The Ron Simpson Show (1985-1993 TV series)

***The Ron Simpson Show*** is an American/Canadian live-action/animated television variety show, hosted by a Canadian-born pop singer Ron Simpson. It debuted on April 16, 1985 as the FOX network's second primetime series after *The Stan Curtis Show* and ran until December 10, 1993. The show is produced by Klasky-Csupo, Gracie Films, and 20th Century Fox Television. The show blended sketch comedy and animated shorts with many musical numbers, featuring choreography by Howard Jones, Midnight Star and Paula Abdul.

The show is also known for producing a series of shorts featuring the Rocko the Wallaby , which was later adapted into the TV series for Nickelodeon, *Rocko's Modern Life*. The show is also known for the first appearance of characters that later appeared in the following animated series: *ChalkZone* and *The Simpsons*. *The Ron Simpson Show* garnered Fox its first ever Emmy nomination and win; it was awarded a total of 15.

## Format

A typical episode would begin with Simpson giving a brief introduction to Marc, a young squirrel with a British accent, ostensibly from his living room, leading into the opening titles (the show's theme, "All Night Passion", was performed by Alisha). Then three animated shorts would be presented in each episode.

Typically, the final sketch of the night would include a musical and/or dance number featuring Simpson solo or other members of the cast. The final segment saw Simpson, clad in a robe, deliver a closing monologue to the studio audience before ending the show with his catchphrase "Bye, folks!" and dancing as the credits rolled. Simpson often talked about his daughter, Marina. Simpson chose the phrase, "Bye, folks!", during the show's pilot episode because he could not think of anything clever to end with.

## Characters

* **Ron Simpson** (himself) -
* **Marina Simpson** (herself) -
* **Marc the Squirrel** (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) -
* **Rocko** (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) -
* **Heffer** (voiced by Tom Kenny) -
* **Don Seigo** (himself) -
* **Buster the Fruit Bat** (voiced by Christie Crawford) -
* **Johnny Martin** (himself) -

## Animated segments

The animated shorts aired in their full segments between the sketches during the show. Some recurring segments include:

### Rocko's Life

Rocko made his first appearance in short animated cartoons on *The Ron Simpson Show* before being spun off into his own half-hour series in 1994.

All of them were written by Joe Murray and animated at Klasky-Csupo by a team of animators consisting of Krist-Ann Pehrso, Mary Harrington, and Stephen Hillenburg, who is responsible for creating the *SpongeBob SquarePants* TV series. *Ron Simpson Show* cast members Carlos Alazraqui and Tom Kenny provide the voices of Rocko and Heffer respectively. In the beginning, the drawings appeared very crude because the animators were more or less just tracing over Murray's storyboards, but as the series developed, so did the designs and layouts of the characters and the "Wallaby drawing style" was ultimately conceived. This style evolved even more throughout the first few seasons of Nickelodeon's *Rocko's Modern Life* and was used more than two decades later on Cartoon Network's *Camp Lazlo*, another animated series created by Joe Murray.

### Balinese Slapping Monsters

Also created by Christie Crawford, it is basically about a red monster, which is Boris, and yellow monster, which is Spanky, who slap each other. Usually, something is going on and the two monsters randomly appear. A similar short called *Balinese Slapping Fish* , which features the same manner as the Balinese Slapping Monsters, but with the fishes instead of monsters. The short was produced by Fudge Puppy instead of Christie Crawford.

### Little Red Guy

Another cartoon series created by Christie Crawford, the animated shorts features a red-haired boy named Mark Hellroy who finds a monster egg in the tree hole, and decided to go on adventures after naming the hatched monster "Lucifer". The segment was later removed in 1986 due to being controversial to Christian viewers.

### The Non-Adventures of Ron Simpson

Created by Ron Simpson himself, these are animated shorts featuring him and Marc solving the problems for the teenagers.

### Stinger and Honey

Created by Christie Crawford, the animated shorts are about a bee and a wasp who goes argues over who have to sting the victim first.

### The Flanderses

Created by Matt Groening in 1985, the animated shorts features the misadventures of Ned, Maude, Todd and Rodd Flanders who are living life in a family house. The first appearances of not only the Flanders family, but also Groundskeeper Willie, Moe Szyslak, Marvin Monroe and Waylon Smithers Jr. Characters in those shorts would later appear in *The Simpsons* animated series.

### Snap and the Challengers

Created by Bill Burnett and Larry Huber in 1985, these shorts features Snap as he fights crime in the world of chalk. These also appear as "we'll be right back" and "now we're back" signs in the later *Snap and Friends* episodes. In 1987, this segment got removed in a favor of the new Ron Simpson sketch and will instead aired on the *Snap and Friends* show. Characters in those shorts later appeared in the *ChalkZone* animated shorts as the part of *Oh Yeah! Cartoons* on Nickelodeon.