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Moral Orel

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Moral Orel
Created byDino Stamatopoulos
StarringScott Adsit
Jay Johnston
Carolyn Lawrence
Britta Phillips
William Salyers
Tigger Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos
David Herman
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes43 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerShadowMachine Films
Running time11 minutes
Original release
NetworkAdult Swim
ReleaseDecember 13, 2005 (2005-12-13) –
December 18, 2008 (2008-12-18)

Moral Orel is an American stop-motion animated television show, which originally aired on Adult Swim from December 13, 2005 to December 18, 2008. The show is rated TV-MA because of its strong sexual references and dark, satirical humor.

It has been described as "Davey and Goliath...meets South Park".[1] Despite advertising for the show being stylistically similar to Davey and Goliath, Dino Stamatopoulos, the creator, has stated that it is less a direct parody of that and more a parody of 1950s and 1960s style sitcoms.[2]

At the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, Stamatopoulos announced that the show would not be renewed for a fourth season. The final season was aired interspersed with repeats of the first two in an event named "44 Nights of Orel" hosted by Stamatopoulos and others since many of the episodes took place in parallel with events of past episodes. The event started on October 6, 2008, and ran until the series finale, which aired on December 18, 2008.

General overview

The program takes place in the fictional city of Moralton, in the fictional U.S. state "Statesota", which is made up of most of Kansas, western Missouri, north Oklahoma, and a portion of Arkansas. According to the globe shown in the opening credits, Moralton is in the exact center of the United States with the town's church at the exact center of the country.

The main character is Orel Puppington, a student at Alfred G Diorama Elementary School, who constantly tries to live by the Protestant Christian moral code which is mostly composed of "extra" commandments that are seemingly invented by Orel's father. His father's advice mixes with Orel's naivete result in Orel carrying out the advice to exaggerated extents, causing wildly adverse affects on the town and its people. Overall the show seems to be a critique of the WASP archetype.

Most episodes of the first season had a similar formula: Orel would hear a sermon in church on Sunday, then proceed to have some sort of misadventure based on his attempts to live by his usually warped interpretation of the lesson — which ends when his father sternly puts a halt to the proceedings, only to "correct" Orel with an even more warped interpretation. However, later episodes began to depart from this tradition. The second season began to explore the backgrounds of several characters in Moralton and even incorporated much more serious ideas. In the second season finale "Nature", the show pushed the characters to a point so detrimental that it transformed the show entirely. The following season focused on the events leading up to "Nature" and the aftermath. The third season was the last and definitely the darkest of the three.

The episode named "The Best Christmas Ever" aired first although it was produced to be the season finale. It aired out of order to coincide with the Christmas season.

Three episodes of the first season were held back because Cartoon Network's Standards & Practices found them to be too dark and explicitly sexually crude even for Adult Swim. Two were approved for air in May 2006, with the last "banned" episode airing July 31, 2006.

See also: List of Moral Orel episodes

Main characters

Main article: List of Moral Orel characters
  • Orel Puppington is a 12-year-old boy and the main character of the show.
  • Clay Puppington is Orel's father. He is a cynical alcoholic who hates his job as mayor of Moralton and his wife.
  • Bloberta Puppington is Orel's mother. Although seemingly kind on the outside tends to ignore all conflict or problems.
  • Shapey Puppington, Orel's seven-year-old half-brother, is a misbehaving, spoiled, and emotionally stunted little boy who does nothing but yell, complain, and act out.

DVD releases

Volume releases
DVD Name Release Date Ep # Additional Information
Volume One April 24, 2007 15 This 2 disc boxset contains the first 15 episodes of the series, uncensored, and in production order (The Lord's Greatest Gift through Offensiveness). Special features include a director's cut version of God's Chef, deleted scenes, a "behind the scenes" featurette, and an edited for content (to remove footage from other Adult Swim shows) video of the Adult Swim 2006 Comic-Con panel.

According to a recent bump, Moral Orel season 2 will be included in an Adult Swim box set called "Adult Swim in a Box", with a release date of October 27, 2009. However, on an advertisement that Williams Street sent out, it says the box set will include Season 1 of Moral Orel. The complete series is available on iTunes.

Despite high fan demand[citation needed], it is currently unknown when or if the rest of the series will be released on DVD.

References

  1. ^ Bozell, L. Brent. "Shower after 'Adult Swim'". Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  2. ^ "Adult Swim interview with Dino Stamatopoulos". Retrieved 2007-03-09.

External links

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