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The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley

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The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley
Genre
Based onEd Grimley
by Martin Short
Developed byColossal Pictures, Inc.
Directed by
Starring
Voices of
ComposerMichael Tavera
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
Producers
  • Scott Shaw
  • John Hays
  • Mark Young (The Count Floyd Show)
EditorGil Iverson
Running time23 minutes approx.
Production companiesHanna-Barbera Productions
SEPP International S.A.
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseSeptember 10 (1988-09-10) –
December 3, 1988 (1988-12-03)
Related
SCTV
Saturday Night Live

The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring Martin Short's fictional character Ed Grimley (with Short reprising his role as Grimley).[1] The show aired on NBC from September 10 to December 3, 1988 for a single season of 13 episodes.[2] The show is the only Saturday morning animated adaptation of both an SCTV character and a Saturday Night Live character, and the first Saturday morning cartoon featuring an SCTV cast member (later joined by Camp Candy, featuring John Candy, and Rick Moranis's Gravedale High).

Guest stars on the show included Christopher Guest and SCTV alumni Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas. The show also featured the voices of René Auberjonois, Kenneth Mars, and Arte Johnson. Though the show was not renewed for a second season, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley was later seen in reruns in 1996 on Cartoon Network's unnamed pre-Adult Swim-era late-night programming block, which consisted of such shows as Space Ghost Coast to Coast and reruns of classic Looney Tunes shorts and Hanna-Barbera programming, before it was rerun again on Boomerang. The live-action Count Floyd segments were also recycled for use in episodes of Cartoon Planet (featuring many of the same characters as SGC2C and produced by the same team). Hanna-Barbera sponsored an Ed Grimley look-alike contest midway through the first season, which was won by 10-year-old Matt Mitchell from Des Moines, Iowa. MTV expressed interest in a second season but budget issues shut down any further discussion.

Synopsis and characters

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Episodes of the show often featured Ed Grimley in several adventures, which start out as mundane, but turn very surreal and cartoonish, interspersed with science lessons from The Amazing Gustav Brothers, Roger and Emil, and a live-action segment with a "scary story" titled The Count Floyd Show presented as a show-within-a-show by Grimley's favorite television host, SCTV's Count Floyd (played by SCTV cast member Joe Flaherty).[3] Grimley's fellow cartoon characters included Grimley's landlord Leo Freebus (voiced by Jonathan Winters), Leo's wife Deidre (voiced by Andrea Martin), his ditzy, amateur actress neighbor Ms. Malone (voiced by Catherine O'Hara; a female character by the name of Ms. Malone did appear on an SNL version of an Ed Grimley sketch on the season ten episode hosted by Alex Karras, but Ms. Malone was played by that episode's musical guest Tina Turner), and her little brother Wendell (voiced by Danny Cooksey). Ed owns a goldfish named Moby and a clever pet rat named Sheldon (voiced by Frank Welker). At the end of each episode, Ed would write in his diary about what happened in his day.

Additional voices

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Episodes

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No.TitleWritten byOriginal air date
1"Tall, Dark & Hansom"N/ASeptember 10, 1988 (1988-09-10)

Ed fills in for his cousin driving a hansom cab and ends up in a horse race.

The Amazing Gustav Brothers: Roger and Emil talk about gravity where Emil demonstrates Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity by jumping out of the airplane dressed as an apple. Though Emil forgets his parachute.

Count Floyd's Scary Stories: Count Floyd reads to the children a story called "The Curse of the Headless Mummy" where an archaeologist named Dr. Smythe enters a tomb containing a headless mummy where hieroglyphics say "He who enters this tomb will never leave and be trapped for all of eternity."
2"Ed's Debut"Dick BlasucciSeptember 17, 1988 (1988-09-17)

Ed mistakenly thinks he is asked to play triangle for the city's philharmonic. On the way to the concert hall, Grimley is arrested and imprisoned for a bank robbery he did not commit.

The Amazing Gustav Brothers: Roger and Emil talk about centrifugal force by visiting the amusement park by going on the Screaming Banshee of Hades. Though Emil had some food before he got on and threw up.

Count Floyd's Scary Stories: Count Floyd reads to the children a story about a little girl who went to visit her grandfather in Oklahoma who advised her not to go into the attic. When a kid asks if Count Floyd is a real vampire because of his howling, Count Floyd comments that his grandmother is a part-werewolf and it runs in the family. When he tries to turn into a bat, the spell Count Floyd uses makes him fat instead.
3"E.G., Go Home"N/ASeptember 24, 1988 (1988-09-24)

Ed and Wendall, the annoying brother of his crush—a ditzy amateur actress named Miss Malone—go on an amusement park rocket ride, taking them to another planet which is ruled by an alien queen who sounds like Bette Davis.

The Amazing Gustav Brothers: Roger and Emil talk about rocket propulsion where Emil wears a jetpack in an uninhabited desert that would make him zoom off into the stratosphere.

Count Floyd's Scary Stories: In his imagination, Ed talks to Count Floyd apologizing for missing his show. Count Floyd decides to make an exception and rerun it for him. In the episode, Count Floyd reveals that he in his bat form starred in first-rate horror films before getting his own show. He shows his first flick he made called "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Ed."
4"Ed's in Hot Water"UnknownOctober 1, 1988 (1988-10-01)
Looking after the apartment building for the Freebus family while she and her husband are on vacation, Ed tries to fix the water heater and ends up going down the drain, into the ocean, and on an island, where he finds a stranded, Amelia Earhart-esque aviator.
5"Crate Expectations"N/AOctober 8, 1988 (1988-10-08)

Ed gets trapped in a crate while trying to get a birthday present for Miss Malone. Meanwhile in a spoof of It's a Wonderful Life, Miss Malone is depressed over being passed up for a TV movie and being a struggling actress at 25. She meets a guardian angel named Jim who shows her what life would be like if she was never born.

The Amazing Gustav Brothers: Roger and Emil go back in time to their childhood where they had a disagreement when in the bathtub.

Count Floyd's Scary Stories: Count Floyd shows some super-scary home movies. Then he plays a preview from next week's movie called "The Spooky Cloud in the Middle of the Swamp."
6"Grimley, P.F.C."UnknownOctober 15, 1988 (1988-10-15)
In the wrong line to return a library book, Ed joins the Army and ends up second banana to a Bob Hope-like USO performer (voiced by Dave Thomas).
7"Moby Is Lost"UnknownOctober 22, 1988 (1988-10-22)
Ed's pet goldfish Moby is missing and Ed hires a television-obsessed sea captain to lead the search.
8"Good Neighbor Ed"UnknownOctober 29, 1988 (1988-10-29)
Ed wins a contest but to fulfill the contest rules he needs to take a picture of all of his neighbors. This is the only musical episode.
9"Driver Ed"UnknownNovember 5, 1988 (1988-11-05)
Miss Malone needs to learn how to drive and calls upon Ed to teach her, but an accident turns the two into wandering spirits who haunt Mr. Freebus.
10"Blowin' in the Wind"UnknownNovember 12, 1988 (1988-11-12)
While on his way to his aunt's house for a game of Monopoly, Ed is caught up in the same tornado that sent Dorothy Gale to the Land of Oz, only he ends up on the farm with Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and a recuperating Dorothy where a traveling summer stock show, with a Jerry Lewis-like director, are hoping for a shot at Broadway.
11"Eyewitness Ed"UnknownNovember 19, 1988 (1988-11-19)
Needing "hot dog franks" for a party, Ed makes a run to the store which resembles the Bates Motel and witnesses Der Bingle robbing the proprietor (voiced by Eugene Levy) for which he testifies and must go into the Witness Protection Program.
12"Eddy, We Hardly Knew Ye"UnknownNovember 26, 1988 (1988-11-26)
Ed goes into the hospital for a tonsillectomy where his roommate is a werewolf (voiced by Christopher Guest).
13"The Irving Who Came to Dinner"UnknownDecember 3, 1988 (1988-12-03)
Irving Cohen pays a visit and helps Ed reveal a couple of hucksters.

Home media

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On January 29, 2013, Warner Home Video (through the Warner Archive) released The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store, MoviesUnlimited.com, and Amazon.com.[4] In addition, the episode "Tall, Dark & Hansom" is available on Warners' Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1980s Volume 1 DVD set, released on May 4, 2010.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  2. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 210–211. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  3. ^ Leszczak, Bob (May 16, 2016). Single Season Sitcoms of the 1980s: A Complete Guide. McFarland. p. 25. ISBN 9781476623849.
  4. ^ "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley - The Warner Archive Schedules a 'Complete Series' Set". Archived from the original on 2013-01-16.
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