Mr. Meaty, centers on a pair of teenage boys working at a fast-food restaurant established in the fictional Scaunchboro Mall: the nerdy, gluttonous, awkward Parker Dinkleman and the charming, popular, but uncaring and self-centered Josh Redgrove. The boys are often placed in bizarre, supernatural, or grotesque situations. They are also seen dealing with common teenage situations such as dating and peer pressure. Recurring characters include Doug, Scaunchboro Mall's beefy mall cop with a macho attitude; Edward R. Carney, Mr. Meaty's 109-year-old founder and CEO who was previously cryogenically frozen; and Mr. Wink, the cold-hearted manager of Mr. Meaty.
Characters
Josh Redgrove
Parker Dinkleman
Production
Mr. Meaty began as a series of shorts that played between longer programs on Nickelodeon from 2002 to 2005. They were also featured on CBC's variety showThe Void, on Nickelodeon's iTunes listings, and on the TurboNick website. The show was Shannon and Hopley's second production for Nickelodeon after Nanalan'. Neither of the series' creators had worked at a fast food restaurant prior to creating the show. However, Hopley had once worked at a movie theater's concessions stand, which gave him inspiration for some of the ideas in the show. He has also cited The Ren & Stimpy Show as a source of inspiration for the show's style of humor. The show was created specifically for a teenage audience; of the target age group, executive producer Jack Lenz said, "Entertaining kids in their teens is not easy and it takes a very strong concept to catch on with this demographic. Mike Judge clearly nailed it with Beavis & Butthead and we believe that Mr. Meaty will do the same." Nickelodeon commissioned a season of full-length episodes around September 2005. An 11-minute pilot titled "In Parker's Sight" aired on December 30, 2005. It was a retrospective featuring material from the earlier shorts. On September 22, 2006, the series made its official debut on Nickelodeon. The episode "Buffalo Burrito" had been released as a sneak peek on the iTunes Store two days earlier on September 18. The series moved to Nickelodeon's sister channelNicktoons on February 23, 2007. Nicktoons aired the remaining episodes from March 10, 2007, to May 23, 2009.
gave the series a rating of 3/5, criticizing its crude humor, but noting that some viewers "will enjoy the idiosyncratic characters and their attempts to survive the uncertainties of puberty." Susan Stewart of The New York Times gave the show a positive review, calling its puppetry "a perfect medium for sending up the foibles of the teenage years" and commending the two main characters' "deft characterizations". In May 2007, the show ranked as the fourth highest-rated Saturday morning program among children aged 2―11.