The Moxy Show (partially found Cartoon Network CGI animated anthology series; 1993-1995)

Title card.

Status: Partially Found

The Moxy Show, also known as The Moxy Pirate Show and The Moxy & Flea Show, was a CGI animated anthology series developed by Colossal Pictures and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network. It began airing on December 5th, 1993 and ended on January 2nd, 2000. It was an anthology series of classic cartoons that Cartoon Network commonly aired back in the early 1990s, and in-between them were interstitials of Moxy (played by Bobcat Goldthwait), a goofing off, fun-loving dog who has a crush on Melody from Josie and the Pussycats, and Flea (Penn Jillette in the show, Chris Rock in the "Moxy & Flea" pilot), a flea who likes to hang out and watch TV with Moxy.

Premise

According to the website NickandMore, the show was a "whimsical mesh" of retro pop culture and comedy, with wacky jokes and references. Betty Cohen described it as "The premise is that Moxy's the toon who didn't quite make it, so we gave him a job as a janitor at the Cartoon Network", adding that for The Moxy Pirate Show, "he jams our signal once a week". A New York Times article from 1993 can also be found online, which further explains the motion capture CGI process that was used for the series.

Production

The format was originally motion capture CGI from 1993-1998, but then turned to traditional hand-drawn animation with CGI and live-action effects from 1998-2000, which may have had something to do with how Colossal Pictures stopped working on it by that point. It may also be because of something to do with Chapter 11 bankruptcy which their company suffered in Winter 1997. It is considered the very first Cartoon Network original series barring the fact that it was an anthology series based around re-existing cartoon shorts; the first fully produced Cartoon Network original series was Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

As mentioned earlier, the series originally began as The Moxy Pirate Show and only featured Moxy before adding Flea in 1994. Then it was retitled The Moxy Show in 1995 and The Moxy & Flea Show in 1998 with changes like:

• Moxy's design changing into green/black striped shirt, black jeans and non palette-swapped shoes and having no whiskers or freckles, a black nose and smaller eyes.
• Flea's design changing into a blue fez, yellow eyes with red pupils and growth in size to half the height of Moxy, as well as now being voiced by Chris Rock.
• The opening sequence widely changed from the original sequence, as seen in the video below.
• The shortening of the timeslot from an hour to thirty minutes.

The show (at least during its CGI run) is considered to be the first "real-time" or "live" cartoon, though it was never broadcast directly live. Through motion capture, a puppeteer would act out Moxy's motions while Goldthwait provided the voice and a technician would control the facial expressions.

Status

In a 2003 online IGN interview, Andy Merrill (who worked on the show) talked about how Moxy was apparently unpopular and unsuccessful with audiences, despite being on the air for seven years. Reruns stopped on April 1st, 2000, which was the same day where all of the classic cartoon programmings was moved from Cartoon Network to Boomerang except for this series, and it hasn't been seen on Cartoon Network, Boomerang or home media releases of any kind since, and not even during Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary.

Frank Gresham's directing reel and website contain more footage of the episode featured in Ben Friedman's reel and what may be enough to be a full episode. His reel can be found here and the longer version of the footage can be downloaded here. According to him, no other Moxy & Flea episodes were produced. Brad DeGraf of the show claims to have an amount of footage from the show on DV tape in storage but can't upload it to the public because, as it turns out in a later email sent to someone else, a complete restoration would require financial support. On YouTube, there's several playlists for the show, including a playlist of complete segments and The Moxy & Flea Show pilot, a playlist of available footage, and a playlist of available Great International Toon-In segments.

Gallery

Footage

The pilot to The Moxy & Flea Show era: "Abducted".

Some of the available footage of The Moxy Show that exists on the internet.

Bumpers and segments during an airing of The Moxy Show from November 18th, 1995.

Videos

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See Also

Hanna-Barbera

• Boss Cat (found British opening and ending titles of "Top Cat" animated series; 1962-1989)
• CBS Storybreak "What Happened in Hamelin" (lost episode from animated series; 1987)
• Dastardly & Muttley - Operation: Pigeon Pursuit (lost build of unreleased PlayStation 2 video game; 2007-2008)
• Fender Bender 500 (partially found episodes of "Wacky Races" reboot animated series; 1990s)
• Jetsons: The Movie "Gotcha" (partially found full version of song from Hanna-Barbera animated film; 1990)
• Jetsons: The Movie - Janet Waldo performance (lost audio of animated film; 1988-1989)
• Jokebook (partially found Hanna-Barbera animated series; 1982)
• Return of the Bunjee (lost ABC Weekend special; 1985)
• Rock Odyssey (partially lost Hanna-Barbera animated film; 1987)
• Showbiz Pizza's Yogi Bear and Boo Boo Showtape (found animatronic audio showtape; 1987)
• The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (partially found Hanna Barbera live action-animated TV series; 1968-1969)
• The Flintstones (cancelled Seth MacFarlane reboot of animated series; 2013)
• The Flintstones Movie (partially found Sega Channel exclusive build of 2D movie tie-in platformer; 1995)
• The Funny World of Fred and Bunni (partially found live-action/animated variety show pilot; 1978)
• The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour (partially found NBC comedy variety show; 1978)
• The New Teen Titans "Just Say No!" (partially lost Hanna-Barbera anti-drug animated PSA; 1983)
• The Ruff and Reddy Show (found episodes of NBC Hanna-Barbera animated series; 1957-1960)
• The Snorks (partially found unaired pilot of Hanna-Barbera animated TV series; 1982)

Anthology Series

• Big Bag (partially found Cartoon Network live-action/animated/puppet series; 1996-1998)
• The Moxy Show (partially found episodes of Cartoon Network CGI animated anthology series; 1993-2000)
• Sunday Pants (partially lost Cartoon Network animated anthology series; 2005)
• ToonHeads (partially lost Cartoon Network animation anthology series; 1996-2003)
• ToonHeads "A Night of Independent Animation" (partially lost special of Cartoon Network animation anthology series; 1996)
• What A Cartoon! (found Cartoon Network animated anthology series; 1995-1997)

Bumpers and Interstitials

• The Big Game XXVI: Tom vs. Jerry (found Cartoon Network marathon special; 1998)
• Cartoon Network (partially lost "CN City" bumpers from TV channel; 2004–2007)
• Cartoon Network (partially found "High Noon Toons" bumpers from TV channel block; 1994-1996)
• Cartoon Network (partially lost "Nood" bumpers from TV channel; 2008-2010)
• Cartoon Network NBA All-Star Slam (partially found interviews of marathon; 2003)
• Cartoon Planet (partially found bumpers of revival block of Cartoon Network animated variety series; 2012)
• Cartoon Planet (partially found "Live from Cartoon Planet" bumpers of Cartoon Network animated variety series; 1995)
• Codename: Kids Next Door Mission Weekend (partially found marathon bumpers for Cartoon Network animated series; 2003)
• Fridays aka "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays" (partially found interstitials from Cartoon Network channel block; 1999–2007)
• Hotdog TV (partially found Cartoon Network interstitial series; 2010)
• JBVO, Toon FM & Viva Las Bravo (partially found interstitials from Cartoon Network channel blocks; early-mid 2000s)
• Lumpus and Slinkman's Cabin Fever (partially found Cartoon Network program block segments; 2005)
• Teen Titans Go! Top 5 (lost promos for Cartoon Network weekend morning block; 2015)
• Tickle-U (partially found Cartoon Network preschool block; 2005-2006)

Pilots

• Ben 10 (partially found unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; early-mid 2000s)
• Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You (found prototype short of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy" Cartoon Network animated series; 1995)
• Camp Lazlo "Monkey See, Camping Doo" (lost unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2004)
• Captain Sturdy (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2001)
• Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe (partially lost pilots from animation studio; 2008-2011)
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (found unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2003)
• IMP, Inc. (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2001)
• Jeffrey Cat: Claw and Order (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2002)
• A Kitty Bobo Show (found storyboard of cancelled second animated pilot for Cartoon Network; 2002)
• Major Flake in "Soggy Sales" (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2001)
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (partially found "Wedgies pilot" of Cartoon Network animated series; 2007)
• Mess O' Blues (partially found prototype short of "Johnny Bravo" Cartoon Network animated series; 1993)
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey (lost unaired pilots of Cartoon Network animated series; 2003/2004)
• Nikki (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2000)
• The Powerpuff Girls (lost pilot of Cartoon Network animated series reboot; 2016)
• Project Gilroy (lost Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2007)
• Regular Show (non-existent Flash pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; late 2000s-2010)
• Squirrel Boy "Kite Makes Right" (lost unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2004)
• Uncle Gus (partially found original English audio of Cartoon Network animated pilots; 2000-2001)

Live-Action

• Bobb'e Says (partially found Cartoon Network live-action clip series; 2009)
• BrainRush (partially found Cartoon Network live-action game show; 2009)
• Track Rats (partially found Cartoon Network reality short series; 2010)
• The Othersiders (found Cartoon Network paranormal reality series; 2009)
• Out of Jimmy's Head (partially lost original English dub of Cartoon Network teen sitcom; 2007-2008)

Other Cartoon Network Series

• The Amazing World of Gumball "The Downer" (lost original draft of episode of Cartoon Network animated series; existence unconfirmed; 2012-2014)
• Chowder (lost production material of cancelled Cartoon Network TV film; 2009)
• Class of 3000 (found original English dub of Cartoon Network animated musical series; 2006-2008)
• Codename: Kids Next Door (lost production material of cancelled episodes of Cartoon Network animated series; 2002-2008)
• Dexter's Laboratory "Rude Removal" (found unaired episode of Cartoon Network animated series; 1997)
• Droopy's Guide to the Cartoon Network (found launch preview of TV channel special; 1992)
• Ed, Edd n Eddy "Luck Be an Ed Tonight"/"A Room with an Ed" (rumored/lost unfinished episodes of Cartoon Network animated series; existence unconfirmed; 2005)
• Ed, Edd n Eddy "Special Ed" (non-existent unproduced episode of Cartoon Network animated series; late 1990s/early 2000s)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy "Matinee Mandy" (lost original English audio of Cartoon Network animated short; 2007)
• I Heart Tuesdays (lost production material of cancelled Cartoon Network animated series; 2011-2012)
• I-10: The Ben 10 User Generated Experience (found Cartoon Network TV special; 2008)
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes "Crossover Nexus" (partially found original 22-minute version of Cartoon Network animated series episode; 2010s)
• Skatoony (found original British version of Cartoon Network quiz show; 2006-2008)
• Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (partially lost unreleased original voice audio and unfinished/unknown episodes of Cartoon Network animated series; 2002-2003)