (voiced by Kevin Smets seasons 1-5 and Pamela Segall season 6-7)
• The Generic Twins - Identical twins who were introduced in Season 4 but mentioned in Seasons 2 and 3 as Martha was pregnant with them. Bobby's infant brothers.
• Aunt Ruth - Bobby's aunt and Martha's sister (voice of Edie McClurg)
• Uncle Ted - Bobby's uncle and Martha's brother. He loves to give noogies to Bobby and is a collector of various things, one of which is a novelty item called Socks In A Can. (voice of Tino Insana)
• Roger - the Generic family dog (voiced by Frank Welker)

Recurring Characters

• Jackie - Introduced in Season 2, Bobby's next door neighbor/classmate with the floor-length pigtails who has a crush on Bobby and always kisses him. (voiced by Debi Derryberry)
• Charlotte - Rambunctious and sassy, Charlotte was the fun-loving adventurous girl who was famous for her dislike of chocolate and her ability to tease Bobby incessantly over small things he does.

Episodes

Main article: List of Bobby's World episodes

DVD releases

In 2004, Anchor Bay Entertainment released two best-of compilations- Classic Scratch 'n' Sniff Episodes and The Signature Episodes on DVD in Region 1. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

On December 15, 2011, it was announced that MoonScoop Group had acquired the rights to the series and plan to release all eight seasons of Bobby's World on DVD in Region 1 via Amazon.com's CreateSpace program in early 2012. These will be manufacture-on-demand releases, available exclusively through Amazon.com. All seasons will be available for purchase as of March 13, 2012.

Video game

A video game based on Bobby's World was planned for released on the Super NES in 1995, but was cancelled. It was developed by Riedel Software Productions and published by Hi Tech Entertainment. In the game, Bobby's mother tells him to clean his room. As he is cleaning his room, Bobby starts daydreaming about a toy. After beating a level, Bobby has another daydream about another toy that he puts away.

Broadcast history

During its original run, Bobby's World was seen on Fox Kids. After it was cancelled in 1998, reruns began airing on FOX Family until 2001.

International Broadcast

• Chile
  • Canal 13
  • TVN (Chile) (2003–2006)

• Sweden
  • TV3
  • Fox Kids

• United Kingdom
  • TCC
  • Fox Kids

External links

• BobbysWorld.net
• Bobby's World. Fox Kids (Archive)
• Bobby's World at the Internet Movie Database
• Bobby's World at TV.com
• Bobby's World at TV.com
• Toon Tracker Audio File - The Bobby's World Theme
• Bobby's World at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
• Bobby's World on Kabillion.com