Fred's Head
| Fred's Head | |
|---|---|
 From left to right: Benji, Fabienne, Fred, Penelope, GG, and Anette. | |
| Created by |
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| Composer | Alexis Pecharman |
| Country of origin |
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| Original languages |
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| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | January 12 – July 6, 2008 |
Fred's Head (Blaise le blasé, translated Fred The Jaded or The Jaded Fred) is a France/Quebec co-production animated series made by Spectra Animation (now Echo Media) & Galaxy 7, and featuring Fred, a sixteen-year-old and his not-so-normal life. It is co-produced by France at 35% and by Quebec at 65%. The show premiered on January 12, 2008[1] and concluded its first season on July 6, 2008[2] with 26 episodes produced and aired. No new episodes of the series have been produced since the first season ended, although the show has not been announced as being cancelled but is officially on an indefinite hiatus.[3] It has been announced that Fred's Head will be returning to Teletoon on January 3, 2011 as part of their new programming schedule Tuesday-Saturday at 4:00am EST. Fred's Head DVD collection was release in January 9, 2012 at Europe in French [1] however here is still no date about a DVD release in North America
Plot
Fred's Head takes us in the whirlwind life of a teenager with serious reservations about the adult world. In the courses of his adventures, a multitude of eccentric characters pull him in all directions in search of his identity: among them, a psychotic psychologist, an extremely odd best friend, an exotic lady immune to his charms, fashion trends devotees, and a horror film aficionado.
This program is rated C8.
Meaning
The show is noteworthy for being a show about teens and dealing with problems like alcohol and cheating without venturing into "very special episode" territory, and actually talking about them outright.
Characters
Cast
Voice director: Rick Jones
- Mathew Mackay as Fred Leblanc
- Rick Jones as Gregory Gilbert Pyrowski / Mr. Pyrowski
- Laura Teasdale as Fabienne Ledger / Anette Freeze-Drigh
- Holly Gauthier-Frankel as Penelope Truehart / Jody Goodheart
- Danny Blanco-Hall as Benji John Hooper
- Jesse Vinet as Tamara Hartman
- Justin Bradley as Manny Escobar
- Craig Francis as Johan Chabot
- Ellen David as Carol Schwartz
- Mark Camacho as Paul Leblanc
- Sonja Ball as Boon-Mee Leblanc / Madame Butterfly
- Terrence Scammell as Anemone Worrynaut / Balthasar Fairchild / Nino O'Neil
- A.J. Henderson as TV announcer
- Taylor Baruchel as Fanny Cotton
- Richard Dumont as Theo Sturgeon
- Thor Bishopric as Troy Philips
- Pauline Little as Ms. Pyrowski
- Al Goulem as Mr. Julian
- Maria Bircher as Viona Voula
- Danny Brochu as Valfred / Rudolph
- Pierre Lenoir as Dr. Hartman
- Martin Watier as William Intense
Episodes
| No. | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Life Through Rose Colored Glasses" | January 12, 2008 | |
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Fred becomes obsessed with a Chinese puzzle Madam Butterfly gave him. Since he plays that game all night long, Anemone Worrynaut, the school psychologist, mistakes Fred's behavior with the symptoms of depression. Since Fred looks more blasé than ever, she is afraid that his attitude will have repercussions on all of his classmates. So Anemone decides to turn the school into a nice, happy environment. Pink walls, whales sounds. To worsen things, Worrynaut tells the entire school that it's Fred's fault. With everyone (even his mother) against him, Fred must find a way to return the school to normal by convincing Anemone. Meanwhile, Balthazar, the armless science teacher, loses his pet monkey Claude (whom plays the role of his arms since he lacks his own). No longer able to perform his daily routine, Balthazar becomes more and more depressed but no one seems to care, especially the school psychologist. | |||
| 2 | "Move on, there's Nothing to See!" | January 20, 2008 | |
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Fred accepts to make an exhibit of Anette's paintings. However, the day and time Anette chose is the same as a show nobody wants to miss. So, to bring up people to the exhibit, Fred agrees to turn a promotional, gory clip. Of course, when the people there notice there is nothing gory, a paint fight soon begins. During this time, Fabienne has problems with her hair and asks Fred to put them back to red. Big mistake—now her hair looks like "a brain surgery that went wrong". And GG becomes more and more interested about the accident show becoming the fad around, the exact one that ruins the exhibit. When his parents try to fix the antenna to see themselves on TV, however, GG's father becomes the superstar of the show. | |||
| 3 | "Joy Incarnate" | January 27, 2008 | |
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When Aunt Monique brings a Russia gnome as a gift for Fred, his blasé attitude results in Aunt Monique bringing it back, thinking Fred didn't like it. Noticing his expression might play tricks on him, he decides to learn to express his feelings. He is in a class with only Anette and the actor of Captain Splendid as their teacher. After some classes, Fred better expresses his feelings—until he agrees to appear in an ad. During this time, GG tries to find a useless thing to give to Fred for their friendship birthday. However, nothing he finds is actually useless (either Fred already has it, or it has a second use). | |||
| 4 | "Dear Madam Butterfly" | February 3, 2008 | |
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When Anette asks Fred to help her paint a mural, he agrees. However, when he is sent to the psychologist's local, he looks through the student files, hoping to discover if Panook is a boy or a girl. Anemone catches him red-handed and orders him to take care of Madam Butterfly, the Leblanc family's elderly neighbor. Since Fred spends all his time et Madam Butterfly's apartment, he cannot help Anette paint her mural. And Penelope, who wants to go to the theatre with Benji and another couple, decides to find Fred a girlfriend by organizing blind dates. | |||
| 5 | "Business is Business" | February 10, 2008 | |
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Fred, trying to find a job, finds one at the clown shop owned by GG's parents. However, he doesn't close the freezer door well enough, and the next day the rotten meat stinks up the entire boutique. A corrupt health inspector asks for an extremely high bribe to not close down the Clown Shop. However, while bringing food to some clients, GG finds the love of his life and doesn't come back, which means he won't be there to help Fred face his trouble. Also, Fabienne and Soya Green start getting on each other's nerves. | |||
| 6 | "Life is a Highway" | February 17, 2008 | |
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Feeling like Fred needs some days without his parents, he decides to go camping with GG, Fabienne and Benji. However, the entire family comes along. And Benji, having the stomach flu, can't come so he sends Penelope instead. The four teenagers get lost on their way and arrive at another camp. Penelope is always talking to Benji on her cellphone, and it begins to seriously get on Fabienne's nerves. Finally, Penelope meets a sexy white boy named Kevin at the camp and falls in love. She forgives him when she remembers about Benji. | |||
| 7 | "A Christmas Carol" | February 24, 2008 | |
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This year's Christmas is going to be difficult for Fred. He is fed up of the traditions given by his parents, such as elf ears and handmade decorations. He decides to leave his family so he spends this Christmas with Fabienne. They also decide to spend it with a homeless man. Penelope wants a big gift in a big box from her Benji-poo. Since he has only 20 bucks, he will find the search difficult. The Hart Trio makes a gift exchange. But each girl buys something it would fit to her only. So each girl is angry an each other. Finally, GG also has his own tradition and brings gifts to all his few friends. | |||
| 8 | "Rodent Terror" | March 2, 2008 | |
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Fred, as a new member of the basketball team, must have an initiation: getting entirely shaved. During this time a water spill starts in the school and principal Theo Sturgeon asks the school to be shut down for workers to arrange the problem. However, thousands of squirrels invade the school, seeking the peanuts that have been placed in the gymnasium. The basketball team search for Fred around the school and Penelope, Benji, Jody and Fabienne enter. Fred came back in the school because he lost a picture of Anette in bikini. And of course, they stay trapped in the school with the squirrels invadin everywhere! And it results in Fred and Penelope and Fred trapped in the gymnasium. Yes, that gymnasium where the peanuts are... | |||
| 9 | "Spills of the Heart" | March 9, 2008 | |
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Fred hates parties, Fabienne too. But they agree to make a pink party so GG will meet his new love interest, Fabienne's cousin Fatima. Fred figures he can charm Anette at the party as well. Anette arrives at the party with a guy she just started dating, William Intense. During the party, when Madam Butterfly goes out for paper towels she comes back with sangria. Party crashers Yohan and Manny put some in Fred's glass of juice. The rest of the evening is difficult for Fred, extremely drunk. GG and Fatima are the perect couple, they each have the same passion for meat, and share the dream of marrying each other. But when she asks him to go upstairs for some pleasure, he immediately breaks up with her because he refuses any sex before marriage. | |||
| 10 | "One Red Hair away from Love" | March 16, 2008 | |
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There's a new student in Fred's class. Her name is Fanny Cotton and she's a beautiful redhead. She flashes on Fred after he saves her from Claude. The two fall in love after some time, but she quickly becomes obsessive, invasive, and extremely jealous. However, this relation growing too fast begins to scare Fred's mother. Advertise him will of course be difficult. Until Fred decides to leave her on his own, for a safety reason. There is also a TV show talking about normal people problems. This week's episode talks about a girl who lost all her hair because of flowers... | |||
| 11 | "A Moldy Friendship" | March 23, 2008 | |
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Fred's room is so messy that anyone can be badly hurt by walking on some toy scattered around. And this is what happen to Carol, and she needs a small toy soldier to be put out of her foot. GG convinces Fred to clean his room by telling him Anette needed a place to store her paintings. When Fred discovers that it was all a lie, he is angry after GG and none of them wants to be friend with the other anymore. Fabienne, trapped between Fred and GG and suffering their breaking up, must find a way to tie their friendship back to what it was before. GG finds a stupid excuse for why they are no more friends. Penelope also repeatedly tries to find out if Panook is a boy or a girl. All questions he or she answers might work for each so the mystery is getting always worse. Finally, Carol, trying to make the house more Feng Shui, rounds the sides of a table. She however forgets to put the small wooden parts away and someone might soon walk on one! | |||
| 12 | "Madness at the Lake" | March 29, 2008 | |
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Fred becomes counselor in a camp he didn't even subscribed to become one. Anette is there too, and three other teenagers. One of them is... Fanny! She however claims she developed amnesia while falling down the stairs and to have forgotten Fred. However, our blasé hero is sure she's lying. He rapidly finds her journal and discovers the truth... Trying to call his friends for help, the line is cut and Fabienne and GG come to help him. But what has Fanny done of Anette? She can't be found anywhere! | |||
| 13 | "Pretty in Your Skin" | April 6, 2008 | |
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At the school fair, instead of winning the razor-cellphone-MP3 he wanted, Fred wins a free plastic surgery. This is however a bad gift, as everyone wants it. When GG accidentally hits Fred's nose, the main hero decides to use the surgery on his nose, also hoping to win Anette's heart with these few touch-ups. GG wins the U.S. president's underwear and decides to pimp up his old car with the auction profits. He then decides to use it to bring girls to him. Thinking only to pimp it, he didn't think about repairing it... Carol also tries a new method for losing weight, however it rapidly proves useless and finally she also asks her son for the surgery to lose all that weight. The new reality show is all about beauty. "Especially studied and tested for unicelular brains." | |||
| 14 | "Fred TV" | April 13, 2008 | |
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Fred's family is chosen by Zoe Waters, a new producer, for a new reality show. Everything goes well, until Zoe changes to her own will whatever Fred said so he looks gay. And of course, not only does Fred is treated as gay everywhere, but that student named Rudolph falls in love with him... this also ruining Fred's chances with Anette. During the second episode of the reality show, Zoe goes further. She makes everyone believe Carol and Paul hate Fred for being gay and that Madam Butterfly is their "slave". They end up in jail, with Fred and Boon Mee in an elderly couple's apartment. At the end of the episode Zoe is forced to publicly apologize to the LeBlanc family and set things right. | |||
| 15 | "So Long Worrynaut" | April 20, 2008 | |
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Fred decides to organize a Halloween party, hoping Fabienne will invite Anette. By pit for him, he also invites Nino O'Neil. He also wishes Anemone Worynautto disappear... until one hour or so before the party, he sees her in the street, probably dead. He is overcome with guilt and sees her ghost everywhere. And he also gets weird calls. Nino also really wants to kiss a girl for the first time, so he never stops asking that to Madam Butterfly, who brought her spiritism game. Also, after having eaten too many yogurts, Penelope is caught in Fred's bedroom during the party, with terrible farts. She won't be abe to dance with Benji as the Beauty and the Beast! And finally, Fabienne and Anette still didn't arrive at the party, which begins to worry Fred. But he yet has enough to do with Anemone's ghost... | |||
| 16 | "Love Shakes" | April 27, 2008 | |
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Carol and Paul, having couple problems, go to a session so love will better pass between them. They leave the house to Aunt Moniques, who immediately makes almost all stuff in the house disappear. Trying to avoid his aunt, Fred finds a job at the café, where Tamara also works. There begins to have some kind of romance between them. However, because of a small problem, Mr. Julian fires Tamara... GG brings his younger brother Jojo to the café. Jojo starts causing small problems around also. And finally, hating her mother's new boyfriend, Penelope "officially" runs way from the familial house. She hides in Fred's bedroom' wardrobe and meets a Pinata, to which she does nothing than what she knows to do best: talk. | |||
| 17 | "Half-Fried Herrings" | May 4, 2008 | |
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Fred and Tamara are really in love, and so Tamara plans a date to the best restaurant in town. But Fred lacks money, so he decides to get a job at the Clown Shop. He likes it less when he becomes the herring mascot of the shop, and he smiles even less when he accidentally bumps into Tamara's mother... GG, falls in love with Jody's sister. She manipulates him so he drives her to Abitibi. Finally, Carol and Paul try to make pastas, but the instructions are badly translated and incomprehensible. They try their best but the result doesn't look at all like pasta. | |||
| 18 | "The Benji Method" | May 11, 2008 | |
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When things start going wrong between Fred and Tamara, Fred asks Benji what he does to keep his relationship well balanced. He uses the yes-no method, which Fred then uses. Despite this, Tamara soon discovers it and things start going wrong – again. Also, Fred tries it with his mother, and it works. With this method, he however also accepts to guard the principal's dog, and he also accepts a bungee jump so the basketball team gets new uniforms. But not only is Tamara sad because she was angry at Fred... but the place where Fred has to do the jump is really dangerous as many people died there. | |||
| 19 | "The Analgesic of Apocalypse" | May 18, 2008 | |
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Jody, still the only one alone of the Hart Trio, begins to hate the new Fred-Tamara couple. The French teacher also decides that Fred comes with her at Acapulco, because he got the best notes of the class. While the entire class actually thinks it's a vacation, it is in fact a series of conferences. GG, sad because Fred spends more time with Tamara, buys two lovebirds. Not everything goes well however; Anette is back from vacation, and Fred must make a choice. The situation worsens when a fortune cookie tels him that a series of mishaps will happen to him, and he finally ends up in an hospital, where he must finally decide between Tamara and Anette. | |||
| 20 | "Within a Hair's Breadth of Happiness" | May 25, 2008 | |
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Fred is still at the hospital. Nothing can harm him there, he is tied to his bed and can't move because of the way his mother places the bedsheets. However, new threats appear. The C-baldy bacterium might divest Fred of every hair, thus making him unattractive to women. And there is also this strange nurse sneaking about his room. Fred's mother and friends don't believe it at all. Tamara nurses her heartbreak, and Penelope suggests a change of look. The Trio is now a duo since Jody has been left out. But a big mistake will result in a horrible style and a need for Jody to come back in the Trio. And Fred also is afraid that Anette is not interested in him because he might lose all his hair, and so sends GG to bring Anette so he can confess his feelings. And the title reveals already too much about the strange nurse. | |||
| 21 | "The Make-Up Sausage" | June 1, 2008 | |
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Fred rescues Nino from being harassed by Johan and Manny. Nino decides Fred is his friend for life, but GG is jealous and doesn't like it one bit. The Beast Leblanc fell in love with a beautiful female cat, and desperately tries to go do it with its new love. After many remarks about the blonde jokes, Penelope turns her hair color to brown, and already feels smarter. And Carol catches the habit to bring people for supper when she doesn't knows what to tell them. | |||
| 22 | "The Wheels of Doubt" | June 8, 2008 | |
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Carol does, once again, too much for her son. So she gets him a summer job at the skate park. Not everything goes well, as next to nobody listens to him. But there is a good point; the other counselor, Margot, seems to like him. For once, Fred doesn't look blasé at all. He always smiles... Carol thinks this is weird, she thinks it is due to illegal substances. She also calls Madam Butterfly so she can predict Fred's future. She predicts violence and granulous substances, and she is never wrong, so Carol begins to worry for good. And Paul never stops telling his wife she's doing too much for Fred. | |||
| 23 | "Lab Rats" | June 15, 2008 | |
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Fred is at a summer camp where it seems kids are encouraged to do nothing at all, but he quickly realizes that something strange is going on. | |||
| 24 | "A Minor Runaway" | June 22, 2008 | |
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After an earthquake, Fred and Penelope find themselves locked in a broom closet. While Fred is forced to endure Penelope's vapid company, his disappearance begins to worry his frantic mother. Meanwhile Fabienne is trying to find out what is bugging Anette. | |||
| 25 | "Blow Out Sale" | June 29, 2008 | |
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Against a backdrop of memories evoked by Fred's friends, Carol organizes a garage sale and sells Anemone an object containing a love letter from Fred to Anette. | |||
| 26 | "Sweet Sixteen Surprise" | July 6, 2008 | |
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When their car breaks down in the countryside, GG and Fab let slip to Fred that a surprise party is being organized for his 16th birthday. He refuses to attend until he finds out Annette is invited. But will Penelope spoil Fred's chance to finally open up to Annette? Fred's thought for the day: (Fred is happy and giddy) "So what words of wisdom can I tell you today?" (Annette pops into the shot) "What would you say to: 'Don't talk with your mouth full?!?!?" " (The two kiss and Annette pulls down a shade to transition to the closing credits) | |||
Awards
Actra Montreal Awards
- (2008) Rick Jones (voice of Gregory-Gilbert Pyrowski) Winner of Outstanding Voice Performance
Gala des prix Gémeaux (Quebec's Geminy/Emmy Awards — Canada)
- (2008) : Winner of "Best animated series".
Nominations
Actra Montreal Awards
- (2008) Mathew Mackay (voice of Fred Leblanc) nominated for Outstanding Voice Performance
- (2008) Holly Gauthier-Frankel (voice of Penelope Truehart) nominated for Outstanding Voice Performance
Gala des prix Gémeaux (Quebec's Geminy/Emmy Awards — Canada)
- (2008) : Best script for a youth audience (ep: Episode 4 : Dear Madam Butterfly. writers: Manon Berthelet et Mughette Berthelet).
- (2008) : Best (web site) for a TV series.
International Animation Festival in Annecy (France)
- (2008) : Official selection — Best TV series
Cartoon on the bay : Pulcinella Awards (Italy)
- (2008) : Official selection - "TV series for all ages"
References
- ^ "TV Guide AN F28 Page ? & ? (Page 1)" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-10-21.
- ^ "Fred's head: SEASON FINALE: "Suprise [sic] Sixteen!" airing Sunday, July 6th @ 8:00 PM ET". TV.com. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
- ^ Marie-Claude Girard. Toupie et Binou : la souris québécoise qui rivalise avec Mickey ("Toupie et Binou: Québécois mouse which concurrences Mickey"), October 3, 2009, La Presse.
External links
