Spencer's Escapades

***Spencer's Escapades*** is an American animated television series created by Aldrin Copperfield, the creator of the Nickelodeon animated television series *The Dawson Duo*, and co-produced by A.J.C. Entertainment and Walt Disney Television Animation. Set in the fictional town of Spruceberg, Indiana, the series focuses on the misadventures of the eponymous Spencer Singleton as well as his friends and family. The series also employs a unique aesthetic reminiscent of Disney and Fleischer cartoons from the 1920's and 1930's, with the characters having eyes with triangles cut out and white gloves.

As with its predecessor *The Dawson Duo*, many of the characters are designed similarly to the main characters of Craig McCracken's 1992 short film. *Whoopass Stew! A Sticky Situation*, which would later be greenlit by Cartoon Network as *The Powerpuff Girls*.

The series premiered on ABC in November 8, 1997 as part of its *Disney's One Saturday Morning* block and ended its run in December 22, 2001, totaling up to five seasons and 65 half-hour episodes. During its run, a theatrical feature film based on the series, simply titled *The Spencer's Escapades Movie*, was released by Walt Disney Pictures on May 25, 2001, taking place between the series' fourth and fifth seasons.

## Premise

*Spencer's Escapades* takes place in Spruceberg, Indiana and follows the everyday life of Spencer Singleton, an easygoing, mild-mannered 10-year old boy who is often accompanied by his pet dog, Perro, and his two best friends, Blake Weinberger and Lucy O'Connor. Other characters besides Spencer are his younger sister Sally Singleton, his teenage sister Rachel Singleton, his mother Audrey Singleton and his next-door neighbors Lark and Mark Springstein.

Just like Aldrin Copperfield's previous series, *The Dawson Duo*, much of the series centers around the characters going on adventures and dealing with typical slice of life scenarios, though it notably has more of an emphasis on slapstick humor akin to *Goof Troop* than its predecessor.

## Characters

### Main characters

* **Spencer Samuel Singleton** (voiced by Courtland Mead): A 10-year old (later 11-year old) boy and the titular protagonist of the series. The middle child and only male in his family, he is an everyman with a friendly, polite and outgoing disposition, though on a few rare occasions, he can fight back and/or stand up for himself when he is pushed past his limits or when he needs to be. His interests include lounging, watching TV, reading comic books and taking his dog Perro out for walks. He is also quite independent, as he is sometimes seen going on his own without any supervision from his mother or sister. His favorite food is pizza, supported by the fact that he and his friends frequently hang out at the local pizza place, Pepper Rooney's Pizza.
* **Blake Peter Weinberger** (voiced by Phillip Van Dyke): A 10-year old (later 11-year old) boy who is one of Spencer's two best friends, often serving as a sidekick of sorts to him, and the first of Spencer's friends to meet him following his move to Spruceburg. Compared to Spencer's easygoing and subdued attitude, he is more active and cool than him and even has the typical personality of a boy in the 90's more than he does, having a fondness for things like skateboarding, video games and playing electric guitar.
* **Laura "Lucy" O'Connor** (voiced by Yeardley Smith): A 10-year old (later 11-year old) girl who is one of Spencer's two best friends and the second of his friends to meet him following his move to Spruceburg. She is perky, sassy, rambunctious, excitable and affectionate towards her friends, and often tends to refer Spencer and Blake by the nicknames "Spence" and "B.W." (short for "Blake Weinberger"), respectively. She especially has a crush on Spencer, which he is usually unaware of.
* **Perro** (voiced by Frank Welker): Spencer's loyal pet mixed-breed dog and best friend next to Blake and Lucy whose name is the masculine Spanish term for dog. He is quite intelligent for dog standards, being able to understand Spencer and other people as well as follow orders given to him, though his slightly hyperactive nature often gets him into trouble. As he is a silent character, he relies on barking and other dog noises to communicate, and despite being a normal dog, he occasionally displays slightly anthropomorphic traits such as using his front paws as hands and conveying human-like facial expressions. He harbors a crush towards Mayflower, the Springstein family's pet Chihuahua. A running gag in the series is that he often tends to knock Spencer over on his back and lick his face as a sign of affection, with the boy laughing from being licked and telling the dog to stop.
* **Rachel Michelle Singleton** (voiced by Lisa Kudrow): Spencer's tomboyish 16-year old (later 17-year old) sister and the oldest of the Singleton children who tends to be a little bit stern, controlling, domineering and bossy towards her younger siblings, but that is done not out of malice, but to keep them out of trouble, so deep down, she is a good person and cares for them nonetheless.
* **Sandra "Sally" Singleton** (voiced by Kath Soucie): Spencer's 8-year old (later 9-year old) sister and the youngest child of the Singletons. While she tends to act like a stereotypical annoying younger sibling towards both Spencer and Rachel, she nonetheless looks up to and idolizes the former and has a generally good relationship with the latter. She is a fan of the popular children's doll, Stuffedy Allie (a parody of Raggedy Ann).
* **Audrey Olivia Singleton** (voiced by April Winchell): Spencer, Rachel and Sally's mother. She fulfills the role of a typical housewife (despite not having a husband) and has the caring and sensible personality to boot. She works at the post office with her co-worker and best friend, Jane Springstein, the mother of Lark and Mark Springstein. In the episode *"Cool Glove Spencer"*, she reveals that she used to wear yellow gloves when she was Spencer's age and still keeps them in the closet in her room for nostalgia purposes.

### Recurring characters

* **Lark Emily Springstein** (voiced by Katie Leigh): A 10-year old (later 11-year old) girl who is one of the Singletons' next-door neighbors and one of Spencer's friends. She is quite intelligent, reasonable and levelheaded for her age, making her the sanest character in the series, but can also be quite sarcastic, often making snide quips towards her friends and even boasting about her intelligence. Nevertheless, her intelligent nature makes her reliable for pieces of advice her friends ask her for.
* **Marcus "Mark" Springstein** (voiced by Erik von Detten): A 10-year old (later 11-year old) boy who is Lark's twin brother, another one of the Singletons' next-door neighbors and another friend of Spencer. He is an aspiring rockstar, owning an electric guitar which he likes to play whenever he feels like it and listening to rock music. He often tends to use 90's lingo whenever he talks.
* **Mayflower** (voiced by Frank Welker): The Springstein's female pet Chihuahua, whom Perro has a crush on. Unlike most Chihuahuas in fiction, who are usually portrayed as high-strung, shaky and aggressive, she is friendly and reserved. She is aware of Perro's feelings for her and reciprocates the sentiment. Like Perro, she is mute and communicates solely through dog noises.
* **Tommy** (voiced by Frank Welker): Lucy's pet white cat. Though he spends most of his time lounging around, he still views his owner with fondness and even shows affection to her every once in a while. He and Perro, Spencer's pet dog, subvert the "cats vs. dogs" stereotype as they get along pretty well.
* **Dennis Weinberger** (voiced by Rick Moranis): Blake's father. A retired rapper whose stage name is "Dapper D", he keeps some of his records at home for him and his son to listen to.
* **Luis and Lillian O'Connor** (voiced by David L. Lander and Kath Soucie, respectively): Lucy's parents. Lillian is the stereotypical hardworking and responsible housewife who stays at home, while Luis works a job as a photographer for a calendar publisher.
* **Jane Springstein** (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus): Lark and Mark's mother, who works a part-time job at the post office. She is Audrey Singleton's best friend.

### Students and staff at Spruceburg Elementary School

* **Alison Josephine "Demi" Anderson** (voiced by Lauren Tom): A 10-year old girl who is the most popular student in Spruceberg Elementary School. Despite her status, she subverts the "mean" part of the popular school girl stereotype and is friendly, cordial and respectful towards Spencer and his friends. She serves as the straight man and foil to her more ditzy best friend, Dottie Davidson.
* **Dottie Joan Davidson** (voiced by Bettina Bush): A naïve, ditzy, eccentric and not quite bright 10-year old girl who is a student at Spruceburg Elementary School, Demi's best friend and one of Spencer's friends as well as one of his classmates.
* **Mary and Molly Hudskin** (voiced by Laraine Newman and Jenna von Oy, respectively): A pair of 10-year old identical twin girls who attend Spruceburg Elementary School. They constantly speak in a creepy subdued monotone, behave identically and rarely, if ever, express any emotions, which sometimes creeps out the other students and even Spencer himself, but ultimately, they are not bad people at all and are capable of getting along with them. Despite their usually stoic nature, they have been known to smile and express other emotions every once in a while. They are partially based on the Grady Twins from the 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel *The Shining*.
* **Abbott D. Blodwell** (voiced by Danny Cooksey): A 10-year old boy of British descent (even speaking in a British accent unlike the other characters) who is a student at Spruceburg Elementary School. He is quite condescending, arrogant, sarcastic and rude to his classmates and even his own best friend Joey, making him the closest thing the school has to a bully. Even Spencer is somewhat annoyed by his mean attitude. Despite that, he does have a heart of gold that he can show whenever the time calls for it.
* **Joel "Joey" Cornelius** (voiced by Andrew Lawrence): An awkward and nerdy 10-year old boy who is Abbott's best friend, even though the latter often takes out his arrogant demeanor on him. Despite this, no matter how much Abbott talks down to him, he is loyal towards him and sticks by his side no matter what.
* **Annie Becky Carter** (voiced by Susan Tolsky): The 4th grade teacher of Spruceburg Elementary School. Her full name is a play on the first three letters of the English alphabet.
* **Principal Pumpernickel** (voiced by Michael Bell): The strict, no-nonsense, yet well-meaning and caring principal of Spruceburg Elementary School who tries to keep the school and its students in control.

## Broadcast

The series originally aired between November 8, 1997 and December 22, 2001 on ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning as well as UPN's Disney's One Too. After its initial run, the series was later rerun on Disney Channel and Toon Disney until 2008.

## Home media

### Video-on-demand

All episodes of the series are made available to stream on Disney+ in several territories.