George and Martha

***George and Martha*** is an Canadian animated television series produced by PorchLight Entertainment , based on the *George and Martha* book series originally published by the late US author James Marshall from 1972 to 1988. Other author Maurice Sendak, also helped produce the series, with his own animation studio Wild Things Productions (named after his best-known book *Where the Wild Things Are*), at least for the first season.

The TV series adaptation aired on HBO Family and ran for two seasons from April 1, 1999 to May 13, 2000. As opposed to PorchLight Entertainment's typical productions, this series is budgeted higher due to its use with digital ink and paint backgrounds, although the series is still animated with traditional cels. The show ran on the Jam block until 2013, likely before its rebrand that year.

Outside of the United States, the show originally aired on *CBC* in Canada.

## Synopsis

Each episode features the two titular hippo friends, George and Martha, doing fun activities together such as going to the beach, roller skating, or playing pranks on each other, in the town they live in titled Happy Palms. They also have an assortment of other animal friends who live in Happy Palms. While sometimes George and Martha don't get along with each other, they always make up and apologize later on. There are a handful of episodes that are based off of the original books, such as *Split Pea Soup*.

At the end of each B episode in the first season, there is a segment that combines the main elements featured in both episodes into one quick skit. For example, in S1E13, George hypnotizes Martha to be a baby, just so he can go eat out of her cookie jar. As said, these only appeared in the first season.

## Characters

* **George** (voiced by Nathan Lane) - A male hippo who has a significant golden tooth, which replaced his other tooth that broke after an accident. George is often shown to be a trickster, by sneaking up on Martha numerous times to scare or prank her. He also does things without considering the consequences, or how hard they could be, at first.
* **Martha** (voiced by Andrea Martin) - A female hippo who wears a big yellow and green checkered dress that often changes color. Martha often gets smart with George and has a bit of an attitude sometimes, but is still a good friend.
* **Oscar and Wilde** (voiced by Colin Mochrie and Sean Cullen respectively) - Two alligator friends with the same name of *Oscar Wilde*. Oscar has glasses, while Wilde has a hat and a purple patterned shirt. They both run a bookstore. They are heavily implied to be a same-sex couple.
* **Bud and Valerie Chuckles** (voiced by Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath respectively) - A pair of laughing hyenas who do nothing but laugh and joke around. They have a silent orange kitten companion named Ivan, who helps them around, and is often pushed around.
* **Duke and Anton** (voiced by Tony Rosato and Greg Kramer respectively) - A respective toucan and giraffe companion who hang around together. They also like cracking jokes.
* **Frieda** (voiced by Kathryn Greenwood) - A pig who is Happy Palms' postal lady. It appears that she likes to sing.
* **Eton** (voiced by Sean Cullen) - A mysterious reptile creature who has recurring appearances in the series. Eton is encountered at many places, from the movie theater to the spa. Even then, he has many jobs in just one place, from being the movie ticket seller, the movie concession seller, and the movie usher.
* **Penny** (voiced by Robin Duke) - A flamingo who likes to snoop into George and Martha's business, and often can be found in her front yard.

## Trivia

* The show's final episode aired on the same day A Little Curious also aired its final episode.
* After airing on HBO Family for 1 year, the series reran on the now defunct *Qubo* channel beginning in December 29, 2014, and aired until December 30, 2018.
* The theme song of the show is an instrumental of *Perfidia* by *Mambo All Stars*.
* A large portion of the show's cast is made up of performers from Toronto's Second City comedy troupe, including Andrea Martin, Robin Duke, Colin Mochrie, Debra McGrath, Kathryn Greenwood, and the late Tony Rosato.
* On the series *Stuart Little*, Stuart's human allies share the same name as the titular hippos and the lead girl's parents on the Cinar-produced 1995 series.