# Maniac Mansion (TV series)

Maniac Mansion is a Canadian-American sitcom created by Eugene Levy that aired concurrently on YTV in Canada and The Family Channel in the United States for three seasons from September 14, 1990, to April 4, 1993.
The series is loosely based on the 1987 video game of the same name by Lucasfilm Games. While Lucasfilm themselves served as co-producers on the series , the show thematically has little in common with its source material.

## Overview

Maniac Mansion centers around the lives of the Edisons, an American family living in a large mansion in the upscale suburban neighborhood of Cedar Springs. The Edisons consist of patriarch Fred (Joe Flaherty), an eccentric scientist and inventor, his level-headed wife Casey (Deborah Theaker), and their children, teenage genius Tina (Kathleen Robertson), prepubescent Ike (Avi Phillips) and precocious toddler Turner (George Buza). Also living in the Edison mansion are Casey's brother Harry Orca (John Hemphill) and his wife Idella Muckle-Orca (Mary Charlotte-Wilcox).
While Maniac Mansion primarily derives its storylines from typical sitcom fare, such as family life and parent-child relationships, the series also incorporates elements of science fiction. Fred Edison is a scientist who works out of his basement laboratory, which is partially powered by a mysterious extraterrestrial meteorite, and many episodes revolve around Fred's outlandish and occasionally disastrous experiments and inventions. As revealed in the series premiere, a mishap with one of these inventions caused genetic mutations in two of the main characters, Turner Edison and Harry Orca: for much of the series, toddler Turner is a fully-grown man with the mind of a child, while Harry is a normal-sized housefly with a human head (similar to the original 1958 version of The Fly).
Sharing many writers and performers with the 1976–1984 Canadian sketch comedy series Second City Television, Maniac Mansion has a very similar style of humor, featuring much of the dry wit and cultural satire typical of SCTV, ranging from pop culture references to film and television parodies. A particular staple of Maniac Mansion's comedic style is the series' pervasive tendency to break the fourth wall, with characters – usually Harry – addressing the audience to comment on the episode. Meta-referential humor is also a regular element of the show: a few episodes are presented as "behind-the-scenes" documentaries, depicting the Edisons as an actual family starring in a sitcom based on their lives.

## Cast and characters
### Main

* Joe Flaherty as Dr. Fred Edison, a devoted father and absent-minded scientist.
* Deborah Theaker as Casey Edison, Fred's loving wife.
* Kathleen Robertson as Tina Edison, a popular but brilliant teenage girl who assists Fred in his laboratory.
* Avi Phillips as Ike Edison, an average and slightly rebellious pre-teen.
* George Buza as Turner Edison, a toddler rapidly aged into a huge balding adult body following a scientific accident.
* John Hemphill as Harry Orca, a.k.a. Harry the Fly, Casey's brother who was transformed into a half-man, half-housefly mutant in the same accident which changed Turner.
* Mary Charlotte Wilcox as Idella Muckle-Orca, Harry's neurotic wife.

### Recurring

* Colin Fox as Dr. Edward Edison, a respected scientist and Fred's father.
* Mark Wilson, Wendy Hopkins and Patrick Gillen as Richard, Allasyn and Keifer Pratt, the Edisons' snooty yuppie neighbors.

### Guest stars

* José Ferrer as himself ("The Celebrity Visitor")
* Teri Austin as herself ("Lenny...One Amour Time" and "Lenny...One Amour Time: Part 2")
* Dave Thomas as Hudgie DeRubertis ("Buried by the Mob")
* Martin Short as Eddie O'Donnell ("Down and Out in Cedar Springs")
* David Cronenberg as himself ("Idella's Breakdown")
* Andrea Martin as Dr. Fontana Blue ("Idella's Breakdown")
* Jayne Eastwood as various characters
* Dewey Robertson as The Atomizer ("Wrestling with the Truth")
* Eugene Levy as Doc Ellis ("Freddy had a Little Lamb")
* Jan Rubeš as Uncle Joe ("It Ain't Over 'Til Uncle Joe Sings")

## Development and production

In a special printed in the Summer 1990 issue of The Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine, the initial conception of an episodic television series based on Maniac Mansion is credited to Lucasfilm animators Cliff Ruby and Elana Lasser, who pitched the idea to George Lucas. Convinced of the project's potential, Lucas contacted Toronto-based Atlantis Films to help him produce the series.
Atlantis enlisted comedian and former Second City Television writer/performer Eugene Levy to spearhead the development of the series. Originally pitched as a more overtly horror/science fiction-themed comedy akin to The Addams Family or The Munsters, Levy ultimately rejected this approach, recruiting a number of The Second City alumni and reworking Maniac Mansion from the ground up into the more lighthearted and slightly surreal series it eventually became.
Shot entirely in Toronto, Maniac Mansion premiered on September 14, 1990 on The Family Channel in the United States, and September 17 on YTV in Canada. The series lasted for three seasons and sixty-six episodes before its cancellation in 1993. The series continued to air in syndication on The Family Channel until 1994, on YTV until 1997, and on Showcase until 2002.

### SCTV connections

A large portion of Maniac Mansion's cast and crew consisted of alumni from the Toronto comedy troupe The Second City, as well as its 1976-1984 television offshoot Second City Television. In a 1990 Time article, writer Richard Zoglin took note of the two shows' similar comedic styles, stating: "Maniac Mansion has the old SCTV spirit, mixing the outrageous and the banal with nary a hint that anybody knows the difference." In a 1992 article visiting the set of the series, Entertainment Weekly likewise compared it to an SCTV convention: "The place is packed with veterans of the ... series: There are former SCTV actors, writers, directors, key grips—even Mansion's makeup artist is an old SCTVer".
Series creator Eugene Levy was an original cast member and writer on Second City Television, and developed Maniac Mansion alongside fellow Second City writers Michael Short, Paul Flaherty and David Flaherty, as well as director Jamie Paul Rock. Additional writing was often contributed by Second City member Paul Wildman, as well as cast members Joe Flaherty, John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox. The series' theme song was co-written by Mary Margaret O'Hara.
Additionally, nearly all of the main cast members (with the exceptions of then-teenaged actors Kathleen Robertson and Avi Phillips) were veterans of The Second City. Joe Flaherty was one of the founders of Toronto's Second City and an original SCTV cast member, while John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox were supporting players and writers in its later seasons; George Buza also appeared as an extra in one episode. Deborah Theaker, while having had no involvement with SCTV, was a former member of The Second City stage show.
As a result of these connections, there are naturally numerous SCTV references throughout the series. Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin all made guest appearances on the show, as did minor players Juul Haalmeyer, Tony Rosato and Robin Duke. A few jokes are reused from the series, and in certain episodes, the characters of Count Floyd and Happy Marsden can be seen playing on television sets in the background.

## Episodes

This episode list was compiled from the United States Copyright Office database.

### Season 1 (1990–91)

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Airdate |
| 1 | 1 | "The 10th Anniversary Special" | John Bell | John Hemphill & David Flaherty & Eugene Levy | September 14, 1990 (1990-09-14) |
| 2 | 2 | "Flystruck (a.k.a. The Trouble with Harry)" | Bruce Pittman | Eugene Levy, John Hemphill | September 21, 1990 (1990-09-21) |
| 3 | 3 | "Trapped Like Rats" | John Bell | Story by : John Hemphill, Don Lake Teleplay by : Eugene Levy & Michael Short | September 28, 1990 (1990-09-28) |
| 4 | 4 | "Love Thy Neighbour" | Bruce Pittman | Michael Short & Eugene Levy | October 4, 1990 (1990-10-04) |
| 5 | 5 | "Fred's a-Courtin'" | John Bell | John Hemphill, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy | October 12, 1990 (1990-10-12) |
| 6 | 6 | "The Sandman Cometh" | Bruce Pittman | John Hemphill, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy | October 19, 1990 (1990-10-19) |
| 7 | 7 | "Good on Ya" | John Bell | John Hemphill, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy | October 26, 1990 (1990-10-26) |
| 8 | 8 | "Bring Me Harry Orca" | Bruce Pittman | Michael Short, David Flaherty, Eugene Levy | November 2, 1990 (1990-11-02) |
| 9 | 9 | "Dad's Bummed Out" | John Bell | Story by : Paul Flaherty, Michael Short, John Hemphill Teleplay by : Paul Flaherty, Michael Short | November 11, 1990 (1990-11-11) |
| 10 | 10 | "Webs, the Really Tangled Kind" | Bruce Pittman | Lyons N. Wells, Michael Short | November 16, 1990 (1990-11-16) |
| 11 | 11 | "National Security Risk" | John Bell | Jamie Tatham, Chuck Tatham, Michael Short | November 25, 1990 (1990-11-25) |
| 12 | 12 | "A Little Old Time Jazz" | Bruce Pittman | John Hemphill, David Flaherty | December 2, 1990 (1990-12-02) |
| 13 | 13 | "Hawaii Blues" | John Bell | Story by : Jaime Tatham, Chuck Tatham Teleplay by : Lyons N. Wells & Michael Short | December 9, 1990 (1990-12-09) |
| 14 | 14 | "Good Cheer on Ya" | Bruce Pittman | John Hemphill, David Flaherty | December 16, 1990 (1990-12-16) |
| 15 | 15 | "Brainiac Mansion" | Stephen Surjik | Lyons N. Wells, Michael Short | December 30, 1990 (1990-12-30) |
| 16 | 16 | "Little Big Fly" | Bruce Pittman | Story by : Michael Short, Peter Wildman Teleplay by : Lyons N. Wells, John Hemphill, David Flaherty | January 6, 1991 (1991-01-06) |
| 17 | 17 | "Money Dearest" | Stephen Surjik | Story by : Michael Short, Joe Flaherty Teleplay by : Michael Short, David Flaherty | January 13, 1991 (1991-01-13) |
| 18 | 18 | "Turner: The Boss" | Bruce Pittman | Michael Short, David Flaherty | January 20, 1991 (1991-01-20) |
| 19 | 19 | "The Case of the Broken Record" | John Bell | Lyons N. Wells, Tom Nursall, Michael Short | February 3, 1991 (1991-02-03) |
| 20 | 20 | "The Live Show" | Bruce Pittman | John Hemphill, David Flaherty | February 17, 1991 (1991-02-17) |
| 21 | 21 | "Tina's Excellent Adventure" | Joe Flaherty | Joe Flaherty, Deborah Theaker | February 24, 1991 (1991-02-24) |
| 22 | 22 | "The Cliffhanger" | Bruce Pittman | Lyons N. Wells & Michael Short | March 17, 1991 (1991-03-17) |

### Season 2 (1991–92)

| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Airdate |
| 23 | 1 | "Luck Be a Lady This Season" | Joe Flaherty | David Flaherty, John Hemphill, Michael Short | September 4, 1991 (1991-09-04) |
| 24 | 2 | "The New Look" | John Bell | David Flaherty, Michael Short, John Hemphill | September 11, 1991 (1991-09-11) |
| 25 | 3 | "Late Night Harry" | Stan Harris | Michael Short | September 18, 1991 (1991-09-18) |
| 26 | 4 | "Turner, the Rebellious Years" | John Bell | Michael Short, Lyons N. Wells | September 25, 1991 (1991-09-25) |
| 27 | 5 | "Man and Machine" | Stan Harris | Tom Nursall, David Flaherty | October 2, 1991 (1991-10-02) |
| 28 | 6 | "Driving Ms. Idella" | John Bell | Deborah Divine, Mary Charlotte Wilcox | October 9, 1991 (1991-10-09) |
| 29 | 7 | "Ugly Like Me" | Dug Rotstein | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | October 16, 1991 (1991-10-16) |
| 30 | 8 | "The Celebrity Visitor" | Perry Rosemond | Michael Short | October 23, 1991 (1991-10-23) |
| 31 | 9 | "The Attack of Killer Keifer" | Perry Rosemond | Tom Nursall, John Hemphill | October 30, 1991 (1991-10-30) |
| 32 | 10 | "Lenny... One Amour Time: Part 1" | John Bell | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | November 6, 1991 (1991-11-06) |
| 33 | 11 | "Lenny... One Amour Time: Part 2" | John Bell | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | November 13, 1991 (1991-11-13) |
| 34 | 12 | "A Hateful of Brain" | John Bell | Michael Short | November 20, 1991 (1991-11-20) |
| 35 | 13 | "Buried by the Mob" | Perry Rosemond | Dave Thomas | November 27, 1991 (1991-11-27) |
| 36 | 14 | "Down and Out in Cedar Springs" | Perry Rosemond | Joe Flaherty | December 18, 1991 (1991-12-18) |
| 37 | 15 | "Misery Loves Company" | John Bell | Michael Short | February 12, 1992 (1992-02-12) |
| 38 | 16 | "Ike's Got it Bad...Real Bad" | John Bell | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | February 19, 1992 (1992-02-19) |
| 39 | 17 | "Turnerator Too" | John Bell | Michael Short | February 26, 1992 (1992-02-26) |
| 40 | 18 | "Baby Heat" | Perry Rosemond | Deborah Divine | March 4, 1992 (1992-03-04) |
| 41 | 19 | "Streetcar Named Idella" | John Hemphill | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | March 18, 1992 (1992-03-18) |
| 42 | 20 | "Turner's Imaginary Friend" | Perry Rosemond | Alan Templeton, Mary Crawford | March 25, 1992 (1992-03-25) |
| 43 | 21 | "Idella's Breakdown" | Dug Rotstein | Michael Short | April 1, 1992 (1992-04-01) |
| 44 | 22 | "Sophisticated Lady" | Joe Flaherty | Joe Flaherty | April 8, 1992 (1992-04-08) |

### Season 3 (1992–93)

| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Airdate |
| 45 | 1 | "The Long Hot Mansion" | Joe Flaherty | Michael Short, David Flaherty | September 7, 1992 (1992-09-07) |
| 46 | 2 | "Raging Lenny" | Perry Rosemond | David Flaherty & John Hemphill | September 14, 1992 (1992-09-14) |
| 47 | 3 | "College Days" | John Paizs | Michael Short | September 21, 1992 (1992-09-21) |
| 48 | 4 | "The Prince's Broad" | Perry Rosemond | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | September 28, 1992 (1992-09-28) |
| 49 | 5 | "Ike's Black Eye" | John Paizs | Alan Templeton, Mary Crawford | October 5, 1992 (1992-10-05) |
| 50 | 6 | "Science is Only Skin Deep" | Perry Rosemond | Norm Hiscock, Frank van Keeken | October 19, 1992 (1992-10-19) |
| 51 | 7 | "Ike's New Buddy" | Eugene Levy | Deborah Divine, Nancy Dolman | October 26, 1992 (1992-10-26) |
| 52 | 8 | "As the Worm Turns" | Perry Rosemond | Tom Nursall | November 2, 1992 (1992-11-02) |
| 53 | 9 | "Cape Scary" | Joe Flaherty | David Flaherty, Joe Flaherty | November 9, 1992 (1992-11-09) |
| 54 | 10 | "Wrestling with the Truth" | Perry Rosemond | Norm Hiscock, Frank van Keeken | November 16, 1992 (1992-11-16) |
| 55 | 11 | "The Science Fair" | Stacey Stewart Curtis | Rob Gfroerer, Paul Greenberg, Nick McKinney, Vito Viscomi | November 23, 1992 (1992-11-23) |
| 56 | 12 | "Love, Turner Style" | Dug Rotstein | Michael Short, Dave Flaherty | November 30, 1992 (1992-11-30) |
| 57 | 13 | "Atoms Gone Wild" | John Hemphill | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | January 25, 1993 (1993-01-25) |
| 58 | 14 | "Walter Under the Bridge" | Perry Rosemond | Deborah Divine | February 1, 1993 (1993-02-01) |
| 59 | 15 | "Tina and the Teardrops" | Joe Flaherty | Michael Short | February 8, 1993 (1993-02-08) |
| 60 | 16 | "Ike for President" | Perry Rosemond | Mary Charlotte Wilcox | February 15, 1993 (1993-02-15) |
| 61 | 17 | "Freddie Had a Little Lamb" | Perry Rosemond | Michael Short | February 22, 1993 (1993-02-22) |
| 62 | 18 | "Idella's New Career" | Eugene Levy | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | March 7, 1993 (1993-03-07) |
| 63 | 19 | "Love Letters" | Perry Rosemond | Deborah Theaker | March 14, 1993 (1993-03-14) |
| 64 | 20 | "It Ain't Over 'Til Uncle Joe Sings" | Joe Flaherty | Joe Flaherty | March 21, 1993 (1993-03-21) |
| 65 | 21 | "Uncle Harry Ain't Feeling So Good" | John Hemphill | David Flaherty, John Hemphill | March 28, 1993 (1993-03-28) |
| 66 | 22 | "The Way We Was" | Eugene Levy | David Flaherty, Michael Short | April 4, 1993 (1993-04-04) |

## Home video

Certain episodes from the first season were released on VHS:
* In 1991, HRS Funai released a four-episode tape simply titled "マニアック・マンション" in Japan, featuring "The 10th Anniversary Special", "Webs, The Really Tangled Kind", "Good Cheer On Ya", and "The Cliffhanger"; all episodes retained their original English audio but featured Japanese subtitles.
* In 1992, Family Channel Video released a two-episode tape titled "Maniac Mansion: The Love Collection" in the United States, featuring the romance-themed episodes "Flystruck" and "Fred's A-Courtin'".
There are currently no plans to release the series on modern formats such as DVD, Blu-ray, or streaming/digital purchase.

## Critical reception

Maniac Mansion received generally positive reviews from professional critics during its initial run. In a press release for the series, Time called it "the looniest, sweetest family comedy of the year", listing it as one of the best shows of 1990. Entertainment Weekly called it "100-proof hilarious", while in a 1990 article on the series, The Los Angeles Times described the show as "a stylized, sharp-edged comedy that's a bit like David Lynch on helium".
However, response from the gaming community, especially fans of the original Maniac Mansion and graphic adventure games in general, has been mixed. In a 2011 retrospective review, PC Gamer magazine offered a predominantly negative opinion, noting the series "has roughly as much to do with the original game as a chipmunk's arsehole resembles Sweden" and calling the two episodes they had seen "comedy vacuums" and "at best generic and at worst, awful", though they admitted that they couldn't conclusively judge the entire series on so few episodes. The International House of Mojo, a website devoted to LucasArts video games, also lamented its various dissimilarities to the game, but believed that the series "deserves the courtesy of a second look", calling it "surprisingly sweet-natured" and noting that the science fiction elements and "off-beat brand of humor" gave an otherwise typical sitcom a unique personality.

## Awards and nominations

Maniac Mansion was nominated for and won several television awards during the series' run:

## Differences from the game

While ostensibly an adaptation of the eponymous 1987 computer game, Maniac Mansion shares several superficial similarities with its source material, but is vastly different in terms of plot, tone and characterization.
The premise of the game (an homage to horror and science fiction B movies) follows a group of teenagers who venture into a dilapidated mansion to rescue their kidnapped friend. The mansion is inhabited by the homicidal Edison family, consisting of Dr. Fred, a deranged scientist who is possessed by an evil meteorite, his wife Edna, a sex-starved sadomasochistic nurse, their son Weird Ed, a paranoid paramilitary survivalist, and their pets Green Tentacle and Purple Tentacle, a pair of sentient, ambulatory tentacles.
Whereas the television series was produced for a family audience, the tone of the game was decidedly more adult, featuring risqué black comedy and surreal violence, as well as LucasArts's traditional style of offbeat humor and slapstick, which was entirely omitted from the television adaptation. The game's original characters are also completely absent from the series, with the notable exception of Dr. Fred Edison, whose character was drastically altered from an insane antagonist with a balding, elderly appearance in the game to a clumsy but good-natured family man in his forties in the television show.
The most overt thematic connection the series had to the game was the setting of a mansion housing an extraterrestrial meteor. The meteor itself is seldom referenced in the show, although it is prominently featured in the opening credits of the first season via an expository newspaper clipping, revealing it to have been discovered underneath the mansion by Fred's grandfather Louis Edison. Throughout the series, Fred can be seen conducting various experiments by either harnessing the meteor's supernatural powers, or experimenting on the meteor itself.
Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, the designers of the original Maniac Mansion, have never made any public comment on their opinion of the television series, but in Day of the Tentacle, LucasArts' 1993 sequel to Maniac Mansion, the television show serves as a minor plot point in which protagonist Bernard Bernoulli must help collect the royalties that Dr. Fred was promised from a vaguely explained in-universe television series based on the events of the first game.