The Venture Bros.

The Venture Bros.
File:Venture bros logo.jpg Dr. Thaddeus Venture, Brock Samson, and Hank and Dean Venture.
Created by	Jackson Publick
Starring	James Urbaniak Patrick Warburton Michael Sinterniklaas Christopher McCulloch Doc Hammer
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	26 (plus 1 pilot and 1 special)
Production
Running time	0:22
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network (Adult Swim) Teletoon Bravo
Release	February 16 2003 – present

The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series airing as part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It chronicles the adventures of two dopey teenage boys Hank and Dean, their super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus Venture, and their father's secret-agent bodyguard Brock Samson.

The series pays homage to the style of the classic Hanna-Barbera action series Jonny Quest: Hank and Dean's roles resemble those of Jonny and Hadji, Dr. Venture is a caricature of Dr. Benton Quest, and Brock Samson presents a testosterone-loaded, excessively violent take on Race Bannon who has appeared in the show (flashbacks show, however, that Dr. Venture was more like Jonny in his youth, and his own father was a more traditional "Dr. Quest"). The show also parodies The Hardy Boys mysteries and comic super heroes.

Origins

Show creator Jackson Publick (a pseudonym for Christopher McCulloch) was one of the main writers for the Saturday morning animated show The Tick. Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick, has co-written two episodes, and written one full episode, ¡Viva los Muertos!. Patrick Warburton, who played the Tick in the short-lived live-action series, also provides the voice of Brock Samson.

McCulloch created The Venture Bros.' storyline sometime prior to 2000. After working for the television program Sheep in the Big City and the live-action version of The Tick, McCulloch set to turning The Venture Bros. into an animated series. The Venture Bros. was originally conceived of as a comic book story for an issue of Monkeysuit. McCulloch realized that his notes were too extensive for a short comic story, and decided to pitch it as an animated series to Comedy Central, but it was rejected. Although the first draft of the pilot script was written in the spring of 2000, the premise was not greenlit until around the summer of 2002 by Adult Swim. McCulloch had not previously considered Cartoon Network because he "didn't want to tone The Venture Bros. down" and was unaware of the existence of Adult Swim. With the revised pilot, production began in autumn of that year and the pilot was first run on February 16 2003. The first season of the series was completed in 2004 and it was added to the summer schedule in August.

Characters

File:VentureBrosCharsSeason2.jpeg

New and recurring characters from the show's second season.

Main articles: List of characters from The Venture Bros., List of secondary characters from The Venture Bros., and List of organizations from The Venture Bros.

The characters of The Venture Bros. are largely either reimaginings of the characters from Jonny Quest, comic book superheroes and supervillains, or other famous figures from popular culture. Hank (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) and Dean Venture (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) are the titular twin brothers of the show; both boys have identifiable characteristics, with Hank being the more adventurous and Dean being the more "effeminate" and bookish of the two. Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak), currently runs Venture Industries. Dr. Venture assumes the occupation of a "super-scientist," although his knowledge and credentials in the field is questionable. Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is the massively muscled and hyper-masculine bodyguard to the Venture family. He is an Office of Secret Intelligence agent with a license to kill. Dr. Venture's deceased father, Dr. Jonas Venture (voiced by Paul Boocock), developed a loyal robot named H.E.L.P.eR. (voiced by Soul-Bot) that accompanies and assists the Ventures (and frequently displays what appear to be human emotions, but which are ignored by the other characters).

Similar to other science fiction series, the Venture family has various recurring antagonists. Many of them are current or former members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, a fictional guild that bears resemblance to the Legion of Doom. The pernicious but ineffective Monarch (voiced by Christopher McCulloch), the manly-voiced Doctor Girlfriend (voiced by Doc Hammer), and their numerous henchmen are some of the Venture family's main villains (Monarch and Girlfriend broke up as a couple at the end of the first season). Baron Werner Ünderbheit (voiced by T. Ryder Smith) is a former dictator of the duchy of Ünderland and specifically opposes Dr. Venture due to Dr. Venture's being responsible for the loss of Baron Werner Ünderbheit's jaw in college, citing "One is always supposed to look out for one's lab partner!". Phantom Limb (voiced by James Urbaniak) is a high-ranking member of The Guild of Calamitous Intent and former lover of Dr. Girlfriend. He seems at least as intent on persecuting The Monarch as he is in pursuing the Guild's villainous agenda.

The Ventures also have acquaintances that are used to help progress stories and add to the atmosphere of the show. The expert necromancer Doctor Byron Orpheus (voiced by Steven Rattazzi) and his goth daughter Triana (voiced by Lisa Hammer) rent out a portion of the Venture Compound. The albino computer scientist Pete White (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) is a former college friend of Dr. Venture's who usually appears in the company of hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy (voiced by Doc Hammer). Surviving members of the original Team Venture, a group of extraordinary people assembled by Dr. Jonas Venture, have also appeared in occasional episodes.

Episodes

File:Extra color.jpg

The season one episode title card with "Presented in glorious extra COLOR" at the bottom.

Main article: List of The Venture Bros. episodes

The second season of the series premiered on the internet via Adult Swim Fix on June 23 2006 and on television on June 25 2006. The considerable delay between the end of the first season and the start of the second was partially caused by Adult Swim's delay in deciding whether to renew the show, but primarily because the show is drawn and inked in the traditional animation style, albeit digitally, causing each episode to take considerable time to move through production. Additionally, the producers were dealing with time constraints of producing a first-season DVD that contained live action interviews and commentary for several episodes.

Most episodes open with a letterboxed scene prior to the opening title sequence. Additionally, every episode (barring "A Very Venture Christmas") has a short scene following the credits that usually wraps up the episode humorously or reveals something significant about the characters (usually both).

Each episode is "PRESENTED IN GLORIOUS EXTRA COLOR", as jokingly stated during the end credits of each episode - a reference to Hanna-Barbera programs in their golden age being presented in Technicolor. The only normal-run episode that this is missing from is episode 2, "Careers in Science".

Homages and references

Comparing the main characters of The Venture Bros. and Jonny Quest

One of the themes of The Venture Bros. is its multifarious use of allusion in its dialogue, character design and other facets. The series openly homages a variety of sources, including adventure serials and pulp magazines. The series has also homaged many other elements of pop culture, including musical references, television shows, movies and comic books.

Jonny Quest

The most obvious homage is Jonny Quest: Dr. Venture represents Benton Quest, Brock as Race Bannon, and the Venture boys as the children of Benton. The comparisons, however, are taken to the level of an extreme parody - Dr. Venture is a pill-popping, barely-competent scientist who treats his children (and everyone else around him) with overt disdain and contempt, Brock is a hyper-macho man who kills without hesitation, and the boys are nincompoops stuck in an out-of-date mindset.

In the latter part of season one and most overtly in season two, the writers have retrofitted the notion of Dr. Venture being an adult analogue for Jonny Quest. Flashbacks and references to merchandise show Rusty as a Jonny Quest-like child adventurer. This was expanded upon in season two with brief appearances from Hector, who served as an analogue for Hadji, and former boxing champion Swifty as another analogue for Race Bannon.

A more direct connection to Jonny Quest was made in two episodes. "Ice Station – Impossible!" featured a cameo appearance from Race Bannon, who dies after parachuting from an exploding airplane. In "Twenty Years to Midnight," a drug-addicted adult Jonny Quest lives in the same bathysphere his father, Benton Quest, once used to communicate with sea life.

Comic books and other literature

File:DrByronOrpheus.JPG

Dr. Orpheus' general style mimics that of Doctor Strange from Marvel Comics

The boys' ages and desire to solve mysteries is reminiscent of The Hardy Boys; Jackson Publick's original sketches of the boys depicted what he called "dim-witted Hardy Boys". Hank's appearance and clothes also closely resemble that of the character Fred Jones from the Scooby-Doo series (Triana mentions this fact to her friend in "Victor. Echo. November."), and Dean's appearance and clothes closely resemble Peter Parker circa Amazing Fantasy #15. Additionally, Dr. Jonas Venture and the original Team Venture are strongly reminiscent of pulp novel hero Doc Savage and his entourage.

• The prominent characters of Doctor Byron Orpheus and Baron Werner Ünderbheit are obviously influenced by Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom, respectively.
• A family of four Impossible Industries members have received horrific, inefficient versions of the Fantastic Four's powers.
• A retired gung-ho soldier called the Action Man is a lesser version of Captain America or more likely the British equivalent of GI Joe, Action Man.
• Henchman 21 has an extensive collection of various memorabilia related to comic characters including the Hulk, Magneto, Spider-Man and Wolverine.
• Hunter Gathers, the man who trained Brock as an OSI agent, is partially a tribute to Nick Fury, Marvel's resident super-spy (his office even appeared to be located on a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier). The old OSI uniforms also closely resemble those of S.H.I.E.L.D., including the jet-pack seen in older Nick Fury tales.
• In several episodes, Dean wears Spider-Man pajamas.
• The blacula hunter Jefferson Twilight is a play on the Marvel character Blade.
• Hank wears an Aquaman outfit that resemble Underoos.
• Hank has been frequently shown wearing a Batman costume (this is more prevalent starting Season 2).
• Henchman 21's collection, noted above, also includes Batman's utility belt.
• The Order of the Triad's arch-enemy Torrid wears a costume very similar to Deadman.

Music

The dialogue between characters Major Tom and the Action Man at the beginning of "Ghosts of the Sargasso" refers to the famous David Bowie songs "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes." Major Tom's spacecraft is named TVC 15, the title of another Bowie song. Later, David Bowie sends the mercenary Molotov Cocktease to retrieve a giant panda from Roy Brisby. Bowie is also mentioned passingly in the "Venture Bros. Movie" mockumentary included on the DVD set. In a more recent episode David Bowie shows up to the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend's wedding to give the bride away, much to Brock's disgust.

There have been numerous references to the band Led Zeppelin, primarily in relation to Brock. He told Hank not to listen to In Through the Out Door because "Zep sold out on that album". He later implies that he hates the album due to its connection to his memories of a former lover (a possible reference to Molotov Cocktease). When Brock must take an exam to renew his license to kill, instead of answering the questions on its written portion, he draws Apollo from the Swan Song Records logo, identifying the figure as Icarus (a common misconception).

Several other bands and artists are referred to in passing, including:

• The Doors' song "The End", whose lyrics are paraphrased by Hank before attacking his father in a daze. This scene is accompanied by knock off music resembling the same song.
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whose name is used as an exclamation.
• Jesus Jones, in the same episode; the tone in which it is said initially implies that it is an exclamation as well.
• Posters modeled on the artwork of Yes, Pink Floyd and Gong are seen in Dr. Venture's college dorm room.
• Pete White's mention of how he was "the first at his college radio station to play the Bauhaus" in an abortive attempt to hit on Triana Orpheus.
• The Monarch angrily refers to a picture of Dr. Girlfriend skinny-dipping with Jim Foetus. Jim Foetus is a pseudonym for composer JG Thirlwell, who composes the music for the show.
• Triana credits her clothing style to Adam & the Ants
• 21 insisting on calling him and 24 Jet Boy and Jet Girl after The Damned song Jet Boy, Jet Girl in order to gain "street cred with the indie crowd."
• Dr. Venture refers to the FBI agents at his yardsale as Brock's Ska band because of their Men in Black-like attire known to be favored by blues, beat and ska performers.
• The Alchemist makes a reference to avant-garde group The Residents when he picks up the giant eyeball in the Torrid Zone and holds it up to his head saying, "Look at me, I'm in The Residents!" He is referring to The Residents' costumes comprised of a dress suit and giant eyeballs covering their heads.

General pop culture

The character of Mike Sorayama is very similar to that of Mike Yanagita from the 1996 film Fargo. Additionally, he constructs robots similar in appearance to those depicted by Hajime Sorayama. (For more details, see the trivia section for the episode "Past Tense".)

The Guild Of Calamitous Intent's agents, called "Strangers," seem inspired by the antagonists of the 1998 science fiction thriller Dark City. (See "The Trial of the Monarch" for additional notes.)

Brock works for the "Office of Secret Intelligence", a subtle play on the Office of Scientific Intelligence that employed agent Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man. To further extend the homage, Brock met Steve Summers, a former government agent who had been bionically rebuilt.

Brock's mentor from the OSI, "Colonel Hunter Gathers," takes his appearance and first name from the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The character's mirrored aviator glasses, distinctive speech cadence, and use of a long cigarette holder all echo Thompson's public persona.

In an apparent reference to William S. Burroughs, Colonel Horace Gentleman speaks to a scantily clad boy named Kiki, with whom it is implied he has had sexual relations. (Burroughs had an affair with a boy named Kiki, which was depicted in the film Naked Lunch.) In a later episode, Horace Gentleman's diary reveals that he attended a party with "the Frosts". The Frost couple, and the party they hosted, were also a major part of the film Naked Lunch. When Pete White inaccurately shoots Billy Quizboy with a shrink ray, Quizboy sarcastically comments "Nice shot, William Burroughs." (Burroughs killed his common-law wife Joan Vollmer while drunkenly attempting to shoot a glass perched on her head.)

Other pop-culture references are abundant. Henchman 21 plays with a gadget that resembles a Star Wars lightsaber while practicing faux-swordplay in the style of that used by Ghyslain Raza, better known as the "Star Wars kid". Other references, most of which are used as "one-shot" jokes, include Easy Rider, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Lydia Lunch, Stiv Bators, John Woo films, popular director Kevin Smith, the questionable sexuality of members of Depeche Mode, Magic: The Gathering and the music video for Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf."

Technology

The "advanced technology" in the Venture Compound resembles the erroneous predictions of "future technology" made during the jet age more closely than realistic modern technology. As an example, Hank and Dean own hoverbikes, but the learning aids built into their beds still run on punch cards (However, as the technology was invented by Jonas Venture, it was probably advanced at the time).

Dr. Venture's airplane, the X-1, is named after the Bell X-1, which was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. This X-n naming convention extends to the Ventures' research ship, the X-2. The X-X-1, invented by Jonas Venture, Jr. is a jet as absurdly advanced by modern standards as the X-1 was by jet age standards.

Fictional elements of technology are commonplace in the show: teleporters, robots, shrink rays and several other common science fiction themed technology. Time machines have been used or mentioned in several episodes.

Failure

Publick and Hammer have stated that one of the primary themes of the Venture Bros. is failure. This is both failure on a personal scale and on a social scale, and there are many examples that highlight this theme.

• Obviously, Doctor Venture himself is a colossal failure as a superscientist, an adventurer, a businessman, an heir to his heroic father and as a father himself. The Monarch even describes Dr. Venture's lab as "a museum of failure." In fact, the only thing Venture was ever actually good at was being a boy adventurer, and thus can be said to have peaked at around ten.
• His sons, on the other hand, are utter failures at being boy adventurers, and fail at being aware of their own failure.
• Dean Venture has a massive crush on Dr. Orpheus' daughter, but has had little success in wooing her.
• Despite being one of the world's leading inventors and truly loving his son, Doctor Jonas Venture, Sr. failed raising his son, Doctor Thaddeus Venture, in a healthy environment. By using subliminal learning aids and bringing Thaddeus on all his missions, Thaddeus grew up to be a socially awkward individual who has failed to even come close to living up to his father's legacy .
• The Monarch is a complete failure as a supervillain and as a boyfriend, ultimately incapable of defeating even Doctor Venture.
• The Monarch's henchmen are essentially failures in every aspect of their lives. When they fulfilled their orders by killing the Venture Brothers, it was an accident brought about by stupidity and improper gun handling. Their level of failure is so great that the one time they succeeded (temporarily) it shocked the Monarch.
• Doctor Orpheus, though a powerful necromancer, is completely unable to make real friends or even keep his daughter in line because he's both such a pushover and such an insufferable know-it-all. He also has been incapable of establishing himself as an actual superhero, finally resorting to playing pranks and trying to offend supervillains, then handing them his card "should they wish to exact revenge."
• Professor Impossible — while truly the kind of superscientist that Doctor Venture's father was — is an abject failure at any kind of interpersonal relationship. He forgets that he even has a son, and is so offended by the concept of emotional intimacy that he has built a robot to hug people for him and contemplates developing drugs to eliminate his wife's need for love. By extension, although both Professor Impossible and his family have all gained super powers roughly analogous to those posessed by Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, the powers were achieved as the result of an accident; aside from Impossible's ability to stretch himself, the powers of his wife, brother-in-law, and cousin are useless and, in the case of his cousin and brother-in-law, cause the user significant physical pain.
• Master Billy Quizboy, despite being middle-aged, continues to insist he is a "boy genius" and waits (alongside Pete White) to become a full superscientific superhero. Instead, the pair live in a trailer and solicit supervillains to be their arch-nemeses.
• Brock Samson — while very powerful — has no self-control. He failed in his attempt at a collegiate football career after accidentally killing his team's quarterback during practice. He is unable to successfully "go past second base" with Molotov Cocktease. Various characters note that Brock's post as Doctor Venture's bodyguard is well below his abilities, describing it at worst as a humiliation and at best a waste of his time and talent. It's also implied that Brock cannot deal with his emotions, as whenever he falls into a guilt spiral, his army mentality sends him in a homicidal rage. Brock, however, seems to have succeeded at making the Ventures a kind of second family - even if they don't always appreciate it.
• Jonas Venture Jr., while better than Doctor Venture at nearly everything, managed to be defeated by his brother twice. The first time, he was "absorbed" by Doctor Venture in the womb and remained there for 43 years. When he finally escaped from his brother's body, he tried to exact revenge on Doctor Venture and reclaim Venture Industries for himself, but ultimately failed when stopped by Brock. He also is unable to form any kind of bond with his brother, and seems completely unaware of Thaddeus' contempt and jealousy for him.
• Myra Brandish's life is a spectacular failure. While once an apparently competent and heroic OSI agent, she was reduced to being an athlete on American Gladiators, and eventually committed. Clinging desperately to her former glory, her life continues to spiral downward.
• Once a totalitarian ruler, Baron Ünderbheit has been deposed and exiled from his own nation. The once-proud despot is reduced to asking the Monarch if he can move into the Cocoon.
• Many of the Supervillains of the Guild of Calamitous Intent are in prison, apparently too incompetent, too outrageous, or too ignored for the Guild to free - if the Guild is actually capable of doing so.
• Another trend of failure is the ruined lives of boy adventurers. The Venture Twins themselves have been murdered or died in horrible accidents numerous times, only to be cloned back to life and die again. Dr. Venture is a hopeless methamphetamine addict, as is Johnny Quest, who apparently also abuses heroin. Dr. Venture's former best friend, Hector, was locked away in an abandoned building for years, to the point that he not only forgot what he was doing there but also how old he was.

Perhaps more telling, however, is the sense of societal failure. All around the Venture Compound one sees the artifacts of the Jet / Space Age — supersonic nuclear-powered jets, fantastic inventions and gleaming science. But, forty years later, those Jet Age relics are breaking down, and their promises (as well as the paradise that science and technology were to have ushered in) have all been broken. There is perhaps no better symbol of this than Gargantua One, a gigantic space station built by Doctor Jonas Venture, who dubbed it "the ninth wonder of the world". Intended to be a beacon of scientific advancement and hope for the future, by the present day the station has become completely abandoned except for two astronauts, a sex-starved Romanian woman with a disfigured face and an emasculated, middle-aged virgin. The station has fallen into disrepair, breaking down from only minor complications, and eventually crashes into Earth and explodes (ironically killing numerous members of Al Qaeda; the station's only success was a result of its being a failure).

Similarly, the grandiose plans and tyranny of supervillainy have given way to the almost pathetic bureaucracy of the Guild of Calamitous Intent. Villains are divvied up according to grade, and are so streamlined as to be restricted to only using certain kinds of weapons, many of them expressly made to be non-lethal. Government agencies like the Office of Secret Intelligence are mere shells spouting patriotic jingoism that has little bearing on the realities of the present day. The future as promised never arrived and the next generation is incapable of even running their own lives, let alone thinking big or creating anything.

At times, the series seems to break with this trend, particularly in the second season. Dr. Venture, for example, successfully builds a "walking eye" (though it barely works, it attracts attention), a force field (though the effects are negated by club soda, apperantly against the laws of physics), and even resurrects the dead, in all cases at least garnering brief interest. Dr. Orpheus eventually also gets his request for an arch nemesis accepted. The Monarch is eventually set back up with Dr. Girlfriend, and even his supremely incompetent henchmen manage to pull off one well executed raid (albeit at the wrong location). Of course, usually these are only temporary and fleeting accomplishments, and often they just set them up for bigger falls later on.

What successes there are are often unappreciated by those having them. Dr. Venture's team arguably saves the world (Twenty years to Midnight), but Dr. Venture is unable to appreciate it. Dr. Jonas Venture's son obviously loved him, but he seemed to miss that fact. The Monarch took Dr. Girlfriend for granted, and lost her (at least temporarily). Dr. Orpheus, a man of vast power and a geniune sense of compassion is frustrated with his life and is always seeking someting more romantic. The two characters who seem to have a vague grasp of what they have and what is important are Brock (who appreciates his adopted family), and the Alchemist (who honestly seeks to help others and is honest about himself and friends).

DVD releases

DVD Name	Cover Art	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
Season One	File:VentureBros S1 final.jpg	May 30, 2006	13	This two disc set includes all 13 episodes of Season 1. Bonus features include "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" (the pilot) and "A Very Venture Christmas", deleted scenes, behind the scenes mockumentary with the Venture Bros. Cast and creators, and cast and crew commentaries on "Mid-Life Chrysalis", "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!", "Tag Sale – You're It!", "Ghosts of the Sargasso", "Return to Spider-Skull Island", and "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay".

The first season of The Venture Bros. on DVD was released on May 30, 2006, as officially announced by Warner Home Video. It coincided with the June 25 premiere of the second season. Originally, it was scheduled for March 14, 2006, but was delayed until May 30, 2006. The DVD packaging and interior art was created by comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

On May 31, 2006, the DVD reached #1 on Amazon's top selling DVDs list.

The "Lost DVD Commentary"

On a June 30, 2006, LiveJournal post, Jackson Publick revealed that he and Doc Hammer had recorded a commentary track for the season one episode "Home Insecurity." Warner Bros. chose to omit this track from the Season One DVD due to space limitations and some minor sound quality issues. Publick also stated that the commentary can be found and downloaded from Quickstop Entertainment.

Notes and references

• The Venture Bros. Created by Christopher McCulloch (credited as Jackson Publick). 2004-present. Broadcast and DVD.
• "Jackson Publick's Venture Bros. Livejournal". Retrieved June 24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• The Official Venture Brothers Website
• Adult Swim - Venture Bros. Website
• Scrotal Safety Commission (A satirical site on testicular torsion created by Doc Hammer for the episode "Are You There God, It's Me, Dean")
• Jackson Publick's Venture Bros. Livejournal
• James Urbaniak's Livejournal (James Urbaniak - the voice of Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture)
• The Venture Brothers Livejournal community
• The People's Republic of Venture (A fan site. Mentioned on James Urbaniak's LiveJournal as his favorite Venture Bros. fan site/forum.)
• The Venture Bros. on TV Squad
• The Mantis-Eye Experiment (A fan site with in-depth analysis of each episode.)
• Template:Tviv