The Moxy Show

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**The Moxy Show** (also known as **The Moxy Pirate Show** and **The Moxy & Flea Show**) is an animation anthology television series created by Scott Fellows and produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network. The show premiered on December 5, 1993, originally as *The Moxy Pirate Show*, and consisted of classic cartoons divided by 3-D animated interstitials featuring Moxy, a dog, and Flea, a flea. The show ran on Cartoon Network from 1993 to 1998 as a CGI cartoon and 1998 to 2000 as a hand-drawn cartoon with CGI and live-action effects. The series aired its last episode on January 2, 2000, and reruns were removed completely on April 1, 2000. *Moxy* is considered Cartoon Network's first original series.

## Plot

From wacky jokes, to Moxy's crush on the band members from the 70's cartoon show *Josie and the Pussycats*, the series is a whimsical mesh of retro pop culture references and comedy.

## Characters

**Moxy Moto** (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait) — 3-D animated dog who liked to spend time goofing off and having fun with his sidekick, Flea, and also fell in love with Melody from *Josie and the Pussycats*. His original name was "Moxy Andrew Mutt". His catchphrase is a lip-flapping sound, barking and a fart sound, stating that he just made it up.

**Flea** (voiced by Penn Jillette and Chris Rock) — Moxy's sidekick who enjoyed spending time and watching TV with Moxy. He helps a monkey king get a new set of hair to hide his bald skin causing him to rise through fame.

## Production

The series was originally titled *The Moxy Pirate Show* and only featured Moxy. In 1994, Moxy's sidekick Flea was added to the series. In 1995, the series was retitled simply as *The Moxy Show*, and in 1998 it was renamed again to *The Moxy & Flea Show* with major changes:

* Moxy's design has changed a lot. Instead of wearing a yellow shirt, red/white checkerboard pants, and black and white flat-tops, which match up with the pattern of the checkerboard Cartoon Network logo, he is seen wearing a green/black striped shirt and black jeans. Also, his yellow whiskers and freckles have disappeared in his new design, his nose changed from the color purple to black and his huge eyes shrunk. Also, his shoes have been palette-swapped.
* Flea's design was changed a little. Flea wore a blue fez instead of a propellor beanie, his height grew massive making him half as high as Moxy, and comedian Chris Rock replaced illusionist Penn Jillette as the voice of the character. Also, his eye color changed from blue and yellow to just yellow eyes with red pupils.
* The opening sequence has changed a lot featuring a new theme song composed by Ben Friedman, Moxy and Flea dancing new moves and they do not speak at all (although in one part, Moxy says "Come on!").
* The series does not show many classical cartoons unlike the previous seasons and it features more computer-animated characters and settings.
* The one hour time slot for the series was shortened down to 30 minutes.

Thee series' production later changed from computer animation to traditional animation cartoon until its cancellation on January 2, 2000. Reruns were removed completely on April 1, 2000, the same day where most of the classical cartoon programming were moved to Boomerang except for this show.

The CGI Moxy is considered the first real-time(sometimes called a "live") cartoon, though never actually broadcast live. A puppeteer wearing a motion capture apparatus would act out Moxy's motions, while Goldthwait provided the voice, and a technician would control facial expressions.

The show is considered to be a lost television series since it was never to be found anywhere because it was never picked up by Boomerang and it was never released in any home media.

This is the only Cartoon Network original series to be animated with computer animation as all of the other programs featuring CGI are acquired animated programming and not Cartoon Network originals. It's the first CN show to be animated with cartoon animation as well, making *The Moxy Show* the first Cartoon Network original series to feature a hybrid of different animation styles (*Courage the Cowardly Dog* would be the second, and *The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy*, *Chowder*, and *The Amazing World of Gumball* following). The show is also the first to use stock footage from classical shows (second is *Space Ghost Coast to Coast*, the second CN original series to air) and the first Hanna-Barbera animated Cartoon Network show.

Only a clip from 3 episodes currently exist on the internet.

## Episodes

*The Moxy Show* has a total of 24 episodes spread over 7 seasons that were produced from December 1993 to January 2000.