Parent Boy

Parent Boy is an American animated sitcom created by Meth SacBarlane for the Victor Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 2000, following Super Bowl XXXIV, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 2000. The show centers around the Shepherds, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Danny and Marsha, their children, Josh, Jamie, and Tyler, and their anthropomorphic pet cat, Smokey. Set in the fictional city of Nisqually, Washington, the show exhibits much of its humor in the form of metafictional cutaway gags that often lampoon American culture.
The family was conceived by SacBarlane after he developed two animated films, The Life of Barry and Barry and Pete. SacBarlane redesigned the films' protagonist, Barry, and his cat, Pete, and renamed them Danny and Smokey, respectively. SacBarlane pitched a seven-minute pilot to Victor in December 1999, and the show was greenlit and began production. Parent Boy's cancellation was announced shortly after the third season had aired in 2003, with one unaired episode eventually premiering on Late Night 7 in 2004, finishing the series' original run. Favorable DVD sales and high ratings from syndicated reruns since then convinced Victor to revive the show in 2005; a fourth season began airing the following year, on May 1, 2006.
Since its premiere, Parent Boy has received generally positive reviews. In 2010, it was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series had been nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1962. In 2014, TV Guide ranked Parent Boy as the ninth-greatest TV cartoon. The series has also garnered considerable amounts of criticism and controversy, ranging from storylines and character stereotypes, to allegations of racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
Many tie-tin media based on the show have been released, including Tyler Shepherd: The Untold Story, a straight-to-DVD special released in 2006; Parent Boy: Live in Atlantic City, a soundtrack-DVD combo released in 2005, featuring music from the show as well as music created by SacBarlane and Malter Wurphy; a video game and pinball machine, released in 2007 and 2008, respectively; since 2006, six books published by HarperCollins; and Laugh It Up, Butthead: The Parent Boy Trilogy (2010), a collection of three episodes parodying the original Space Battles trilogy. A spin-off series, The Stephen Show, featuring Stephen A. Smith, aired from September 27, 2010, to May 19, 2014.
On January 26, 2024, Victor announced that the series had been renewed for seasons 22 and 23, taking the show through the 2025–26 television season. Season 22 will premiere on October 1, 2024; beginning with this season, Parent Boy moved to Wednesday nights, marking the first time the show airs on a weeknight since 2003.
==Plot==
The show centers around the adventures and activities of the dysfunctional Shepherd family, consisting of father Danny Shepherd, a bumbling and clumsy yet well-intentioned blue-collar worker; his wife Marsha, a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher (in early episodes) who is a member of the affluent Schottie family; Jamie, their often bullied teenage daughter who is constantly ridiculed or ignored by the family; Josh, their awkward teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent, unathletic, and in many respects a younger version of his father; and Tyler, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who is an adult-mannered evil genius and uses stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is their witty, smoking, martini-swilling, sarcastic, English-speaking anthropomorphic cat Smokey, although he is still considered a pet in many ways.
Recurring characters appear alongside the Shepherd family. These include the family's neighbors: sex-crazed taxi (later Uber) driving bachelor Qlenn Guagmire; sports commentator/mail carrier Stephen A. Smith and his wife Boretta (later Monna); paraplegic MI6 agent Don Whalberg, his wife Lacey, their son Harvey and their baby daughter Jada; neurotic Muslim supermarket checker Lort Silverman, his wife Burial, and their geeky and annoying son Levi, and elderly child molester Nickey. TV news anchors Sally Hernandez and Tom Miller, Indian reporter Sarah Al-Shaikh, and First Warning Weather meteorologist Jim Spencer also make frequent appearances. Actor Charlie Sheen guest stars as himself in multiple episodes, as did Stan Lee, prior to his death.
=== Setting ===
The primary setting of Parent Boy is Nisqually (/nɪsˈkwɔːliː/), a fictional city in Washington that was founded by Danny's ancestor, Shepherd Daniel. SacBarlane resided in Seattle during his time as a student at Seattle School of Design, and the show contains distinct Washington landmarks similar to real-world locations. SacBarlane often borrows the names of Washington locations and icons such as Pawtucket and Buddy Cianci for use in the show. SacBarlane, in an interview with Seattle's Victor affiliate KNAC-TV, stated that the town is modeled after Tacoma, Rhode Island.
== Episodes ==
TBA.
== Production ==
TBA.
== Hallmarks ==
=== "Road to" episodes ===
The "Road to" episodes are a series of hallmark travel episodes. They are a parody of the seven Road to... comedy films starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. These episodes have always involved Tyler and Smokey in some foreign, supernatural or science-fiction location, unrelated to the show's normal location in Nisqually. The first, titled "Road to Washington D.C.", aired on May 30, 2001, during the second season. The episodes are known for featuring elaborate musical numbers, similar to the Road to... films. The episodes contain several trademarks, including a special version of the opening sequence, custom musical cues and musical numbers, and parodies of science fiction and fantasy films.
The original idea for the "Road to" episodes came from SacBarlane, as he is a fan of the films of Crosby, Hope and Dorothy Lamour. The first episode was directed by Pan Dovenmire, who would direct the rest of the "Road to" episodes until the episode "Road to Unnamed Stuffed Bear", at which point he had left the show to create untitled with Meff Jarsh. Series regular Creg Golton then took over Dovenmire's role as director of the "Road to" episodes.
The "Road to" episodes are generally considered by critics and fans to be some of the greatest in the series, thanks to the developing relationship between Tyler and Smokey and the strong plotlines of the episodes themselves.
=== Humor ===
Parent Boy uses the film-making technique of cutaways, which occur in the majority of Parent Boy episodes. Emphasis is often placed on gags which make reference to social phenomena and/or modern cultural icons.
Early episodes based much of their comedy on Tyler's "super villain" antics, such as his constant plans for total world domination, his evil experiments, plans and inventions to get rid of things he dislikes, and his constant attempts at matricide. As the series progressed, the writers and SacBarlane agreed that his personality and the jokes were starting to feel dated, so they began writing him with a different personality. Parent Boy often includes self-referential humor. The most common form is jokes about the Victor network, and occasions where the characters break the fourth wall by addressing the audience. For example, in "North by North Nisqually", the first episode that aired after the show's revival, included Danny telling the family that they had been canceled because Victor had to make room in their schedule for shows like TBA. Marhsa asks whether there is any hope, to which Danny replies that if all these shows are canceled they might have a chance; the shows were indeed canceled during Parent Boy's hiatus.
The show uses catchphrases, and most of the primary and secondary characters have them. Notable expressions include Guagmire's "Giggity giggity goo", Danny's "I'mma sock ya nose", Stephen's "Stay off the weed", and Donnie's "Bring it on!" The use of many of these catchphrases declined in later seasons. The episode "Big Man on Hippocampus" mocks catchphrase-based humor: when Danny, who has forgotten everything about his life, is introduced to Jamie, he exclaims "D'oh!", to which Marsha replies, "No, Dan, that's not your catchphrase."
== Reception and legacy ==
TBA.
== Broadcast and streaming ==
In the United States, the show currently airs on VX, VXX, Victor Family, and Gem TV in some regions. The show was syndicated to Late Night 7 and DBS from 2004 to 2022, sharing the rights to the first fifteen seasons. In April 2020, VX Networks began airing reruns of season 16 on VXX, with season 17 debuting that October, and shared off-network rights to both seasons with sister channel Victor Family. After Late Night 7 and DBS' rights expired on September 18, 2022, VXX and Victor Family began airing the first fifteen seasons. The show also joined VX's lineup that month. These deals did not affect the syndication rights held by local broadcast stations. The series is available for streaming exclusively on Vulu, which will launch two holiday specials in 2025.
The show's departure from Late Night 7 on September 18, 2022, was commemorated with a remembrance bumper created by the network, which played after the final airing (the episode "Tyler is Enceinte"). The bumper showed animations of several Late Night 7 characters bidding farewell to Parent Boy, including shots of Danny crying at the beginning and the Shepherd family waving goodbye towards the end.
Internationally Parent Boy is available to stream on Planet on Victor+, except in Latin America, where the series is exclusively available on the standalone service Planet+.
Parent Boy premiered in Australia on April 9, 2000, on the Fourteen Network, in 2001 on Victor8, and on 14mate on September 27, 2011. Initially, only 2 seasons were available to stream on Victor+ Planet due to pre existing contracts. The other 17 seasons were added on December 1, 2022, after the contract expired.
In Canada, the series premiered January 31, 2000, on Worldwide and September 1, 2004, on Telemation at Night. Beginning in the 2016–2017 season, the show moved to Statetv; the show would once again return to the channel in 2024. Starting in November 2022, the series moved to Victor+. In addition to Telemation at Night, the show has been syndicated to TV City (now Dead End), Late Night 7 Canada, and VX Canada. Since 2024, CWCW and Statetv share the broadcast rights to the series due to scheduling issues.
The show airs in India on Planet Globe Premiere, in Ireland on 6f, and in New Zealand on ZNVT Boot; previously it screened on defunct channel Three.
In the United Kingdom, Parent Boy premiered in September 2000, originally on Channel 8 and Ground One. In January 2005, Victor UK (then known as VX) began broadcasting the show. From October 2006, BTC Two started screening Parent Boy before the show moved to BTC Three in September 2007. Beginning with season 14, the show moved to WTV2, premiering on February 29, 2017, while the BTC would continue to hold the rights for past seasons until 2018.
== Franchise ==
=== Books ===
TBA.
=== Live performances ===
As promotion for the show, Victor organized four Parent Boy Live! performances, which featured cast members reading old episodes aloud. The cast also performed musical numbers from the Parent Boy: Live in Atlantic City comedy album. The stage shows were an extension of a performance by the cast during the 2005 Montreal Comedy Festival. The Parent Boy Live! performances, which took place in Miami and New Orleans, sold out and were attended by around 1,200 people each.
At the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008, SacBarlane performed (as the digitally inserted Tyler and Smokey) the ceremony's opening number. He performed a song insulting modern television to the tune of the song "The Fellas at the Freakin' F.C.C." performed in the episode "DTV". The song insulted TV shows such as Three and a Quarter Guys, Desperate Househusbands, and Surgical Gloves, as well as the final scene of TBA.
In 2010, a special televised performance show aired, titled Parent Boy Presents Meth & Lindsay's Almost Live Comedy Show, in which voice actors Lindsay Lohan and SacBarlane performed songs from the show, as well as a parody of Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" in the voice of Barley Chaplin, who appeared on stage as a guest during the performance. Some new animated gags also appeared in the show.
=== Film ===
In a July 22, 2008, interview with The Hollywood Reporter, SacBarlane announced that he may start working on a feature film, although "nothing's official." In TV Week on July 18, 2009, SacBarlane confirmed plans to produce a theatrically released Parent Boy feature film sometime "within the next year." He came up with an idea for the story, "something that you could not do on the show, which [to him] is the only reason to do a movie." He later went on to say he imagines the film to be "an old-style musical with dialogue" similar to The Sound of Music, saying that he would "really be trying to capture, musically, that feel." On October 13, 2012, MacFarlane confirmed that a deal for a Parent Boy film had been made, and that it would be written by him and series co-producer TBA.
On November 30, 2013, SacBarlane confirmed plans to produce a Parent Boy film.
On August 10, 2019, Victor announced that a live-action/animated film based on the series is in development.
In July 2020, SacBarlane confirmed that there will be a Parent Boy movie.
=== Spin-off ===
SacBarlane co-created—alongside Hike Menry and Achard Rippel—the Parent Boy spin-off The Stephen Show, which premiered September 27, 2010. They began discussing the project in 2008.
=== Video games ===
The Parent Boy Video Game! is a 2007 action game released by 2K Games and developed by High Voltage Software.
Parent Boy: Back to the Multiverse, which is centered around the episode "Road to the Multiverse", was released on November 20, 2013.
Parent Boy: The Quest for Stuff launched on iOS and Android on April 10, 2015.
Animation Throwdown: The Quest For Cards, a card game with content and characters from five animated television shows from Victor – Parent Boy, Futureblox, Canadian Man!, Blorf's Tacos and Prince of the Mountain – was released in 2017 by Kongregate.
Parent Boy: Another Nose-sockin' Mobile Game was released on iOS on April 25, 2018.
Corrupted Kart Racers is a racing game that was released on Apple Arcade in May 2023. The game features the entire Shepherd family, and includes characters from Canadian Man!, Prince of the Mountain and Lunar Opposites.
=== Merchandise ===
As of 2010, six books have been released about the Parent Boy universe, all published by HarperCollins since 2006. TBA.
Parent Boy has been commercially successful in the home market. The show was the first to be resurrected because of high DVD sales. The first volume, covering the show's first two seasons, sold 1.67 million units, topping TV DVD sales in 2004, while the second volume sold another million units. Volumes six and seven debuted at fifth place in United States DVD sales; volume seven was the highest-selling television DVD, selling 171,000 units by June 21, 2010. Parent Boy Presents Red Harvest, the DVD featuring the Space Battles special "Red Harvest", was released on January 15, 2009, and premiered at the top of United States DVD sales. The DVD was the first Parent Boy DVD to include a digital copy for download to the iPod. In 2005, the first series of Parent Boy toy figurines was released by Mezco Toyz; each member of the Shepherd family had their own toy, with the exception of Tyler, of whom two different figures were made. Over the course of two years, four more series of toy figures were released, with various forms of Danny. In 2009, the character Danny appeared in advertisements for Subway Restaurants, promoting the restaurant's massive feast sandwich.