The Brothers Grunt

The Brothers Grunt
Also known as	Zombies
Genre	Animation Surreal humor
Created by	Danny Antonucci
Written by	Dennis Heaton Danny Antonucci Rod Filbrandt
Voices of	Doug Parker Jennifer Wilson
Theme music composer	Fred Mace
Composer(s)	Rob Fool
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	38 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	a.k.a. Cartoon
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV
Original run	August 15, 1994 – February 20, 1995

The Brothers Grunt is an animated TV series that aired from August 15, 1994 to February 20, 1995 on MTV. The series was created by Danny Antonucci (later of Ed, Edd n Eddy fame).

Overview

Premise

The series centered around an ensemble cast of pale, rubbery humanoids distantly related to human beings, all of them ostensibly male, wandering around in their underpants. Their main food staple is cheese; nevertheless they are able to eat other meals (at least potatoes: see episode #23, Not My Potato). Their single parent is a giant, mute aquatic individual, called Primus Gruntus Maximus, to whom they are born as embryos inside skin warts, much in the way of the Surinam Toad (see Pipa pipa). They live in a monastery in an alternate universe. A group is formed, composed of most of the survivors of their species, in a quest to bring back one of their kind, Perry, who has abandoned his involuntary position of "Chosen One" (leader of their order) and is now living the "high life" among human beings (who seem to deal with the bizarre nature of the grunts by ignoring them and pretending everything is normal). The style and quality of animation resembled that of The Ren & Stimpy Show.

Characters

The main characters were named after famous vocalists of the 1960s: Frank (Sinatra), Tony (Bennett), Dean (Martin), Bing (Crosby), Sammy (Davis Jr.), and Perry (Como) all voiced by Doug Parker.

Main

• Frank
• Tony
• Bing
• Dean
• Sammy
• Perry - A Grunt that became the chosen one in the pilot episode: The Ceremony.

Major

• King Grunt - (Doug Parker) A king with the thoughts.
• The Dıflash Queen - (Jennifer Wilson) A Turkish Queen that appeared in the episode: Scrub Me Sammy.
• The Giant - A floating giant.
• The Dıflash Queen's İgnam lamp - A Turkish lamp belonging to Sammy.
• The Smein - A Nazi German skunk that appeared in the episode: Hunt for Grunts.
• Krischmäßante - The Smein's best friend skunk.
• Santa Claus (or St. Nicholas or especially Kris Kringle) - An obese present bringer that appeared in the episode: The Grunts Who Came for Turkey.

The characters that would become The Brothers Grunt were first seen in one of MTV's numerous 30-second promos. This particular promo consisted of close-up shots of the at-the-time-unnamed character's faces who seemed to be straining to do something (veins in their heads would bulge, the characters would squint and grunt) until the scene cut to the MTV logo landing in a pool of sludge followed by a satisfied "Ahhhhh" (suggesting that the characters were suffering from constipation and the MTV logo was the 'turd' as it were). It is unclear when this promo aired if the storyline and characters for The Brothers Grunt had been developed already or if it had been developed into its own show after the success of the promo, in the wake of Beavis and Butt-head.

Network run

The show began in 1993 when the MTV ad for The Brothers Grunt aired. At the time Danny Antonucci had animated several MTV ads to find work outside of International Rocketship Ltd., who he had worked for since 1984. Although Danny enjoyed the success of Lupo The Butcher, he wanted to leave International Rocketship Ltd. and start his own animation company. The result was a.k.a. Cartoon, which began on April 1, 1994. The studio began as a way to locate his work for The Brothers Grunt after an MTV executive liked his MTV ad so much he asked him to turn it into a television series.

Controversy

The show consisted of 4 to 7-minute segments which were packaged into 30-minute episodes. The show, however, became a breeding ground for angry Beavis and Butt-head fans, who did not realize that Beavis and Butt-head was on hiatus for a few months when The Brothers Grunt began; that re-runs of Beavis and Butt-head stopped airing made the situation even worse. MTV wanted to have more animated TV series after their success with Liquid Television and Beavis and Butt-head. They seized the opportunity to hire Danny Antonucci, while Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-head, had to put it on hiatus. MTV decided the shows would overlap each other, so when The Brothers Grunt was on hiatus they would air more Beavis and Butt-head, and when Beavis and Butt-head was on hiatus they would air more The Brothers Grunt. (Indeed, in episode #19 Close Encounters of the Grunt Kind, Beavis and Butt-head make a cameo appearance aboard a flying saucer, where they have been rounded up with other bizarre creatures). MTV's plan of having the shows overlap each other was MTV's original strategy for both shows.

Cancellation

The show received low ratings and poor reviews. It did build a small fanbase before it went off the air in August 1995.

Episodes

1. The Ceremony
2. Make Mine a Grunt
3. The New Fish
4. Where Angles Fear to Grunt
5. Viva Grunt Vegas
6. Scrub Me Sammy
7. The Detective
8. If I Could Grunt to the Animals
9. Paging Dr. Grunt
10. Perry's Appliance Repairs
11. Timmy's Best Friend
12. No Quest Today
13. Grunt Moments in History
14. Perry Molo
15. Tony and Salsa
16. A Call to Grunts
17. Clean Up in Aisle Grunt
18. Land of the Midnight Grunt
19. Close Encounters of the Grunt Kind
20. The Scent of Grunts
21. Eat My Grunt
22. They Stole Tony's Veins
23. Not My Potato
24. Squeal Like a Grunt
25. The Big Crapple
26. Sammy in a Varicose Vein
27. Grunt Fare
28. To Hell with Bing
29. Cream Style Tony
30. The Ugly Gruntling
31. 5 Card Grunt
32. The Stench of Grunts
33. Grunt Games
34. Requiem for a Sammy
35. Smells Like Dean Spirit
36. Hunt for Grunts
37. Friends! Romans! Grunts!
38. The Wedding (series finale)

(More episodes, unknown order)

• Perry Come Home
• Bring Me the Head of Perry the Grunt
• Black Balled Grunt
• Perry's Day Off
• Tony & Lace
• The Filling of the Shorts
• Poobah Blues

See also

• 1995 in television

External links

• The Brothers Grunt at the Internet Movie Database
• The Brothers Grunt at the Big Cartoon DataBase