Big Group

Big Group is an American animated sitcom created by Alan Johnson and David Fisherson for Cartoon Time!. The series follows the adventures of four adolescent kids and two scientists collectively known as The Cappies, which consists of Daniel, Wendy, Frank, Lucas, Doctor Genesis, and Doctor Thomas, with a pinch of Intern Jay (voiced by Ray Romano) who go around their fictional town of Sandwood Summers, New York, making business practices, go on adventures, or preventing attacks from the series' main antagonist Doctor Dexxen (voiced by J. K. Simmons).
The Cappies were conceived by Johnson and Fisherson shortly before a solication for a series of animated shorts with producer Tim Blackburn. They created a child foursome and two geniuses, and named the characters after their own family members, substituting Genesis and Thomas for their own names; the Cappy kids as a foursome were inspired by many famous foursomes in pop culture, such as British rock band The Beatles, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Ghostbusters, and Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four. The shorts became a part of The Joe Locksman Show on April 19, 1992 for the Fox network. After three seasons, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show on Cartoon Time! and surpassed Alaina Gleen as their highest-rated show of all time.
Since its debut on December 16, 1994, 662 episodes of the show have been broadcast. It is the longest-running American children's animated series, and the second longest-running American animated series, behind The Simpsons, both in seasons and individual episodes.
While Big Group received mixed reviews in its first two seasons, it had gained widespread critical acclaim by its third season and has won dozens of awards since it debuted, including 35 Primetime Emmy Awards, 34 Annie Awards, and 2 Peabody Awards. Daniel's exclamatory catchphrase of "Jeepeezy!" has been adopted into the English language, while Big Group has influenced many other later animated television series over the age of 7. On January 13, 2005, the Cappies were awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, it has also attracted criticism and controversy when it first premiered for its adult content for a kids show. As a result of the show's popularity, two theatrical feature-length films were produced and released: The Big Group Movie (2003), and The Big Group Movie: Secret of the Temple (2014), with a third, The Big Group Movie: The Search for Sandwood Summers, scheduled to be released on July 5, 2024. A spin-off streaming film, Saving Sandwood Summers: An Intern Jay Movie, was released on Disney+ on August 2, 2023, with two additional spin-off films planned for Disney+. The series has also spawned numerous comic book series, video games, books, and other related media, as well as a multi-billion-dollar merchandising industry, becoming the most profitable property for 20th Century Fox Consumer Products, generating over $21 billion revenue.
On January 26, 2023, the series was renewed for its 30th and 31st seasons. Both seasons contain a combined total of 52 episodes. Eight of these episodes are season 29 holdovers, while the other 44 will be produced in the production cycle of the upcoming seasons, bringing the show's overall total up to 693. Season 30 premiered on September 29, 2023.
==Premise==
===Characters===
Coming soon!
===Setting===
The primary setting of Big Group is Sandwood Summers, a fictional borough of New York City.
==Production==
===Development===
===Executive producers and showrunners===
===Writing and themes===
===Voice actors===
Big Group features an ensemble voice cast including Tress MacNeille, Cheryl Chase, Maulik Pancholy (since 2020, replacing Mike Judge), Rob Paulsen, Harry Shearer, Dan Castellaneta, Ray Romano, J. K. Simmons, Jill Talley, Tara Strong, Nancy Cartwright, Mila Kunis (since 1998, replacing Mona Marshall), Kate Micucci (since 2019, replacing Russi Taylor and Mary Kay Bergman (before 2000)), Yeardley Smith, Seth MacFarlane (since 2003), and Grey DeLisle. Former main cast members include: Mike Judge (the voice of Frank until 2020), Mona Marshall (the voice of Greta until 1998), Mary Kay Bergman (the voice of Martin until her death in 1999), and Russi Taylor (the second voice of Martin starting in 2000 until her death in 2019). Most one-off and background characters are voiced by Tom Kenny, Hank Azaria, Dee Bradley Baker, Mr. Lawrence, Billy West, Kelsey Grammer, and Mike Judge (since 2020).
===Animation and design===
Several different U.S. and international studios animated Big Group. Throughout the run of the animated shorts on The Joe Locksman Show, the animated was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo. With the debut of the series, because of an increased workload, Cartoon Time! subcontracted production to several local and foreign studios. These were AKOM, Anivision, Rough Draft Studios, USAnimation, and Toonzone Entertainment.
For the first three seasons, Klasky Csupo animated Big Group in the United States. In 1997, Johnson and Fisherson's production company switched domestic production to Film Roman, who continued to animate the show until 2012 when they were replaced by Elliott Animation Studios up until 2016 when they were replaced by Fox Television Animation, which allowed the show to be made more in-house. In Season 7, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint. The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was the television film "The Day Sandwood Summers Erupted" in 2000 during season 6. However, the first episode to mark the switch to digital ink and paint was "Big Group Episode V".
In Season 18, when animation production switched from Film Roman to Elliott Animation Studios, production switched from digital ink and paint animation to Adobe Flash and the series began high-definition production; the first episode, "Wet Daniel", aired January 13, 2012.
In Season 23, with the switch from Elliott Animation to Fox TV Animation, production switched again from Adobe Flash animation to ToonBoom Harmony Flash animation; the first episode "Banned Turkey", aired November 25, 2016. The season also included a new HDTV opening sequence.
===Music===
Big Group's distinctive theme song was composed by musician Danny Elfman in 1994, after Johnson and Fisherson, fans of his work on the theme song of The Simpsons, approached him requesting a mix of retro and modern-style pieces. This combined piece has been noted by Elfman as one of the most popular of his career. The main composers of the series are Alf Clausen, sole composer of The Simpsons between 1990 and 2017, and newcomer Eban Schletter, future composer of SpongeBob SquarePants since 2000.
Big Group sometimes also made use of licensed songs which began when Johnson, Fisherson, and the staff writers started recording the animatics using copyrighted songs for montage scenes. The network executives watched the animatic and asked the crew if they wanted to use some of the songs for the finished episodes. Johnson said that the songs are chosen for their suitability for the scene, whether they sound good and if their licensing is affordable. Fisherson enjoyed using the songs in the episodes, saying he thought adult viewers may remember them and younger viewers might appreciate older music. Notable songs in the show include "Stayin' Alive" in "Stress Relief", which itself parodies the song's use in medical training, "You Might Think" in "Summer Road Trip", "Don't You (Forget About Me)" in "The Alone Genesis", "Time After Time" in "The Good Ol' Days", "Don't Stop Me Now" in "Iceface" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" in "Christmas Vacation".
The show also produced original songs that were used in episodes, which were generally composed by either Clausen or Schletter and written by one of the staff's storyboard artists.
==Episodes==
Season	Season	Episodes	Originally aired 	Originally aired
Season	Season	Episodes	First aired 	Last aired
 	1 	13 	December 16, 1994 	May 12, 1995
 	2 	22 	October 13, 1995 	May 17, 1996
 	3 	24 	September 20, 1996	May 23, 1997
 	4 	22 	September 26, 1997	May 15, 1998
 	5 	22 	October 2, 1998 	May 21, 1999
 	6 	25 	October 1, 1999 	May 19, 2000
 	7 	25 	September 15, 2000	May 18, 2001
 	8 	25 	October 26, 2001 	May 17, 2002
 	9 	25 	September 20, 2002	May 16, 2003
 	10 	23 	September 12, 2003	May 14, 2004
 	11 	22 	September 24, 2004	May 20, 2005
 	12 	21 	October 28, 2005 	May 19, 2006
 	13 	22 	October 27, 2006 	May 25, 2007
 	14 	19 	October 26, 2007 	May 23, 2008
 	15 	25 	October 31, 2008 	May 22, 2009
 	16 	21 	October 30, 2009 	May 21, 2010
 	17 	22 	September 10, 2010	May 20, 2011
 	18 	22 	September 9, 2011 	May 25, 2012
 	19 	20 	September 21, 2012	May 17, 2013
 	20 	21 	September 27, 2013	May 16, 2014
 	21 	23 	September 26, 2014	May 22, 2015
 	22 	22 	September 25, 2015	May 20, 2016
 	23 	22 	September 30, 2016	May 19, 2017
 	24 	22 	September 29, 2017	May 18, 2018
 	25 	22 	September 28, 2018	May 17, 2019
 	26 	21 	September 27, 2019	May 15, 2020
 	27 	22 	September 25, 2020	May 21, 2021
 	28 	23 	October 1, 2021 	May 20, 2022
 	29 	21 	September 30, 2022	May 19, 2023
 	30 	18 	September 29, 2023	May 17, 2024
Category:Animated sitcoms
Category:Kids Shows
Category:20th Century Fox Television
==References==