Detective Jenny (series) (Johnsonverse)

Detective Jenny is an American animated hybrid television series based on the comic series of the same name by Tammy Jo Johnson and developed by Johnson and Timothy Hill for WBC. It follows a w of teenagers employed by the United Nations to uncover and stop various criminal activities.
After the success of the comic series, Johnson and Hill began work on an animated adaptation of the series in 1993. It features a large ensemble cast of characters, and is one of many WBC series that combines animation with live-action models.
It ran on WBC's Saturday Night block from June 4, 1994 to January 1, 2002, airing 220 episodes throughout its original run across eight seasons. It garnered high ratings and critical praise, and is included in various publications' lists of greatest television shows. It has received numerous accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards. A revival of the series has run since June 10, 2017, with 172 additional episodes and 392 overall episodes having aired as of January 1, 2023. In July 2022, the series was renewed to 2030.
== Premise ==
Detective Jenny follows a team of six teenagers, all with troubled histories and having been inducted into Project Hercules, employed by the United Nations to uncover and stop criminal activities across the world.
== Voice cast ==
Main article: List of Detective Jenny characters and factions (Johnsonverse)
* Mary Kay Bergman (seasons one through seven) and Tara Strong (season seven onward) as Jenny G. Denver
* Alanna Ubach as Makayla Gómez
* Hynden Walch as Terry Clampett-Jones
* Cree Summer as Kristen Smith
* Kristen Schaal as Louise Savage
* Melissa Fahn as Ronnie Hinton
* Shane Rimmer (seasons one through twelve) as Joe Quill
* David Tennant (since season nine) as Jeff Herbert
* Patti Yasutake (seasons one through seventeen) as Dr. Michele Yamashita
* Ben Stein as Dennis Leonard
* Jessica DiCicco (since season nine) as Malia Vincenetti
* Sujata Day (since season nine) as Ojasvi Ati Malhotra
* Alia Shawkat (since season nine) as Emily Hadid
* Erica Luttrell (since season nine) as Sandra Thomas
* Haley Tju (since season nine) as Daisy Chen
* Nicole Maines (since season nine) as Alexis Berger
* Amber Midthunder (since season nine) as Molly Richter
* Indya Moore (since season nine) as Jordyn Vasquez
* Sally Amaki (since season nine) as Kammi Fujita
* Aaron L. McGrath (since season nine) as Noah Baker
* Mako Iwamatsu (seasons one through eight) and Greg Baldwin (since season nine) as Onizuka
== Production ==
===Development===
In January 1993, Tammy Jo Johnson, noticing the success of the Detective Jenny comic series that debuted the previous year, in tandem with Timothy Hill, began work on a television series. A 22-minute pilot was prepared, showing how Team Jenny was formed. Tammy Jo's husband, then-Johnson CEO Sheldon Johnson, Jr., immediately greenlit it with a three-season order and helped Tammy Jo and Hill develop the series. A new character named Ronnie was added for the series. Said pilot was screened in October 1993 to great success and aired in February 1994 under the name "The Beginning of Team Jenny". The pilot episode is an origin story of Team Jenny, telling the story of how Terry, Kristen, and Louise were recruited, and the circumstances of Project Hercules, (as Jenny and Makayla's backstories are intertwined and much more complex, theirs was told in a 90-minute TV movie that aired in 2004 called Jen & Mack, and was later adapted into an acclaimed Broadway play in 2012). In addition, Tammy Jo always intended for Jenny and Makayla to be romantically attracted to each other, an idea that was finally put to use in the original series finale as Johnson waited for attitudes toward same-sex couples to change. This decision was disclosed only to Hill, Sheldon, Craig, the writers, the storyboard artists, and the cast; this also explains certain scenes in the series' first run, such as the two being completely comfortable bathing together, showing zero attraction to men, sleeping in the same bed, and on some occasions kissing each other on the cheek or forehead when one is distressed (they didn't kiss on the lips until the original final episode).
One of the series' greatest mysteries is that of Project Hercules, being considered one of the biggest mysteries in television alongside the Krabby Patty secret formula, the fate of Tony Soprano, Mulder's sister, and the answer to the "Doctor Who" question. Tammy Jo developed the idea so she wouldn't have to age the cast, as well as to deconstruct the concept of "comic-book time", where time marches forward in comic book series, but characters never age. Project Hercules provides a number of benefits for subjects, chief among them biological immortality (but not total immortality, as subjects can still be killed under circumstances that would kill a normal human being); other benefits include heightened senses, sharper reflexes, an immune system that renders the subject completely immune to all know illnesses (except space sickness), a regeneration factor that allows subjects to quickly heal injuries or regrow lost body parts such as arms, legs, and eyes, and increased physical strength (such that subjects can physically tear apart a person, flip vehicles with their bare hands, and tear the strongest security doors apart as if they were cardboard); certain subjects had other, unforeseen side effects, such as many of Jenny's behaviors brought on by her high-functioning autism being inhibited (such as sensitivity to loud noises and disruptions in routine), and Louise's eyes becoming a piercing red that glow brightly when she becomes sufficiently angered.
Tammy Jo was the showrunner from 1993 to 2001. When the series was revived in 2017, her son Tim took over, as Tammy Jo was focusing on her duties as First Lady of California, though she is still credited as an executive producer. Craig Johnson was director of the series and movies until 2015, at which point Timothy Hill (director of EarthBound and fellow WBC series Monster World, among many other productions for Johnson Studios and Johnson Television) took over.
=== Casting ===
When casting the main characters, Tammy Jo wanted the main six to be largely-unknown names. Mary Kay Bergman was cast as Jenny following an exhaustive audition process that saw over 400 women under the age of 40 audition for the role. Alanna Ubach was cast after Tammy Jo saw her as Josie on Beakman's World (a common misconception is that Ubach left Beakman's World to voice Makayla, when in truth, she actually left to appear in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, and was cast during filming for the latter). Kristen Schaal (who had no prior voice acting experience when she auditioned) was one of many women who auditioned for Louise, and Tammy Jo cast her on the spot because she had the perfect voice for the role; Schaal stated in an interview that she was "very insecure" about her unique voice, and was initially hesitant to take on the role, before her unhinged acting during the first recording sessions left the entire recording booth in hysterics. Hynden Walch was another unknown actor who had just appeared in a minor role in the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day when she was cast as Terry.
A third season episode would reveal that Beakman's World exists as a show within the Detective Jenny universe, and that "Alanna Ubach" was actually a cover identity used by Makayla, having received a tip that a mad scientist named Beakman was planning to build a nuclear reactor. She quickly found out that Beakman was merely a character being played by Paul Zaloom for a children's educational show, and that the tip she received was from a prank caller working at the studio. Makayla was forced to play Josie for the entirety of the show's first season, though quickly came to enjoy it, and stayed in touch with Mark Ritts (the actor who played Lester the Rat) until his 2009 death. The Detective Jenny episode in question sees Jenny and Makayla watching a first season episode of Beakman's World, during which they comment on the entire ordeal. Later in the episode, they watch an episode from the second season with Josie's replacement, Liza (played by Eliza Schneider). Reportedly, the entire gag was Ubach's idea.
Of the main cast, only Cree Summer and Melissa Fahn had any substantial voice acting experience. Summer had starred on Inspector Gadget as Penny, and at the time of her casting, was voicing Liz on Piper & Sparky (also created by Tammy Jo) and multiple characters on Tiny Toon Adventures (chiefly Elmyra Duff and Mary Melody, the latter of whom would become the basis for Kristen's voice). Fahn, on the other hand, practically stumbled into the field. While working as a receptionist, casting director Elaine Craig was in a desperate attempt to cast a replacement for Betty Boop in the upcoming special The Betty Boop Movie Mystery. Craig pestered Fahn to make an audition tape, audition, and take on the role. Fahn, however, did not audition in time. Craig contacted her and told her to send "ANYTHING". Fahn sang "I Wanna Be Loved By You" in her audition and after that was hired. She was cast primarily because Tammy Jo wanted a youthful, innocent voice for the naive newcomer Ronnie.
The superiors, Joe Quill, Dr. Michele Yamashita, and Dennis Leonard, were voiced by actors known for live-action roles. Ben Stein, who served as the basis for Leonard in both design and personality, was cast in the role.
All of the Team Jenny voice actors record together and are encouraged to improvise. Tammy Jo Johnson explained in a 2000 interview that this would lead to better chemistry between characters, which led to many outtakes that would later be released. Other voice actors record their lines separately in most cases. Episodes produced during the COVID-19 pandemic had all the voice actors record separately via Zoom.
On November 11, 1999, Mary Kay Bergman, the original voice of Jenny, committed suicide. There was much speculation on various fan forums, including prominent fan forum Team DJ (founded in 1996 by user Carl Davidson, known in the forum as jenmackfan, making it the oldest Detective Jenny fan forum), about her replacement, and some even speculated that Jenny herself would be retired out of respect, with one rumor stating that Jenny would be killed offscreen, Makayla would have a grief-induced suicide, and Terry would be promoted to team leader (with Ronnie as her second-in-command), while two new members would be introduced to fill in the gaps, though the series' name would be unchanged; this rumor was debunked by Johnson themselves. A press release for the then-upcoming seventh season issued on December 1, 1999, however, confirmed Bergman's replacement; before her death, Bergman left a suicide note requesting that Tara Strong (a friend of Bergman's who had voiced several minor characters throughout the show's run and previously auditioned for Jenny in 1993) take over as the voice of Jenny (the note also said "Take care of Mack for me", referring to Alanna Ubach and the name Jenny uses almost exclusively to address Makayla, just as the latter almost exclusively addresses Jenny as "Jen"). The seventh season began airing in 2000, with the remaining episodes Bergman had already recorded airing; in "The Vincenetti Connection", Jenny was voiced by unused voice clips of Bergman throughout the episode, before suffering vocal cord paralysis in a shootout and getting voice-changing surgery, after which she spends three episodes completely mute, with Strong making her debut as the character afterward.
=== Animation ===
Animation for the series is divided between Toei Animation and TMS Entertainment. Both studios animate about half the season each, which amounts to an even 50-50 split on animation work. The difference between the two studios is easy to spot: the Toei episodes are animated by twos, have deeper shading, sharper linework, and faster-paced action, while the TMS episodes are animated by ones, have more fluid movement, rounder linework, and more dynamic action sequences. Tammy Jo intended for the animation to be stylized yet realistic with few cartoony movements, though more fluid to accommodate fight scenes. The opening sequence is animated at Johnson Cartoon Studios.
During the first season, several episodes were animated by Korean studio AKOM, who handled three episodes (while Toei and TMS' work was split between five episodes each). The animation in these episodes was incredibly poor (an issue that also saw it dropped from Batman: The Animated Series), with colors that were too bright, way too many errors to count, not to mention choppy animation caused by AKOM animating by threes, Hanna-Barbera-style animation shortcuts, and characters sometimes using outdated designs. As a result of the sloppy work AKOM produced, not only were they dropped from the series starting with the second season, their existing episodes were also reworked, with many of the planned on-foot action sequences being replaced with vehicular sequences so new live-action model sequences could be shot. Existing animation from Toei and TMS episodes with new lip flaps replaced many of the AKOM-made scenes (these new shots tended to clash due to the noticeably darker colors and smoother animation, and the remaining AKOM-produced shots were replaced with new shots for later releases); these episodes were completely reanimated in the 2004 "Tenth Anniversary" box set, which is now used for reruns, home video, and streaming. To this day, many of the original cels from the AKOM shots are lost, though a few have resurfaced in recent years following audits of AKOM's archive.
For the movies, Toei tends to take the odd-numbered movies, while TMS does the even-numbered movies. They also trade off on the video game FMV cutscenes, with TMS doing the odd-numbered games, and Toei the even-numbered games. The pilot episode was animated by Toei.
It was the first series to use Johnson's famed hybrid approach, known as Hybridmation, mixing animation with live-action elements such as miniatures and live pyrotechnics. Early in production, Johnson Television was in talks with Gerry Anderson to make a Supermarionation series out of the concept. Had this gone through, it would have been Anderson's first series to use Supermarionation since The Secret Service. However, negotiations fell through when Anderson wanted to use the Supermacromation technique used in Terrahawks, which was rejected because the characters would have looked too caricatured and disproportionate. Another early concept was making the series live-action, before animation tests showed the comics' art style transitioned well to screen. The series was also the first WBC series to be created in widescreen, to coincide with Johnson-owned PrimeStar's switch to widescreen earlier that year.
The series' animation was done using cel animation in the series' original run, and switched to digital ink-and-paint for the 2017 revival. Cel animation continued being used for FMV cutscenes in the video games until 2004, and in the movies until 2007. For the live-action model scenes, 35mm film was used through the end of the original series' run, and in the video games and movies until 2008, being the last Johnson production to switch to digital cameras.
Before the animation is made, reference shots are made in live-action for the more complex action sequences. This is done to aid animators in getting the correct framing for the scene, and the staging and posing for each individual character. These references are shot on full-scale sets that approximate where the sequence takes place (for example, for the first episode, an approximation of the top of the fuselage of the Fireflash was built). The actors in the references are unnamed studio extras wearing whatever they came in with that day, mainly because finding actresses who have an appearance and/or physique close to the protagonists proved impossible. To date, only one of these sequences has been officially released, that being the one from the first episode "Ronnie's First Day", where Jenny, Makayla, Terry, and Louise board the Fireflash to wrest control of it from the Celtic Liberation Front and safely land it, from the time they magnetize their boots to avoid being blown off by the airstream, to the time Louise seizes control and Jenny and Makayla take the flight engineer positions.
Each season takes approximately a year to produce and air.
=== Soundtrack ===
Main article: List of Detective Jenny music cues (Johnsonverse)
The original soundtrack was composed by Cal Johnson and performed by the Johnson Philharmonic Orchestra. Stock music by Johnny Douglas, Barry Gray, Akira Ifukube, and other composers is also used.
== Broadcast history==
Main article: List of Detective Jenny episodes (Johnsonverse)
Each season consists of 26 episodes, typically being 45 minutes in length, with the season finale being a two-parter.
There are two versions of each episode: the broadcast version, which censors the most gory deaths and the most profane words, and the uncut version, which has uncensored gore, strong profanity such as "fuck" and "shit", and even uncensored frontal nudity with biologically-correct genitalia (there is no uncensored sex).
Season	Episodes	Originally aired	Originally aired
Season	Episodes	First aired 	Last aired
1 	13 	June 4, 1994 	August 27, 1994
2 	26 	June 18, 1995 	December 9, 1995
3 	26 	June 29, 1996 	December 21, 1996
4 	30 	June 8, 1997 	December 28, 1997
5 	30 	June 13, 1998 	January 2, 1999
6 	30 	June 5, 1999 	December 25, 1999
7 	30 	June 10, 2000 	December 30, 2000
8 	35 	May 5, 2001 	January 1, 2002
9 	26 	June 10, 2017 	December 2, 2017
10 	26 	June 16, 2018 	December 8, 2018
11 	30 	June 1, 2019 	December 21, 2019
12 	30 	June 6, 2020 	December 26, 2020
13 	30 	June 5, 2021 	December 25, 2021
14 	30 	June 4, 2022 	December 24, 2022
=== Cancellation ===
The series was reluctantly canceled in 2001 due to a combination of factors, including being overshadowed in ratings by Monster World and Tammy Jo having to dedicate more time to homeschooling her children Tim and Chloe. A ninth season was in active development for a 2002 release, which would have been supervised by Hill, but the September 11th attacks occurred in 2001, and Johnson shut down production out of fear that the series' ultra-violent nature would be in incredibly poor taste. Three episodes for the original ninth season, however, were already in production ("Vegas Sabotage!", "The Threat Arises", and "Mafia Masterpiece"), and aired as primetime specials throughout 2002, before the series went into semi-hibernation, kept alive by the ongoing comics and merchandise, as well as video games on even-numbered years and theatrical films on odd-numbered years.
==== Revival ====
At San Diego Comic-Con in 2016, Tim Johnson closed out his panel as he always does: with a surprise announcement. Said announcement was a trailer announcing that the television series would be revived for a ninth season to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the franchise. The entire crowd burst into cheers, and the series' revival was the top-trending item across social media.
==Reception==
The series was widely acclaimed during its run. Critics and audiences consider it one of the finest Johnson series.
===Controversy===
There was controversy from parental groups, who felt that the idea of children fighting large-scale attacks was unethical. One Million Moms, in particular, made a petition to ban the series, which garnered over 5,000 signatures. Televangelist Jerry Falwell called the series "the result of a
Category:Johnsonverse