The Boondocks (TV series)

The Boondocks is an American animated television series produced for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, based on the comic strip of the same name. The show made its broadcast debut on November 6, 2005; it was originally set to premiere on October 2, 2005, but was pushed back for November sweeps. It is a production of Rebel Base in association with Sony Pictures Television, executive produced by Aaron McGruder, the creator of the comic strip, and Reginald Hudlin.

The series was renewed for a 20-episode second season scheduled to premiere in September 2007. The second season will feature animation produced by the Japanese animation studio Madhouse.

Rating

This show is rated TV-MA on Adult Swim, for graphic violence (particularly when it happens to a child character), some nudity, some sexual themes, and strong language (particularly the use of racial slurs and racist comments. See "Controversy" for more information).

Overview

McGruder and one-time collaborator Reginald Hudlin had originally created a pilot show for the Fox Network, but found great difficulty in making the series acceptable for broadcast television. Hudlin left the project after the Fox deal fell through, although McGruder and Sony Television are contractually bound to continue to credit him as an executive producer.

Like the comic strip, the television version of The Boondocks is a satirical situation comedy revolving around the lives of the Freeman family. Elementary-school aged black brothers Huey and Riley Freeman have been moved by their Granddad, Robert Freeman, from inner city South Side Chicago, Illinois to the quiet and almost completely white suburb of Woodcrest (similar to Woodridge, Illinois). Because of the long turnaround time required for each episode, The Boondocks show avoids the topical nature of its newspaper counterpart, and instead covers more long-standing issues involving race relations and politics, including: the assimilation of black people into white culture and the bias against black people that is still evident in it, what would have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr. had gone into a coma instead of dying (and finally awoke in 2000), and the R. Kelly sex scandal controversy.

Expanding upon the anime / manga influence present in the comic strip, the show also has an anime style, as McGruder has said he's a huge fan of anime.. In the animated series, younger Freeman brother Riley was redesigned with cornrows, and the comic strip followed suit with a month-long story arc involving Riley growing cornrows. Uncle Ruckus, a self-hating black man originally intended to have been introduced to the strip before 9/11, was introduced into the strip in late 2004 and is being primarily developed in the animated series. The Freemans' neighbors, the Dubois family (Tom, Sara and their daughter Jazmine), also appeared during the show's first season; Huey's best friend Michael Caesar is being withheld for later seasons. The opening theme song was recorded by hip hop artist Asheru.

The Boondocks makes constant references to past events in previous episodes. The Boondocks also shows continuity with the comic strip that serves as its basis. A running theme in the series is the concept of black unity; even though Huey and others may disagree with the points of view of characters like Tom Dubois, Uncle Ruckus and Old Stinkmeaner, they still feel obliged to provide them with support and respect.

Characters

Main article: List of the Boondocks characters

Episodes

Main article: List of The Boondocks episodes

Controversy and critical reception

The Boondocks series has attracted a great deal of controversy for its routine use of the word "nigga". Aaron McGruder defended the usage of the word, stating that its use made the show feel "more sincere", since the word is commonly used in the everyday conversations of some African Americans. The show's premiere episode, "The Garden Party", makes a joke of the long-standing controversy surrounding the word:

Granddad: ...and all I ask y'all to do is act like you got some class!

Riley: (to Huey) Hey... what's "class"?

Huey: It means, "don't act like niggas."

Granddad: Now, now, see? That's what I'm talkin' about right there! We don't use the "n-word" in this house!

Huey: Granddad, you said the word "nigga" 46 times yesterday. I counted.

Granddad: Nigga, hush!

In the episode, "Granddad's Fight", Huey coins the term "Nigga moment" to describe "a moment where ignorance overwhelms the mind of an otherwise logical African-American male; causing him to act in an ignorant self-destructive manner, i.e. like a nigga." Huey's narration goes on to say that, "If they had their own category, nigga moments would be the third leading cause of death in black people, next to Pork Chops and FEMA" (likely a reference to the criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina).

The show has stated in the episodes that the term "nigga" is used to describe an ignorant person, a person being ignorant, or a person displaying such attributes of ignorance.

According to an article in The Washington Post, references to Rosa Parks were removed from one of the series' completed episodes within a week of her death. In the second episode, "The Trial of Robert Kelly", Parks was originally outside the courtroom protesting Kelly when she was hit with a large piece of fried chicken. In 2006, The Rev. Al Sharpton protested Martin Luther King's use of the word "nigga" in the episode "Return of the King". Rev. Sharpton felt it was defacing the name of Martin Luther King, and sought an apology from Aaron McGruder and The Boondocks. The controversy stirred by Rev. Sharpton was later referenced in the cartoon strip itself five times - February 6-9 and February 16, 2006 and also in the cartoon in the episode "The Block is Hot" in the form of a morning radio announcement. The scene where Rosa Parks gets hit with a large piece of chicken does appear as a deleted scene in the season one DVD set of The Boondocks.

In January 2006, The Boondocks was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 37th NAACP Image Awards, alongside The Bernie Mac Show, winner Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, and Half & Half. Adult Swim has ordered 20 more episodes for season two of The Boondocks. The Boondocks was also picked up by the Canadian broadcaster Teletoon, which has aired all the episodes, reserving the Christmas episode for the holiday season.

Running gags

• Whenever a chair is thrown among a crowd of people, regardless of whether it makes contact with anyone, a riot will ensue as proven by Riley in the episode Granddad's Fight. The only exception came in Return of the King.

• Virtually all episodes involving Ed Wuncler III (who represents George W. Bush) and Gin Rummy (Donald Rumsfeld) are parodies of the Iraq War in some discernible way, the most obvious being A Date With The Health Inspector.

• Sometimes, Ed Wuncler or Uncle Ruckus will address Granddad by his last name, nonchalantly pronouncing it as two separate words — "Free Man" — as an obvious slavery pun. In The Real, a worker on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition posts a sign that reads "Free Man Watermelon Patch" as two separate words.

• When a character is shown to be watching television, the images shown are almost always specific criticisms of black pop culture. For example, BET always has a music video with women dressed in skimpy outfits with an MC singing, "Booty butt, booty butt, booty butt cheeks!" McGruder has parodied and criticized the content in hip-hop music videos for some years — particularly the late-night programming on BET Uncut. Furthermore, "Booty Butt Cheeks" or a song called "Thuggin Love", by Gangstalicious, are songs that play frequently whenever a character listens to a radio. Gangstalicious' "Thuggin' Love" video, Bobby Brown's trial (during which he strikes his wife in the middle of court), and a video of rapper Eat Dirt being hit with a folding chair are three other segments that almost always appear whenever a character is shown to be watching television.

• Uncle Ruckus has held many different jobs. Duties he has fulfilled include valet, janitor, mall Santa, mall security, maître d', police officer, and preacher.

• Whenever Riley becomes exceptionally disrespectful, Granddad will take him off screen and audibly beat him ("whoop his ass").

• The series occasionally references the movie Soul Plane in a bad light, which may be another criticism of black pop culture. In Return of the King, Martin Luther King Jr. begins, "And now I'd like to talk about Soul Plane..." as he speaks out against ignorance in African-American pop culture. In A Date With The Health Inspector, a man selling four bootleg copies of Soul Plane is sentenced to two weeks imprisonment.

• The Wunclers have a tendency to refer to Arabs or those who appear Arab as "people of terrorist descent."

• Whenever a character says the phrase "I think I just shit myself", after a couple lines of dialogue, another character will reply "go change your pants". This was seen in "The Story of Gangstalicious" and "Let's Nab Oprah".

• Anytime Ed and Rummy commit a crime (mostly felonies), they are never punished. Such an example would be in A Date With The Health Inspector during which they are in fact hailed as heroes after robbing a liquor store.

• Any time two males hug or show signs of affection while in Riley's presence, Riley says either "Y'all niggas is gay!" or (when referring to a single person) "Nigga, you gay!"

• Whenever Ed Wuncler III is being gawked at by a crowd of people, he angrily declares, "What the fuck y'all looking at?", usually followed by the crowd of people applauding.

• Whenever a high-speed chase is featured, the driver always requests that the passenger buckle up, as in Riley Wuz Here and The Story of Gangstalicious

• Whenever a character shoots a weapon, they almost never hit their target even if they fire every round. (e.g., the opening "Nigga Moment" in Granddad's Fight, when the police open fire on Uncle Ruckus and miss 118 times in The Block Is Hot or when all of the three men trying to kill Gangstlicious, open fire at the end of The Story of Gangstalicious)

• The line, "Ah, a full-day's supply of vitamin C!" has been used multiple times whenever a character drinks orange juice.

• Uncle Ruckus is frequently featured having passed out after some form of traumatic event, such as in the A Huey Freeman Christmas when he is shot by Riley at the end.

• Granddad often uses quotes from movies that John Witherspoon has acted in, such as Soul Plane and Friday.

Japanese Distribution

Sony, Animax Broadcast Japan Inc. acquired rights to Japanese distribution of the Boondocks. Japanese voice dubbing features the Japanese hip-hop group Soul'd Out.

Trivia

For episode-specific trivia, see List of The Boondocks episodes.

• Aaron McGruder enjoys watching anime, martial arts films and Samurai epics, elements of which find their way into both fantasy segments and actual fights throughout the series. Two specific anime McGruder said would influence the show were Samurai Champloo and FLCL. For example, the opening sequence to the show is a homage to the introduction of Samurai Champloo, and a Jin look-alike is shown in "Guess Hoe's Coming to Dinner". Also, Gin Rummy's quotation, "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence" is very similar to that of Heike Shige's from episode 22 of Samurai Champloo, in which he states, "The absence of proof is not the proof of absence" when talking about the location of the treasure he is searching for. Huey also showed Granddad a Zatoichi film to illustrate the "blind swordsman" legend; in that same episode, the fight between Huey and the blind man is an apparent spoof of a scene in the animated film Samurai X: The Motion Picture. Part of this segment was used for a promo on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

• The comic strip Bloom County is referenced several times. There are similarities between Ruckus and Bill the Cat, mainly in their eyes. Also, in "Riley Wuz Here", Ruckus directly references the creator of Bloom County when discussing master artists as "that genius that drew that strip with the talkin' penquin... Master Penquin Draw'er."

• The show parodies scenes from several Bruce Lee films. When Huey and Grandad are training for combat, Huey uses the line "What was that? An exhibition? You need emotional content!", all while wearing the same uniform Bruce Lee wore in Enter the Dragon. Also, Bushido Brown from the episode "Let's Nab Oprah" is inspired by Jim Kelly's character in Enter the Dragon, with his martial arts, general appearance, and quotes like "You come straight out of a comic strip" itself referencing the fact that the show is adapted from a comic strip.

• Ed Wuncler Sr. bears a strong resemblance to American actor Ed Asner, his character's voice.

File:Huey che.jpg

Huey Freeman stylized in the likeness of Che Guevara, from the opening credits sequence of the show.

• McGruder is an avowed Star Wars fan. Quotes like "Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wuncler," and the name of the show's production company (Rebel Base) are indirect references to the movies. Also, when Granddad Freeman is training for his fight with Stinkmeaner, he tells Huey he is "not afraid"; Huey replies, "You will be. You will be..." — a reference to Luke Skywalker's training with Yoda on Dagobah. Huey once spoke a direct quote from Obi-Wan Kenobi, "'Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them'" (while stating that Kenobi was the original source).

File:Riley scarface.jpg

Riley Freeman stylized in the likeness of Tony Montana, from the opening credits sequence of the show.

• There is a brief image of Huey in the opening sequence of the show that is drawn in the style of the iconic photo of the Cuban guerilla Che Guevara. Guevara's photo can also be seen as a poster in Huey's room.

• An image of Riley in the opening sequence is a reference to Al Pacino's Scarface character Tony Montana as depicted on the film's poster.

• Since many of the voice actors were also in the Friday film series (King, Witherspoon, D.J. Pooh, Mike Epps, Katt Williams, Terry Crews and Kym Whitley), random references are made to the films. For example, in the episode "The Passion of the Ruckus", Granddad, voiced by John Witherspoon, is seen watching a DVD of Friday in his car. Granddad says "Nobody go in the bathroom for 35-45 minutes" in "The Itis", and "It's your ass, Mr. Postman" in "The Passion of the Ruckus", reiterating two of his lines from Friday. Also, in the episode "A Huey Freeman Christmas", Riley says "It's your ass, Santa." Riley and Granddad's conversation about "game" in "Guess Hoe's Coming to Dinner" is similar to the "game" conversation in the first Friday film. Riley also recites part of the infamous Chris Tucker line, "You got knocked the fuck out" in "Wingmen". In "The Story of Gangstalicious", Gangstalicious mentions that Ice Cube, also a star of Friday, was his favorite rapper.

• The show references Monty Python, especially Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In "Riley Wuz Here", the scene cuts to a man who speaks about the dangers of Black television, with the subtitle "An Expert Guy," not unlike the "A Famous Historian" scene. There are also references to the "not dead yet" running gag, as well as the well-known song "Freddie's Dead" by Curtis Mayfield, whose music has been featured in a number of black films, such as Friday:
  • Gin Rummy: I want you to know that you are not going to die... in vain.
  • Officer Frank: I don't think I'm dyin'.
  • Gin Rummy: Oh. Well, I want you to know you wasn't mortally wounded... in vain.
  • Officer Frank: Actually, I think I'm gonna make it.
  • Ed Wuncler III: You hear that, you sweaty bastards? Freddy [sic] ain't dead. Freddy say, "Bring it on, bitch"! BRING IT!

• In a scene in episode 5, "A Date With The Health Inspector", Samuel L. Jackson's character, Gin Rummy, reenacts some lines from Pulp Fiction (such as the "Say what again!" conversation) nearly line for line. His dialogue about "Nigga Technology" before the bank robbery in "Let's Nab Oprah" is inspired by the conversation between Vincent (John Travolta) and Jackson's character Jules before their killing of Brett in the movie.

• In a scene in "A Date With The Health Inspector" Ed Wuncler III tells Gin Rummy "yo nigga, let me get some links with them grits man, hurry up. I'm hungry than a motherfucker out here", a line taken from the film Menace II Society.

• Armstrong Elders, the conservative black media personality who provides Ruckus with publicity for his idea of "white heaven", is a direct reference to Armstrong Williams and Larry Elder. The character's body is modeled after Williams while the mustache is similar to Elder's. McGruder has had well-publicized confrontations with Elder in particular, referring to him as an embarrassment to black people in his strip.

• In episode two, "The Trial of Robert Kelly", two of the protesters against R. Kelly bears a striking resemblance to African-American intellectual Cornel West and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

• In the episode "The Block is Hot", as Ed Wuncler, Sr. is about to buy lemonade from Jazmine's stand, he declares "Lemonade was a popular drink in my day... and it still is." This is a very obscure reference to an odd line from the Gang Starr song "DWYCK".

• In "Riley Wuz Here", Riley displays his habit of using lines from the film Scarface. One of these is "Fine, say hello to the bad guy, but a white man told me to do it." — this being a reference to the line Tony Montana said as he left the restaurant. And in the episode "The Garden Party", Riley says "Wanna play rough?" and "Say hello to my little friend!" as he is dared to shoot at Ed Wuncler III, who is wearing a bulletproof vest. Additionally, some of the suits Riley wears to "The Garden Party" and "Wingmen" are similar to what Tony Montana wears in Scarface.

• In the episode "The Block is Hot", Tom Dubois tells Ed Wuncler, Sr. that he thinks he's taking his daughter's lemonade stand a little too far. Ed Wuncler takes Tom aside and tells him, "You know the name of the game, your daughter chose me. Now, we can handle this like some gentlemen, or we can get into some old gangster shit." This is a reference to the blaxploitation film The Mack. The episode is also rife with scenes which reference the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing: Huey walks around with a boom box playing Public Enemy's "Fight The Power", à la Radio Raheem in the movie; Uncle Ruckus quotes Sal's lines in the movie about turning off the music; the scene where Riley breaks the fire hydrant; the scene in which Huey throws a trashcan through the glass of Jazmine's Lemonade Parade stand, resulting in a riot, similar to Mookie's actions at Sal's Famous Pizzeria in the film.

• In the episode "Riley Wuz Here", Riley's art teacher is an obvious parody of Bob Ross and indeed repeats almost verbatim Ross' popular phrase, "I don't believe in mistakes; I just believe in happy accidents."

• The only episode not to use the word "nigga" is "The Itis" (though still using "negro"). Meanwhile, the episode using the term most often is "Granddad's Fight", where "nigga" is said 65 times.

• The only episode that did not have Huey narrate was "The Story of Gangstalicious" (which is instead narrated by Riley).

• Teletoon's website erroneously notes that the show is made by MGM; it is in fact produced by Sony Pictures Television.

• The only episode not to include Granddad is “A Date With The Health Inspector”, although he is mentioned in dialogue.

• In the episode "A Huey Freeman Christmas", in the midst of Huey's summarization of the history of Christmas, Granddad's attention tunes away from Huey's long speech to hear only indiscernable 'wonking' vocalizations, as popularly practiced in Charles M. Schulz's Charlie Brown cartoons; a second reference is made where Huey dismisses the entirety of the cast and compares himself to Charlie Brown; a third occurs when Riley writes a letter to Santa with the handwriting appearing superimposed above his head.

• The Wuncler name is likely a reference to Dr. Seuss' greedy, wasteful "Once-ler" character in his 1971 pro-environment story, "The Lorax".

• The name of Martin Luther King's book in "Return of the King", "Dream Deferred," is both a reference to his famous 'I have a Dream' speech as well as a Langston Hughes poem, "Dream Deferred".

• Despite censoring of curse words in the Teletoon airing of the show, the subtitles remain uncut.

• In "Return of the King", part of Martin Luther King's "I Had a Dream" speech was actually lyrics quoted from a song by Asheru (who did the theme song) called "Niggas".

Voice cast

• Regina King: Huey and Riley Freeman
• John Witherspoon: Robert "Granddad" Freeman
• Cedric Yarbrough: Tom Dubois
• Gary Anthony Williams: Uncle Ruckus
• Jill Talley: Sarah Dubois
• Gabby Soleil: Jazmine Dubois
• Ed Asner: Ed Wuncler, Sr.
• Charlie Murphy: Ed Wuncler III
• Samuel L. Jackson: Gin Rummy
• Mos Def: Gangstalicious
• Mike Epps: Moe "Guns" Jackson
• Katt Williams: A Pimp Named Slickback
• John C. McGinley: The White Shadow

DVD Releases

Season Releases

DVD Name	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
The Complete First Season	July 25, 2006	15	This 3-disc set includes all 15 episodes from Season 1, uncut and uncensored, and presented in a widescreen format. Extras include episode commentaries by both Aaron McGruder and Uncle Ruckus, a behind the scenes featurette, animatics, DVD-ROM storyboards and bonus previews. The set is also available for the UMD Video format, though it does not contain any bonus features.

See also

• List of The Boondocks episodes
• The Boondocks comic strip

External links

• Sony Pictures' official Boondocks website
• Adult Swim's official Boondocks page
• Interviews with the Boondocks cast
• The Boondocks at TV.com