Dexter's Laboratory

***Dexter's Laboratory*** (commonly abbreviated as ***Dexter's Lab***) is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. It follows Dexter, a boy-genius and inventor with a hidden laboratory in his room, which he keeps secret from his parents. He is at constant odds with his older sister Dee Dee, who always gains access to Dexter's lab and inadvertently foils his experiments. Dexter has a bitter rivalry with Mandark, a fellow boy-genius who is his neighbor and classmate. Segments featuring superhero-based characters Monkey, Dexter's pet lab-monkey/superhero, and the Justice Friends, a trio of superheroes who share an apartment, are prominently featured in the first two seasons.

## Premise

Dexter (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh in seasons 1–3; Candi Milo in seasons 3–4) is a bespectacled boy-genius who, behind a bookcase in his bedroom, conceals a secret laboratory, which can be accessed by spoken passwords or hidden switches on his bookshelf. Though highly intelligent, Dexter often fails to achieve his goals when he becomes overexcited and careless. Although he comes from a typical American family, Dexter speaks with a thick accent of indeterminate origin. Christine Cavanaugh described it as "an affectation, [a] kind of accent, we're not quite sure. A small Peter Lorre, but not. Perhaps he's Latino, perhaps he's French. He's a scientist; he knows he needs [a] kind of accent."Genndy Tartakovsky explained, "he's a scientist. All scientists are foreign and have accents...It's not really a German accent. It's just Eastern European."

Dexter conceals his lab from his clueless parents, addressed only as Mom (voiced by Kath Soucie) and Dad (voiced by Jeff Bennett), who never take notice of it. His hyperactive, good-hearted, older sister Dee Dee (voiced by Allison Moore in seasons 1 and 3 and by Kat Cressida in seasons 2 and 4) delights in playing haphazardly in the lab, wreaking havoc with Dexter's inventions. Though seemingly dim-witted, Dee Dee can outsmart her brother and even give him helpful advice. For his part, Dexter, though annoyed by his intrusive sibling, feels a reluctant affection for her and will come to her defense if she is imperiled.

Dexter's nemesis is rival classmate Susan (first name revealed in later seasons) "Mandark" Astronomonov (voiced by Eddie Deezen). Like Dexter, Mandark is a boy genius with his own laboratory, but his schemes are generally evil and designed to gain power or downplay or destroy Dexter's accomplishments. In revival seasons, Mandark becomes significantly more evil, becoming Dexter's enemy rather than his rival, and Mandark's laboratory changes from brightly-lit with rounded features to gothic-looking, industrial, and angular. Dexter's inventions are objectively better than his, and Mandark tries to compensate for this by stealing Dexter's plans. Mandark's weakness is his unrequited love for Dee Dee.

## Recurring segments

Every *Dexter's Laboratory* episode, with the exception of "Last But Not Beast", is divided into different stories or segments, each being 7–12 minutes long. Occasionally, a segment centers on characters other than Dexter and his family. Two segments are shown primarily during season one: *Dial M for Monkey* and *The Justice Friends*. *Dial M for Monkey* is the middle segment for six episodes of season one, and *The Justice Friends* takes its place until season one's end.

#### *Dial M for Monkey*

*Dial M for Monkey* shorts feature Dexter's pet laboratory monkey named Monkey (vocal effects provided by Frank Welker), whom Dexter believes is an ordinary monkey and nothing more. However, Monkey secretly has superpowers and fights evil as a superhero named Monkey. Monkey is joined by his partner Agent Honeydew (voiced by Kath Soucie) of Global Security, Commander General (voiced by Robert Ridgely in season 1, Earl Boen in season 2), and a team of assembled superheroes. *Dial M for Monkey* was created by Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCracken, and Paul Rudish. Monkey's superpowers include super strength, telekinesis, flight, and super speed, among others.

#### *The Justice Friends*

*The Justice Friends* consists of Major Glory (voiced by Rob Paulsen) of whom Dexter himself is revealed to be a fan and collects Major Glory action-figures, Valhallen (voiced by Tom Kenny), and the Infraggable Krunk (voiced by Frank Welker), a trio of superhero roommates residing in an apartment called Muscular Arms. Their adventures deal less with superhero life and more with an inability to agree with each other; it is presented much like a sitcom, including a laugh track. Genndy Tartakovsky's inspiration for *The Justice Friends* came from reading Marvel Comics when learning how to speak English. Tartakovsky stated in a 2001 *IGN* interview that he was disappointed with how *The Justice Friends* turned out, saying, "it could have been funnier and the characters could have been fleshed out more."

#### Mini-segments

Between the three main segments in seasons one and two are brief mini-segments, which often feature only Dexter and Dee Dee. Other characters that star in these include "The Puppet Pals" - two live-action puppets named Puppet Pal Clem (voiced by Rob Paulsen) and Puppet Pal Mitch (voiced by Tom Kenny).