Pan-Boy! (series)

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## *Pan-Boy!*

### Genre

Fantasy
Comedy
Slapstick
Kids
Animation
Adventure

### Developed by

Aaron McCullough
Kelly Crews

### Starring

Jonathan Morgan Heit
Keith Ferguson
Joey King
Jessica DiCicco
Thomas Sangster
Tom Kenny
Miranda May

## Production

### Producer(s)

Derek Drymon (season 2)
Aaron McCullough
Aaron Springer
**Supervising producers:**
Nate Cash
Ghostshrimp (season 1)

### Executive producer(s)

Kelly Crews (seasons 4-7)
Aaron McCullough (seasons 1-7)
Adam Muto
Nick Jennings
**Co-executive producers:**
Nick Jennings

### Running time

11 minutes
22 minutes (specials)

## Release

### Picture format

HDTV (1080i)
SDTV (480i)

### Related shows

*Somewhere*
*The Worm-tastic Adventures of Carl Worm*

***Pan-Boy!*** (or simply just ***Pan-Boy***) is an American animated comedy television series. It was created and developed by Aaron McCullough for Cartoon Network. The show follows the misadventures of 16-year-old Caleb Walker (known as Pan-Boy), his friends Scribbles and Alexis, his younger brother Liam Walker (known as Cupfeet), and his older sister Samantha Walker (known as Coffette) in the fictional city of Belaware.

The series officially premiered on July 11, 2011, with a sneak peak on July 5, 2011 with the episodes "Voice Crack" and "Quija Board". According to the Cartoon Network website, *Pan-Boy!* is one of the most popular shows on the channel, along with *Adventure Time*, *Regular Show*, *The Amazing World of Gumball*, and *Steven Universe*. The series finale aired on June 19, 2020. A 10 year anniversary special was released on September 6, 2021.

The series is rated TV-PG in the United States, meaning it may contain some material that parents or guardians may find inappropriate for younger children. Programs assigned a TV-PG rating may include some inappropriate language, very little sexual content, suggestive dialogue, and/or moderate violence.

*Pan-Boy!* has been a ratings success for Cartoon Network, and despite being aimed primarily at children, it has developed a following among teenagers and adults.

## Plot

*Main article: List of characters*
*Pan-Boy!* takes place in the present day, and revolves around the life of a 16-year-old (11 in season 1, 12 in season 2, 13 in season 3, 14 in season 4, 15 in seasons 5-6) named Caleb Walker aka Pan-Boy (voiced by Jonathan Morgan Heit), and his friends Scribbles (voiced by Keith Ferguson), Samantha Walker aka Coffette (voiced by Dakota Fanning), Liam Walker aka Cupfeet (voiced by Thomas Sangster), and Alexis (voiced by Joey King) in the fictional city of Belaware, and boy, there is a lot of weird stuff in that city. According to Aaron McCullough, Pan-Boy is "a kid with a large imagination, and a lot of depth".

## Production

The origins of *Pan-Boy!*all started in 2004, when then 21-year-old Aaron McCullough created a webcomic called*Party Cricket*. The webcomic was originally supposed to be for teens and adults (according to McCullough), but in later years, McCullough started a deep hatred for the webcomic. It was shut down in 2005. One year later in 2006, McCullough developed a new idea. Since he was already interested in cartoons, he decided to make a cartoon of his own. The show was originally called *Super Pan-Kid!*, but after McCullough thought that name was “too bland”, he changed it to *Pan-Boy!* since that name really clicked with McCullough.

In 2007, McCullough pitched this new idea to Nickelodeon. They liked the idea, but not too much as they thought the idea needed a lot more work to become successful. So later in November 2007, McCullough started production on a*Pan-Boy!* pilot for Nickelodeon. It was originally gonna be animated in 3D, it was later changed to 2D animation due to budget issues. To bring in the voice actors, McCullough brought in Jonathan Morgan Heit and Keith Ferguson as the voices of Pan-Boy and Scribbles. The pilot was released on June 1, 2008 on the then-new site YouTube, and it gained over 900,000 views. Nickelodeon saw the pilot and they didn’t approve of it. So then McCullough pitched it to other networks looking for new cartoonists.
In early 2008, McCullough finally pitched *Pan-Boy!* to Cartoon Network, which at the time, was looking for new creators. So this could have been a great place to stay at. McCullough showed some CN executives the pilot episode, and they loved the pilot so much that the series was green-lit for a first season of 32 (originally 26) episodes in October 2008. Production on the series officially started in May of 2009. Later in that year, McCullough hired some of his friends who worked on *SpongeBob SquarePants* and *Phineas and Ferb*. Now McCullough got everyone on board and he made some great friends while developing *Pan-Boy!*. A teaser of the series was first shown at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, and further details were revealed at Cartoon Network's 2011 Upfront. Then finally, on July 5, 2011, *Pan-Boy!*premiered on Cartoon Network, with the animation for the first season being provided by Titmouse, Inc. Later seasons followed.

## Episodes

*Main article: List of episodes*
The series currently has seven seasons, with 260 episodes being produced.

## Animation

The animation of season 1 of *Pan-Boy!* was done by Titmouse, Inc. Due to production issues, Seasons 2-6 are animated by Rough Draft Korea. In *Pan-Boy! in the Void*, Rough Draft still animates the series, with some additional animation that will be handled by Mercury Filmworks.

## Music

Most of the music in *Pan-Boy!* is chiptune music made by Virt (Jake Kaufman). The intro of the show is "Turbonugget" from Virt. The ending theme is "Lick the alphabet" also by Virt.

## Broadcasting

*Main article: Censorship of Pan-Boy!*
The series debuted on Cartoon Network in the US on July 5, 2011. Since then, multiple international versions of Cartoon Network started broadcasting the show as well.

Reruns have also aired on Boomerang and TBS.

## Reception

### Critical reception

*Pan-Boy!* has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with Season 1 getting mixed reviews, and Seasons 2-6 getting positive reviews. In a favorable review, Brian Lowry of *Variety* described the series as "a great show with lots of depth and chaos". Ken Tucker of *Entertainment Weekly* was also positive, writing: "There are few examples of mainstream children's programming as wildly imaginative, as visually and narratively daring, as *Pan-Boy!*."  and "A great mix of *SpongeBob SquarePants* and *Adventure Time*."

The series received a 8.3 on IMDb, and a 8.7 on TV.com.

## Ratings

Upon its debut, *Pan-Boy!* was a ratings success for Cartoon Network. The show's pilot episode premiered on July 5, 2011, and was watched by 2.4 million viewers. The episode was a ratings success.

While the second-season premiere was watched by only 1.75 million viewers, Between the third and fourth seasons, the show's ratings were still at least successful; the third-season premiere by 2.33 million, and the fourth-season premiere by 2.02 million. The show's fifth season opener took a substantial ratings tumble, being watched by only 1.08 million viewers. Likewise, the sixth season premiere were watched by only 1.20 million viewers, and the seventh season premiere getting the lowest viewership for a *Pan-Boy!* season premiere with only 1.04 million viewers.

## Related media

### Comic books

*Main article: Pan-Boy! (comic book series)*
On January 16, 2012, KaBOOM! Studios announced plans for an *Pan-Boy!* comic book series written by graphic novel illustrator and animator Tyson Hesse, who is best known for his work on the *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic book series. The series launched on July 27, 2012, with art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb. In August 2015, it was revealed that Hesse had left the comic series after three years. His duties were assumed by Fred Gallagher, who is the co-creator of *Megatokyo*. As of 2019, The series is on an indefinite hiatus.

### Video games

The series has spawned several major video game releases. The first game based on the series, *Pan-Boy!: The Game*, was announced by Aaron McCullough on his Twitter in February 2013. The game was developed by WayForward Technologies for Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, and was released by D3 Publisher on September 13, 2013. A year later, the game *Pan-Boy!: Where's My Hat??*, which follows Pan-Boy and Scribbles looking for Pan-Boy's pan hat after it was stolen by Hat Man, was released on September 26, 2014. On November 6, 2015, *Pan-Boy!: The Secret City of Unknown* was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, and Microsoft Windows. In August 2016, the fourth major *Pan-Boy!* video game, titled *Pan-Detectives*, was released for 3DS, Windows PC and other consoles. It is the first game in the series to feature 3D graphics.

Pan-Boy and Scribbles became playable characters in a video game called *Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers* which was released for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One on November 8, 2016 and the Nintendo Switch on October 31, 2017.

### Other merchandise

*Main article: Merchandise*
A variety of officially licensed merchandise—including action figures, role-playing toys, bedding, dishware, and various other products—have been released. Since the dramatic increase in popularity of the series, many graphic T-shirts have been officially licensed through popular clothing retailers. Other shirts can be purchased directly from Cartoon Network's store.

On March 11, 2017, it was announced by Lego via Lego Ideas that an official *Pan-Boy!* Lego set from an idea by site user, RichDanceMan, had met voting qualifications and was approved to be produced in cooperation with Cartoon Network. The set was released on January 5, 2018, and was discontinued around spring 2020.

## Home media

*Main article: DVD Releases*
Additionally, All seven seasons were released on DVD in the United States, and were released domestically on Blu-ray. On March 30, 2013, the first season of *Pan-Boy!* was made available on the Netflix Instant Watch service for online streaming; the second season was made available on March 30, 2014. Both seasons were removed from Netflix on March 30, 2015, although the series was eventually made available for streaming via Hulu on May 1, 2015. All seven seasons are now made available on HBO Max as of June 29, 2020.

## Spin-off

*Main article: The Worm-tastic Adventures of Carl Worm*
## Trivia

* The show was renewed for a second season on February 10, 2011, 5 months before the release of the series.
	+ The show was renewed for a third season on March 25, 2013.
	+ The show was then renewed for a fourth season on June 6, 2014.
	+ On September 22, 2015, The show was renewed for a fifth season.
	+ On February 3, 2017, The show was renewed for a sixth season.
	+ On April 7, 2018, The show was renewed for a seventh and final season.
* The McDonald's Happy Meal toys were released on April 11, 2014.
* Several episodes featured guest animators like Sally Cruikshank, David OReilly, David Ferguson, and Yotam Perel.
* It takes about 7 months to produce an episode and about 14 are worked on at the same time.
* The show is rated TV-PG, although some episodes are rated TV-PG-V.
* While the concept for the show had been around since at least 2006, production on the show did not officially begin until 2009.
	+ On December 4, 2019, The series officially finished production.
* On October 9, 2019, writing for the series officially concluded.
* The show's logo is pixelated on purpose, to give off the feeling of a video game.
* "Black Myst" is the 100th episode.
	+ "Sword Fighters!" is the 200th episode.
* The series changed air dates from Monday to Tuesday to accompany *Level Up*. Then, the show moved to Wednesdays since all the time slots were taken on Tuesdays. However, it went back to Tuesdays towards the end of Season 2, only to be moved to Thursdays starting in Season 3.
* The show was named *Pan-Boy!* before the main character was drawn.

## Future

* On June 28th, 2020, Kelly Crews confirmed on Twitter that due to the success of *The Worm-tastic Adventures of Carl Worm*, there will be more *Pan-Boy!*-related projects coming soon to HBO Max and Cartoon Network.
	+ Three of these projects is a show revolving around Scribbles, a series of shorts about Cupfeet, and a Pan-Boy!-related project for Cartoon Network's upcoming preschool block Cartoonito, which were both announced at the Cartoon Network "Redraw Your World" upfront on February 17, 2021.

* On October 21, 2020, Cartoon Network announced that a *Pan-Boy!* 10th anniversary special is in the works. The special will premiere around August 2021.

## References

1. ↑ Only on some Cartoon Network feeds.
2. ↑ "TV Parental Control". Cartoon Network.
3. ↑ "Tuesday's Cable Ratings: "Teen Mom" Returns With Demo Victory". *The Futon Critic*.
4. ↑ "Tuesday's Cable Ratings: FX's "Anarchy," ESPN's "30 for 30" Top Charts". *The Futon Critic*.
5. ↑ "Thursday Cable Ratings: 'Pawn Stars' Wins Night + 'Loiter Squad', 'American Restoration', 'The Challenge: Free Agents' & More". *TV by the Numbers*. Zap2it. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
6. ↑ "Top 100 Monday Cable Originals (& Network Update): July 27, 2015". Showbuzz Daily. Archived from the original on August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
7. ↑ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Top 150 Thursday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 11.3.2016 | Showbuzz Daily". Retrieved on 9 January 2017.
8. ↑ "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 1.5.2018 - Showbuzz Daily". *Showbuzz Daily*. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
9. ↑ http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-top-150-monday-cable-originals-network-finals-11-11-2019.html