Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (TV series)

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a cartoon based on the movie Return of the Killer Tomatoes. It aired on Fox Kids and Fox Family Channel from 1990 until 1993.

Plot

File:Killertomatoes.JPG

"Igor, Dr. Gangreen and Tara as they appeared in the series."

John DeBello’s campy 1978 spoof of low-budget monster movies became a underground hit, spawning a 1988 sequel, Return of the Killer Tomatoes!, starring John Astin and a pre-E.R. George Clooney. It was this second film that inspired the Saturday morning version in 1990. This version differed slightly from the movie, with Chad and Tara becoming children and much of the over-the-top comedy and innuendo toned down.

In the city of San Zucchini, Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen (again voiced by John Astin) grew ordinary tomatoes into humanized killing machines. During season 2, head tomato Zoltan overthrew the doctor, sparking an ongoing war with the human race. “Fuzzy Tomato” (or F.T.) changed loyalties and fled to the tomato-hating world, where he masqueraded as “the world’s ugliest dog” to survive. Another tomato outcast was Tara, who as a result of Gangreen’s experiments, looked like a sixteen-year-old human but reverted to tomato form if salt was thrown on her. The two lonely tomatoes were befriended by ten-year-old Chad Finletter, the only human who knew their secret, and together the three fought against Zoltan and Gangreen’s fiendish plots.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a success for the Fox network and was one of the earliest animated series to use computer animation extensively. The cartoon left the air in 1992, but reappeared on Fox’s 1996 Saturday morning schedule with repeats of previous episodes.

Main Characters

• Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen - The main villain of the series. An 'angry' scientist (as opposed to a 'mad' one), Dr. Gangreen created the killer tomatoes with the goal of global domination. Along with his dullwitted assistant, Igor Smith, and army of tomatoes led by his head tomato, Zoltan, he is always trying to destroy San Zucchini and conquer the world. Although being a genius, he miscalculated two "failures" that became large obstacles in his plans. Fuzzy Tomato (or F.T. as he's called) and Tara, who abandoned him to live with humans. During the second season, Gangreen accomplished his goals of conquering Earth, only to be overthrown by Zoltan and imprisoned. He was busted out of jail by the Killer Tomato Taskforce and joined them in attempts to defeat Zoltan and the killer tomatoes once and for all. John Astin reprised his role as the "Angry" Scientist for the cartoon.

• Igor Smith - Igor Smith is a tan good-looking young man from Malibu with hopes of becoming a TV reporter. He's not really evil, but more of a man that fell into the wrong crowd. Still, he will do his master's work without question if it means that he will be rewarded for helping conquer the planet by being made a reporter. During the second season, Igor was imprisoned with his master after being overthrown by Zoltan, only to be busted out by the Killer Tomato Taskforce, joining them in attempting to defeat the killer tomatoes once and for all. Igor Smith was voiced by Cam Clarke.

• Zoltan - Dr. Gangreen's tomato commander. At first, Zoltan was a failed experiment originating from when Igor accidentally had placed old movies into their programming stage instead of training videos, causing him and his gang of five to be lazy and to imitate old movie characters occasionally (such as legendary actor James Cagney). During the second season, Zoltan and his gang were given a transformation, becoming larger, smarter, and deadlier. Zoltan and his gang conquered the planet and were each issued a continent to rule (e.g. Zoltan controls North America). Soon after that, Zoltan realised they didn't need Gangreen anymore and overthrew him, allowing Zoltan to seize control of leader. Zoltan and his tomatoes were defeated in the end by the one thing Gangreen knew could destroy them, the African Tomato Worms. Zoltan was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

• Chad Finletter - The main hero of the story. Chad is a bright ten-year-old boy living with his Uncle Wilbur, working as a pizza delivery boy for Wilbur's Pizza Palace. Chad is one of the few people to know the truth about Tara and F.T. really being tomatoes, but as an act of friendship promised to keep their secret. Chad is the real guiding force behind stopping Gangreen, but because he is a kid, nobody takes him seriously. During the second season, Chad became a more of a leader by convincing the others to freeing Gangreen to help their cause. Chad was voiced by Christian Guzek.

• Tara Boumdeay - One of Dr. Gangreen's failed experiments. She abandoned his evil plans with F.T. and escaped to the finletters, where she is Chad's best friend and waitress at Wilbur Finletter's Pizza Palace. She would be safe from being revealed as being a tomato if it wasn't for one flaw made by Dr. Gangreen: once salt touches her, she'll revert abck to a tomato. Only when touched by pepper will she revert back to her human form. Her best friend, Chad, is the only person who knows her secret, and he promises to not just keep her secret, but find a way to allow her to remain human permanently. Oddly enough, in the second season opener, it seems that not only did the rest of the Killer Tomato Task Force know that Tara was a tomato, but the allergy to salt was done away with. Now she could turn into a tomato and back to human without salt or pepper thrown into the mix (shown not once, but twice: first, during Chad's escape plan at the end of the second season opener, and in the episode which introduced the Phantomato). Tara was voiced by Kath Soucie.

• Wilbur Finletter - Great Tomato War veteran, leader of the Killer Tomato Taskforce and owner of Finletter's Pizza Palace. He's Chad's uncle, and is very protective. He's frequently trying new recipes for his tomato-less pizzas, most of the time failing. He's still slightly delusional from the war and believes that the only good tomato is a squashed tomato. Although brave, he's not very smart, as he and every adult believe F.T. is just an ugly dog. During the second season, Wilbur became more of a rebel leader when the killer tomatoes conquered the planet. He even put aside his grudges when breaking Dr. Gangreen out of jail to help the KTTF with their cause. Wilbur was voiced by Thom Bray.

• F.T. - aka Fuzzy Tomato. F.T. was another failed experiment as he turned out cute, fuzzy, and completely unable to do anything destructive or evil. Right before Gangreen was going to destroy him, Tara rescued him and both ran off. Because of the tomato-hating world, F.T. masqueraded himself as "the world's ugliest dog". Chad is the only other person who knows what F.T really is, but promised to keep it a secret. Chad has found this easy so far as everybody besides those who know his secret believes he is a dog, and has not questioned its appearance. F.T. was voiced by S. Scott Bullock.

• Whitley White - The first and only reporter for San Zucchini newsstation. Like most of the other adults on the show, Whitley is an idiot. He has a habit of showing up in different parts of town to report on the events of the show or the aftermath (sometimes simultaneously carrying on conversations with himself from both the KRUD studios and 'Live At The Scene'. Whitley was voiced by Neil Ross.

Recurring Characters

• Tomato Guy - A character who appeared in every episode of the show. He would shout "Tomato!", only to cause anybody in the area to panic. This was presumably inspired by the character Costa Dillon played in the original "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes" film, who simply says "Tomato" in a classrooom and scares all of the students so much that they run out of the classroom screaming in fear. It was later revealed in Season 2 that he makes fun of tomatoes because as a kid, he was terrified of them after his cousin Larry made a "killer tomato" and pestered him with it. His voice and design resembles that of Woody Allen.

• The Censor Lady - an old woman (in a similar vein to 'The Church Lady' character played by Dana Carvey on "Saturday Night Live") who appears and tries to stop a character if they are doing some violence-related or imitatable behavior (such as suggesting that instead of the vampire tomatoes biting people's necks, they kiss them. She has also been seen arguing with Chad about his skateboard safety equipment, etc.) Towards the end of the first season, it was revealed she was something similar to Tara because she turned into a prune. After the first season, she only appeared twice; the first time in the second season opener ('A Ripening Disaster') where she warned the audience about the violence that was overtaking the episode and threatening to end it early. Standing behind a red background, it soon becomes apparent that the red background is indeed Zoltan, who gobbles up the Censor Lady and spits her back out (completely red from head to toe). She is then seen in the beginning of the second episode of season two briefly walking with the other world leaders who are all red from head to toe (apparently suffering the same fate as the Censor Lady).

• Sam Smith - a member of the Killer Tomato Taskforce. Sam is a master of disquise, but yet his most reconisable outfit is that of the Lone Ranger. Also known as 'Sam The Sham'.

• Greg Colburn - a member of the Killer Tomato Taskforce. Greg is an underwater expert, and is never seen without his scuba gear on, even when trying on a disquise or something like skating.

• Gretta Attenbaum - a member of the Killer Tomato Taskfroce. Gretta is the only female on the team besides Tara. Gretta is a German athlete that is always into exercise, even when battling tomatoes.

• Tomacho - One of Zoltan's gang of six. Tomacho rules over South America, and is known as being very calm. Tomacho speaks like John Travolta and is somewhat of a brown noser.

• Beefsteak - One of Zoltan's gang of six. Beefsteak rules over Europe, and is known for his short temper. Beefsteak has bullhorns on his head and wears a nose ring, which only helps his image of charging at enemies like a bull.

• Fang - One of Zoltan's gang of six. Fang rules over Africa, and is known for her snake-like personality. Fang has serpent eyes, a snake's tongue and large fangs filled with venom. Fang had the biggest problem with her continent due to her soldiers not returning from the "Heart of Africa".

• Ketchuck - One of Zoltan's gang of six. Ketchuck rules over all of Asia and is known for being the biggest and fattest of the gang of six. Besides being large, Ketchuck is constantly drooling and always hungry for food.

• Mummato - One of Zoltan's gang of six. Mummato rules over Australia and New Zealand, and is known for his silence. Mummato is wrapped in bandages like a mummy and spoke only once through his entire screentime. His single line was in reply to Gangreen dispatching him to conquer Australia and New Zealand, and consisted of "Australia will fall to me tonight".

• Phantomato - A deformed tomato that sought refuse in the sewers after the tomatoes seized control of Earth. He hid his face behind a mask just like the Phantom of the Opera, and even had his own pipe organ. He fell in love with Tara and tried to make her stay with him, but saved her and the taskforce by holding off the tomato soldiers while they escaped.

• The Ultimato - The last tomato experiment made by Dr. Gangreen. He was originally made to help the taskforce by fighting off the tomatoes, but later turned on them when he wanted to seize control for himself.

• Link - A deformed tomato that was believed to be the missing link between normal, dormant tomatoes and the killer variety. First appearing in the episode 'Tomato from The Black Lagoon', it's revealed that Link isn't quite like his killer cousins. He aids Chad and Tara against Gangreen and Igor (Gangreen originally sought Link out to use him in a renewed effort to destroy San Zucchini). He's also very wealthy, as his lair is equipped with state of the art technology and the finest foods. He appeared in a second season episode, aiding Tara and Chad in their efforts to locate the African Tomato Worms. It is established in both this episode and the episode which the Phantomato debuted that the two of them are actually cousins.

• Johnny Tomato - Inspired by his love of 1950s rockabilly music (and a desire to erase the mistakes he made when he first created Tara), Dr. Gangreen created a tomato that could change into a human named Johnny Tomato. Johnny (who looked almost exactly like a young 1950s-era Elvis Presley) was to be used to lure both The KTTF and Chad, Tara and FT to their doom. Johnny's conflicted emotions between loyalty to Gangreen (posing as Johnny's 'manager', Colonel Sam Green) and budding feelings towards Tara led to Johnny succumbing to the same allergy to salt that plagued Tara. It was then, with Gangreen's plot exposed, that Johnny (in a dormant tomato form) was swept away by Gangreen's army of Killer Tomatoes. Though the character never appeared again, it was implied in a second season episode (Where Tara met the Phantomato) that Johnny survived, evidenced by a reference to a Memphis concert which Wilbur Finletter (dressed in a 1970s-era Elvis jumpsuit) planned to infiltrate while the cast of the episode searched for Dr. Gangreen (the whole episode concentrated on that plot point). A poster was seen of Johnny Tomato as well.

Animators

Mark Risley