40-year-old Eric Feeble is still upset over his divorce two years before. He lives in a middle-class London house and is always kept under extreme amounts of pressure and stress from all aspects of life, which is represented by a throbbing vein in his temple. His two children, Brian and Claire, plague him with fear and worry daily. Claire is a frail 6-year-old who is allergic to virtually everything, including wheat, ponies, and spices; 10-year-old Brian has learning problems and has been kept back three straight years in school, and has an oral fixation and pica. The family's au pair housekeeper, Maria, is an 18-year-old Portuguese woman with a serious drinking problem; despite Eric's frequent attempts to keep her under control and focused, she stays passed-out drunk for hours at a time. His former wife Liz left him for a Buddhist but phones him up incessantly, which merely adds to his stress level. The next-door neighbours, the wealthy, successful, snobbish Perfect family, provide him a constant and painful view of what his life could have been. Eric's workplace is absolutely no escape from his everyday problems. His boss, Paul Power, is loud, rude and demanding; he has demoted Eric from Assistant Manager to a low-level clerk in an office sandwiched between the janitor's closet and the men's toilets. His secretary Alison is completely useless, spending all her "working hours" in personal phone calls and shrilling rudely at Eric when he requests her attention. At the end of almost every episode, as the climax of events cause Eric's stress to reach breaking point, the throbbing vein emerges from his temple and wraps itself around his neck, strangling him.
Characters
Main
Eric Feeble - Stressed out divorced father of two children. Eric is a kind, well-meaning man who loves his children. Although bitter and sarcastic about many aspects of his life, Eric genuinely tries to make the best out of situation and deeply loves his children, going to great lengths to make them proud. However, he normally fails due to no fault of his own, and the rare times he actually does well, something always happens to ruin it.
Claire Feeble - Daughter of Eric; allergic to just about everything, but an intelligent, curious, playful little girl. Her allergies require her to eat special regulation food, but she is always sneaking ordinary food which immediately swells her up.
Brian Feeble - Son of Eric; has been held back in school for 3 years straight. He has pica and as a result, is always putting strange things in his mouth.
Maria Gonzalez - The Feeble family's punk-looking live-in au pair; she is Portuguese and always drunk or hungover.
Ray Perfect - Snobbish and "perfect" next-door neighbour of Eric. Shares Eric's workplace, but is senior and consistently praised for his fine work.
Mrs. Perfect - Snobbish wife of Mr. Perfect. Catchphrase: "How art thou, Eric?"
Heather Perfect - Snobbish daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Perfect.
Paul Power, a.k.a. P.P - Boss of Eric who is usually very angry. Catchphrase: "Double arseburgers, Eric!"
Alison Scabie - Eric's useless secretary who spends all her time on the telephone gossiping to friends.
Doc - Eric's dementedly relaxed doctor, more interested in chasing women than treating Eric. He is the closest thing Eric has to a best friend.
Mrs. Wilson - An old lady who slowly tries in vain to post a letter which always falls from her hand and into a drain, sometimes with Eric to blame. Catchphrase: "Morning, Mister Eric. Just off to the post..."
The US broadcast of the series on NBC replaced Mark Heap's voice with that of Hank Azaria, whom also serves as a producer for the dub, repurposing Eric as an American expatriate.
TV history
The show was first broadcast on BBC2 in April 1998 and ran for two series. Stressed Eric was bought and briefly aired by NBC and adapted for American audiences with the lead characters' voice redubbed and re-worked as an American expatriate with several original lines changed for cultural purposes, a new opening sequence that reflects the changed storyline and cutting scenes for time constraints. Stressed Eric continued when Hibbert Ralph produced the second series. The second series was animated by Varga Studio instead.
