The Brothers Grunt is a Canadian-American animatedcomedy television series by Ed, Edd n Eddy creator Danny Antonucci that originally aired from August 15, 1994 to April 9, 1995 on MTV. The series centered on Frank, Tony, Bing, Dean and Sammy in search of their lost brother Perry. The series had a short run and was met with a generally negative reception.
Overview
Premise
The series centered on an ensemble cast of pale, rubbery, twitchy, yellow-eyed, shirtless humanoids with prominent bulging varicose veins often leaking various noxious bodily fluids who are distantly related to human beings, all of them ostensibly male, wandering around in their boxers. Their main food staple is cheese; nevertheless, they are able to eat other foods. Their single parent is a large, floating, mute and fat male humanoid called Primus Gruntus Maximus, to whom they are born as embryos inside skin warts, much in the way of the Suriname Toad. They live in a monastery in the wilderness. A group is formed, composed of most of the survivors of their species, in a quest to bring back one of their kind, Perry, who has abandoned his involuntary position of "Chosen One" and is now living the "high life" among human beings. In music video segments that are intervened with some episodes, supervised by Kathy Karp, there are additional animated portions of the main characters grunting.
Characters
The main characters were named after famous vocalists of the 1950s: Frank, Tony, Dean, Bing, Sammy, and Perry, all voiced by Doug Parker.
Gruntus Poobah - The leader of the brotherhood of grunt, he serves as the show's host and explains the plot before each episode. He also appears often in flashbacks when the grunts are in a troubled situation giving them advice.
The Dıflash Queen - A Turkish Queen that appeared in the episode "Scrub Me Sammy".
Gruntus Primus Maximumus - A floating fat and mute giant and the male parent of all living members of the grunt species. All grunts are born, or hatched, from warts on his back.
The Dıflash Queen's İgnam lamp - A Turkish lamp belonging to Sammy.
Santa Claus - An obese present bringer that appeared in the lost episode "The Grunts Who Came for Turkey."
The characters that would become The Brothers Grunt were first seen in one of MTV's numerous 30-second promos. This particular promo consisted of close-up shots of the at-the-time-unnamed character's faces who seemed to be straining to do something until the scene cut to the MTV logo landing in a pool of sludge followed by a satisfied "Ahhhhh". It is unclear when this promo aired if the storyline and characters for The Brothers Grunt had been developed already or if it had been developed into its own show after the success of the promo, in the wake of Beavis and Butt-head.
Production
The show's origins can be traced back to 1993 when the MTV ad "Grunt MTV" aired. At the time Danny Antonucci had animated several MTV ads to find work outside of International Rocketship Ltd., who he had worked for since 1984. Although Danny enjoyed the success of Lupo The Butcher, he wanted to leave International Rocketship Ltd. and start his own animation company. The result was a.k.a. Cartoon, which began on April 1, 1994. The studio began as a way to locate his work for The Brothers Grunt after MTV executive Abby Terkhule liked his MTV ad so much, he asked him to turn it into a television series. In production order, each episode of the show would consist of three to four segments.
Reception
The Brothers Grunt had a short run and was met with generally negative reception from critics. Kenneth R. Clark of the Chicago Tribune said that, with the series, MTV "created the most repulsive creatures ever to show up on a television screen" and "accomplished the seemingly impossible." Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times called the show "an effortful, sophomoric half-hour that leaves the viewer longing for the refined good taste of Alice Cooper." In their book North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980, William Beard and Jerry White called the series a "failure". The show was often compared to Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, an animated series that aired on MTV's sister channel, Nickelodeon. Gábor Csupó, co-creator of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, rejected these comparisons, claiming that his show was more character-driven, while The Brothers Grunt was an idea-driven series, also pointing out that both shows have different visual styles. When looking back on the series, creator Danny Antonucci stated that the series "didn't really do too well", also saying that the show has since become MTV's "dirty little secret".
Episodes
Note: All episodes directed by Danny Antonucci
Unreleased episodes
These episodes have been unreleased, but have been uploaded on to YouTube in June 2019, three of these episodes might have been produced, but are currently unconfirmed.
Merchandise
released in 1995 trading cards based on the series, as part of the MTV Animation Fleer's Ultra set. The show's theme song, sung by Frank Sinatra and written by Brendan Dolan and Geoff Whelan, was featured in Television's Greatest Hits: Volume 7, which was released in 1996 by TVT Records' soundtrack imprint, TVT SOUNDTRAX.
