Crashbox
Crashbox is a Canadian-American educational children's television show that airs on the HBO Family digital cable television channel in the United States and Asia and ran from 1999 to 2000. It aims to educate grade-school children in history, math, vocabulary, and other various subjects.
Crashbox was one of the cornerstone programs for the relaunch of the HBO Family channel in February 1999.
Creation team
Crashbox was created by Planet Grande Pictures and is animated by Cuppa Coffee Studios, headed by Adam Shaheen. Planet Grande Pictures engaged award-winning Cuppa Coffee Studios 7 months to complete 13 hours of programming.Plot
The show takes place in the insides of a game computer where green game cartridges are created and loaded by trusty robots. The format of each episode is The Electric Company-esque. Each half-hour episode consists of at least seven 2-to-5-minute educational games.Games
The following games appear in this show:- Distraction News - A cardboard cutout newswoman named Dora Smarmy tells the viewers about certain things as the viewers watch to learn about them while not getting distracted of the things that appear during the broadcast.
- Sketch Pad - A beatnik draws pictures of some things happening in a riddle-like scenario, as the viewers must solve the reason why these specific things are happening.
- Psycho Math - Professor Rocket gives the viewers long math problems for them to solve with countable pictures.
- Ear We Are - A right ear and a left ear help viewers identify different sounds to let people know where they are. This game does not appear in season 2.
- Haunted House Party - A haunted house is the setting of a house party hosted by an unseen Horrid One that ghosts attend as the viewer must identify the historical "ghost of honor" by listening to clues about them. When all the clues have been said, the Horrid One recaps them to the viewers before the historical figure is revealed in cardboard cutout form.
- Eddie Bull - Eddie Bull gives viewers three hints at what animal at the Walla Walla Washington Zoo ate him. Once the animal is identified, Eddie is regurgitated.
- 10 Seconds - The game's announcer gives the viewers 10 seconds to solve each of three rebus puzzles and guess the answer.
- Radio Scramble - An anthropomorphic microphone named DJ Jumpin' Johnny Jumble has the viewers unscramble a word that is the title of the song that he plays at the KBOX radio station. He will sometimes also deliver traffic, sports, or weather reports.
- Captain Bones - A pirate skeleton named Captain Bones has the viewers solve math problems and other types of puzzles by having his bones form the numbers or objects and having the viewers move one of his bones to pull it off.
- Poop or Scoop - The game's announcer gives facts about animals where they must guess if they are true or false.
- Revolting Slob - A puppet sketch where a polite female narrator uses the Revolting Slob where she gives a three-choice answer to a question that describes what the Revolting Slob is doing. The sketch ends with the other word of the final question having the Revolting Slob explode with the female narrator stating that "No slobs were harmed in the making of this show."
- Wordshake - A live-action American-French cook named Chef Wordshake in a black-a-white movie setting cooks up two words that can be used by the viewers to form one word like the words "drag" and "in" to form "dragon" and the words "disturb" and "honey" to make "the Easter Bunny." The sketch usually ends with the kitchen exploding with flour. This game does not appear in season 2.
- Mug Shots - Detective Verity has the viewers look at the interrogated testimony from the photographed suspects of a crime where they must find out who is telling the truth and which of the other three are lying as they each state where they were when the crime was happening. Each of the suspects are shown in live action. When the innocent one is identified, Verity arranges for the guilty party to be locked up.
- Paige and Sage - An unseen valley girl walks the viewers through the pictures of identical Barbie doll twins Paige and Sage where they must spot the differences in the pictures. This game does not appear in season 2.
- Think Tank - Inside a fish tank, a Jamaican submarine captain named Captain Bob has the viewers figure out what each of the three things that appear has in common.
- Dirty Pictures - In a museum that is closed for cleaning, a maid dusts off a picture with the elderly security guard holding up cards that give the hints of the person in the picture. This is a non-speaking segment.
- Lens McCracken - An ace photo snoop named Lens McCracken develops pictures from a case he is working on in a puzzled way that the viewers must solve which would also be solved by his dark room's computer called the Solutionator. This game does not appear in season 2.
- Riddle Snake - An unseen raj reads the riddles from the Riddle Snake that the viewers must solve.
Episodes
Season 1
Season 2
Cast
- Carlos Alazraqui - Harry Houdini, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Nixon, Christopher Columbus, Thomas Edison, Sam Spit
- Maggie Baird - Detective Verity, Woman in Haunted House Party, Eleanor Roosevelt, Chatty Cathy, Honey Lemon, "Bean Ball" Ballou, Dusty Rhodes, Constance Appleby
- Dee Bradley Baker - Noseless Calhoun, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Ford, "Big Noggin" Simms, Montgomery Cleft
- Veena Bidasha - Riddlesnake Raj, Ivana Filpova, Cleopatra, Willow Reed, Candy Lemon, Hossenpfeffer Floog, Lollipop Greene
- S. Scott Bullock - Captain Bones, Lens McCracken, Irv Goldberg, "Lug Nut" Muldoon, Morgan Pike "Applesauce", Dean De Luca, Julius Caesar, Leonard da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, George Washington
- Greg Eagles - Captain Bob, Sketch Pad, Jackie Robinson, Sammy Bixby "Six Toes", Bass Henderson, Danger Jones, "Lumber Jack" Lang, Jimmy Hudsucker "The Geek", "Pecs" Armstrong
- Arif S. Kinchen - Professor Rocket, Sergio Corleone
- Peter Lurie - Jumpin' Johnny Jumble, Roger Hammerstein, Knuckles Stankowski, Green Robot, Noah
- Dawn Maxey - Valley Girl Voice in Like Totally Paige and Sage, Lois Carnegie
- Edie McClurg - Female Polite Voice in Revolting Slob, Sugar Lemon
- Mike McShane - The Revolting Slob, Jean Pierre Le Saux "Frenchie", Edgardo Polonia
- Ritchie Montgomery - Eddie Bull, Checkers Larue, Baby Face MacGuire, Scooter Hayes, Buttons Ha-Ha, Fingers Weinstock, "Spitter" Sykes, Axel Schmit, "Three Eyes" Oppenheimer
- Christy Noonan - Amelia Earhart, Elaine Kieserman
- Alan Schlaifer - Ten Seconds Announcer, Butler in Haunted House Party, Ghost in Haunted House Party, Right Ear, Gilbert Sullivan, Muscles Stankowski, Indy Pitts, Slippery Fingers Ferguson, “Stinky” John, Gilberto Whiplash, Stanley Deuces, Billy Crimp, Louis Clark, B.B. McGraw, Tranh Long
- John Watkin - Horrid One, Left Ear, Radio Scramble singer, Wordshake Chef, Paul Revere, William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Dr. Cleanpick, Sir Percival St. John, Leo "the Lion" Lawrence, Larry Coolridge "the Lump", Mellon Ball Jones, Mickey O'Grady "the Goat", Stu Rumplitz "The Peeper", Elbows Stankowski, Mitch Vanderbilt, Harry "The Hairy" Huang
- Mari Weiss - Dora Smarmy, Viola Hardcase, Puddin' Lemon, Mildred Postley, Gertrude Simsbury, Mathilda Hudson-Billingsley
- Danny Wells - Poop or Scoop Announcer, Sleepy Eyes McGee, Rupert Brindle