The Sherry Show

**The Sherry Show** is an American animated television series created by Ralf Hat for Kingson. The series takes a spin off of Ralf Hat's earlier animated show, Instruments & Instruments, and features the outrageous misadventures of Sherry Longlegs and her neighbors and family. Like its spin-off series, The Sherry Show takes its setting in the fictional village of Bugville, inhabited by anthropomorphic insects and other small creatures.

First premiering as a season two episode of Instruments & Instruments, Sherry's character gave off a positive reception from both critics and fans alike, which led to the spinoff being developed. The show officially premiered on October 18, 1997 and since then became the highest-rated premiere in Kingson history at the time. It is currently airing with eleven seasons and 207 episodes (usually containing two segments in each). Episodes are often always center around the main character (Sherry) going on exploits which tend to be difficult to get out of. The show is also filled with dark, twisted, and insane plots which may seem somewhat disturbing and terrifying to many, resulting in the show becoming ultimately infamously controversial for its off-color humor, adult innuendo, dark humor, and violence which is rare for a children's television series, compared to many. In the United States, the show is usually rated TV-Y7-FV, while other ratings, such as TV-PG with the V sub-rating due to extensive violence and horror.

The Sherry Movie a film adaptation based the series, released in theaters in 2014, and its popularity was the result of the feature-length theatrical film. It airs in syndication outside the United States and has been released on various DVD sets and other forms of home media, including on-demand streaming. All episodes are available on online streaming services, Hulu and Netflix.

In January 2014, the series was renewed for a thirteenth season with its release date presumed to be Spring 2017.

## Development

Instruments & Instruments was currently the majority of viewers which any Deadpan production series at that time had before. Its popularity in America may be compared to other series such as *Hey Arnold*. Gaining over 14.5 million American viewers per season, the successfulness of Instruments & Instruments ultimately led to ideas of spinoff media based from it. The season two episode *"The Longlegs"* featured the arrival of Sherry, and her family. Sherry's pessimistic, angered, and sadistic personality gave off a positive critical reception, with fans of Instruments & Instruments pleading for more of the character. Ralf Hat, who beloved Sherry's character made a deal with Kingson to develop a spinoff series with Sherry being the main character. Production of the first season started from late 1996 to mid 1997. The first season contained eight episodes with two segments in each, making it the shortest season of the series in total.

The Sherry Show uses storyboarding for each episode which is done by the crew in Kingson studios. Once the storyboard and animation is done, the finished animation has been created overseas at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. Animation takes about a month to fully complete. Because of this, multiple episodes are worked on the same month. Digital ink and paint was used mainly for the first six seasons, while all seasons after used flash animation on Adobe Flash.

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## Characters

### Main characters

* *Sherry Longlegs:* Sherry is a 16 year old opiliones, the main character of the series. Sherry is very pessimistic and villainous, different from most of her family members, and is usually willing to complete a certain task using her diabolical and ignorant schemes (which almost never are foolproof). She is a thoughtless, cowardly and straight out disrespectful person who mostly acts in careless ways, which effects herself deeply socially, mentally, and physically.

### Secondary

* *Tom & Dave Instruments:* Tom and Dave (or the Instruments brothers) are two mischievous 8 year old dwarf tarantulas who live next-door to Sherry and her family. Dave speaks in a more high pitched voice, and tends to act "sillier" and "childish" than his brother, while Tom is the mature one of the two, who usually acts as a "leader". Both usually get involved in Sherry's adventures around Bugville. The two view Sherry as a frienemy, due to the fact that she is both a bully and yet sometimes a helpful friend.
* *Terry Terryble**:* Terry is a 16 year old crane fly, and Sherry's best (and only) friend, who first appeared in the second season of the show. Unlike Sherry, Terry is carefree and actually has no troubles on her back. Terry is highly idiotic, and even makes Sherry look somewhat smarter.
* *The Narrator*: An anonymous source who narrates the show and interacts with the charcters (mostly Sherry). The narrator often suggests good ideas which can get characters out of trouble. Sherry barely listens to him at all, which leads her into deadlier situations.
* *Bac Longlegs**:* Sherry's highly optimistic older brother, who never really gets mad, and would rather look to the bright sides of things. Unfortunately, because of his friendliness and kindness, he is viewed negatively to Sherry, who is in fact Bac's complete opposite.
* *Illy Longlegs**:*
* *Clarkson Longlegs**:*
* *Jessica Longlegs**:*
* *Jenna* *& Sally Orbweave:*
* *The Bedbugs**:*

### Minor

* *Gecko:*
* *Sherr-bang**:*
* *Eloise* *& Kevin Instruments:*
* *Zeap Zeapington**:*
* *Sire Guy**:*
* *Ancient Tigre Mosquito**:*
* *Wormy**:*
* *Lori**:*

### Villains

* Gary
* Sherr-tron X
* *Seventeenth Star Ghost*

### Other characters

* *Little Sherry**:*
* *Dr. Jackie**:*
* *Mail Time Girl**:*
* *Grandma Slugman**:*
* *Butler**:*

## Trivia

* Even the most dedicated fans agree that the series started declining around season nine, with its overuse of edgy humor and randomness (these things were always in the show but they were never used to this extent.) Most fans agree that the series is slowly getting better after the 2014 release of The Sherry Movie
* The Sherry Show is has well known for being the longest-running animated program developed from Deadpan Productions. That being said, as of 2016, the series is currently nineteen years old since its debut in 1997.
	+ The show is also the third longest running American animated television series.
* The main reason why Hat decided to give Sherry a rather masculine voice despite her being female, was to indicate to show Sherry is an utterly evil and wrathful character.
* During early development of the show, the title was originally "Bac & Sherry", however it was changed to "The Sherry Show" basically because Hat believed Sherry was more of an interesting character than Bac was.
* It is popular among users of the Internet, due to dark themes and witty pop culture parodies.
* There is a common gag in the series where characters from other Kingson shows (Risky Frizz, Fish, etc) will appear in the background.
	+ Speaking of the background, the background of the show is made using pastel paintings which Hat makes every week.

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## Episodes

* *Main article(s): The Sherry Show/Episode Guide*

## Film

*Main article(s): The Sherry Movie*

In 2014, The Sherry Movie, a film adaption based on the series, released in theaters in 2014, and its popularity was the result of the feature-length theatrical film. Earlier attempts to create a film based on The Sherry Show were cancelled due to lack of production or interest. The film was rated PG by the MPAA for *Brief Scary Images, Mild Action Violence, Rude Humor, and Brief Language*. The film was released on August 15, 2014, receving positive reviews and was a box office success. The film made its network premiere on Kingson on March 10, 2017.

Critics praised The Sherry Movie but criticized the dark tone of the movie. It currently holds a 89% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus implying "It's darker tone, when compared to the TV series, may be bothersome, but *The Sherry Movie*still offers humor and action to make it an enjoyable flick". It holds a 67% on Metacritic, indicating "Generally Favorable Reviews".

On October 2015, Ralf Hat announced that a sequel to The Sherry Movie is currently being planned. No later information has been notified.

 The Sherry Movie

 Average ratings

### Television films & specials

*Main article(s): The Sherry Show/Specials and TV movies*

## Other Media

### Video games

*Main article(s): The Sherry Show/List of video games*

### Books and comics

*Main article(s): The Sherry Comics, The Sherry Novels*

## Cast

* *Ralf Hat as Sherry/The Narrator/Bac/The Bedbugs/Many background characters*
* *E.G Daily* *as Tom/Dave/Illy*
* *Dannah Feinglass as Terry*
* *Carlos Alazraqui as Clark Longlegs*
* *Megan Ward* *as Jessica Longlegs*
* Billy West as Gecko
* Jay Leno as Sherr-bang
* TBA as Eloise Instruments
* TBA as Kevin Instruments

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## Reception

### Critical reception

The show has received positive reviews from critics and has developed a strong following among audiences of all ages. Critics praised the series dark overtone, humor, and "zany" plots. The show has been called as *"a mixture of Instruments & Instruments and Tales From The Crypt"* as said by critic, Mark Eden. TBA

The series currently holds an 8.7 on IMdB, based on 1,090 reviews. It holds a 8.5 on TV.Com, and a 3/5 on Common Sense Media.

### Viewings

*The Sherry Show* became an instant hit. Its first and second seasons broadcasted on Sunday nights at 10:00 pm and ranked number one in its time-slot across Kingson. The series premiere was watched by 1.89 million viewers. For the following episodes of the first season, viewership increased by over 15 percent from the time period of the previous year. For instance, the entry was viewed by 2.87 million children aged 5–15, a 65 percent increase from the previous year. It was also watched by 818,000 children aged 8–16; a 43 percent increase. The second season premiere, "***Some Job or Something***", marked a decline from the first season premiere's figures. The first season has been known to be on of the "worst" seasons of the series, due to its lack of comical humors

### Content and Controversy

*Main article(s): The Sherry Show/Controversies*

The Sherry Show has been airing on Kingson since 1997 and has held a large audience ever since. But in recent years, multiple controversies have came up, mostly due to a certain inappropriate event happening in an episode, or a very violent moment, or some error that might have occurred.

The series itself has been known to be one of the most violent cartoons aimed towards a younger audience. Hat once explained in an interview that the violence is inspired by such shows like Tom & Jerry. Episodes do not feature any blood whatsoever, but it however shows deaths of minor or even main characters, but are reunited back in the next episode or so. Mostly slapstick humor is used, with some horror violence, and action packed moments infused within the series. In multiple episodes including: the *Sherry Vs...* episode gag, we come across many action violence, usually ending with a painful knockout or something else. However, not only has violence been controversial in the series, but also has the series dark humor.

## Home video releases

*Main article(s): The Sherry Show/Home releases*

All seasons, episodes, and specials, of The Sherry Show are realesed on DVD, Blu-Ray, and ITunes. Every home release video is uncut and are all rated TV-PG. The series has also international home video releases. The DVD boxset for all seasons was released by Warner Home Entertainment and Kingson in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. All of the DVD releases feature bonus materials including audio commentaries, trailers, and music videos

## Ratings

*Main article(s): The Sherry Show/Content ratings*

## Gallery

*Main article(s): The Sherry Show/Gallery*