Toonsylvania is an animated television series, which ran for two seasons in 1998 on the Fox Kids Network block in its first season, then was moved to Monday afternoons from September 14, 1998 until January 18, 1999, when it was cancelled. It was executive produced in part by Steven Spielberg, as DreamWorks' first animated series. The show had recurring cartoon series that appeared in each episode. The main segments were "Frankenstein", "Night of the Living Fred", "Attack of the Killer B Movies" and "Melissa Screetch".
Plot summary
A typical episode of Toonsylvania starts with a cartoon series called "Frankenstein", about the adventures of Dr. Vic Frankenstein, his assistant Igor who always sets out to prove that he is a genius like his master, and their dim-witted Frankenstein Monster known as Phil. Before the second cartoon, there is an animated vignette where Igor is on the couch with Phil and tries to fix the TV remote, but in every episode there is a new problem with it. After that, there is a cartoon series called "Night of the Living Fred", about a family of zombies. This segment was created by cartoonist Mike Peters. Sometimes, a parody of a B-list horror movie would air instead of a "Night of the Living Fred" cartoon. After that, there is a short segment called "Igor's Science Minute", where Igor gives a science lesson that always ends in disaster. The final segment is "Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals", where Phil the Frankenstein Monster does something bad and Igor punishes him by reading a horror tale involving a bratty girl named Melissa Screetch who does not heed the warnings of adults and suffers the consequences for it one way or another.
Second season changes
In season two, Bill Kopp and Jeff DeGrandis left the show and were replaced by Paul Rugg. The series' format changed into more of a sitcom style, with Igor, Dr. Vic Frankenstein and Phil interacting with a variety of new characters, including a snooping next-door neighbor Seth Tuber, who was based on Norman Bates from Psycho. He interacted with his "immobile" mother by putting his hand over his mouth and talking into it. There was also a typical Transylvanian angry mob that was, in fact, a cheerful group of Beatles-esque hipsters. Most of these new characters were voiced by Paul Rugg, who also improvised many of their lines. The only other backup segments to re-materialize in season two were the B-movie parodies and Melissa Screetch in a new segment called "The Melissa Screetch Show". Whenever Melissa was disappointed with a friend or a family member, she would go home and cover herself under her bed sheets where she pretended to host a show. She then had her transgressor on as a guest star and often did away with them in an ironic manner.
The music for the series was written by Michael Tavera, Keith Baxter, Christopher Neal Nelson, John Paul Given, Christopher Klatman and Thom Sharp. The main title song was written by Steve Bernstein and Julie Bernstein with lyrics by Paul Rugg.
On August 31, 1999, a VHS cassette of Toonsylvania was released, which contained selected episodes and was released with the season two opening. The episodes seen were "Darla Doiley, Demon Doll", "Voodoo Vacation", "Baby Human", "Dead Dog Day Afternoon", "Igor's Science Minute", "Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals", "Phil's Brain", "Football...and Other Body Parts", "Bang!", and "WereGranny".
Video game
A Toonsylvania video game was developed by RFX Interactive and released by Light & Shadow Production and Ubi Soft for the Game Boy Color in 2000.
Merchandise
Toonsylvaniaaction figures and playsets were developed by Pangea Corporation and released by Toy Island. Burger King distributed toys based on Toonsylvania in their kids' meals for a short period of time.
