Histeria!

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File:Histeria Opening**Histeria!** is an American animated series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Unlike other animated series produced by Warner Bros. in the 1990s, Histeria! stood out as the most explicitly educational program in order to meet FCC requirements for educational/informational content for children.

*Histeria!* aired on Kids' WB from 1998 to 2000, and then continued to air in reruns until August 30, 2001. It was presented as a Saturday Night Live-style sketch comedy, with its cast often filling the roles of historical figures. 65 episodes were originally going to be made, but due to being $10 million over budget, only 52 episodes were completed before production of the series was canceled in November 1998. Due to the high production costs, footage from previous episode was often re-used and re-timed to match newly recorded audio, as well as several non-educational segments being used as filler. More recently, the show aired on In2TV, first from March to July 2006, and then in October of that year. In January 2009, all of the episodes were taken off the site.

## Plot

Like other animated series produced at the time by the Warner Bros. animation, *Histeria!* derived most of its humor from its slapstick comedy and satire, with the distinction of combining historical figures and events. Episodes would commonly feature a large cast of children and typecast adults in comedic skits and song parodies, the cause of the American Civil War sung to the tune of The Brady Bunch theme song.

## Characters

**Father Time** (voiced by Frank Welker) — The main host of *Histeria!*, allowing the cast to travel through time. He is dark-skinned, has a long beard and is shown to get quite irritated by the Kid Chorus when they fail to get their facts right. This tends to irritate Loud Kiddington who often says "Sheesh, what a grouch!" after he is out of sight.

**Big Fat Baby** (voiced by Luke Ruegger) — The egg-shaped sidekick to Father Time, frequently accompanying him as he introduces the sketches. He is known for the foul odor he carries, caused by his constant defecation in his diaper, which is constantly stated to have been unchanged since ancient times. Big Fat Baby is also accident prone, often falling down steps or off of high places. There seems to be multiple Big Fat Babies, including some female versions with a single strand of hair and a bow.

**Miss Information** (voiced by Laraine Newman) — An aptly named ditzy tour guide who leads a group of tourists through various moments in history, as if the world is her own personal museum. As her name suggests, she is constantly getting her facts wrong and sometimes comes up with some demented logic to justify her statement.

**The World's Oldest Woman** (voiced by Tress MacNeille) — A very old woman who claims to remember when air was invented. She also claims to have dated every historical male in history. She seems to have a particular romantic interest in Bill Straitman. She is known to romantically hound every male host of an episode as well.

**Loud Kiddington** (voiced by Cody Ruegger) — A young boy so named for the extremely loud volume in which he talks. He often performs "dramatic reenactments" of loud moments in history, such as the Big Bang and the creation of dynamite; with each of this, the viewer is told to turn up the TV volume "for maximum effect." Sometimes, he also keeps watch of something by almost silently muttering "I see it, I see it..." when it is in sight and then switching to saying "Don't see it! Don't see it!" when he loses sight of it.

**Charity Bazaar** (voiced by Laraine Newman) — The female lead of the Histeria! Kid Chorus, and her main personality trait is that she is usually depicted as being very depressed, as shown by her catch phrase, "I'm not happy." When not singing, she tends to speak in a monotone unless excited. She is willing to take a stand for animal rights, can be easily tempted with promises of being given cookies, and hates doing math homework.

**Froggo** (voiced by Nathan Ruegger) — A short blonde-haired boy in the Kid Chorus with a low frog-like voice, hence his name. He often asks historical figures for two seemingly useless items that he can actually make an invention out of, though he does not always receive the requested items. He is also shown to have a large appetite, but dislikes turnips, and in "Americana", it is shown that he is a big fan of Batman.

**Aka Pella** (voiced by Cree Summer) — An African American member of the Kid Chorus who uses sassy lingo, often delivering comedically timed insults to whoever she is currently hanging out with. Unlike most of the other girls in the Kid Chorus, she is a tomboy and tends to be able to be a voice of reason to the group.

**Pepper Mills** (voiced by Tress MacNeille) — A hyperactive teenager driven to adoration for any and all celebrities. Virtually everything she says is followed by enthusiastic scream. She constantly gets historical figures to give her autographs, and is then shocked to learn they are not the pop cultural celebrities she has mistaken them for. She also occasionally hosts an interview show titled Pepper's Pep Rally. She seems to be incredibly fast and will pop up and scream until the person she is pestering agrees to give an autograph.

**Toast** (voiced by Tress MacNeille) — A clueless surfer teenager whose name comes from the idea that his brain is fried like toast. His name is also due to the fact that his skin is perpetually sunburnt. He hosts a talk show titled "Ask Me If I Care," in which he invites historical celebrities to tell him what they are famous for, only for him to eventually eject them into the sky (sometimes even into space), because he never does care about what they are telling him. He also once mentions having a rock band, which he names "Nasty Head Wound," and also mentions that he has an uncle named Melba.

**Cho-Cho** (voiced by Tress MacNeille) — A little Chinese girl who is more devious than she looks. Always accompanied by Lucky Bob, she likes to follow people around, refusing to leave them alone until they buy what she is selling. Her dialogue is almost always accompanied by "Chopsticks" as the background music.

**Lucky Bob** (voiced by Rob Paulsen (episodes 1-7); Jeff Bennett (episodes 8-52)) — A boy with a very noticeable overbite. He tends to speak with a dim-witted drawl. He usually only speaks when agreeing with something another character has said (regardless of whatever they said), using Ed McMahon catchphrases such as "You are correct, sir," "Yes now," and "Hi-yo!"

**Pule Houser** (voiced by Frank Welker) — An overweight kid in the show's cast who tends to take abuse and is prone to pitching fits.

**Susanna Susquahanna** (voiced by Tress MacNeille) — A little Native American girl with beady eyes and a large gap in her front teeth that gave her a gigantic sylvester-like lisp.

**Kip Ling**, **Chipper the Crooked Mouth Boy**, and the **Bow-Haired Girl** — Three additional Kid Chorus members who usually only show up in the songs or in crowd shots. They do not seem to have any distinguishing characteristics like the rest of the group.

## Episodes

*Histeria!* has a total of 52 episodes spread over 1 season that was produced from September 1998 to March 2000.

## References

1. ↑ Mifflin, Lawrie (December 2, 1996). Broadcasters and Producers Make Time for Children. The New York Times. Retrieved on September 6, 2014.
2. ↑ Robertson, Virginia (September 1, 1998). Warner Bros.’ Histeria!. Kidscreen. Retrieved on September 6, 2014.