The Teenagers

***The Teenagers*** is an American primetime adult animated sitcom revolving around the life of a Philadelphia teenager CJ Hemple, voiced by Dax Shepard. It was created by James Sharp, who had previously worked as a writer on seasons 2-7 of *The Simpsons*. The series first broadcast on NBC in 1997 and has since moved from network to network across the years.

## Characters

* Christopher Joseph "CJ" Hemple (voiced by Dax Shepard)
* Philip "Pip" Hemple (voiced by Hayes MacArthur) - CJ's brother.
* Amber Hemple (voiced by Andrea Savage) - CJ's sister.
* Marlene Hemple (voiced by Julie Hagerty) - CJ's mother.
* Spike Hemple (voiced by Bob Odenkirk) - CJ's father.
* Plaqueo (vocal effects by Frank Welker) - a short bluish gray dog.
* Elizabeth "Lilly" Crumpington (voiced by Mary Lynn Rajskub) - CJ's friend.
* William "Bill" Lawrence (voiced by Dave Attell)
* Coach Terrance (voiced by Jess Harnell)
* Benjamin "B" Jeremy (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) - a prisoner also CJ and Pip's friend.
* Death (voiced by Jim Cummings)

## Guest Stars

* George Carlin
* Billy West as Professor Farnsworth
* Will Ferrell

## Production

The show was created by James Sharp, who along with James L. Brooks served as executive producers. *The Teenagers* was produced by Sharpness Knight Studios in association with Fox Television Animation, the same company behind *The Simpsons*. The show's It was co-produced by Patric Verrone.

Sharp was a writer on *The Simpsons* and had been approached by series creator Matt Groening to design a spin-off centered onNed Flanders. Their pitch featured many similarities to *The Teenagers* – Ned would be a teenager in a not-so-normal family living in Philadelphia and working for a filmmaker resembling Steven Spielberg. Groening turned down the idea, instead wanting the Fladers spin-off to be a live-action series led by the character's animated voice, Harry Shearer.

In 1994, Brooks approached Sharp with the idea of a sitcom based on a morning television program. The pair adapted their Fladers pitch to the new idea. Brooks recommended Dax Shepard as the lead. He initially turned down the role due to him attending UCLA at the time, so at the last moment, the series became an animation.

When choosing things to parody, Sharp made a conscious decision to find the right balance between current pop culture and references that would stand the test of time.

The Hemple family first appeared as shorts on NBC's *Saturday Night Live* on April 15, 1987. Sharp submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial shorts. The animation was produced domestically in the basement of James Sharp's own house, with Wes Archer, David Silverman, and Bill Kopp being animators for the first season.

In 1989, a team of production companies adapted *The Teenagers* into a half-hour series for NBC. The team included the Film Roman animation house. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with NBC that prevented the network from interfering with the show's content. Sharp said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 25, 1997, with "Merry Christmas from The Teenagers". "One Magnificent Suprise" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1998, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems, though this was because the episode was the first to be outsourced.

### Animation

Several different U.S. and international studios animate *The Teenagers*. Throughout the run of the animated shorts on *NBC*'s Saturday Night Live, the animation was produced domestically in the basement of James Sharp's own house. With the debut of the series, because of an increased workload, Fox Television Animation subcontracted production to several local and foreign studios. These are Hanho Heung-Up, Yearim Productions, Anivision/Sunwoo, Yeson Animation, Digital eMation and Rough Draft Korea in South Korea, Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines, Pacific Animation Corporation and Spectrum Animation in Japan, Mr. Big Cartoons in Australia, Slightly Off Beat Productions in New Zealand, Carbunkle Cartoons in Canada, Varga Animation in Hungary, and Wang Film Productions in Taiwan.

For the first Fourteen seasons, Film Roman animated *The Teenagers* in the United States. In 2012, Fox Television Animation began doing all of the domestic production in-house. In Season 4, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint, this change was due to Fox wanting the new episode to look more impressive.

The production staff at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draws storyboards, designs new characters, backgrounds, props and draws character and background layouts, which in turn become animatics to be screened for the writers at Sharpness Knight for any changes to be made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens, ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it is shipped back to the United States to be delivered to Fox three to four months later.

The series began high-definition production in the direct-to-home media movie; "CJ's Big Score", which was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 26, 2010. The move to HDTV included a new opening sequence. James Sharp called it a complicated change because it affected the timing and composition of animation.

## Cancellations, syndications and revivals

### NBC cancellation

*The Teenagers* officially premiered on December 25, 1997, with "Death Has a Shadow". The show debuted to 22 million viewers and garnered decent ratings in NBC's Sunday Night Lineup. At the end of its first season, the show ranked No. 15 in the Nielsen ratings, with 16.3 million households tuning in. The show launched its second season in a new time slot, Thursday at 9 pm, on September 12, 1998. *The Teenagers* was filling the void left by NBC's *Seinfeld*, although the series' ratings decreased, coming in at No. 110 in the Nielsen ratings with 7.9 million households tuning in. On July 24, 1999, NBC ordered 26 additional episodes of *The Teenagers* to form a third season.

The show returned on September 23, 1999, where it was constantly beaten in the ratings by ABC's then-new breakout hit *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire* (a situation that was later referenced in *CJ Hemple: The Untold Story*). During its second and third seasons, NBC frequently moved the show around to different days and time slots with little or no notice and, consequently, the show's ratings suffered. And NBC cancelled the show on March 7, 2000 after airing 53 out of the 65 episodes that were produced.

### Nick At Nite reruns and Cult success

20th Century Fox attempted to sell the rights for reruns of the show, but finding networks that were interested was difficult; Nickelodeon eventually bought the rights "basically for free", according to the president of 20th Century Fox Television. *The Teenagers* premiered in reruns on Nick at Nite on April 20, 2000, and immediately became the block's top-rated program, dominating late-night viewing in its time period versus cable and broadcast competition and boosting viewership by 239%. The complete first season was released on DVD the same week the show premiered on Nick At Nite, and the show became a cult phenomenon, selling 400,000 copies within one month. Sales of the DVD set reached 2.2 million copies, becoming the best-selling television DVD of 2002 and the second-highest-selling television DVD ever, dethroned one year later by the first season of Comedy Central's *Chappelle's Show*. The second and third seasons DVDs release also sold more than a million copies. The show's popularity in DVD sales and reruns rekindled Fox's interest, and, on May 20, 2002, Fox ordered 23 new episodes of *The Teenagers*, marking the first revival of a television show based on DVD sales.