Bobby's World

***Bobby's World*** (originally known as The World According to Bobby, to parody The World According to Garp) is an American animated television series, which ran from 1990 to 1998, on Fox Kids. It was about the daily life of Bobby Generic (/ˈdʒɛnərɪk/ gen-er-ic) and his very overactive imagination on how he sees the world. The show was created by Canadian actor-comedian Howie Mandel. Mandel also provided the voice of both Bobby and his father Howard Generic. It was produced by Film Roman for Mandel's company - Alevy Productions - and Fox Kids Productions. The theme song for Bobby's World was composed by John Tesh, along with Michael Hanna.

Howie Mandel said that he accidentally created the voice that would be later used to voice Bobby when he was choking on a piece of cake.Two of Mandel's friends Jim Fisher and Jim Staahl signed an agreement with the Fox Corporation's then newly created television division in 1989. Fisher and Staahl asked Mandel to join them in creating a show based on Mandel's Bobby character and voice. Mandel said that he believed Fox did not think his stand-up routines were "family entertainment." He, Fisher, and Staahl (co-producers) recalled stories from their childhoods as they discussed the formation of the show. Mandel stated "that was the seed of Bobby's World." Later stories from the childhoods of writers Dianne and Peter Tilden along with Mitch Schauer were used as the basis of many of the stories. The other characters on the show were mixes of characteristics of the creators' parents' friends and relatives. Specifically, Uncle Ted was based on Fisher and Staahl's former comedy partner in a comedy trio formed by the three after leaving Chicago's Second City, called The Graduates. Amazingly, that partner Tino Insana read for and won the part of Uncle Ted.

During his standup routines, Mandel would commonly go into character with the same voice as Bobby, often conversing with an unseen "parent".

The voices of Kelly Generic (Bobby's sister) and Martha Generic (Bobby's mother) are based on two recurring characters Gail Matthius played when she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1980. Martha is based on the character Roweena, a chain smoking hair stylist with an Upper Midwestern accent who gets into arguments with her best customer Nadine (Denny Dillon), while Kelly Generic is based on the character Vicky, a valley girl who annoys others with her shallow questions and rambling stories and often is seen with her friend Debbie (also Dillon).

Mitch Schauer drew the designs for the main characters. Bobby's character design was based on Schauer's then four-year-old son.

In the United States, starting in 1996, the show was open-captioned; this was intended as an aid to help younger children learn to read.

According to a stand up video posted on YouTube, Mandel mentions that they are working on new episodes.

On February 12, 2007, the character Bobby made a surprise appearance on an episode of Deal or No Deal.

Episodes can occasionally be seen in syndication, on a variety of websites, on Netflix or on Comcast's On Demand service.

Possible reviva
In an April 2006 online interview, Mandel expressed his desire for a possible re-launch of the series.

In November 2014, it was announced that Mandel told a crowd at Comikaze that plans to revive the series were in motion.

Episodes often consist of a short live-action segment either before or after the main story (and sometimes both before and after). The segment would include Mandel describing some aspect of the story and often relating it back to his personal childhood. Often very similar. Sometimes during these segments, the character of Bobby would appear in animated form and converse with Mandel. Other times, a live action child would appear and exchange words with Mandel. Endings of the show also featured Mandel breaking the "fourth wall" by talking to viewers about the preceding episode. In some part of the episode, Bobby will break the fourth wall by telling the audience his perspective on life.