Piper & Sparky (Johnsonverse)

Piper & Sparky is a Canadian-American animated slapstick comedy series created by Tammy Jo Johnson that ran on WBC from September 17, 1988 to December 20, 1997. A deconstruction of contemporary series aimed at girls, it follows the misadventures of a snarky little girl named Piper and her stupid unicorn friend, Sparky. It involves the concepts of imagination and creative problem solving, with a squash-and-stretch artstyle reminiscent of the works of Bob Clampett and Tex Avery.
== Premise ==
Piper is a six-year-old girl (five-year-old until the seventh season) who lives with her adoptive parents and older sister, Denise in an unnamed city in Ontario, Canada. Her best friend is a unicorn named Sparky, who has a great deal of knowledge in magic but is otherwise a dullard of a horse. Together, Piper and Sparky engage in imaginative play, sometimes involving Piper's friends, Liz, Chuck, Winston, and Wendy, as well as her twin brother Liam: their games, like in Muppet Babies, transition from their house or school to scenes that become "real" to them.
== Characters ==
=== Main ===
* Piper (Tara Strong) is one of the two protagonists. She is the feisty, snarky, rude, un-ladylike, and cynical owner of Sparky who often chews him out for his stupidity. She is also very aggressive and even prone to violence when she's especially angry. Despite her rough exterior, she does care for Sparky deep down, and has her moments of kindness. Her interests include having tea parties, playing with Babsie dolls (a parody of Barbie), practicing ballet dances, and playing hockey, often with Sparky and/or Liz (who has to be roped into Piper's girlier interests). She is also a very messy eater. Piper's last name is revealed as Fitzgerald in the series finale, which also reveals her to become a police officer as an adult in the final scene. Her main catchphrase is "You stupid horse!", usually whenever she's annoyed by Sparky, though she also uses "SCORE!" when she manages to get her parents to do what she wants using puppy-dog eyes.
* Sparky (John Kassir imitating Shemp Howard) is Piper's 200-year-old (later 201-year-old) pet unicorn who is not known for his intelligence, but has the heart and knowledge of magic to compensate. He also frequently and unintentionally annoys Piper by talking too much. Despite the insults she dishes at him, Sparky remains loyal to Piper, and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. His main catchphrase is "W...w...what?", usually whenever Piper berates him.
* Dad (Harvey Atkin) is Piper's adoptive father and a retired colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force who owns an antique store with his wife. He is very affable if a little strict. In the first season, he and Mom had their faces obscured, similar to Nanny from Muppet Babies. He also wears his hair in a blatant combover. His name is confirmed to be Joel Fitzgerald in the series finale.
* Mom (Corinne Conley) is Piper's adoptive mother. She is a kind, matronly woman who used to be rowdy in her younger days. Her name is confirmed to be Alice Fitzgerald in the series finale, while her maiden name was revealed to be Hinson.
* Denise (Cathy Weseluck) is Piper's adoptive 15-year-old (later 16-year-old) sister. Unlike Piper, she is very kind and energetic, though she spends her time lecturing Piper on various issues, much to the dismay of Piper herself, who often covers her ears to tune out Denise's lectures (resulting in them sounding like sped-up, unintelligible gibberish, as if they're being fast-forwarded; her movements are sped up as well). She is a big fan of rock (especially Thundarr Crash and its frontwoman, Joan Thundarr) and has aspirations to one day become a rockstar.
* Liam (Tara Strong) is Piper's artistic twin brother. He is much more polite and far less aggressive or adventurous than his sister, often needing to be roped into her and Sparky's games. He is also a fan of stock car racing.
* Mr. Klein (Len Carlson imitating Edward G. Robinson) is the family's kindly next-door neighbor and Dad's best friend who is another RCAF veteran and a police officer, as well as a widower. His first name in one episode is revealed as Martin, a reference to Calvin Klein being Marty McFly's 1955 alias in Back to the Future.
* Liz Klein (Cree Summer) is Mr. Klein's tomboyish seven-year-old (later eight-year-old) daughter and Piper's other best friend who is much kinder and more levelheaded than Piper herself, albeit with a competitive streak. She plays for the local Little League Canada hockey team; her number is 99 in reference to Wayne Gretzky. Liz also dislikes having to participate in Piper's tea parties and ballet sessions, often having to be roped into participating in them (this is lampshaded in one episode where Liz states she's started keeping track of all the times Piper forced her into taking part in a tea party or ballet sessions), though she doesn't mind wearing dresses. The final episode's last scene reveals that she becomes the coach of her childhood Little League Canada hockey team.
=== Recurring ===
* The Nelson Family (Dan Hennessey as Judd, Elizabeth Hanna as Janet, Alyson Court as Janey, and Cathy Weseluck as Joey) are a fictional family and the lead characters of the sitcom Dragonfly Pond (a loose parody of the short-lived CBC sitcom Mosquito Lake, which Tara Strong starred in), which debuted in the third season. Piper and Denise dislike it for its "cardboard" humor and don't understand why people would watch it.
* Ms. Wallis (Elizabeth Hanna) is Piper's long-suffering teacher.
* Principal M. Caroni (Stephen Ouimette) is the principal of the school Piper attends.
* Chuck Epstein (Stuart Stone) is one of Piper's classmates and a bookworm.
* Leigh McDonald (Judith Barsi) is an American exchange student introduced in the fourth season.
* Ally Pepper (Paulina Gillis) is another of Piper's classmates and her arch-rival. She is much meaner than Piper (who occasionally shows kindness despite her rough demeanor) and often tries to humiliate her to little success, with Piper responding by giving her a well-deserved punch in the face. During one Halloween, Ally was giving out candy, and gave Piper a rock instead of full-sized candy bars like she did for other kids, out of sheer spite; she quickly regretted it when Piper threw the rock in her face and kicked her in the shin for good measure. She also sees herself as a top authority on fashion due to her mother being a fashion designer, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Later episodes reveal a more sympathetic side to Ally, whose worst instincts are implied to have come from her mother.
* Andy Pepper (Lee Tockar) is Ally's meek twin brother who is often bribed into participating in Ally's attempts to one-up Piper. In the tenth season, he finally gets revenge on his sister by not only rejecting her latest attempt at bribing him, but joining Piper in humiliating Ally.
* Austin Pepper (Ron Rubin) is Ally and Andy's absent-minded father who is a parody of Homer Simpson. He is constantly at the mercy of his daughter to get her what she wants.
* Audrey Pepper (Robin Duke) is Ally and Andy's mother and a fashion designer who is implied to be an alcoholic. Like Austin, Audrey is constantly at the mercy of Ally to get her what she wants.
* Aunt Sue (Susan Roman) is Piper's paternal aunt who frequently visits.
* Uncle Warren (Walker Boone) is Piper's paternal uncle.
* Gram (Billie Mae Richards) is Piper's maternal grandmother.
* Gramps (French Tickner) is Piper's maternal grandfather.
* Winston Kramer (Charles Kerr) is another of Dad's RCAF colleagues who tries to act tough, but fails due to his PTSD.
* Winston Kramer Jr. (Noam Zylberman) is Winston's teenage son who would much rather play video games than play sports, much to his father's dismay.
* Wendy Kramer (Brett Koshkin) is Winston Jr.'s sister and another of Piper's friends who loves spending time outdoors, studies bugs and doesn't mind getting dirty.
* Marc Patrick (Long John Baldry) announces Liz's Little League hockey games. His name is a parody of NHL play-by-play commentator Mike Emrick.
* Baruchosaur (Garry Chalk) is a parody of Barney the Dinosaur introduced in the seventh season who stars in a video series where he sings songs and teaches lessons to children. Piper despises Baruchosaur for his sappy nature, and (with the help of Sparky) often humiliates him when he makes a live appearance. His videos come in white VHS tapes (a reference to the color used for Barney & Friends VHS releases), which Piper appreciates for allowing her to tell which videos not to watch. He is named after politician and financier Bernard Baruch.
* Ronald Frump (Dean Hagopian) is a disgustingly wealthy, corrupt and eccentric real estate mogul and a parody of Donald Trump.
=== Guest ===
* Conrad Reuben (Alex Trebek) is the host of the school's quizzing contest in a sixth season episode.
* Paulie and Patsy (Ashleigh Ball) are Piper's twin children in the future who still play with Sparky.
* Ken Squier (himself) announces Piper's imaginary race in a fourth season episode.
* Joan Thundarr (Mona Marshall) is an American rockstar and the frontwoman of the band Thundarr Crash, whom Denise idolizes. She is based on Joan Jett.
* Vinny (Vincent Price) appears in one episode centering on Halloween. Unlike many of Price's roles, Vinny is a friendly man towards Piper and Sparky despite the creepy aesthetics of his house.
== Production ==
Tammy Jo conceived the series after hearing of the My Little Pony toyline and animated series (1986-1987), and decided to take a more realistic approach by having a little girl own a unicorn. She named the little girl character "Piper" after an imaginary friend she had as a child, and based the character's sarcastic and bossy personality on herself. The character of Sparky was designed as a foil to Piper, being an idiotic but nice unicorn, while the Canadian setting was inspired by Tammy Jo's Canadian ancestry. Animation services were provided by Canadian studio Nelvana, while Canadian voice actors were employed to fit the setting (with Sparky being the only main character not voiced by a Canadian; John Kassir voiced Sparky, using a voice based on Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges).
Several actresses auditioned for the role of Piper (including Alyson Court and Mairon Bennett) before Tara Strong was chosen. Once Strong moved to the United States, she began recording alongside Farmer, Cree Summer (the voice of Liz), and Brett Koshkin (the voice of Wendy) in San Jose during the ninth season. A 22-minute pilot episode was completed in November 1987 and was picked up by WBC, which was struggling at the time under Phil Stacker's leadership. This pilot was later reworked into the series premiere, with edits made for time.
In the seventh season, Tammy Jo, wanting to focus on Detective Jenny, turned showrunning duties to writer and producer Alana Hart, while Tammy Jo herself retained an executive producer credit, a consultant role, and occasional writing credits, including the series finale.
The series was cancelled in April 1997 due to declining ratings; its final episode aired in December 1997, and a TV movie, Piper & Sparky: One Last Catastrophe!, aired the following year as the series finale.
=== Theme song ===
The series' theme song, "A Girl and Her Unicorn", was performed by blues singer Long John Baldry, who also had a recurring role as sports commentator Marc Patrick, with Tara Strong providing backing vocals. This theme was written to convey the series' irreverent tone. An instrumental version plays during the credits, ending with Piper and Sparky having a brief exchange that varies each episode, usually consisting of meta humor or pop culture references, before the two say "Bye-bye!" to the viewers.
== Voice cast ==
* Tara Charendoff as Piper and Liam
* John Kassir as Sparky
* Harvey Atkin as Dad
* Corinne Conley as Mom
* Cathy Weseluck as Denise and Joey
* Len Carlson as Mr. Klein
* Cree Summer as Liz
* Elizabeth Hanna as Ms. Wallis and Janet
* Stephen Ouimette as Principal M. Caroni
* Stuart Stone as Chuck
* Judith Barsi as Leigh
* Paulina Gillis as Ally
* Lee Tockar as Andy
* Ron Rubin as Austin
* Susan Roman as Aunt Sue
* Walker Boone as Uncle Warren
* Billie Richards as Gram
* French Tickner as Gramps
* Charles Kerr as Winston
* Noam Zylberman as Winston Jr.
* Brett Koshkin as Wendy
* Long John Baldry as Marc Patrick
* Garry Chalk as Baruchosaur
* Dean Hagopian as Ronald Frump
* Dan Hennessey as Judd
* Alyson Court as Janey
== Seasons ==
Season	Episodes	Originally aired 	Originally aired
Season	Episodes	First aired 	Last aired
1 	13 	September 17, 1988	December 10, 1988
2 	16 	September 9, 1989 	December 16, 1989
3 	16 	September 8, 1990 	December 22, 1990
4 	16 	September 7, 1991 	December 21, 1991
5 	16 	September 5, 1992 	December 19, 1992
6 	16 	September 11, 1993	December 25, 1993
7 	16 	September 3, 1994 	December 17, 1994
8 	16 	September 9, 1995 	December 23, 1995
9 	16 	September 7, 1996 	December 21, 1996
10 	16 	September 6, 1997 	December 20, 1997
== Direct-to-video films ==
== Home media ==
== Video games ==
A video game based on the series, Piper & Sparky in Rescue Me!, was released on the NES in 1990. It was later followed by Piper & Sparky: Channel Surfin', released for the Sega Genesis and SNES in 1992, then Piper & Sparky's Dandy Candyland, which was released in 1996 for PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC, and Piper & Sparky's Adventures in Wonderland, released for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and PC in 2003. In 2018, another Piper & Sparky game, Piper & Sparky's Tinseltown Trip, was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam, followed by Piper & Sparky's Ludicrous London Adventures in 2021 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and Steam, and another upcoming game in 2026.
==See also==
*Gallery
Category:Johnsonverse