Happy Wheels: The Series (partially lost go90 animated series based on Flash game; 2016)
Title card.
Status: Partially Lost
Happy Wheels: The Series was a web series created by Machinima and the creators of Happy Wheels and was made exclusive to Verizon's go90 streaming service. The series debuted to go90 on November 15th, 2016.[1][2]
Synopsis
The series takes place in the fictional town of Happy Wheels, a town that is well-known for its enormous death count. In each episode, there is a new adventure/story being told to the audience, and a fictional organization called D.E.A.T.H.S (Defensive Education Awareness Team and Health Society) in which attempts and fails to lower the city's death count.
History/Demise
On November 2nd, 2016, IGN reported that the popular hit game Happy Wheels was getting an exclusive animated series available only on go90. They stated that the series was being developed by BMP Digital and was being published by Machinima, which was at the time called Machinima: Heroes Rise. IGN said that the series would feature an all-star cast of celebrities, and would feature very recognizable characters from the online game and that the series would debut on November 15th, 2016, exclusively on go90.
On November 15th, 2016, the first episode of Happy Wheels: The Series debuted on Verizon's go90 platform. The first episode told five different stories from the perspective of 5 different characters from the game, these characters being Wheelchair Guy, Effective Shopper, Irresponsible Dad, the storyteller himself (Lawnmower Man), and Segway Man. The episode was only a total of 3 minutes long.
In June of 2018, many news outlets reported that the go90 service would be shutting down at the very end of July because there was limited usage of the platform, and so the more popular streaming service, Oath, could be able to thrive. On July 31st, 2018, the streaming service go90 officially pulled the plug and officially shut down and deleted all of its content, making a majority of the original shows on go90 lost. When the service shuttered, Happy Wheels: The Series disappeared from the internet, making the series mostly lost apart from the first three episodes, which were all archived and backed up to YouTube.
Availability
The show was originally available to watch on the go90 platform, but the show became mostly lost after go90 shut down. Upon the shutdown, episodes 4-9 were considered completely lost and unrecoverable. So far, most of the series has been recovered, with the rest of the archivals appearing on a Dailymotion account that thankfully made backups of a majority of the episodes. To ensure this doesn't become lost media again, there is also a dedicated spot on the Internet Archive that contains all of the episodes that have been found so far, except for Episode 7, which is currently considered completely lost outside of some material.
On January 11th 2024, Reddit user kikuiter was able to obtain the script for the missing 7th episode by contacting the voice actor for the effective shopper, although the voice actor mentioned that it was possible the script had "Been adjusted by the time it was".[3]
On June 24th 2024, kikkiku629 was able to find two additional screenshots from the episode from an anonymous source.[4]
Episode List
| # | Episode | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Trailer for Happy Wheels: The Series | Found |
| 1 | Welcome To Happy Wheels | Found |
| 2 | Friday Night Races | Found |
| 3 | Dead Pool | Found |
| 4 | D.E.A.T.H.S. Go Medieval | Found |
| 5 | The Day After Wednesday | Found |
| 6 | The Butterfly Effect | Found |
| 7 | Stephen Saves The Day | Partially Found |
| 8 | Who Carted?! | Found |
| 9 | Back To The Present | Found |
Gallery
A promotional image of episode 7, "Stephen Saves The Day", the only episode that is considered lost.
Screenshot from "Stephen Saves The Day" (1/2).
Screenshot from "Stephen Saves The Day" (2/2).
See Also
- The Runner (partially lost go90 reality show; 2016)
- Oishi: Demon Hunter (partially found unreleased go90 sequel series of web series; 2018)
External Links
- Happy Wheels Wiki page on Happy Wheels: The Series.
- Review of Episode 7, "Stephen Saves the Day".
- Internet Archive backup of the show.
References
- ↑ Article on Happy Wheels: The Series. Retrieved 08 Dec '20
- ↑ Another article announcing the series' debut on go90. Retrieved 08 Dec '20
- ↑ The post made by kikuiter about obtaining the script. Retrieved 12 Jan '24
- ↑ The announcement that the Episode 7 screenshots have been found. Retrieved 24 Jun '24